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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 withdrawal 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 effects... 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 experience 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 meanings (instead of consequences), and how experience could change over time (Smith, 2011; Smith et al., 2009). Participants perceived SCs to be unpredictable and felt paranoid about the drug: their initial positive experiences quickly turned negative. They also reported that SCs took over their lives both interpersonally 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
