My experience with Marijuana for depression and anxiety

[cybergenesis]

Hi Everyone.

 

I am a long term sufferer of problems with anxiety and depression, and I thought I would post my experiences about how marijuana seems to interact with my "conditions".

 

I was first hospitalized for what my doctors said was " a major depressive episode" when I was 13. after my mum died and various other disasters happened in my life.

 

Various doctors have diagnosed me as suffering from depression as well as "dysthymia" which is a sort of low grade, persistant long term depression.

 

Also from around the age of 21 I develop serious problems with anxiety, and had many years where I was quite neurotic and plagued by constant panic attacks, some lasting for hours and involving hyperventillation, pronounced shaking, rapid heart beat, and sometimes loss of control of my bowels (in severe cases).

 

In regards to anxiety, marijuana has the potential to trigger attacks.. It may have a sort of psychologically suggestive effect in some people, triggering them to "worry more" about their anxiety... So in some cases marijuana may temporarily aggrivate anxiety, and in some people with severe anxiety disorders, pot may not be a good idea (while paradoxically it may actually help some people in such circumstances). In all cases caution is recommended if you don't want to risk a severe panic attack.

 

However the panic inducing effects of THC seem most pronounced in inexperienced users, and may be due to the fact some people are especially sensitive to THC and while they get used to it require only small amounts, such as 1-2 tokes. Once tolerance develops, the effects of THC seem to become much more relaxing and indeed I find these days marijuana actually reduces my overall feelings of anxiety. Quite a lot in fact. I am almost completely devoid of anxiety problems, yet I puff on the herb every day.

 

I think to a degree I had to learn to overcome a fear I had of marijuana causing me to panic. I had to overcome a default tendency to become a bit spooked out by the effects of becoming excessively stoned.

 

However as I said these days I almost never experience any anxiety when I smoke weed. This is interesting because at the beggining I had some severe panic attacks which nearly stopped me smoking weed for good. The fact that I have now entirely overcome this problem, and indeed not had a large panic attack in a very long time, indicates that it is possible in many cases to manage cases where marijuana tends to induce anxiety. Beware though it can happen in experienced users. People who are prone to anxiety and depression genetically often end up smoking pot as teenagers, but anxiety disorders most typically develop in a persons early 20's... If you have tolerance to pot, and you stop for a week or two your tolerance may significantly reduce. If you then go suck down a couple of cones or whatever like you did before, it can trigger anxiety attacks in the vulnerable. I have heard a few stories of people smoking for a while, then having a break and finding when they smoked it, it triggered anxiety. You can get around it, just take it easy if you have had a break from smoking and have a disposition towards anxiety.

 

I recommend people who experience anxiety on marijuana (severe anxiety- moderate anxiety is common for newer users and to a degree is part of the fun) simply reduce the amount they consume significantly. In severe cases, people may find that bud is too strong for them at first, and may need to start with consuming leaf.

 

Remember it takes about 10 minutes to take full effect. So I recommend anxiety prone people take 1-2 medium inhalations, then wait a full 10 minutes before deciding if they want more.

 

Marijuana seems to have initially stimulating effects, followed by relaxing effects.. its these initial effects, which typically last between 30 minutes to 2 hours (depending on your tolerance) which seem to trigger anxiety...

 

The stimulating effects of marijuana typically last only about 30 minutes for me, unless I have consumed a great deal more than usual. After that I tend to find the effects more relaxing, and indeed overall I actually find marijuana a very effective treatment for my anxiety, even knows initially it aggrivates it.. Its not that much of a paradox, various antidepressants such as the SSRI's are known to potentially cause anxiety when you first go on them, even knows afterwards they are supposed to treat anxiety (though unfortunately they never did anything for my anxiety. No medication did except the benzodiazepines like valium which to me are extremely addictive and dangerous- I tend to binge on them)

 

In regards to feeling depressed and smoking marijuana:

 

I find that when I am severely depressed, that it is best to smoke marijuana moderately.. When I am profoundly upset and depressed over things, marijuana typically only offers mild benefit, and sometimes may seem to even somewhat magnify such feelings and make me feel somewhat disorientated.

 

The problem is, that a person may come to rely on smoking marijuana to regulate their negative moods. To a moderate degree, and in moderate cases this seems to be potentialy useful. To a degree marijuana can help certain people control and moderate their moods, and indeed in most users marijuana overall "promotes happyness".

 

However if you suffer from depression, and marijuana is effective for you, but lets say some disaster happens- ie somebody you love dies or something. What can happen is you can automatically esculate your consumption of pot to try and compensate for the sudden shift in mood. The problem is when you significantly increase your consumption of weed, the mood elevating effects reduce. THE MORE YOU SMOKE WEED, THE HIGHER THE FREQUENCY AND THE GREATER THE AMOUNT = THE LESS THE EFFECT. So if you start smoking it all the time, when you are in some sort of desperate need, the very beneficial effects it usually offers you can dissipate and reduce and indeed collapse.. Its sort of like leaning too heavily on a crutch- potentially using pot in this way can result in you crashing down and may somewhat worsten your situation.

 

So I caution people, if you are feeling extremely disturbed and depressed, SMOKE POT MODERATELY. Indeed while often times it does help- if it is not helping, it may be time to reduce your usage to lower levels for a while.

 

Its interesting though. I also take one other medication which I find helps treat my depression. Usually this gets rid of my darkest moods but leave me feeling somewhat flat, and just "empty".. Sure I don't feel awful, but I don't feel that able to enjoy things. At this level, smoking a few cones or so each night seems very beneficial.. Sometimes I have an extra cone or two in the early part of the day as well, but I never go beyond this, because I have found the mood elevating effects of pot best for depression etc, when used moderately- not heavily. I know because when I have been very depressed I have smoked so heavily that I can go through a whole ounce in around 3-4 days.

 

My advice is if you use pot somewhat to control bad moods, that you are careful not to do so too heavily and if you have some sort of emotional / depressive crisis, that you are CAREFUL not try to esculate and esculate your usage, because the mood elevating effects of pot may collapse under such circumstances, but only I feel when the person is in a very bad way indeed.

 

Overall: Pot can be quite useful indeed for depression and anxiety, but pot is a complex drug, and it needs to be used in the correct way to maximize benefit. I feel if used inappropriate it may make things somewhat worst, but nowhere near to the degree that something like alcohol would for example.

 

In people with a serious potential to harm themselves and people predisposed to the darkest moods, I recommend moderate consumption of marijuana may offer the most benefits.

 

Anyway its just my opinion based on my experience. Hope its useful to somebody... Overall what I am trying to say is people must be mindful of how they are using marijuana in regards to depression and anxiety, but for me, I really feel it has offered profound benefits... Marijuana has hugely improved the quality of my life- which is why I resent fearing being busted and losing my medicine or even going to prison. I don't consider myself depressed at all any more... I also no longer have problems with anxiety, though occasionally I do get moderate anxiety for a couple of minutes on weed or so just after I have consumed it- I don't view this as problematic and just ignore it.

 

Here is a cheesy summary for you .. Sort of thing I would like to read if marijuana were a legal medicine used for depression. I am running out of time so I'm just going to do it quickly:

 

Marijuana Prescribing Information:

 

Depression: Marijuana may be useful for depression when the dosage is moderated appropriately.

 

Warning Against Heavy Usage During an Emotional Crisis:

 

Heavy usage of marijuana may cause a decline in the mood elevating effects, therefore all users of marijuana for depression are cautioned not to suddenly increase consumption during a severe emotional crisis, as this may cause the beneficial effects of marijuana to collapse at a time when they are most needed. Also heavy usage of marijuana may further confuse and aggrivate a severely distraught person when its mood elevating effects are failing.

 

Most other medications are not contradicted in conjunction with Marijuana:

 

People who use marijuana to treat depression should not give up on trying other medications that may also help. Marijuana may be most beneficial when used in conjunction with another medication that is also beneficial. Generally prescription medications would only be recommend in severe cases of depression, in milder cases marijuana alone may be sufficient. However marijuana can definately provide addition benefit for some people on top of antidepressants. Moderate usage however is strongly recommended.

 

Marijuana usage in anxiety disorders:

 

Slow and gradual usage is recommended in persons prone to anxiety or who experience strong anxiety while on marijuana. Ideally a moderate amount of leaf may be smoked in the earlier stages until tolerance improves. Alternatively 1-2 moderate sized tokes of average grade bud per 10 minutes until desired effect is achieved.

 

Marijuana initially has stimulating phase of between 30 - 120 minutes. If this phase is too intense for a person it may increase anxiety. After this phase has passed a second relaxing phasing occurs which reducing anxiety in most people. The more tolerance a person develops to marijuana according to moderate daily smoking, the shorter and milder the simulating phase becomes and the overall better the anxiety reducing effects are. However some people who suffer from anxiety simply cannot tolerate pot under any circumstances, and such people usually soon decide to discontinue their pot usage.

 

Here is an interesting article about how the effects of marijuana DECREASE with frequency of usage. This explains why the mood elevating effects can collapse with a sudden esculation of dosage, though it may take a couple of weeks for the effect to fully occur.

 

The antidepressant and anti-anxiety effects of marijuana may be stronger at moderate doses than higher doses.

 

I strongly recommend reading the following if you haven't, its a really interesting discussion about marijuans effect on the brain in general.

 

http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/brain2.html

Edited June 25, 2010 by cybergenesis

[Budd Greenleef]

"People who use marijuana to treat depression should not give up on trying other medications that may also help. Marijuana may be most beneficial when used in conjunction with another medication that is also beneficial. Generally prescription medications would only be recommend in severe cases of depression, in milder cases marijuana alone may be sufficient. However marijuana can definately provide addition benefit for some people on top of antidepressants. Moderate usage however is strongly recommended."

 

When i first started to smoke again i thought that it would clash with the serotonin based meds I am on, but I actually found that they worked well together; there was no paranoia, days after I smoked i felt more relaxed and optimistic about things. I don't smoke like I used to when i was rarely not stoned to some degree. I have now cut down to weekend smokes, and I can honestly say that long term it is doing me good.

[Samurai]

hey all thank you all for sharing your thoughts

i simply stress alot ,i try and stay positive as much as i can,

and most of the time i am..

but sometimes as we all know ,things happen...

now i dont automatily go for the rollin papers to fix..

but I KNOW having a smoke helps me settle BIG TIME

now and dont want my body/mind being dependant on fixing stress with smoking...or any thing for that matter

so instead iv found cookies are my freind

i can eat a cookie and be stress free baby all day long and i dont feel "stoned" too much..

anyhow just my thoughts...Happy Times....HM

[Json837z]

HAVE YOU GOT WORMS

 

Cannabis helps me to stay sane. And although it helps me in many ways I find that additional measures can be taken to improve health and reduce symptoms

 

As far as reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression I've found that keeping a regular bowel movement helps. If you get backed up any number of symptoms can result. Parasties can run a muck, get into your liver and other organs. Dr Hulda Clarke believes that most chronic illness is caused by different parasites. If you've got worms or some other kind of parasite (which is more common than we're led to believe) it can have mental effects and can definately affect your mood, cognative funtion and organ functions.

 

In the past I have felt like I'm about to have a heart attack or a stroke but notw I know now that if I can have a shit that I'll feel much better. Since I started treating my anxiety from a physical perspective (as a parastic infection and constipation) I've found that the strange feelings in my chest are less frequent and less intense. I'm getting better!!! And I don't have such nasty moods.

 

To relieve constipation drinking lots of water with lemon and salt and eating some oil (cocnut, olive or the like) will help and laxatives like epsom salts and castor oil can be an additional measure. High fibre diet is the go too. I've turned vego and am loving it. Mmmm, vegetarian nachos!!! and oily mushrooms...

 

But although physical treatments help, the origin or my anxieties are in my personality. I've read that mediation can help remove emotional blocks but I'm only new to the meditation scene so can't give a raving review. I've read about EFT too. Positive affirmations ect. I have found that yoga and meditation are more fun when done in groups. So join a group and make some more friends. And smoke just a little, and appreciate it more.

 

And if you havn't already, check out Rick Simpson for an inspirational way of applying cannabis medically. He's cured terminal cancer and heaps of other conditions including managing panic attacks etc.

 

Man, how good will it be when we can all live the cannabis culture everyday in a balanced and open way. Much more art and sociability, sweetness...

 

Chow chow

[Kazzsam67]

Well I was about to put in my 2 cents worth on anxiety but while we're on the subject of bowel movements I must say that there is nothing worse than feeling bunged up! I like to go at least twice a day or more.

 

Back on the subject of anxiety, I suffer from a generalized anxiety and social phobia and depression/dysthymia. I started self medicating with cannabis at 16 but slowed down a lot having kids. It was during my last relationship (abusive) that the anxiety was exacerbated, so I have rarely smoked since. It still happens most times that I try a toke but occasionally it doesn't. I do agree about taking it easy when not a regular smoker; I do prefer a mild smoke of leaf as it doesn't tend to trigger the anxiety as much. I am looking forward to my first grow of specific strains and hope to experiment with the effects of different types of highs. A scientific study like this would be great but alas I'm not qualified yet nor will be for many more years as I only study part time.

[Allotropy]

If you have mental health problems, it depends on the nature of your cannabis smoking, to the extent of the potentially damaging effects. Sometimes casual cannabis smoking can cause problems, in other instances it could be safe depending on the nature of the person smoking the cannabis.

 

Some people are simply stupid and are void in their ability to make rational decisions, in other instances people simply don't care.

 

When you buy a packet of cigarettes and you read the label and you know that smoking is harmful, does it make you stupid for smoking?

 

It really depends on how much you value your health..

[Allotropy]

If you have mental health problems and your doctor has told you too stay away from Marijuana, then do so. Don't blame Marijuana for your mental health problems.

 

Marijuana is indeed something that may take over and become intwined and volatile to your condition. In which case you will not know that cannabis is harmful, or you may know, but an ilness manifests that makes it difficult to see otherwise.

 

It is being proven now that moderate cannabis use between certain ages in people who are not pre-disposed to mental illness is entirely safe.

 

Infact they have proven that an isolation of CBD is therapeutic in people who have schitsophrenia

 

They have proven that THC is psychotic, however its isolation is therapeutic to a range of other illness aside from Schitsophrenia.

 

It really depends on the person. Cannabis illegality is a crime, when much more volatile substances remain legal.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Allotropy

[Naycha]

If you have mental health problems and your doctor has told you too stay away from Marijuana, then do so. Don't blame Marijuana for your mental health problems.

 

Marijuana is indeed something that may take over and become intwined and volatile to your condition. In which case you will not know that cannabis is harmful, or you may know, but an ilness manifests that makes it difficult to see otherwise.

 

It is being proven now that moderate cannabis use between certain ages in people who are not pre-disposed to mental illness is entirely safe.

 

Infact they have proven that an isolation of CBD is therapeutic in people who have schitsophrenia

 

They have proven that THC is psychotic, however its isolation is therapeutic to a range of other illness aside from Schitsophrenia.

 

It really depends on the person. Cannabis illegality is a crime, when much more volatile substances remain legal.

 

I prefer to take what my Dr says regarding Cannabis with a grain of salt. Not one Dr I have discussed Cannabis with has been willing to use their own critical thinking when discussing the subject, rather they repeat propaganda slogans verbatim.

 

In regards to the research you refer to, please keep in mind correlational research cannot prove anything.

 

Naycha

[louise]

When I brought up the fact that I use cannabis with my GP (at the time in the form of butter, we were actually discussing dietary cholesterols) she said,

 

"Noooooo, don't use cannabis, it ruins lives!!!!!!!!".

 

I asked her it it ruined more lives than alcohol? More lives than tobacco? No, there she had to agree that cannabis didn't cause nearly as many problems as alcohol or tobacco. On further discussion she also agreed that most of the harms relate to the cost of buying weed on the black market and the legal ramifications.

 

Now, if I had followed Allotropy's "advice" I would have stopped smoking on the basis of my GP's social biases, not for any medical reason.

[Faith]

It would be interesting to have a look at what kind of loops our oversees MDs must jump through to be accredited here. I'm thinking eastern and middle eastern Indian et al. i'm pretty sure many of them would be directed to toe the AMA line? $50 in Cali for a script so I've read on another breeder's forum. Must go....The Owners* >>>>IMF>>>>big Pharma>>>>Govt>>>>AMA>>>MD>>>>>no medical value, no prescription-ILLEGAL. sometimes mild forms of civil disobedience are required I become 50% mor3e functional with my daily life taking my natural medicatin, pretty much as I take any pharmaceuticals, I mean 3 times a day-'bout half a spliff then share one or two w/the missus in the evening. It works. Its the whole fear thing that gets me. I emailed My Orthopaedic Surgeon in Cali (a family friend) requesting a script/recommendation that I use cannabis re my medicinal requirements just in case. (You know, a little positive 'evidenc' in the event of a lil bust on my small attempts at growing-might stand me in good stead?) All my MDs have been Pakistani, Indian or Sri Lankan for the past 10 years-I don't mind 'em and I'm sure they some of them would have recommended except for the AMA hard-line sorry about getting off on a rant hehehhe

 

peace to all of ya. v

 

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PkWf9M3rUw&playnext=1&list=PL0F53DA042FA1ED76&feature=results_video

[Kazzsam67]

I don't trust GPs at all, they serve a purpose but western society has given them a God-like status that they don't deserve. On the other hand cannabis does mess with brain chemistry and if we are experimenting with it for mental health reasons then educating ourselves is a necessity.

 

Tried a little of my leaf and got an instant bad hit, it just feels wrong! The good thing is that I am careful and only had a little so the effect was only mild. I have never tried cooking with it so that will be my next experiment. After doing some study and research that is. Of course if it was legal we probably would have all the answers by now.