Men Who Abuse Drugs and Their Experience of Loneliness

Abstract
Loneliness is a prevailing experience particularly familiar to adolescents and young adults. It is a subjective experience, influenced by one's personality, life experiences, and situational variables. The present study examined the influence of drug cessation on the experience of loneliness. Drug abusers during their stay in detox centers were compared to drug abusers who were in a methadone maintenance program, and those two groups were again compared to a group of adults in the general population who are nonusers of drugs. A total of 304 participants from all three groups volunteered to answer a 30-item yes/no questionnaire, reflecting on their experience of loneliness and what it meant to them. The factors which compose the multidimensional loneliness experience are emotional distress, social inadequacy and alienation, growth and discovery, interpersonal isolation, and self-alienation. Results revealed significant differences between the scores of the three groups, however only the detox and the general population samples had significantly different subscale scores.