Oldal 53 [53]
3. ASSESSING THE EXPERIENCE OF USING SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS... = 51
Description about both the addiction ofthe body and psyche emerged in the
accounts, especially in presenta-tions of withdrawal symptoms. The addiction
of the psy-che became apparent in anxiety attacks, craving, feeling of guilt,
and excruciating desire for the drug, which the participants perceived as the
drug hijacking their thoughts. The addiction of the body was defined by with¬
drawal symptoms including tremor, passing out, and insomnia. In both cases,
participants felt unable to control the symptoms and their addiction, so they
perceived being vulnerable.
»l was sweating, I couldn't sleep, my nap was numbing, I had many physical ef¬
fects... I desired the drug more and more, I became stressful, I became neurotic,
and at the end I could not live without it.” (Attila)
»1 smoked at night and I fell asleep, two hours later my body woke me up to smoke
again.” (Zsolt)
3.4. DISCUSSION
In this study we assessed the experiences of SC use. During the analysis we
utilized IPA, a qualitative research method that is able to assess personal
experiences and examine how the participants interpret a particular experi¬
ence which is significant for them (Smith et al., 2009), as such experiences of
drug use or addiction could be a significant experience (Larkin & Griffiths,
2002; Shinebourne & Smith, 2009). IPA examines processes of personal mean¬
ings (instead of consequences), and how experience could change over time
(Smith, 2011; Smith et al., 2009). Participants perceived SCs to be unpredict¬
able and felt paranoid about the drug: their initial positive experiences quickly
turned negative. They also reported that SCs took over their lives both inter¬
personally and intrapersonally: the drug took their old friends away, and while
initially it gave them new ones, in the end it not only made them asocial but
the drug became their only friend. At last, it hijacked their personalities and
made them addicted.
Unusual physical and psychological effects, psychotic and dependence
symptoms, which were described by previous research (Vandrey et al., 2012;
A. R. Winstock & Barratt, 2013; Zimmermann et al., 2009), were also reported
by the participants in this study. The appearance of negative effects happens
rapidly; thus, participants barely recount positive experiences (Arfken et al.,
2014; Bilgrei, 2016; Castellanos et al., 2011; Meshack et al., 2013; Vandrey et
al., 2012; A. R. Winstock & Barratt, 2013). The rapid development of tolerance,
the experiences of addiction (e.g., craving and thoughts about smoking being