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36 = USING INTERPRETATIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS topics were extracted from each interview. Topics were first ordered to each theme and then chronologically organized to reflect temporality or logic within the themes. Study results were given back to the participants for verification, who agreed with the contents. The Institutional Review Board at Eötvös Loránd University approved all study protocols. 2.3. RESULTS Four turning points were identified during the interviews: 1. starting using drugs or gambling, becoming an addict, 3. hitting bottom, and 4. becoming a helper. In addition, four themes related to being a helper were identified: 1. the recovering self and the helping self, 2. the wounded helper, 3. the skilled helper and 4. the experience of helping. Starting Using Drugs or Gambling Psychoactive drug use or gaming appeared in the interviews as a process, which is “exciting” and “special”, but which later renders the user powerless. Several participants reported that this period was a natural part of their lives, and they often mentioned that they wanted to be seen as different, so they turned to using the drugs to achieve this. This sentence refers to what psychoactive drug use or gambling showed from their personality to the outside, towards other people. This is in strong contrast with their inner hidden feelings, which they expressed as “depressed”, “indecisive” and “fearful”. "I was a scared little mouse, but for the outside I had to show that I was tough” Becoming an Addict Using psychoactive drugs or gaming lead to addiction. Identifying the presence of this addiction was important in becoming an empirical expert. “T was about 16 or 17 when I started smoking pot, first hashish. We had a basement club where we all met. Later came party drugs, then heroin was the big thing, which came to me real fast, really, I felt that this was what I was always looking for, yes, that was my drug.”
