The Living Experience Of Being Alcoholist: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Alcoholism is a phenomenon with multiple causes involving factors such as heredity, family and social environment, and regardless of gender and / or age. AA groups are proposed as spaces of support and reinsertion, offering a kind of method to overcome alcoholism. This article aims to understand the lived experience of being an alcoholic of members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). From the critical phenomenological method, five members of an AA group in the city of Fortaleza were interviewed. The question used was "From your experience, tell me what it's like to be an alcoholic." In the data analysis, three phenomenological categories were listed: “Alcoholism: the family disease”; "The bottom: suffering in alcoholism"; and "What I was, I can be better just for today." We conclude that alcoholism strongly affects the interpersonal relationship, causing an imbalance in family life and with society.