Table 4 Themes and illustrative quotes
From: Pathways to opioid use and implications for prevention: voices of young adults in recovery
Theme | Illustrative Quote |
|---|---|
1. Trauma, unaddressed mental health issues and/or difficulty regulating and coping with negative emotions | “I’ve always had problems with anxiety, depression. I was very, very sad from a very young age and I think I was just looking for that kind of happiness from outside factors. If it wasn’t drugs, it was guys. I would just use anything I could to feel some type of way.” [101] |
2. Negative self-view | “I always wanted to kind of get out of myself because I didn’t like myself.” [107] |
3. Social disconnection | “I went back to public school technically in the eighth grade, and I was 13 and I didn’t have any friends. No one wanted to be friends with the weird girl from private school. So I didn’t really know anyone or anything, didn’t really have access to anything. I was just really miserable, really alone, and really angry at just the world and everything. All that teenage angst times 20.” [106] |
4. Skills/talents | “… So, as a high schooler, I was running cross country. I was wrestling. Really competitive with pretty much everyone in my class…” [105] |
5. Relationships | “I did have a close relationship. I’ve always been very close with my mom….She is kind of the first person I go to when something goes wrong or anything like that.” [107] |
6. Simultaneous Challenges/Assets | “I was a gifted kid, and so when the time came to actually have to do work and really put time into schoolwork, I was really bad about that, so I skipped a lot of school.” [104] |