ABSTRACT
Despite recent research on the importance of ‘milestones’ in the development of substance use disorders (SUD) as well as a growing appreciation of individuals as embedded in environmental and social contexts, qualitative analyses of the pathways to SUD have received little attention. This study is a qualitative exploration into pathways to SUD focusing on the intrapersonal, social, and familial reasons that motivate initial and sustained contact with substances and inform the attainment of SUD milestones. First-person accounts of the saliency of substance use may thus support milestone research and inform treatment design.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 There is no clear consensus on how ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ ought to be defined in the literature. The United States government agencies utilizes over two dozen different definitions of ‘rural’ (Bucholtz, Citation2008) making the task of selecting one complicated and, at times, political. Throughout this paper, we use the term ‘rural’ to mean only those areas outside metropolitan statistical areas.