A stroll down memory lane: place and heavy substance use

To improve the health and lives of people with substance use problems it is important to understand behaviours, issues and solutions that arise from heavy substance use in daily life. Knowledge on how people with substance use problems themselves reflect on their problems in relation to the settings in which their actions take place are lacking. This qualitative study will use in-depth unstructured life story interviews and observations from 4 participants with self-reported substance use problems. As the participants walk around at places that are relevant for their substance use problems, they can reflect over taken-for-granted features of daily life, emotions and sense of belonging to the settings. This study shows how people with substance use problems reflect over places that are important to their experience of addiction. The participants’ stories illustrate how places can have multiplicities of meanings and associations in relation to heavy substance use, creating memories and enable future expectations. The study deepens our understanding of the meanings that space and place have to create routines and daily life for people with substance use problems and their paths towards recovery.

Disclosure of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. All interviewees in the study gave their informed consent before participation. Ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the Regional Ethical Review Board in Stockholm, Sweden (ref. 2019-06473). Funding for the study was provided by the project '‘Addiction’ as a changing pattern of relations: Comparing autobiographical narratives about different dependencies,' financed by the Swedish Research Council (VR; grant no 2018–01297).