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medicinal cannabis for anarexia?

nancy145

Bluelighter
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Dec 25, 2014
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i don't have anarexia or any kind of weight problem, but I've never heard of anyone using cannabis to treat it. why? it's like the perfect cure, you can eat so much high. Why don't people use cannabis for this?
 
err.. well you gotta consider that not everyone accepts that marijuana is a medicine. some still view it as the street drug that it is.

but i'm sure there are people with various eating disorders including anorexia that use it to help them with their appetite.

just because you haven't heard of people using it for this reason doesn't mean they don't ;)
 
i still figured it would be common enough that i would've heard about it tho.
 
It is used to help chemo patients with the anorexia caused by medicines in places where they are allowed to. The thing is anorexia can be caused by a variety of reasons. My g/f developed it due to heroin abuse she wouldnt be hungry while withdrawaling and if we were busy or didnt eat after we shot up she would go for a long time without eating and she would get sick from not eating or couldnt eat because of it. This becomes a pattern and you associate hunger with sickness and then you can not eat because rather then being hungry you feel sick. Anyone can develop it and it doesnt need to be about body image.

So yes it is actually used a lot to counter this effect and i mean a lot because as you said its good at that. People who know that association and develop poor eating behaviors will use it for its appetite effects without order if they enjoy marijuana at least. So you probably cant find out how many do. Thats basically what she did because weed made her stomach feel "open" rather then very painful and eventually the anorexia will go away once you associate hunger with eating. She no longer doesnt eat and wakes up hungry rather then feeling sick from starvation.

Also she hated it when i said she had anorexia i had to use other words because of the strong attachment with females in high school or body image issues. If you are referring to them it may not be given to them due to their underlying self esteem or emotional issues.
 
I know a person who is extremely thin due to genetics and a very fast metabolism, and he was given a med card in his state for being "anorexic" even though he's not.
 
People absolutely do use it for anorexia. Whether chemo or disease induced, it is absolutely useful and used for that in states that allow it. Marinol was approved for this purpose.

Maybe used less often by people that just have straight anorexia, as that's more of a nervous disorder, but VERY often by people who have trouble eating due to Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, and IBS, among other things (I count much of my own medical cannabis use in this category).
 
Anorexia is psychological, and a product of body dysmorphia. People who lose weight from chronic illness, without the dysmorphic component, are suffering from cachexia. Two totally different things.

Cannabis shows no sure-fire impact on anorexia. Anorexic people may have a physical impulse to eat but their psychological state prevents them from seeking satiation. They have a fear of gaining weight and no matter how thin they get they still believe they have a weight problem. They may binge eat and then purge, or not eat at all. I think like any mental disorder, pot may alleviate or exacerbate. Depends on the person and how they utilize the high.

People with cachexia may have an appetite but be incapable of absorbing food, or have other impairments. Or they may have no appetite, due to treatments, or other reasons. Either way they don't have a dysmorphic disorder -- most people with cachexia find the loss of appetite and body weight to be alarming. (I went through it in May of this year. I was eating approx. 2000 calories per day but lost all my body weight to death camp proportions.)
 
I was anorexic and bulimic for about 10yrs (on and off in the end). Even though I consider myself recovered or recovering I still find myself thinking like i used to from time to time. I DO consider weed to help me out in that it distracts me from thoughts like 'distinguishing safe food from ...nonsafe food' or 'i cant eat this or ill get fat'. Im 5'8" and 110lbs- not close to even slightly pudgy.

Helps to distract me from such thoughts and stimulates appetite in general. Also I tend to eat higher calorie foods which the anorexic in me hates but my mind knows its good...
 
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