Lived experiences in help-seeking from the perspective of a mother with a dual diagnosis

Mothers with a co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse (dual diagnosis) use numerous different services. Help-seeking and engagement are complex processes which have not yet been sufficiently conceptualized. A descriptive phenomenological approach was used to explore these experiences from different service contexts and to describe the decisions in and structure of help-seeking over a 13-year period. Four in-depth interviews were conducted and data were analysed with a descriptive phenomenological method developed by Giorgi. The essential meaning structure is an inner conflict within the client, including a realization that change starts from within. The essential meaning structure combines the other meaning structures: disbelief of receiving help and admitting the need for help, keeping up the perfect façade and the risk of total collapse, being given and making own choices regarding care and being forced to use services and inner emptiness and search for contentment in life. It is possible that clients in the help-seeking process do not always recognize they have a need for care. If the client experiences inner powerlessness as emptiness and resistance to being helped, it is probably not possible to create relationships with care providers. Clients may have several ambiguous inner processes which prevent them from accepting the need for care. Theoretically and empirically a long-term approach is crucial, since the inner transformative processes take time. The services can contribute new experiences to the personal level of understanding and decision-making, if they consider the experiential level of their clients.