Weed and "anxiety"

[mabzie55]

I always hear about people saying weed help with their "anxiety" and I just don't get it.
I've smoked thousands and thousands of times and it has never helped with anxiety.

It has, very often given me anxiety and panic, though.
Smoked every strain imaginable, sativa never gives me anxiety-- the rest do, none take it away.

I've talked to a few other people with anxiety and they all seem to agree.

Seems like weed makes you more aware, and therefore, can make anxious.
So I'm trying to understand this.

Is it just that people confuse stress and anxiety?

Thoughts?

 

[norm4n]

Different people acting different to the same drug. What makes you and me anxious, helps others obviously with their anxiety. Like some people can't stand still on MDMA while others love to chill out and talk.

 

[421]

I feel like it helps for the first 30 minutes or so after smoking. You forget whatever is worrying you or it doesn't bother you anymore. But after that the effects change and your anxiety comes back with a vengeance. So you smoke some more. And some more. And some more. Until you wake up the next morning with some weed ready for rolling on your desk and you're like, meh, I feel kinda crap I might as well smoke that away... and the cycle continues.

 

[VitamaN]

discomfort and full on panic are definitely different during a high, but one can turn into the other in a second.
If my chest gets tight..it's game over. I have to be careful what strain I smoke cuz I feel like butt shit if I hit the wrong one...
and just "wonderful" when I smoke the right kind.

 

[rave_itsrealfun!!!]

I miss smoking weed but it fucked my brain with anxiety after a while.

I used to be a total pothead and loved it but I had to quit because I started getting panic attacks from the tiniest puff.

I still suffer from extreme anxiety and chronic panic attacks 14 months later.

I wonder if I will ever get better. If I do, I will be very surprised. I seem to have permanently fucked myself up from abusing this drug.

That being said, I was doing a lot worse 14 months ago and I am indeed slowly recovering since I quit.

I don't mean to hate on weed, and I'm not. At first I held a big grudge against it, because of the extreme suffering that my addiction to it caused me. if I anything I really miss being a pothead. It's crazy how something actually got me to quit. I thought I would smoke for the rest of my life. It sucks how it ended this way, since I haven't even made a recovery. Nor can I go back to smoking weed. I'm a weed-tard now... like how some people are E-tards.

14 months ago I was your typical pothead, happy as a clam. I could smoke any amount of weed and hash oil and be chill. Had a happy productive life etc apart from my back problems. Now it is just completely out of the question to smoke any amount at all.

Sometimes I think about trying a little indica hash, but it's just not worth the risk... last time I smoked I had to go to the hospital with a skyrocketing heart rate and get sedated. And it was off a few crumbs of high grade, nothing close to a decent sized bong rip.

Maybe I will be able to smoke again in like, 10 years. Oh well, I'm pretty much over it at this point. I just do different drugs now that don't make me psychotic.

I did benefit from this experience in many ways. For one, it was ego crushing. I also am much more in touch with my body and the way it feels now, and I don't listen to what other people say unless it is backed by real logic (which to me is restricted to theoretical physics or mathematics). It taught me not to trust anyone but myself.

 

[Smoky]

Me too!
I remember a horrible incident in amsterdam at a youth hostel years ago… had smoked too many different types at one time. I couldn't get up from my bed, I was hallucinating… and in panic.. and thought I was going to die.
In general it always made me anxious, except for a few times it made me eat all the sweet cakes in someone's kitchen. Hash was a little different, I just laughed and laughed and laughed at things, but with weed for me it depended on my environment mostly I guess, or my mood or state prior.
If alone in my room I was usually ok or coming off stimulants in bed, it helped, but not socially, not at all… 8(

 

[Mafioso]

mabzie, I think I have had similar experiences with weed. More so when I first started smoking. My relationship with weed has definitely changed over the years and still seems to do so. I think the setting has a lot to do with it, for example, if in an already stressful environment it will only amplify anxiety. If in a mellow setting, say with friends in someones house with good music playing, it is easy for me to relax and fall into the moment. Or weekends when I have nothing to do in the morning- always a really relaxing high.

there was a period of time in my life when I was smoking all day everyday and if I wasn't stoned I would feel anxious and constantly thinking about ways to get weed. I told myself that anxiety was my normal state and that weed was the only way I could relax. In a way it is true, I grew up with anxiety and depression so in many ways weed helps me forget my troubles for better or worse.

I had a psychology teacher in high school that said chronic use is proven to reduce the levels of a certain chemical(cant remember the name) that allows/helps you deal with stress.

but personal experience, non stressful environment(not usually social unless others are smoiking as well) it is relaxing in moderation. Too much with out a strong tolerance can make my head race if i'm already stressed.

 

[mabzie55]

mabzie, I think I have had similar experiences with weed. More so when I first started smoking. My relationship with weed has definitely changed over the years and still seems to do so. I think the setting has a lot to do with it, for example, if in an already stressful environment it will only amplify anxiety. If in a mellow setting, say with friends in someones house with good music playing, it is easy for me to relax and fall into the moment. Or weekends when I have nothing to do in the morning- always a really relaxing high.

there was a period of time in my life when I was smoking all day everyday and if I wasn't stoned I would feel anxious and constantly thinking about ways to get weed. I told myself that anxiety was my normal state and that weed was the only way I could relax. In a way it is true, I grew up with anxiety and depression so in many ways weed helps me forget my troubles for better or worse.

I had a psychology teacher in high school that said chronic use is proven to reduce the levels of a certain chemical(cant remember the name) that allows/helps you deal with stress.

but personal experience, non stressful environment(not usually social unless others are smoiking as well) it is relaxing in moderation. Too much with out a strong tolerance can make my head race if i'm already stressed.

Idk, I got little anxiety when I first started, but after 8 years or so it was like... Panic attack almost every time.

So the opposite of the study.

Sativa was the only pot that wouldn't give me panic, only made me feel uneasy-- as if on the verge of anxiety unless I was already having anxiety it would make it worse.

Odd because I most often see hybrids or indica recommended for anxiety.

 

[Chimeric]

It still intrigues—almost baffles—me how weed affects people so variably. One guy* will say the anxiety comes after a 30 minute pleasurable buzz, whereas another guy* will say the first 30 minutes are hell but that he enjoys the comedown! I, too, am from the crowd who loved smoking pot for a few years but afterwards started experiencing anxiety immediately after smoking. I realized I'd become dependent on it for pleasure, entertainment, and that the feeling of being dependent on it was what made me anxious. I started exercising my sober control and willpower again, and that's made me feel more content and responsible.

*or gal

 

[boo-radley]

I always hear about people saying weed help with their "anxiety" and I just don't get it.
I've smoked thousands and thousands of times and it has never helped with anxiety.

It has, very often given me anxiety and panic, though.
Smoked every strain imaginable, sativa never gives me anxiety-- the rest do, none take it away.

I've talked to a few other people with anxiety and they all seem to agree.

Seems like weed makes you more aware, and therefore, can make anxious.
So I'm trying to understand this.

Is it just that people confuse stress and anxiety?

Thoughts?

i've suffered from anxiety and panic attacks for most of my life and even before i smoked weed. when i first started smoking i didnt get anxiety or panic attacks but it started up again after a few years of smoking. anytime i smoked it made it worse. i quit and still had the same problems but not as bas as when i was high. it was the same as when i was a little kid before i did illegal drugs. the doctor put me on pills and i have been much better ever since except for the times i tried going off. i started smoking again soon after to see what would happen. the smoking no longer made me anxious or have panic attacks. i still get it once in a while but it happens when im sober about just as much when im high. the thing i like about weed is i dont worry or stress about little things as much. the euphoria it gives me is great. i sleep much better at night most of the time too. it also helps me eat more and maintain my weight. i get minor withdrawals when i quit though. insomnia and loss of appetite.

i think it does effect everyone different. some people tell me it helps with their pain. it never does shit for my pain, OTC pills even work a lot better for me. i dont see how it works better for people compared to narcotics. i had a minor surgery and the weed did nothing for pain. the narcotics made it go away completely. the weed did make me feel good though.

 

[Modelogy]

It can work both ways. It gave me social anxiety during often usage, but I came to work few times being stoned and first very paranoid about anyone noticing or encountering my boss who'd see that dumb sight and suspect something. But after some interaction the "anxiety bubble" burst and all turned out to be just fine. Yes, at first it like grows, the tension, paranoia and then if you let it progress and don't struggle too much, the fear bursts very surprisingly as if the coin turned on the other side.
If you tend to be on the "security" side after smoking, it will long term increase your anxiety. But if you don't take life too serious, the weed will support this attitude too.

 

[Broly]

For me it helped mine in the beginning , eventually after psychedelics it worsened it and I had to quit for now. But scientifically I read something like there is no situation that can cause anxiety , anxiety is brought on by yourself and how you react to that situation. With that philosophy and meditation Ive been really beating my anxiety.