quit smoking weed and anxiety and depression gone wtf?

[Dtresearch17]

I was ordered to quit smoking weed by some dumb court stuff and I am shocked by what happened sorta. I have been sub dependent for 2-3yrs I thought the akathisia I was having was related to that, along with anxiety,depression and lack of sleep. For about 6months I have had burning in my legs and other muscles and a jumpy awful feeling. I'm pretty sure this is akathisa. What I don't understand is why when I quit smoking weed I felt all the symptoms stop. Im not the type to believe in extreme weed withdrawal/side effects but you have to wonder. I literally could not do anything before this went away constantly twitching and anxious and it just ceased as soon as I stopped smoking(after 10hrs of day one without). I really like smoking but not enough to feel that awful feeling. I referred to my akathisa as the god of all side effects because it was life ruining. I guess I'm just looking for answers to why this is possible or someone who can relate I guess.

 

[ChapelPerilous]

I'm not sure about the akathisia but wikipedia says this: ''Akathisia is frequently associated with the use of dopamine receptor antagonist antipsychotic drugs.'' I wouldn't call weed an antipsychotic drug but it certainly is a dopamine receptor antagonist, so my guess is the answer can be found here.

This would also be the cause of your depression while smoking. Flooding your brain with dopamine leads to a reduction in the amount of dopamine that is normally released in your brain sober, which can be compensated by smoking more and more weed but then of course convinces your brain to release less and less dopamine naturally. And dopamine deficiency is strongly linked to depression - without it, life cannot be pleasurable nor interesting. It obviously follows that once you stop smoking weed your brain recalibrates the amount of dopamine it thinks it should be releasing, and you're eventually back to 'normal'.

Of course, this isn't all that depression amounts to, it's a far more complex bitch unfortunately. But I think this would help explain what's going on with you.

 

[cashfl0w_d0nkey]

Yeah, I think these are pretty common effects of weed TBH. Once people start using on a regular basis, many start to get more of the negative side effects. I recently went on a few month hiatus to reset my tolerance and have been back to using for about three months now, and already I'm getting some of those negative effects returning. Changing strains frequently, not smoking every day, and smoking smaller amounts all help me to keep the negative effects in check.