Comparing the Addiction Careers of Heroin and Alcohol Users and Their Self-Reported Reasons for Achieving Abstinence

Abstract

This study employs a developmental model (Hser, Longshore, & Anglin, 2007) for mapping alcohol- and drug-using careers, following in the tradition of work done by Blomqvist (1999). Based on a rolling sample of 269 former alcohol and heroin addicts, initially reported by Best, Ghufran, Day, Ray, & Loaring (2007), this article examines differences in trajectories of careers among problem substance users and examines reasons for achieving and maintaining desistance, based on three groups: primary drinkers (n = 98), primary heroin users (n = 104), and those who reported problems with both alcohol and drugs (n = 67).Former heroin users reported more rapid escalation to problematic use but much shorter careers involving daily use than was the case in the alcohol cohort. Alcohol and heroin users also differed in their self-reported reasons for stopping use, with drinkers more likely to report work and social reasons and drug users more likely to report criminal justice factors. In sustaining abstinence, alcohol ...