[dog daze]

Just wondering what people have experienced. My Pdoc says anything that alters your reality is a bad crutch to have and not healthy. But we all take meds to alter our brain chemicals, so is there a difference? I'm not talking about legality. Isn't pot just another kind of brain altering substance, like my meds?

[Wild Coyote]

Pot is a brain-altering substance.

Is there medical marijuana for depression, mania, or mood stabilization?

I have known a few people claiming medical marijuana, as well as street marijuana, helps their depression. It was their only medication. I watched for months (and years), while they were claiming a cure, only to observe their lives were truly going downhill. The decline was obvious: they were now declaring bankruptcy, going through divorces, losing housing, losing jobs, making poor decisions in general. (One is getting her life back together after going back to a pdoc and restarting meds.)

While I believe pot can be relaxing (anti-anxiety) and can cause a "high," it did not help them enough to keep their lives from crumbling around them. They'd told me the pot gets them "high" and numb, not more functional. So they had some fleeting relief from suffering, yet nothing to help them have a more stable life.

I am all for anything that truly helps. If pot truly helps in stabilizing and in having a more functional life, then go for it.

My doctor states he has not seen anyone with BP do well on marijuana. He's all for compassionate use, in cases of intractable pain, etc. People don't stabilize in mood with pot, like they might with pharmaceuticals.

Just my two cents.


WC

[bioChE]

As much as I don't want to, I have to agree with WC. WC stated very well that lives seem to destabilize with pot use, not the other way around. I am a prime example. When I started smoking pot, it helped to bring down the highs and bring up the lows. When I was manic, I used to smoke a bit to bring me down enough to study my engineering texts. This is before I was diagnosed, and I can only understand it in retrospect. However eventually I began smoking more and more often. This has led to multiple times of psychosis and sobriety throughout the years. I've nearly lost my marriage and family over it, and can guarantee that if I smoked again I'd eventually wind up in another psychosis.

I'm a proponent of legalization, but that doesn't mean I'm for the idea of everyone using it. People with bipolar have to be very careful with the way they handle substances, and I just can't recommend using pot to someone with BP. You're right that it's playing with brain chemistry, but not in the way that other medications do. The long-term effects of medication for people with BP are often positive. The long-term effects of pot smoking to control mood symptoms are often negative. I'm not saying everyone who smokes pot is going to end up in a psychosis, but our brains are unstable to begin with. Adding pot to the mix usually ends up in more instability.

[dog daze]

Very good points. It's hard because I say to myself, it's just a plant. But so is opium. And I wouldn't do that. I was really just wondering, which means I'm about to rebound into some mania. I have been spending more and thinking about pot is just another symptom, probably to bring me "down" as you said.

[Wild Coyote]

Originally Posted by bioChE

As much as I don't want to, I have to agree with WC. WC stated very well that lives seem to destabilize with pot use, not the other way around. I am a prime example. When I started smoking pot, it helped to bring down the highs and bring up the lows. When I was manic, I used to smoke a bit to bring me down enough to study my engineering texts. This is before I was diagnosed, and I can only understand it in retrospect. However eventually I began smoking more and more often. This has led to multiple times of psychosis and sobriety throughout the years. I've nearly lost my marriage and family over it, and can guarantee that if I smoked again I'd eventually wind up in another psychosis.

I'm a proponent of legalization, but that doesn't mean I'm for the idea of everyone using it. People with bipolar have to be very careful with the way they handle substances, and I just can't recommend using pot to someone with BP. You're right that it's playing with brain chemistry, but not in the way that other medications do. The long-term effects of medication for people with BP are often positive. The long-term effects of pot smoking to control mood symptoms are often negative. I'm not saying everyone who smokes pot is going to end up in a psychosis, but our brains are unstable to begin with. Adding pot to the mix usually ends up in more instability.

Oh, yes! The psychoses! My friends were calling often with accounts which were psychotic -- and they had no insight into the psychosis.

It was difficult to see people start smoking pot heavily and stop meds, going downhill so very much. Their insight was gone/impaired, in general.
They couldn't see anything wrong, despite being in the midst of ongoing crazy chaos, legal problems, severe relationship problems and more.

Please be careful if you start smoking/vaping. Very careful.
Try to have some safeties in place or something.


WC

[Cocosurviving]

My 19 year old daughter..bp 2 but will say she just has depression smokes regularly. She lives "on her own" not in my household. I have two bp sisters that smoke. The third sister drinks (on and off bp meds). They swear that ole' Mary Jane is their go to. I'm not into it. I tried it a few years ago while on meds and it did nothing for me. I stick to prescribed pharmaceuticals.

[jacky8807]

eh. I have seen some ppl it has helped. some it has made worse.
makes me busted up paranoid personally.

[Wild Coyote]

Originally Posted by jacky8807

eh. I have seen some ppl it has helped. some it has made worse.
makes me busted up paranoid personally.

This is what's most important, how it affects us personally.

Personally, I am wasted on it. Good for nothing and hoping I'll stop the confusion (and tactile symptoms, too) soon.


WC

[Apokolips]

I honestly would not be able to function without it. It manages the majority of my issues including chronic back pain from a spinal cord injury, gerd, ptsd, and bipolar.

[wildflowerchild25]

I really think it's an individual thing. Just as people react to pharmaceuticals differently, people will react to pot differently. Personally I don't like it. But if it helps, go for it.

[Plastic Fork]

I tried it for awhile, against the advice of my Doctor. I found that it greatly affected the pleasure sensitivities of my brain. The excessive compulsion to eat. Sexual desire increased. A pursuit to laugh over some of the dumbest things. It was all feel good, for awhile. Then the pleasure sensitivities became an issue. I dumped it a couple of years ago when the THC content seemed to escalate.

Everyone is different. There is some really great aspects to Marijuana and I'm pleased that it is finally being recognized. For me, I'll stick to lithium and Seroquel.

I've just set up an appointment to see if I will be approved for a medical marijuana card. I've disclosed all my medical issues so I'll have to see what they say about it and if I get approval. I'm hoping to cut out zopiclone and maybe even ativan. It's worth investigating for me.

[IntentOnHealing]

Very bad. Please do not use. It will aggravate your mania and depression. It will magnify everything. I am talking out loud at home, that's how bad it is. I am babbling with concern: "Very bad. Please do not use."

Of course, I am just reporting from my own experience--the worst mania followed by the worst depression--I've ever had. Lost my job, my friends, my self-respect. Luckily still have my husband, home and child. But barely.

A lot of people made a lot more effective arguments than I have, and offered very good suggestions. I am answering from the amygdala. I can't help it.

Please be careful.

[dog daze]

Originally Posted by IntentOnHealing

Very bad. Please do not use. It will aggravate your mania and depression. It will magnify everything. I am talking out loud at home, that's how bad it is. I am babbling with concern: "Very bad. Please do not use."

Of course, I am just reporting from my own experience--the worst mania followed by the worst depression--I've ever had. Lost my job, my friends, my self-respect. Luckily still have my husband, home and child. But barely.

A lot of people made a lot more effective arguments than I have, and offered very good suggestions. I am answering from the amygdala. I can't help it.

Please be careful.

Thank you for such a thoughtful response. I appreciate the personal experience you have shared. Really everyone's posts have been helpful, but sometimes a personal warning is best.