Table 1 The formation of subcategories, categories and main theme

The need for emancipation

The deviated path:

Feel the damage to myself and those around me

Drug made me homeless, that is, I could no longer live, die or even make up my mind. I committed suicide four times. I hated myself; do you know what I’m saying? I had reached a dead end

Being abused

Physical, psychological and sexual abuse reasons for abandoning substance use

After some days of homelessness, a drug dealer trapped me and I lived in a Sexual hangout for 6 months, and then, I got hepatitis B and genital herpes. I was homelessness and Helpless. I was beaten and raped in the hangout. Everybody abused me. I saw no one was thinking of me and I was going to save myself

Compulsion to drug abuse

Constant intellectual involvement in the preparation and consumption of drug

There was a state of coercion inside of me that made me use drug, I mean, when we got up, in the mornings I couldn’t accept those days as a human being

Acquaintance with God:

Thank God it is a practice to return to life

.... I wish that after 10 times in the rehab camps, I wasn’t tempted again. These wishes have been memories for years; and with those same wishes, I will go again to stop drug. God’s remorse is my hope for perseverance

A supportive family:

Feeling valued through family support for quitting drugs

At my first course (in the rehab camp) my dad and family came to meet me. I kissed my parent’s hands for the first time. They told me we want to keep you here for two courses because we love you. Oh, they told me they loved me..

Sinking factors

Non-assisting mates

lacked family support,

“My family did not trust me anymore. I used drugs, I harmed everyone, I destroyed everything; but they still loved me. They did not help me to quit because they could force me. They took me wherever they wanted. They did everything to me: physical abuse, sexual abuse, rational and mental abuse.”

Pro-addictive family

The availability and the use of drugs by all family members at home

“I didn’t know what to do. Drugs were found at my mom’s home, and also at my dad’s home, or my sister’s. When I went to my home, my husband used drugs in front of me. I had to use, too. I could not refrain, I had a big temptation. I did not want to use it, but I used while crying.”

unawareness of assisting official organization and non-government organization

Lack of awareness of existing society support services or lack of special rehab centers for women

“I was exhausted. Until 1 day I saw a program about rehab centers of the TV. I thought that these centers were for men only. It was very late for me. Now that I think, I see that if I went to the rehab camp only on opium, the desired result would have come very sooner than when I used several drugs.”

Woman’s lack of authority

living as a woman under the supervision of a father, husband, brother or partner

“After 20 times that my husband was taken to the rehab camp, my dad once brought me there to quit. However, my husband gave him 400.000 Tomans to bring me back. My husband wanted me to be an addict, so that I may not think of divorce or making him quit drugs. He gave me subsistence and I had no options for quitting. I was a woman and needed food and a shelter.... ”

Ineffective opportunities

high costs, lack of permission to leave or reenter the camp, not meeting their children, the absence of a doctor or counselor, lack of physical space and adequate food, and sometimes violent

“I’m already a postmenopausal woman. I have hypertension and diabetes. I have to take my medicines. But here they did not allow me to my take them. One of the women had a bad cold and they did not allow her to take an acetaminophen. They take you out only if you die. It is my last time here.”