Lived Time Disturbances of Drug Addiction Therapy Newcomers. A Qualitative, Field Phenomenology Case Study at Monar-Markot Center in Poland

The aim of this study was to qualitatively assess the disturbances of lived time in individuals with multiple drug dependencies. The research was conducted at Monar-Markot Center for Humanitarian Aid in Roznowice (Poland) in 2014 through direct, non-disguised observational study in a therapeutic community setting. Overall, 10 clients with multiple drug dependencies forming a newcomers group participated in. They previously abstained from usage for negligible periods of time. The measurements included participant observation of collective time regimes at the center; group discussions; written accounts by clients; Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory; semi-structured interviews. It was found that the clients experienced difficulties in following a strict therapeutic temporal regime, and they also showed a concomitant need to accelerate time as it passed. They also suffered an unpleasant domination by traumatic past within lived time. Their time horizons appeared significantly shortened and their planning capacity impaired, while a distant (dissociated) future was fantasized about in a realistic manner. Altogether, their disturbances of lived time consisted of the propensity to overemphasize their past dimensions at the expense of their future, while a gap between a close and a distant future appeared.