It is about a descriptive exploratory study that had as objective to know the history of alcoholic people, who attends aid groups of the Center of Psychosocial Attendance for Alcohol Dependents and Drugs (CAPS-ad). The collection of the data was made with ten alcoholic people in the year 2005 in the city of Santa Maria RS (Brazil). Were used a structuralized instrument and a projective technique, the drawing-history with subject. In the results, the stories expressed how the trajectory of their lives is. The support that they had received through the groups was demonstrated by the vision that the place would represent: a house, a family, a safe place, where all the involved with the same problem help each other for the reconstruction of their lives. It is understood as necessary the work of the nurse in this process, that can the dependent people can be on abstinence.
Nursing; Population; Alcoholism