Lived Experience Of Substance Abuse Among Addicted Youth In Mekelle City Northernethiopia Aphenomenologic Study.

Background: Substance abuse such as alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs become a public healthrnconcern globally. Despite that substance abuse is associated with negative health, economic andrnsocial outcomes; there is a gap in understanding the reasons and extent of the problem at groundrnand realizing the lived experiences of substance addicted youths from their own perspectives.rnTherefore, this study was aimed to explore the lived experience of addicted youths on substancernabuse in Mekelle city, Northern Ethiopia. rnMethods: Phenomenological qualitative study was conducted from March 20 up to April 30,rn2019 among 15 substances addicted youths in Mekelle city. Youths between 15 -29 years old,rnwho had been using alcohol, and/or tobacco, chat or any illicit substances and used to live inrnMekelle city residency were purposively selected from a substance rehabilitation center. Therninvestigator conducted the interviews using semi structured guide through in-depth interviewrntechnique. Data were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated in to English andrnfinally imported to atlas.ti.7.5 software for coding. Analysis was done inductively. Code bookrndevelopment, peer debriefing, multiple coders and member checking were applied to maintainrnrigor of the data. rnResults: the findings revealed that reasons related to socialization issues with peer pressure atrnthe center, relief from stress and as energy booster were the main features in the process ofrnyouth’s initiation for substance abuse. Moreover, youths lack of awareness on risks of thernsubstances, ease access to substances in their neighborhood and being jobless conditionsrninfluenced them to abuse different substances on daily basis. As a result, the youths werernexposed to various risky behaviors including violence and unsafe sexual practices. rnConclusion: Different personal, interpersonal and environmental factors were explored in therninitiation of youths for substance abuse. Youths experience various problems and their life wasrnnegatively affected as a result. Hence multiple interventions at individual, community andrnorganizational levels are suggested to tackle the problem in the area.

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