Making "bad trips" good: How users of psychedelics narratively transform challenging trips into valuable experiences.
The International journal on drug policy – January 01, 2021
Source: PubMed
Summary
Nearly all of the 50 Norwegian psychedelic users interviewed reported experiencing bad trips, often characterized by feelings of losing oneself. Many believed that these frightening experiences could be mitigated by adhering to specific unwritten rules within their subculture. Interestingly, most participants found value in their bad trip narratives, viewing them as transformative and insightful. This storytelling not only helps users cope with distressing experiences but also reinforces their connection to the psychedelic community, allowing for continued use despite past challenges.
Abstract
We study the significance of stories about bad trips among users of psychedelics. Drawing on narrative theory, we describe the characteristics of such stories and explore the work they do. In-depth qualitative interviews with 50 Norwegian users of psychedelics. Almost all participants had frightening experiences when using psychedelics and many described these as bad trips. The key feature of a bad trip was a feeling of losing oneself or going crazy, or ego dissolution. Most users said that these experiences could be avoided by following certain rules, based on tacit knowledge in the subcultures of users. Possessing such knowledge was part of symbolic boundary work that distinguished between drug culture insiders and outsiders. Some also rejected the validity of the term bad trip altogether, arguing that such experiences reflected the lack of such competence. Finally, and most importantly, most participants argued that unpleasant experiences during bad trips had been beneficial and had sometimes given them deep existential and life-altering insights. Bad trip experiences are common among users of psychedelics. Such experiences are often transformed into valuable experiences through storytelling. Bad trip narratives may be a potent coping mechanism for users of psychedelics in non-controlled environments, enabling them to make sense of frightening experiences and integrate these into their life stories. Such narrative sense-making, or narrative work, facilitates the continued use of psychedelics, even after unpleasant experiences with the drugs.