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Cannabis abstinence and psychotic symptoms

Changa707

Changa707

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 25, 2014
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162
Hello everyone, I have been smoking herb for about 5 years almost daily...with a few month long breaks in between. I found that during my most recent abstinence form weed I suffered a lot of psychotic symptoms, leading me to eventually start using daily again (I only managed to quit for a month, and suffered for nightmares paranoia and delusional thinking during that month long period).

Usually when I smoke weed daily I don't experience major paranoia or anxiety, although certain strains have these effects anyways...but I find that paranoia and anxiety gets much worse when I abstain from smoking (in the past this has caused me to become very depressed also, and having suicidal thoughts because of perceived helplessness and paranoid thoughts).

I really want to quit deep inside because I know that daily cannabis use has been limiting me and holding me back from accomplishing things in life. I know many people think weed addiction is a joke...or even non-existant...but I have found that the psychological and physical symptoms of cannabis w/d is not a joke, it can be just as antagonizing as going through any other w/d.

Has anyone had a similar experience? I am under the impression either I am using Cannabis to treat an underlying psychological illness that I am not aware of (doesn't really make sense though).
Or....maybe there are some rebound symptoms from quitting cannabis (all the negative side effects are highlighted when you quit?)
 
I get what I would call intense weed wd, the docs have even prescribed me serax once and ativan another time.This time I meant to quit long enough to buy a 1/4lb and used etizolam the same way i would use the ativan.I was getting cold sweaty feet and hands, paranoia, insomnia, irritable as fuck, loss of appetite and no interest in anything.I came to the realization it was doing me more harm than good this time and also that after 2 years on effexor and raising doses its not doing its job.I went to the doc and am on a week taper taking half the amount of effexor a day and 1mg kpin, I can't remember if it was zoloft or lexapro they're putting me on now because I was so nervous the day I went in I was biting on my tongue to keep from clenching my teeth.

I needed the weed mostly for sleep with the effexor but I was getting high all day everyday and it was calming yet made me paranoid and withdrawn at the same time.I love weed as much as any junkie loves their drug but it was keeping me from getting any wheres in life.To quote someone from reddit "It doesn't make you make bad choices, it's that you don't make any choices." and that was very true in my case.
 
I'm sorry to hear that you get such intense W/D symptoms also...I hear you man, it's crazy shit. I have never resorted to getting treatment from a doctor, but have much experience with various pharmaceuticals...including serax, but i'm not sure I wan't to become addicted to benzodiazepines because the withdrawal from them can be deadly on top of long precipitated psychological W/D symptoms.

That last quote is interesting to me...because my girlfriend has noticed in me that when I smoke weed I become much more complicit and agreeable...and don't really have much of an opinion (it really feels like I am weak and vulnerable). In many ways weed is like a first-generation antipsychotic combined with a benzo. That would explain the rebound psychotic symptoms (taking an anti-psychotic if you are not psychotic seems to cause psychotic symptoms in people after long term use).
Also...that quote just reminds me of the way people describe antipsychotics...you feel zombified and unable to make choices, you feel helpless and vulnerable but don't care. There is a force pushing down on your frontal lobe, it keeps your emotions and actions blunted.
 
Just do a taper? I used to get mood swings, sweats, insomnia, nausea, lack of appetite, if I quit suddenly from a big habit. If I taper off over a few days or stick to under 1g (good weed) a day then it's nothing. I've smoked daily (just vaping now for the last few months, feels better) with a few gaps for 20 years now. Benzo withdrawals are very real & not so easy to come off, switching to benzos sounds like a very bad idea.

What exactly do you think weed has been holding you back from?
 
Last edited:
DrGreenthumb said:
Just do a taper? I used to get mood swings, sweats, insomnia, nausea, lack of appetite, if I quit suddenly from a big habit. If I taper off over a few days or stick to under 1g (good weed) a day then it's nothing. I've smoked daily (just vaping now for the last few months, feels better) with a few gaps for 20 years now. Benzo withdrawals are very real & not so easy to come off, switching to benzos sounds like a very bad idea.

What exactly do you think weed has been holding you back from?
Click to expand...

Well I guess tapering isn't a bad idea, but I forgot to mention that I consume my cannabis via bong rips mixed with tobacco....so maybe that combination is what is so addictive, with the addition of tobacco. You see, I don't very much enjoy weed by itself...or tobacco by itself....it's the combination of the two that I really find addictive, especially when in a bong.
As far as how has this addiction been holding me back? Well, I feel like when I quit weed I am much more clear headed and able to perform better in school and I read a lot more. I think it really depends what you are doing in life...as a student it seems to hold me back, but if I was working a 9-5 it wouldn't really make much a difference if I smoked or not I suppose.
 
Supeudol_Sundays said:
I'm sorry to hear that you get such intense W/D symptoms also...I hear you man, it's crazy shit. I have never resorted to getting treatment from a doctor, but have much experience with various pharmaceuticals...including serax, but i'm not sure I wan't to become addicted to benzodiazepines because the withdrawal from them can be deadly on top of long precipitated psychological W/D symptoms.

That last quote is interesting to me...because my girlfriend has noticed in me that when I smoke weed I become much more complicit and agreeable...and don't really have much of an opinion (it really feels like I am weak and vulnerable). In many ways weed is like a first-generation antipsychotic combined with a benzo. That would explain the rebound psychotic symptoms (taking an anti-psychotic if you are not psychotic seems to cause psychotic symptoms in people after long term use).
Also...that quote just reminds me of the way people describe antipsychotics...you feel zombified and unable to make choices, you feel helpless and vulnerable but don't care. There is a force pushing down on your frontal lobe, it keeps your emotions and actions blunted.
Click to expand...

I have no problems using benzos/benzo-like drugs like etizolam my self control is very good with those.With weed I could not taper, I would get anxious when I ran low and would have to smoke as much as possible.And yeah I didn't make many decisions but I didn't feel powerless I just went with the flow and didn't give a fuck.It makes me procrastinate so much its bad.I was smoking around an ounce and a half every 2 weeks even bought an mflb to vape and conserve weed which worked for like 2 weeks, then i would immediately smoke the vaped weed to get the effects of CBD.

Supeudol_Sundays said:
Well I guess tapering isn't a bad idea, but I forgot to mention that I consume my cannabis via bong rips mixed with tobacco....so maybe that combination is what is so addictive, with the addition of tobacco. You see, I don't very much enjoy weed by itself...or tobacco by itself....it's the combination of the two that I really find addictive, especially when in a bong.
As far as how has this addiction been holding me back? Well, I feel like when I quit weed I am much more clear headed and able to perform better in school and I read a lot more. I think it really depends what you are doing in life...as a student it seems to hold me back, but if I was working a 9-5 it wouldn't really make much a difference if I smoked or not I suppose.
Click to expand...

I had a shitty night job cleaning a fish processing plant and I needed to be dumbed down for it, my supervisor was a complete moron and I probably would have hospitalized him if I wasnt stoned all the time.
 
If you can get your hands on some indica tincture, it's more mellow than smoked cannabis, and you can easily taper down. There's very little paranoia and its great if you're having trouble sleeping or trouble with anxiety. Still will dull your intelligence with bigger doses, but not as badly as with smoking.

Also, if you're using other drugs like opiates or benzos even on a semi-regular basis then that could also be causing rebound anxiety and depression. Whatever you do don't start using benzos regularly, its a far more difficult habit to break than weed is, and you can get sucked into regular use easily if you're not careful.
 
Supeudol Sundays, know that you are not alone in feeling like this what so ever. I've been smoking weed for a little over 7 years now, and since I started there has hardly been a day that I've gone with out smoking weed. This isn't because of no will or inner desire to quit smoking- believe me I have spent a lot of time wishing that I hadn't picked up the habit, or at least not as heavy as I picked it up. I've got quite a few friends that talk about quitting all the time but never really do, or if they do it's for a matter of months before they are back in their old ways. I've got one friend who prefaces every weekend smoke session with a few lines about how he is going to quit.. lol.. tell me that isn't clear signs of addiction/addictive behavior and that you don't have stoner friends that are similar.... if you did I'd think you're a liar. I've met too many stoners who talk vaguely about quitting to think otherwise... and well there also is the evidence that smoking weed stimulates reward centers of the brain.

Like an alcoholic, when you smoke weed habitually your brain and body adjust in attempts to normalize itself. A constant influx of certain chemicals will cause the brain/body to compensate by producing less of certain natural chemicals and perhaps more of others. This is what I think causes tolerance. Your body becomes more efficient at processing the intoxicants as well as compensating to handle the "high". There is evidence that smoking weed causes changes in the brain, such as reduced gray matter in some areas and disruption of the part of the brain the memories are formed. Also it effects the part of the brain that is involved in emotional control. I'm not going to argue this, you can research it for yourself. I'm also not a psychologist so I may have misinterpreted some of those facts, but the studies are available online and pretty easy to find if you want to look into it for yourself. This is just my basic stoner understanding of it.

For me, I think a big struggle comes from the fact that I've used cannabis to control my emotions for the past 7 years almost entirely. I've managed to smoke up every time i'm angry, sad, lonely, etc.- or I'd hold onto those feelings until I could smoke. Then when I'd smoke I would deal with them mentally as if I needed weed to process what happened. if I couldn't smoke I'd likely react somewhat irrationally but feel justified until I smoked, which at that point I'd realize my error. I've recently unsuccessfully tried to quit a handful of times, each time I would have angry outburst and not be able to control my emotions very well. Lately I've just been trying to accept my emotions as just that, my own and make sure that I am not projecting them onto other people/blaming others for my emotions. Trying to be mentally aware of my emotions is somewhat of a new thing for me. For the past 7 years I've been aware, but only so much as "oh I'm mad, I should smoke a joint" and so on. Now I try to foresee the emotional circumstances I put myself in before hand and prepare myself... if that makes sense. I read on these forms "a bear that can see the trap can not be caught". that has helped a lot for me.

Also, sorry for the length, but I think Dr. Gabor Mate is an absolute genius and extremely insightful. He was a hollocaust baby, so he has dealt with emotional turmoil from before birth basically. Look for his video on youtube "who are we when were not addicted? the possible human". His work has helped me a lot over the last few years. Also, eating healthy and clean, exercising/working out, a strict schedule and goals, and friends that don't smoke weed will help a lot.
 
A lot of people with underlying psychotic illnesses self medicate with cannabis and they don't even know it.

In honesty though man, I know your pain. I had been smoking since I was 16 all the way upto 22 and I was always under this false assumption that weed made my life better somehow. Like the cannabis was making me a saner person to a World which was so fucked up. Needless to say, towards the tail end of me quitting, it came quite apparent that cannabis was doing nothing more except numbing whatever psychological problems I had. The problems I wasn't addressing because I was just getting stoned 24/7 and doing mindless shit to pass the time(mindless shit when you're high is always enjoyable, it is just literally you're life going down the shitter).

So I quit and got many of the WD symptoms. Cold sweats at night, mega iritability, insomnia, loss of interest in everything. The first few months I got anxiety/panic attacks, which turned into derealisation. I'm around half a year free from weed and even though some days go by where I have the urge to smoke, it passes pretty quickly. I now have interests in things I previously didn't. Have more ambition to travel, to have a life which doesn't involve just smoking pot. Most of the negative effects have near enough passed and I feel a hell of a lot better in myself.

Sucks because I had to distance myself from a lot of friends who are still full time tokers. Though in a way, they remind me of what I was and what I really don't want to go back to. We have different lifestyles now and I think I prefer mine more than smoking 24/7 playing xbox.
 
I'm so sorry to hear that you're experiencing negative effects from smoking. I also have experienced negative effects even after being a regular cannabis user for over 12 years. because you've been using for a long time, taper off. Start smoking only at night. every one compares weed to alcohol, right? You wouldn't drink alcohol during the day. Smoke up only at night and see how you react to that reduction. hope you are doing well!

Sincerely,
Terri
 
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