Covid-19: Challenges of Individuals with Substance Use

Abstract

Substance use is the most prominent problem of the 21th century. The main aim of the present study is to explore the challenges of individuals with substance use disorder during the covid-19. Qualitative research design was used. The sample size of the study was ten which were male and selected through purposive sampling technique from different rehabilitation centers of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The interview guideline was prepared to collect the data. In-depth analysis of the data was done by using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) (Smith et al., 2009). The interview guideline consists of questions regarding about covid-19, challenges in treatment, factors affecting patients and the coping strategies of patients during covid-19. The findings of the study revealed diverse opinions regarding covid-19 such as adversity from ALLAH and global pandemic. Findings also explored the negative impacts of pandemic like disturbances in the life domain, increased dose intake, relapse and use of illegal methods. Covid-19 had also some positive impacts on the patients in terms of realization of reality of life, improvement in treatment, decreased intake and treatment seeking attitude. The findings of the study explored multifaceted challenges in treatment such as resource constraints, fear related to covid-19 and there were few factors which act as a protective factor for challenges in treatment. The result revealed the multifarious factors which were affecting the patients during covid-19 and those were social restrictions, financial crises, and changes in drug markets, social stigma and boredom factor. The findings exposed the coping strategies in terms of emotional focused coping, problem focused coping, self-regulation, religious coping and element of use of social support in coping.