| Summary: | Traditional help services have problems reaching out to people with substance abuseproblems. Some individuals choose to seek help for recovery from anonymous others online.This study examines the social support within an online support group for individualssuffering from drug abuse, specifically, the drug rehabilitation forum on the Internetcommunity Flashback forum. By looking at the social support in the forum through aqualitative content analysis nine forum threads have been examined. To seek help from otherswithout the pressure of going straight edge as well as an easily accessible tool for differentstages of the process of recovery, the Internet community and forum is an alternative helpchannel and/or complement to traditional services and support. The study also shows that, aswell as social learning theory can explain how individuals begin drug abuse, the theory canalso shed light on how individuals learn to stop their drug abuse.
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