" So that only the memory of anger remains ": An autoethnographic analysis of the loss and mourning of addicted parents.

Growing up in a family with addiction can have an impact at many points not only on childhood but also on adulthood. A child who grows up in a dysfunctional family could experience a grieving process from childhood, of which two layers can be distinguished-the grief associated with the loss of childhood and the loss of the idealized parent. The grieving process becomes complicated when the parent dies; this is the third layer of grief. Through the first author's auto ethnographic account, we will show characteristics of a complicated grieving process that an adult child may experience after the loss of a parent. The analysis reveals a specific pattern of grieving following the deaths of parents who have struggled with addiction, with general findings and probably significant individual differences. The pattern appears to be the least marked in the mourning of parents, with considerable grief and self-work required both before and after the parent's death.

Voices of Temporary Sobriety - A Diary Study of an Alcohol-Free Month in Hungary.

Background: Temporary abstinence from alcohol as a challenge could support self-knowledge, self-care, and health consciousness in several ways. Objectives: The present study explored Dry November participants' personal experiences and coping strategies during a one-month abstinence period. The research is embedded in the Hungarian context of drinking habits, culture, society, and alcohol policy. Methods: This qualitative study comprised the thematic analysis of 23 participants' diaries, reported twice a week for 30 days (in November 2017), to identify and understand the common experiences of temporary sobriety. Results: Three main themes emerged from the analysis: challenge, community, and relationship toward alcohol and abstinence. Results showed that there are no categorical differences between successful and non-successful participants. Conclusions: The present research demonstrated that during the challenge, rather than simply saying 'no' to alcohol, participants utilized other refusal strategies to avoid social confrontation.

Assessing the experience of using synthetic cannabinoids by means of interpretative phenomenological analysis.

BACKGROUND: New psychoactive substances (NPS) have been increasingly consumed by people who use drugs in recent years, which pose a new challenge for treatment services. One of the largest groups of NPS is synthetic cannabinoids (SCs), which are intended as a replacement to cannabis. While there is an increasing body of research on the motivation and the effects associated with SC use, little is known about the subjective interpretation of SC use by the people who use drugs themselves. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences and personal interpretations of SC use of users who were heavily dependent on SC and are in treatment. METHODS: A qualitative research method was applied in order to explore unknown and personal aspects of SC use. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants who had problematic SC use and entered treatment. The research was conducted in Hungary in 2015. We analyzed data using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). RESULTS: Participants perceived SCs to be unpredictable: 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, it hijacked their personalities and made them addicted. CONCLUSIONS: Participants experienced rapid development of effects and they had difficulties interpreting or integrating these experiences. The rapid alteration of effects and experiences may explain the severe psychopathological symptoms, which may be important information for harm reduction and treatment services. Since, these experiences are mostly unknown and unpredictable for people who use SCs, a forum where they could share their experiences could have a harm reducing role. For a harm reduction point of view of SCs, which are underrepresented in literature, it is important to emphasize the impossibility of knowing the quantity, purity, or even the number of different SC compounds in a particular SC product. Our study findings suggest that despite the adverse effects, including a rapid turn of experiences to negative, rapid development of addiction and withdrawal symptoms of SCs, participants continued using the drug because this drug was mostly available and cheap. Therefore, a harm reduction approach would be to make available and legal certain drugs that have less adverse effects and could cause less serious dependence and withdrawal symptoms, with controlled production and distribution (similarly to cannabis legalization in the Netherlands).

[Assessing identity formation of synthetic cannabinoid products' users - an interpretative phenomenological analysis].

INTRODUCTION: The psychoactive substance addiction often leads to change in identity and the formation of the "user self". During recovery this "user self" or the "spoiled identity" (as Goffman described it) transforms into the identity of recovery. Due to the novel symptoms of synthetic cannabinoid products (SCPs), a new type of psychoactive substances and the lack of previous research the identity work of SCPs users is unpredictable. The aim of this study was to examine how the users of SCPs interpret their experiences delivered from SCPs consumption and how do they perceive the identity, for this we assessed the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). METHOD: Based on the method of IPA a purposive sample was recruited, including 6 males (their age was between 20 and 27) who were self-identified SCPs users. They had been using the drug for 2-6 years, and before the analysis they were abstinent for at least one month. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using IPA. RESULTS: During the analysis two master themes emerged; 1. The impact of SCPs use experience on self and identity formation, and 2. The transformed self and the user self. CONCLUSIONS: the experiences of SCPs users can be compared with some specificities of traumatic experience; therefore, the experience of SCPs use may be treated as a particular type of trauma. As a result, the resources of SC users to change their self and construct a new non-addict identity are limited, which may mean a significant obstacle in recovery. Hence, treatment should focus on identity work more emphatically.

[The experience of auditory hallucination and the role of self-help groups: an interpretative phenomenological analysis]. / A hanghallás élménye és az önsegito csoport szerepe: interpretatíve fenomenológiai analizisen alapuló kutatás.

INTRODUCTION: the aim of this study was to examine and to understand the experience of voice hearing, the meaning and participants' relationship with their voices. And also to explore what 'recovery' means in this context, and the role of self-help group. METHOD: six semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Emerging themes were identified and clustered into master themes, then interpreted. SUBJECTS: 6 (3 females, 3 males) voice hearers, recovering from psychosis. RESULTS: Analysis resulted in four master themes to represent the key points of life story interviews; the role of voices (first master theme), relationship with voices (second master theme); asymmetric and symmetric relational concept, position of voices (outside or inside). The third and fourth master theme refer to the role of self-help group, and the method applied by the group. CONCLUSION: applying self-help group in clinical context contributes to better outcomes in treatment of voice hearers.

[Recovering helpers in the addiction treatment system in Hungary: an interpretative phenomenological analysis]. / Addiktológiai területen dolgozó tapasztalati szakértök: interpretative fenomenológiai analízisen alapuló kutatás.

INTRODUCTION: The work of recovering helpers who work in the addiction rehabilitation centres was studied. The aim was to investigate the process of addicts becoming recovering helpers, and to study what peer help means to them. METHODS: According to interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) design, subjects were selected, data were collected and analysed. SUBJECTS: 6 (5 males, 1 female), working as recovering helpers at least one year at addiction rehabilitation centres. Semi-structured life interviews were carried out and analysed according to IPA. RESULTS: Emerging themes from the interviews were identified and summarized, then interpreted as central themes: important periods and turning points of the life story interviews: the experience of psychoactive drugs use, the development of the addiction (which became " Turning Point No 1") then the "rock bottom" experience ("Turning Point No 2"). Then the experience of the helping process was examined: here four major themes were identified: the development of the recovering self and the helping self, the wounded helper and the skilled helper, the experience of the helping process. DISCUSSION: IPA was found to be a useful method for idiographic exploration of the development and the work of the recovering helpers. The work of the recovering helpers can be described as mentoring of the addict clients. Our experiences might be used for the training programs for recovering helpers as well as to adopt their professional role in addiction services.

Folktales of Recovery - From Addiction to Becoming a Helper: Deep Structures of Life Stories Applying Propp's Theory: A Narrative Analysis.

Addiction research suggests that recovery narratives share common structural elements. For further investigation of this topic, the current study invoked Propp's folktale theory and method to identify narratemes within retrospectives to depict the stages of recovery. Semi-structured interviews were recorded about the experiences of six recovering helpers who had been sober for a minimum of five years and worked as a professional for at least one year. A deductive narrative analysis was carried out. From the 31 Proppian narratemes, 28 were identified and different recovery stories were threaded into a commonly shared narrative strand, where the hero's relationship and struggle with the villain (drug) are depicted in process. Applying Propp's narratemes to analyze recovery stories is a new development that seems applicable according to our results, as it is consistent with fairytale therapy within addiction treatment, which helps the lost wanderer to create structure in their life.

The experience of voice hearing and the role of self-help group: An interpretative phenomenological analysis.

BACKGROUND: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) played an important role in the psychiatric diagnostics, but in the last few decades the diagnostic-free complex phenomenological understanding of the phenomena of voice hearing became the focus of studies. MATERIALS: Six semi-structured interviews with recovering voice hearers were conducted and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). DISCUSSION: The self-help group gives significant help in identification and dealing with the voices; therefore, it serves as turning point in the life story of voice hearers. CONCLUSION: Applying self-help group in clinical context contributes to better outcomes in treatment of voice hearers.

"Someone Else's Problem": New Psychoactive Substances in the Online Hungarian Media.

Media monitoring is an important method to inform public health and prevention services about emerging health issues, such as new psychoactive substances (NPS). This study assessed the portrayal of NPS in online Hungarian media in 2015 using qualitative content analysis. Hungarian online media considers the dealer to be the main cause of drug use, which is portrayed as a problem for youth, poor people, minorities, and rural populations. The point of view of the articles is externalized, and so is the solution offered by them. From the perspective of the police or using a biomedical approach, the articles suggest that drug use is an individual (someone else's) problem, and the perspectives of insiders (such as users or addiction treatment professionals) are absent. The media portrays low socioeconomic background and the hopelessness of disadvantaged rural and mostly minority populations as the roots of NPS use, and misses the pressing incapability of health care emergency and drug treatment services to cope with the problem. The dominant portrayal of police raids is rarely counterbalanced by voices of active or recovering drug users or professionals in addiction treatment and harm reduction, who could offer a systematic solution to the apparent rapid spread of NPS use.