Abstract

The present study aims to identify individuals' alcoholism in the society through qualitative method and thematic analysis. 18 people who were addicted to alcoholic beverages in Mashhad in 2020 were selected by purposeful sampling. Data was collected using narrative interview technique.

Contrary to other cultures in foreign countries, drinking alcohol, and due to the cultural and religious structure of the community, we cannot understand the dimensions of this social problem based on Western models. Because of religious and legal prohibitions on the drinking alcohol in the city, and even in the country, it distinguishes the country from other countries in the world. Hence, we are confronted with alcohol as a distraction, so it leads to drinking alcohol secretly, and therefore precise statistics are not available. We have only access to the statistics of Anonymous Alcoholics Association Unfortunately. Therefore, in order to plan for reducing this social problem, we must first accept drinking alcohol as a social problem, and then we can find a treatment.

Before quitting alcohol, alcoholics pin into a drinking cycle, and during this period they form an inconsistent and dispersed identity through alcohol, they join alcoholic networks and drowned into alcohol, and, therefore, they use alcohol as a tool to fill their past gaps; then after some time they start to quit when they enter the Anonymous Alcoholics Association with the help of their peers.