Jump to content
  • Sign Up
  • 0

My experience with Marijuana for depression and anxiety


cybergenesis

Question

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: :rolleyes: ^_^

 

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 by cybergenesis
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recommended Posts

  • 0

Does anyone here know of any definitive studies that clearly establish whether or not cannabis use aggravates or alleviates mental health issues like depression, bipolar, or borderline personality disorder? The little I have read so far from 'official' sources seems to suggest that cannabis will definitely aggravate psychosis in those that already have it, and increase the likelihood of having problems later for those that have a history of such things in their family. This is said to be especially true for those that start smoking heavily during adolescence. I smoked as a youth, stopped for many years, and recently started up again, though not heavily. I have never had any mental health issues. However, my 18 year old daughter has recently been diagnosed with BPD and it seems that when she smokes, it sends her right off her face into various psychotic episodes which are totally distressing for all involved. I would just like to hear from others who may have experience in this area and also be referred to any links to good scientific/medical information on this subject.

 

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Hi kofi,

Done no research mate but I have a daughter who is 32 and has had BPD since the age of 19. I know how devastating and heartbreaking it is and how it affects you and the families life, it is never the same again

She first went into deep depression so her boyfriend had the bright idea to give her some of his anti-depressents which sent her manic and she has been on medication ever since.

 

The doctors say it was triggered off by smoking weed, In my uneducated and humble opinion, I don't know, however I think that some people are apt to get this debilitating disease anyway, It is there and manifests when triggered off by some different substance or maybe some traumatic event, BPD or manic depression has been around for a long time, long before weed was available to the masses and is more prevalent today.

 

There is some information on the site from people affected by these different disorders. The pschoactive sativas seem to be a problem for them and bring on episodes even though they may be medicated,

 

Although a toker I would not encourage my daughter to smoke weed again, I think it is just not for her.

 

all the very best to you and I hope everything turns out ok . :console:

 

sharpie

Edited by sharpie
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Hi Kofi

Let me just add that I am in no way advocating that people with mental health issues should not smoke weed I am only giving an opinion on my own hands on experience with my daughter who has been long term BPD and might I add still needs medication,yet has not smoked weed for 13 years, There are probably indicas out there that some people with BPD might get away with but I think they must be very careful in their selection, I have confidence as Medical Cannabis gets in full swing that they will research this area and maybe as Duty Of Care, especially seeing it is medicine will sort it out SOMEHOW,

 

I also have a suspicion that some tokers may not take their medication when they smoke, just like I know people who don't take it when they drink, I know that the doctors tell them in the case of alcohol that it null and voids the balancing effect of the medication, in this case maybe they think they are doing themselves a favor by jumping off their tablets for a while or maybe they go off it because it interferes with the effect of the alcohol,or if in the case of toking the buzz, I don't really know but I have noticed the numbers of people that do this very thing and the end result for some is that they get really sick again ,We can look at these people as though they are being irresponsible if we,like but I know I certainly would not know how to deal with having to cut out my recreation and I'm not dealing with their issues,

 

Hi everybody,

 

To any of you tokers out their that have mental health issues and have been in a mental health facility, old sharpie sends his warmest regards

 

And if anybody should avoid you because of such issues don't worry, it is only because they do not understand and do not know how to cope with it, the people that really matter will come through for you in time!

 

And if anybody puts shit on you over it please feel free to tell them " When I was discharged from the unit I was certified sane :signthis: where's your certificate?

 

:peace:

sharpie

Edited by sharpie
  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Hello,

 

I smoked weed in my twenties and loved it until it nearly drove me crazy by aggravating my pre-existing anxiety.  I gave it up twenty plus years ago and would have a smoke every two or three years and always with the same anxiety boosting effect.

 

I am now 50 and using SSRI meds to help manage my anxiety with some success, recently read how using a Vape allows you extract specific cannabis components, I tried it for 3 days running and found I had  an enjoyable anxiety free high - just like it used to be in the beginning.

 

why is it different? my gut tells me that your existing mental state plays a huge effect on the high you get, my anxiety is better managed than 20 years ago and maybe Vaping is leaving out some nasties? 

 

anyway, that's been my experience

 

thanks

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Oh this is great new m8, Im glad to hear you've found a way to use the herb.

The variety of MJ you are smoking will have a marked dffect on the type of high you are having. If you suffer from anxienty you should avoid Sativa dominant strains and high THC contents. A White widow migh really suit you, it higher in CBD and lower in THC. The CBN in a plant regulates teh psycjomemetic effect of PURE THC.

That is varieties like tangering dream (G13) have very little to no CBD or CBN. Smoking this heavily will make most ppl feel a bit weird.

 

So find yourself a good Indica dominant or pure indica strain with a good dose of CBD, and lower THC concentrations would be better for an anxious person..

Happy choofing, you should be able to smoke this out of a bong.

Making HASH will also give a different effect- but thats for you to experiement with.

GL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Answer this question...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using the community in any way you agree to our Terms of Use and We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.