Investigation of "Sense of belonging during the social life adaptation after the treatment of individuals with multiple substance use disorder accompani̇ed by methamphethamine"

Individuals with substance use disorder, especially the devastating effect of methamphetamine, face some difficulties in family and social life after treatment. The most important of these difficulties are mistreatment and discrimination such as stigmatize, mistrust, exclusion, approaching with extreme anxiety and fear. Especially considering the sensitivity of the process after the treatment, the sense of belonging of these individuals who are exposed to negative behavior by their environment decreases. The low or no sense of belonging of these individuals leads to negative self-perceptions such as helplessness, worthlessness and dislike, which poses a threat to the process of soberness. This study was prepared to reveal the family and social life experiences of individuals having multiple substance use disorder acconpanied by methamphetamine after treatment and the effect of these experiences on the sense of belonging. Considering the effect of the family and social environment's approach towards these individuals on the sense of belonging, in the period of soberness after the treatment the high sense of belonging to the family and society in which the individuals with substance use disorder live, provides a protective and preventive effect in order not to start using drugs again. In the approach to the phenomenon of substance addiction, which is one of the most important working areas of the social work discipline, to reduce the problem it is very important for social workers to know the emotion, thought and behavior patterns of these individuals well and to work towards these individuals, away from discrimination, by being aware of the mistreatment they are exposed to. In this study, in which the qualitative research method was used, face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 individuals with substance use disorder at the Substance Addiction Treatment Center (AMATEM). As a result of the interviews, research themes were generated using the MAXQDA 2020 qualitative data analysis program. The research themes were examined under three main headings – the participants' experiences during the substance use period, the participants' experiences during the substance-free period, and the evaluation of this whole process. Key words: Addiction, multiple substance use acconpanied by methamphetamine, sense of belonging.