Discourse of psychoactive substance dependents on their discursively constructed image

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: to analyze the discourse of psychoactive substance users undergoing treatment regarding their image of themselves as drug dependent subjects, of other dependents and the social position assumed by them. Method: qualitative study conducted between March and September of 2016 through a semi-structured interview and drawings, based on the theoretical-methodological reference of French Discourse Analysis. Participation of 12 drug dependent subjects undergoing treatment in the service that substitutes the asylum. Results: The images that psychoactive substance dependents have of themselves and of chemically dependent subjects are associated with the image of a negative, diabolical, transgressive, sick and socially excluded individual. Final considerations: The ideological effects of meanings produced by users’ discourses reproduce the biological and moral model. Health professionals, including nurses, need to invest in discourses that address the psychosocial model to demythologize this stigmatizing image and modify their work practice.