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Battling Anxiety While Smoking?

DriftingShade

DriftingShade

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Joined
Dec 24, 2014
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So, to preface, this is one of my first posts here on Bluelight. I have been on the site for a long time (mostly as a lurker) and I decided it was time to ask you guys for some help. I've been battling a lovely little opiate addiction that I've developed since snorting it for the first time almost 2 years ago. Before this ever happened, I was simply a stoner and mushroom grower. I would smoke like a chimney all day with absolutely no problems. However, on a fateful day in June of 2013, my wife and I discovered that she was pregnant. That day, we ate Taco Bell and smoked of course, and I instantly starting freaking out and choking on my food. Nothing seemed as though it were real anymore. Everything I knew was shattered. My life was changing a ridiculous amount and I didn't know how to deal. So I ended up outside pacing the back yard, on the phone with my dad trying to calm myself down.

Since then, everything is different. My son is now 3 years old and I have become a bitter addict that I absolutely HATE. I feel like going back to my roots of spacing out to Tool, Deftones, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, etc. would be the best route for me to take, especially considering that my wife still smokes a ton and I supply it. However, thanks to the events those years ago, any time I smoke I end up freaking out and getting that same sort of panic attack where I have to pace and call on people to help calm me down. The actual thoughts that fly through my head are very hard to describe, but it's something along the lines of "Am I okay?" or "Why's my heart beating like that?" or even "Am I acting normal? How do I look? What does my face look like?" It just sucks and I need some advice from you guys to hopefully quell these worrisome voices and ease myself back into being a smoker and getting a hold back on my life instead of trying to replace my happiness by snorting pills and hiding and stealing money for them. Anything you guys can help me with will be GREATLY appreciated!!! Hope to see some good responses...thanks for reading guys!

TLDR: Freaking out when I smoke weed. Help? Also a pain pill addict.
 
Welcome to life, I guess - I am a victim of the so-called "weed anxiety" and I can guarantee that it does not go away, at least not significantly. For me, the anxiety has become part of the experience.

Firstly, the absolute best thing you can do is attempt to separate your stoner mind from your sober mind. You can do this through moderation - smoke less, and do more "real life" things to compensate for that dopamine binge - focus on hobbies. It might also help to cut off the supply you're getting. Another way is just through meditation, I suppose - realise that these are really just thoughts brought on by the marijuana mind state.

Weed can be quite heavy - realise that weed can be a groggy drug on the mind. It can be delusional, paranoia filled, anxiolytic, and uncomfortable. But other times, it can be quite euphoric, relaxing, sedating and relieving. I know a lot of people would disagree (it's just herb, maaan) but it's the truth. It has almost psychotic properties to it if you consume enough. Psychedelics are less anxiety inducing for me. Try smoking less.

The best thing I've done is incorporate the herb with my hobbies and to use it as a reward mechanism. I like to make music so it sometimes helps when making cool or interesting beats and melodies. I buy it when I feel as if I've been good - eg balancing my mind, helping others, doing things for others and just trying to lead a decent life. Then, I have no actual reason to feel anxious or weird whilst high, and this sometimes works. I'll smoke it all across a week (I won't buy much) and then I won't buy any for a few weeks or months after, trying to keep a good balance.

But you will have to find out what helps on your own - weed can be a pretty weird drug. It's a strange casual drug, in the way that it does make you think. And if you've been exposed to psychedelics before this kind of thinking is only exacerbated.

Good luck man - just know that it'll pass, but I think it's mostly just realising that you are overthinking things.
 
You can grind up and smell (not sniff!) black pepper, or you can put a dab of acorus calamus resin on top of the weed and smoke it with that. Both help to mitigate anxiety caused by weed.

I've posted this before, don't feel like digging up references, but you can google them for yourself ;)
 
Personally, I found the worst stretch of weed anxiety was when I was stressed out and feeling trapped. I'm sure you can relate. The less stressed and trapped I became, the less anxiety became a cure when using cannabis. The opiates are not going to help your anxiety or sense of disappointment with your life, either, especially in the long run. I would work on removing stressful triggers from your environment, clearing up any blocks in your new family relationship, and cutting back on the painkillers.

Black pepper does help, too! But it won't fix the sources of your anxiety, which is surely ruining cannabis and pushing you down the opiod cliff simultaneously. The intrusive thoughts may be rooted a little deeper than your surroundings, but the velocity at which you experience them is going to be the first thing you can regain control of. Don't worry about any of those self-conscious things you mentioned. They are not important. You are. Practice loving kindness meditation and reframe your limiting beliefs with positive ones. I know it sounds easier than it is.
 
Oh my God, you guys have helped so much just by simply posting the things that you have...I knew that black pepper was a way to help quell anxiety I just have never tried it. I'm stubborn with weird things like that haha! In any case, thank you all for the helpful advice! It's time to start figuring out exactly what it is in my mind that is barring me from enjoying this experience and removing it, little by little. I'm just going to start very slow. Take a hit at a time, see how I feel, use the pepper if I freak out, regain my focus and move on. This shit's never killed anyone before and I don't need to be worrying about that for sure. Thank you guys so much for your advice once again! I'm going to try to begin to enjoy Cannabis once more and kick this opiate shit for good! I fucking hate it...my last bout 3 days ago had me so itchy I left massive scratches on my side that my wife immediately noticed. Time to quit this shit.
 
Well.... seems like your topic's pretty much covered.

As an anxiolytic veteran, though, I've learned that for me, personally, when my mind gets anxious and I feel on the verge of an anxiety attack, I find it best to exhaust my body. Cardio, strength or endurance training.



My neighbors called the cops on me a few times when I went for 3am-4am runs around the neighborhood because I woke up with my mind on overdrive. I always keep my ID on me so that's never been a problem (and I understand what they're thinking when they see a dude in all black jogging around the suburbs at like 3am), but you just do what you gotta do to keep your head on straight.

For me, if I can't use pills (benzodiazepines) I'm going for physical fatigue.
 
Damn straight Jibult! Exercise is a major help for anxiety. Even just taking a brisk walk around the block.

I also find watchin movies/playing video games helps to take your mind off the anxiety. Just get focused on something else.
 
Yeah, man, I'm pretty much the same way. Add marijuana to the mix and as long as I can find something to focus on, the random, anxious thoughts stay completely locked away.

I feel you with the movies, but I'm more of a binge-watch-a-7-season-series type of dude (Daredevil, at the moment.) Video games? RPGs can keep my idle time anxiety free almost always. I'm startin' to fuck with strategy and FPS/RPGs, but I can't get into that Call of Duty/Battlefield-type shit.



With anxiety, though, weed has always calmed mine down. I've never been triggered by pot, ya know? So I feel like I can't really relate specifically too much with Drifting Shade's problem, but I feel like I know my shit when it comes to anxiety in general. Figured the exercise tip might help in one way or another, whether it's pre-smoke or post-.
 
I'm extremely prone to weed anxiety.

What helps me most is figuring out how to incorporate weed into my life in a healthy way. For example, if I get high while I have important work to do, it stresses me out, because I feel like I'm neglecting my responsibilities by clouding my mind and slowing my productivity.

The most relaxing and enjoyable times of day for me to smoke are first thing in the morning when I wake up, and right before bedtime. I'm not typically concentrating on anything too important at those times anyway, so it doesn't feel like an intrusion on my life to get a little stoned.


P.S. Try strains with a low ratio of THC to CBD. The more CBD in proportion to THC, the more clearheaded and relaxed the high will be.
 
^^Seems like weed causes you to focus in on your anxious thoughts when you get high. I might be misunderstanding, but that really sucks.

I haven't run into a strain yet that invoked this kind of response in me. Weed helps me push away the stress, the anxiety, but I definitely need to have something else to replace it with. With work, it's manual labor. At home in my free time: books, video games and Netflix/TV. I would add friends to that list but we mainly just smoke together, and there are a few people who are just as likely to pique my anxiety than they are to let me keep it at bay so socialization is kind of a double-edged sword for me with regard to anxiety. I'm pretty introverted and tend not to like most people, but when I'm cool with someone it's like a brother from another, you know?
 
You might have OCD which is strengthened when you smoke weed.

The only way to beat it is through cognitive behavioral therapy and Exposure Prevention Therapy. Message me if you want some information about this topic.
 
Excellent advice, everyone. Once again, all of these things are helping me a lot so far. I haven't had the balls to try anything just yet, but I've been attempting to prepare myself for when I do. It should definitely be and interesting experience. Thanks a lot you guys!
 
I used to write down the exact time when I smoked, and would picture a line, a graph if you will. The highest point is somewhere around 20-30 minutes in, when you'd be highest. So if I was having a rough time of it, I'd just picture that somewhere around there is the peak and remind myself that I'm coming down as soon as I'm past that.

I don't really need to do that anymore, but it used to help, I reckon.
 
in 1967 I completely freaked out after smoking and afterwards smoking weed stopped being an enjoyable experience. I would get nervous paranoid freaky etc.
So much so that I completely stopped weed for almost 40 years.
I then discovered mdma, and later on experimented with weed on the comedown.
The first few times there was a paranoid period and I would get weird hallucinations but because I was feeling the mdma, the paranoia couldn't take hold.
I could then relax and enjoy the weed high.
Now the weed high is pure pleasure, but I've yet to try weed without mdma.
 
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