Charting Womens Journeys―From Addiction to Recovery

In this study of the recovery careers of female addicts living in rural settings, Judith Grant explores the ways in which twenty-six addicts engage in individual processes of self-recovery. Using feminist methods of inquiry and a Meadian theoretical framework of analysis, Grant follows the women through three distinct recovery phases as they slowly come to shift their understandings of themselves, others, and their social objects. Central to recovery lies a process through which women reinvent themselves by altering their involvement with themselves, their partners, friends, children, and, of course, their addictive substance. This book offers concrete solutions for policymakers and provides a refreshing measure of home for the largely invisible population of individuals, both family members and addicts, who suffer terribly from this disease.

Judith Grant is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology, Justice, and Policy Studies at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.