Restoring Life Period: The Experience of Recovery as Told by Drug-Treated Male Youth

Abstract

This qualitative research aimed to describe the recovery experiences of Thai male youths with substance abuse who received treatment from the drug treatment center in Chon Buri province. Descriptive phenomenology was used to guide data collection and analysis. In-depth interviews and focus groups were collected by utilizing semi-structured questions with nineteen Thai male youths with substance abuse. Study data were transcribed verbatim for analysis using Colaizzi’s content analysis.

The results revealed that the meaning of youth’s recovery experience was “restoring life period,” which embraced three themes that emerged from their experience toward recovery from substance abuse during received treatment. The first theme was “the path to recovery,” including exposing self to a new world, stepping through the inner world to outside, and acknowledging the significance of livable. The second theme was “signals of recovery,” embracing four things as changing physical conditions, reforming thought, shifting mine, and confidence in socializing. The final theme was support and obstruction recovery. This study provides an understanding of the recovery experience of Thai male youths who have received drug treatments. These results may provide the basis for developing a drug-use care model in line with both the health care providers and the client’s treatment goals to enhance drug treatments’ effectiveness.