[jenmosaic]

Cam, I just found this board a few days ago, and have been reading your posts with much interest as the psychiatrists have prescribed so many of the drugs you discuss. I have given them all up due to so many side effects. I take Valium or Xanax (along with milk thistle to protect my liver) and that's it. Sometimes I'll do a few months on Celexa, but then I stop it and nothing seems much different, so I can't really make up my mind if it does anything or not.

In any case I'm researching medical marijuana for the mentally ill and would like your opinion.

It helps me tremendously! (I threw the Topamax down the toilet after they told me I might get glaucoma.)

I eat it, don't smoke it for obvious health reasons, and it really helps my BPD, OCD, PTSD, bipolar disorder, panic disorder etc. Also, it stops my migraines and other headaches as well as my persistent nausea. It's the only thing that works, and it's safe!

I have some pretty scary stories to tell of my OCD when I don't have THC in my fat cells.

Also, I saw in your profile that your homepage is gratefuldead.com, but it comes up a dead link. I must say, listening to Live Dead after having some cannabutter really is the best cure. Why are the psychiatrists so dense about this?

Thanks!

--jen

[CamW]

Jen - For the Grateful Dead site, try http://dead.net/ . The site went to one of those numbers, but I lost that when I changed computers.

As for the medicinal marijuana thing. I dunno; I'm sort of up in the air about that. I used to think that it was relatively harmless until I saw my first true case of cannabis psychosis. I had always thought it was just that some people couldn't handle the high, but I have seen it act as a trigger for bipolar disorder and (possibly) schizophrenia.

Also, even for the majority that have no problem with the drug, it still impairs functioning (remember the Amtrak accident). Marijuana relieves some worries, but also some short term memory (while intoxicated). When you come down the worries are still their. I guess there are worse things a person could be using (eg. alcohol, opiates, cocaine, methamphetamine).

When comparing marijuana to alcohol, I believe that marijuana is a much "safer" intoxicant, in most respects. Still, an escape is still an escape. I guess occasional use is okay, but most people I know who smoke are daily users, even if they don't want to be. I haven't imbibed for awhile because I just don't have the time to be high, and I hate trying to play "catch up" with my work.

As for the Celexa™ (citalopram), if it is resulting in a remission you shouldn't notice a difference when you come off of it. You do want to make sure that you stay in remission because I feel, as in bipolar disorder, that there is kindling in major depression (ie. the more depressive episodes that you have, the longer and more severe each subsequent episode is). I have no proof of this, but many psychiatrists I have worked with feel that this is the case, as well.

I hope that this is of some use. - Cam

<font color=blue>"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened." - Winston Churchill</font color=blue>

[jenmosaic]

Cam--

Thanks so much for your thoughts on this. It really does depend on the type of disorder whether it helps or not. I know people with disorders similar to mine who derive tremendous benefit from the drug. But I also know someone who has severe bipolar and totally freaked out the one time he smoked pot. And someone else I know who has Schizoid Personality Disorder used pot for a time and then had a freak out experience and is petrified of it now. That would make sense as I've read that pot doesn't cause these things, but if they are already there in the person, it can trigger them.

Still there are many disorders where I know medical marijuana is the drug of choice. Hopefully someday soon it will be available to us in a legal and sane way.

Thanks for the grateful dead link too. Why did you take your picture down? I think you look like Jerry Garcia, :-)

--jen