Making "bad trips" good: How users of psychedelics narratively transform challenging trips into valuable experiences.

Bad trips—frightening experiences of losing oneself or going crazy—are common among users of psychedelics. Based on interviews with 50 Norwegian users, most described such episodes but said they could be avoided by following rules based on tacit subcultural knowledge. This knowledge served as symbolic boundary work distinguishing insiders from outsiders. Some rejected the term bad trip entirely, arguing the experience reflected a lack of competence. Crucially, most participants said these unpleasant experiences had been beneficial, sometimes yielding deep existential and life-altering insights. Storytelling transforms bad trips into valuable experiences, serving as a coping mechanism that helps users make sense of frightening episodes and integrate them into their life stories, enabling continued psychedelic use.

Study at a glance

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.