Life without Heroin: Some Social Adjustments during Long-Term Periods of Voluntary Abstention

Despite the voluminous literature on addiction very little is known about the actual processes of addiction—beginning use, addiction, abstention, and relapse. This paper attempts to contribute to one of these gaps—abstention. A survey of 422 male addicts in six treatment facilities showed that many addicts do have long periods of voluntary abstention outside of jails and treatment programs and that the majority during these abstentions make reasonable adjustments to the working world and square life. Long term abstention is associated with both age and length of heroin use. Education, family compatibility, and criminality prior to heroin use are associated with social adjustments. In turn, the better the social adjustment, the longer the period of voluntary abstention.