Considering medical marijuana for anxiety

For probably two years now I've been considering trying medical marijuana for anxiety. My GP has already said that he would give it to me if I wanted it, but I'm hesitant to take him up on the offer.

My concern is that I've known stoners and I don't want to wind up like them. One of the few things I have going for me is my mind, so the thought of having my mental capacity diminished causes me a lot of distress.

Basically why I've been considering it is when I try to create artwork I wind up having really bad anxiety, flashbacks, and experience avoidance due to some disastrous art therapy in my past. I also experience a lot of anxiety around other people due to social phobias.

I wouldn't want to use it all the time, but when I sit down to do some artwork or when I have an unavoidable social function I would like something to help me handle the anxiety that always comes with those activities.

I've never in my life tried marijuana, so I was hoping there were some members who have used it that could say whether they think it would be beneficial or not in my case. I'm not schizophrenic (I know there are some studies linking the two), nor is anyone else in my family, and I don't consider myself particularly paranoid. I'm a germaphobe, and I don't like close physical proximity, but I'm not paranoid as in thinking I'm being watched by aliens or anything like that.

I have pot that I got for mental health reasons and I have had it for over a year. I only use it when I am really stressed out or manic. it really helps. it has never made me stupid. I have always used it responsibly. when I first got stoned it felt so good I worried that I would do it all the time, but that didn't turn out to be the case. it definitely enhanced my artwork experiences. I say try it a few times and see if it helps. take care.

Interesting, thanks I'm glad to hear you've found something that works in those bad moments. If I may ask, what method do you use for taking it?

If I were to try it I'm leaning towards ingesting it, but I've never done it any way so I don't know what's best. I'd have to learn all that I guess.

I've tried some medications in the past for my anxiety but didn't have success with them due to serious nasty side effects. Trying to do it on my own isn't working, and I don't know of any other alternatives that would be strong enough to combat the PTSD and anxieties. If anyone has any suggestions for alternatives before I try this route I'd certainly be appreciative and open to hearing them!

Well, the first time I had a major panic attack the doctor put me on xanax but it messed with my head really badly and I had memory issues. My discharge papers noted that while medicated by it I had little to no acknowledgement of externally inflicted bodily harm/pain. What I do remember is waking up the next day with a swollen ankle and multiple bruises that hurry like hell from walking into things or just letting the car door close on me.
Later, someone recommended me this treatment, and I’m very grateful with it, i can go anywhere i want without problem, no anxiety, no panic attacks, i'm a new person. Read this article, it helped me a lot : panicsolutionkey.com

I used to be a pot head for many years but have been clean and sober for 18 years. A couple of years ago I decided to try it for depression but it didn't work for that. And since I have a history of addiction it is not a good idea so I gave it up.

In your case I think it is worth a try for anxiety. Be careful though because there are different strains and all of them now are high in THC. There are some strains that are more activating and can cause paranoia and worse anxiety. Make sure you get the sedating type and don't smoke to much, just a couple or three hits.

Ingesting it is a totally different effect than smoking. I would suggest smoking or a vaporizer rather than ingesting. Maybe a little experimenting to see what works for you. I would not worry about light use and harmful consequences. Benzodiazapines which are the most effective for anxiety i would worry about much more because of their addictive nature and very bad withdrawal. Pot is much safer in my opinion.

I've been trying to educate myself on it (I didn't even know what the two main types were called or what the difference was), and that's something I've been reading a lot of. That the THC levels are really high now in almost all of them, which isn't what I'm after I did manage to find out about a couple strains where the CBD is higher than the THC, so I'll need to see if they would be available through the program where I live.

There was a recent thread by eskielover in the general forum that was about a new-ish strain developed that has a high CBD amount, but 0.3% or less THC so virtually no psychoactive effects. Unfortunately it is only available in Colorado right now due to the cannabis laws.

I have heard alot about them breeding strains where the THC is low and the CBD is high. This seemed to be for seizures though.
I don't know which cannabanoid is better for anxiety thc or cbd.

From my experience there is a sedating type and a kind of make you more paranoid type. It seemed to me they were both very high in thc. The high THC is not a bad thing you just limit your dose. Only take a couple of hits. I have friends who still smoke and they take two hits and wait and see how strong it is before smoking any more. I am not an expert though and have been out of the game for a very long time other than my little experiment for depression. If you ask in the dispensary they should be very well versed in the types and the effects they cause.

You may be after the psychoactive effects of the THC to relieve the anxiety. I am not sure.

I am shocked that your GP said "He would give you it" Here in the Uk any professional would be struck off.

I don't agree with taking marijuana it causes paranoia, Maybe it will ease your anxiety or depression but also think of your health.

Look into the definitions of Indica and Sativa. You will need to start there and smoking is more powerful than eating. For medicating they say eating is better.

Only in long term daily use. This means smoking all day and night. If it is used as a medicine on occasions requiring it there is no bad side effect except hunger.

Medical Marijuana for Psychiatric Disorders | Psychology Today

Medical Marijuana and the Mind - Harvard Health Publications

I dunno there is not that much real research on it probably because of the political reasons. When I say real research I mean like NIMH and harvard and mayo clinic and places like that.

I would say that with all the drugs out there both prescription and illegal pot is very harmless in comparison. I have used alot of illegal drugs and prescribed psychoactive drugs for mental illness and pot would be the least of my worries. I don't want my 20 year old daughter to smoke it but given a choice between that and alcohol I would pick pot any day. It is not going to hurt you to experiment a little. If it doesn't work then thats that. Just like me trying it for depression. It didn't work so I stopped. My sense is it would work much better for anxiety and insomnia then for depression if you get the right strain. Even in the 70's and 80's long before medical marijuana there were different strains that came from CA and Columbia. Columbian Gold we called it. That stuff had hallucinatory properties. We didn't limit our intake though we would smoke alot.

Well he's been my GP for two decades now, so he's tried a lot with me over the years to get a handle on my issues. Pharmaceutical medications, referrals, and he knows I've tried counseling/therapy as well. I think he looked at my life and weighed the risks versus leaving things are they are now. I'm in my 30's and I still haven't really started my life... I'm beginning to run out of time to properly prepare for retirement, have my own family (if I ever decide I want one), etc.

Honestly I was a bit surprised by his willingness as well, but from our talks he's said he struggled with social phobias and anxiety back when he was a med student. With that past I think he understands those problems better than a lot of other doctors, so takes them more seriously than most would.

He still would prefer I go the pharmaceutical route, but that's off the table for me due to past experiences with side effects.

It can cause paranoia for some people. I know a lot of people who don't smoke because it makes them paranoid.

For me it only ever made me slightly paranoid and that depended on the strain. Many of the Sativa strains (we always called it sensimilla or sensi but that is not really accurate) just made me super tired after being high for awhile. Like I said earlier we never limited our intake. Dosage is very important.

Smoking any drug is always more intense than ingesting it because it hits your brain so much faster. It takes 2/5 ths of a second for crack to hit your brain when smoked. This is why smoking crack or meth is so much more addictive then snorting. I wouldn't worry about that with pot as far as addiction.

It is unhealthy if you smoke as far as your lungs are concerned for sure. They have vaporizers or you can ingest it to avoid this. Occasional use in small amounts is not gonna do much damage to your lungs though. Very heavy chronic use can have adverse affects on the brain and lower motivation and effect memory.

We are talking about limited use of small quantities for anxiety compared to using benzodiazapines. Do you think benzo's don't have adverse effects?

Small quantities are maybe fine, What makes me weary is that I know a lady who has emphysema she is only 46 years old and this is caused by marijuana she can't have a lung transplant because her lungs are that bad.

Sorry but I don't agree with it after watching this lady suffer, Also I don't like the smell of it.

My grandfather had a couple heart attacks and strokes related to his smoking (pipes and cigarettes). He spent the last decade of his life paralyzed on one side, and completely incapable of communicating due to being unable to speak, and unable to write since one of the strokes hit that part of the brain.

Witnessing his life in that state made me swear I'd never take up smoking, and I never have. I've never even tried a puff of a regular cigarette. That's why I'm a bit focused on the ingesting route.

I'm with you on the smell though. While I've never tried it, I have smelled other people using it and didn't like that smell at all. Too skunky

I think it's fine if smoked now and then as long as you don't become addictive on it.

I am sorry about your grandfather

Well, I'm 51 so I've smoked/eaten my share of mj in my life. I have never experienced mj having a particularly helpful effect for my mental health. My experience is that it makes me high for about 20 minutes (so I sit there all spaced out), then I get really sleepy, then I either fall asleep or the high wears off and I'm left wondering what the big deal about mj is.
*shrugs*

I hope that research continues on the benefits of thc, I also fully support the growing and use of hemp products in the USA. But just smoking or eating pot...meh. btw, I have seen even new mj smokers get paranoid on the stuff.

Thank you for your post, I wanted to hear experiences from people whether they were helped by it or not as it helps me to keep my expectations in check

I don't want to approach it thinking it will fix everything for me... if I put my expectations too high and it's not a total miracle fix than I'll be disappointed. Better I approach it with a degree of doubt and run the chance of being pleasantly surprised, instead of approaching it with unrealistic hopes.

There's a number of strains available through the programs where I live, so hopefully they'll have some that won't give much of a high, or none at all at low doses. It's bugging me that the Colorado strain isn't available here, as that would be exactly what I'd want to try

I think the colorado strain you refer too is very new and only one farm is developing it. Mainly for seizures and cancer treatment though.

I did see a show where a guy in Humbolt in CA was refining pot into CBD oil in order to treat a seizures epilectic kid. It apparently worked great. he was very worried about getting busted as what he was doing was illegal. You need to proper licences and so forth to sell or produce medical mj in CA. Plus in those counties there are alot of DEA agents running around.

You're welcome, Trebyn. CBD oil would be interesting to try. I have a friend (in Humboldt) who regularly makes mj oil, but it still has the thc effect, which I don't like.

It could be that it requires some combination of THC and CBD to have the desired effect. To bad they won't take up more research on it. The politics are still stopping it I am afraid.

Yeah its the thc and it def elavates my anxiety when I smoke. I have a ton a med weed and it just sits here, I will not touch it. The thc conten is about 29.4% I would look into strains that contain more cbd. My uncle smokes it, he was just diagnosed with als. Everyone is different but I agree that im pretty scared about that idea too. I wish weed would cure my rapid cycling, then i would have to move to colorado lol

The strain I'm looking at that is available here is one that has a low THC amount (tests 5-7% THC) and a higher CBD (9-12%).

Right now where I live if you have a medical marjuana ID card you can buy from dispensaries, but there is the chance that they will soon be shut down in place of a (handful) of big businesses given licenses to sell. At that point the number of strains available will be severely diminished, including access to the higher CBD strains that I'd want in order to avoid feeling high.

But then the politicians haven't done much that hasn't been silly when it's come to medical marijuana. They either make it too easy to abuse or too restrictive to get access to. Too many of them disagree on how it should work. Yet if you don't go through that broken system you're a criminal and could be put in jail for trying to find a way to function

True, true, Trebyn.

Good luck in your quest.
May it serve you well.

Yeah, that is that something to think about. I'm not really sure what to tell you about it, tho, as far as what to do. I have thought about seeing if I could get some medical marijuana for myselg, but I am not sure what the laws are here in my state--I guess I could just find out. Anyway, if I did get, I would put it in veggie caps and take it like a supplement--no way in heck will I smoke it.