Relationality and identity migration among

methamphetamine users:
An exploratory study

Paul Boshears
the European Graduate School (CH)
Kennesaw State University
The project described was supported by Award Number 1R15DA021164-01A1 from the National Institute
on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the
official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institutes of Health.
“ I mean crystal meth can take you down really, really
dark paths. And you’ve seen, you hear horror stories –
I just really don’t want to be that person….
”
(22-year-old white male)

That process through which an individual develops

problematic use of methamphetamine is the
same mechanism by which they can overcome
their problematic usage.
 Based on an ethnographic study of 100 current and
former users of methamphetamine, I found that
participants in this study overwhelmingly, reference
the social pressures and their environments that
initiate, spur, and inhibit their use or cessation of
methamphetamine and other drugs.

In privileging the social component of addiction, I

contribute to the developing literature on the social
conceptualization of addiction by interpreting my data
in light of this model.
(Latkin, Knowlton, Hoover, & Mandell, 1999; Weinberg, 2000; May 2001;
Gibson, Acquah, & Robinson, 2004; Pilkington, 2007; Graham, Young, &
Wood, 2008; Adams, 2008)
 The primary problem facing pharmacological
interventions is managing relapse. (Gaval-Cruz &
Weinshenker, 2009)
Relapse is intimately related to substance use
initiation and reiteration.
Substance use initiation and reiteration are
primarily social processes and as such require
a properly social intervention.

Gaval-Cruz, M. & D. Weinshenker. (2009) Mechanisms of Disulfiram-induced

cocaine abstinence: Antabuse and cocaine relapse. Molecular Interventions. 9(4)
Therapeutic group dynamics found in 12-Step
programs illustrate a key social truth:
an individual that changes their individual
behaviors as well as their social context is
more likely to abstain from problematic use

Adams (2008) Kitchin (2002); Latkin,

Knowlton, Hoover, & Mandell (1999)
 Relationality

What insights might a focus upon the relational dynamics of

selfhood provide to understanding how
methamphetamine practices are negotiated throughout
the drug-use career?
The interdependencies that form as methamphetamine
users pursue opportunities: to practice meth use, to
disclose the consequences of their practices, and to
display their recovering identities, illustrate a
fundamentally relational character to methamphetamine
use.
 Migrating Identities
The popular mode in which addiction is thought of and
discussed limits how we can understand drug use
practices as well as how we might transform the
phenomenon.
Addiction (Volkow & Li, 2004) is a discursive practice –
a narrative that people perform. In performing this
discourse those that practice substance use affirm
and reinvigorate their identities as “addicts.”
Hughes (2007, 2009) proposes a social
conceptualization of addiction emphasizing
substance use “as a set of embodied social
practices.”
 Identity Migration
There are three stages in the identity migration
process:
• Apprenticeship
• The Performative Utterance
• Performing Recovery

Hughes, K. (2007) Migrating identities: The relational constitution of drug use

and addiction. Sociology of Health & Illness, 29(5), 673-691
Hughes, K., G. Valentine, & C. Kenten. The time of our lives: Towards a
space-time understanding of Internet gambling. The British Journal of
Sociology (forthcoming).
Identity Migration:
Migration
1) Apprenticeship – methamphetamine use is a learned
behavior.

So all my dad’s friends were junkies....from the time I

was twelve I’d seen these dudes firing dope,
shooting dope up.... But one day I come in and I
said, “Let me try some of that.” I poured some in a
spoon, shot some water in it―the dude was trying to
tell my dad, “You need to help him or let me help him
or something.” Before he had it out I had it pulled up
and fired it in my arm just like a champ. Just like I
was a professional at it.
(34-year-old white male)
Identity Migration:
Migration
2) the Performative Utterance - “I have a problem”

In order to succeed you have to surrender and you

have to be willing to become teachable, you have to
be willing to take directions, and you have to realize
that you’re [...] not in charge.
(42-year-old white male)

Because until you’ve quit doing it you have a mental

break. You have a mental break from your normal
self [....] You’re not delusional but you have pretty
much lost your mind. You have to regroup, find your
real mindset again.
(52-year-old white male)
Identity Migration:
Migration
3) Performing Recovery – methamphetamine use
practices are now substituted with recovery practices.

You know that was one of the reasons why I wanted to

do this interview: maybe I could say something that
would help just one person
(43-year-old white male)

I started counseling addicts. We have a connection

with the county to where they send all their probation
and parole people that have problems with drugs.
(23-year-old white male)
 Discussion

The neurophysiology of learning suggests that brain will

function differently without the learned cues signaling “this
is the context in which I use methamphetamine.” Learning
to perform recovery means the brain changes the way in
which it functions.
 Discussion
Apprenticing explains the geographic cure (moving
away from sites of substance use) as the process of
memory acquisition, which squares with current
neurobiological models of salience.

Apprenticing within a community of meth users enables

us to reconcile notions of risk based on individualist
preconceptions (i.e. “risky behavior is what is risky
for me” vs. “what is at risk is the stability of the my
identity-anchoring social network.” (Pilkington, 2007)
 Discussion
The Performative Utterance:
Utterance stating “I have a problem”
creates an arche. This is literally the “bottoming-out”
so often described by those in the field. This would
then transform our notions of recovery into an
archaeological activity.

For the performative utterance to be sensible, the

statement must be reiterated and reinvigorated, in
communities that would seek to transform
problematic usage, leading us to performing
recovery.
 Discussion

To learn to perform recovery, one must apprentice under

an experienced recovering addict, thus the reinforcing
tendency of apprenticeship.