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Why does weed make me so paranoid now?

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jmartin94

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Mar 19, 2015
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I've had anxiety problems for the last 3 years but the first few times I smoked weed it completely got rid of my anxiety and made me feel relaxed and social. After trying it many more times I became a daily smoker and smoked it everyday for 2 years. Weed was my best way to beat anxiety and depression but then something strange happened, one day I was smoking with close friends and started noticing that my head and legs were shaking but no one said anything so I just assumed that it wasn't noticeable.

Every now and then when I smoked the exact same thing would happen but I enjoyed the high so much and no one ever said anything so I just ignored it. I read online that shaking and twitching when stoned are normal when smoking certain types of strains so I never thought it was a bad thing. This started happening more frequently and after another few months of daily smoking whenever I would have even the smallest bit of weed I would start to feel really uncomfortable and antisocial for no reason.

I started smoking weed less and now everytime I smoke I feel really anxious and sick. I used to be able to handle weed really well and I could smoke a lot and feel completely fine. But now even after 2 or 3 hits I feel really uncomfortable, tense and paranoid, sometimes I feel like vomiting after a couple of hits. My mind starts thinking about really negative and uncomfortable thoughts, I can't seem to focus and my friends say I act a lot quieter and different when I smoke weed now. The weird thing is, I feel terrible when I smoke with others but when i'm alone I feel good. It's really annoying because a lot of my good friends are heavy smokers and i'm sick of turning them down whenever they want to smoke just because of what i'm experiencing.

So what i'm wondering is why is this happening? Why did the effects of weed change from being relaxed and social to feeling really paranoid and antisocial?
 
Yeah, sometimes you gotta lay off for a bit, then slowly go back to weed via cbd heavy strains for a couple weeks, then start back with full thc strains.
 
Same here man when I first started smoking at 14 it was the best drug ever. It relaxed me, made me creative, was very euphoric, gave me insight and solved some of my real life problems. A year later I became addicted to pot for 1 1/2 years and it ended in me being a paranoid, stupid, boring, lazy, anxious, social awkward mess. Now when I smoke without any opiates, benzos or alcohol I get real bad panic attacks and feel like the whole world hates me. I've taken long breaks and everything but I still cant smoke without any downers. I think weed like MDMA and practically every drug loses its magic and the high changes. Another substance that lost the magic for me was valium it used to feel like booze but cleaner and more chill but now it just makes me suicidal, other benzos don't do this tho. So take a break from weed and if that doesn't help then maybe quit because using other drugs while smoking weed can cause you to get dependent on the other drugs as well so be careful. I like smoking maybe 2-3 times a year and only alone and only with downers.
 
Cannabis is only a factor in your experience. Set and setting are the most important factors, aside from substance.

Set: Who are you? What is your motive, intent, purpose in consuming a substance called "weed"? Why now? Why then? What is your state of mind with regard to your circumstances? What is your active attitude, mood, cognitive paradigm, etc?

Setting: Where are you at in life? What is your situation with the world, with others, with your significant others? What does the environment actively array at you that you are aware of? How does your set interact with this setting? What may be the interactions which are below the threshold of your consciousness that may become dynamically altered by your decision to consume a psychoactive substance?

Substance: What actually are you consuming? What type of substance? If Cannabis, what species and what strain? How much? In what manner? How frequently have you been doing so?

Answering those questions is only something you can do. I am confident that if you apply your mind to answering them properly then you will be able to answer for yourself why you are paranoid. It may be any of those three, or all of those three. It may be some aspect of any of them that you are not aware of or ever will be aware of no matter how much you investigate. What if, for example, you are really the target of a gangstalking campaign, or being harassed with electromagnetic weapons which are discharged from a regularly visiting black helicopter, all of which prepares you for nightly visitations by demons or shadow people? Then you have issues which are far worse than "weed". If those issues, or more mundane ones are significantly involved in your paranoia, and consuming Cannabis is not helping, then perhaps you should ask yourself why you are not directly dealing with those real issues and aggravating your experience of them by taking something that is supposed to "be fun" and doing it even though you find that it isn't fun in some ways.

Perhaps you are spiritually unfit for Cannabis, having not learned how to respect it and so you've attracted some much-deserved karma. But that's if you're asking me to guess, and that's all I can do since your situational descriptions are vague compared to the detail needed to give a fuller analysis. Or if you are not unfit for it (and I believe most are unfit for some aspects of entheogens), then maybe for some reason it is unfit for you (at this time, or for all time, who knows?). But as to the differentiation between feeling good with or without others, perhaps you should take up "Being and Nothingness", by Sarte, or else maybe follow your instincts which are telling you to maybe either give up the weed, or give up the weed when with friends, or give up the friends when with weed, or give up the friends period.

Or you can keep doing what you're doing and see what happens. :D
 
I've had the shaking thing happen, and I think it has something to do with the weed it's self, because one time I was with 2 friends and we were smoking some bud, I packed 2 bowls of decent shit with no problems, but as soon as he packed a bowl and I started hitting his, I was shaking uncomfortably and feeling unable to keep my muscles still. I also felt heavily cognitively impaired ,and was unable to play keyboard normally. I was also pretty nervous and paranoid during this period. It was almost like the bud had been sprayed with a synth noid. Do you think that could account for your experience? Also, do you normally smoke blunts?
 
I've smoked for 12 years almost everyday. On the occasion I will get a little paranoid, typically when taking dabs though or I f I'm ripping a bong. A bowl, joint, or blunt is my favorite method.

Try taking smaller hits, and just wait a minute or 2 in between rips to see if you need more or if you're gravy.
 
I see thread after thread about weed/anxiety the drug causes anxiety/paranoia and various mental shit if it does it to you no matter what type/strain you smoke you will at points get these negatives you have to ask yourself do you get more out of smoking or is it really worth it ffs........sorry to rant but I smoked from 14 to 22 with no problems since then its 50/50 whether or not I enjoy it or get negative affects I'm 36 now once the "magics" gone its gone there's more to life than sweet Mary Jane IMHO
 
Welcome to BL, it can be hard to nail down the cause of a change in the relationship between yourself and the effects of herb but I find it helps to take a few minutes and do some deep-breathing exercises. Supplementing with mineral salts and amino acids also has a major effect on mood and anxiety, if you have a shitty diet it can be a determining factor in certain deficiencies that exacerbate anxiety as it relates to nervous system functioning.
 
OP what you're experiencing is extremely common. cannabis has the potential to cause anxiety, and the effects often change with prolonged daily use (beneficial effects decrease and unpleasant side effects become more pronounced). you probably just need a nice long break.
 
consider smoking hops with your cannabis. i have heard from a friend that hops not only pairs deliciously with cannabis but also helps reduce negative aspects of paranoia and anxiety. plus you have extra medical benefits with smoking (or vaporizing) hops. such as hops being neuroprotective and anti-alchoholic :)

i think i'm going to make a seperate thread asking what certain herbs attribute to a cannabis high when mixed into the bud.
 
sometimes anxiety is caused by nutrient deficiency. there's a supplement called green calm that is designed to improve this, it's good for general anxiety and the anxiety/paranoia caused by cannabis. www.green-calm.com. i had anxiety issues with weed for years and this really helped a lot. it worked for my girlfriend, too. of course, make sure you're not just smoking way too much at once =D

a lot of people also benefit from yoga and meditation, and other things that focus and calm the mind.
 
I recently had this prob. It could be from a bad diet, not enough sleep, too much stress etc etc. i would get paranoid erytime i smoked because i had somthing to hide per say.. Like i couldnt figure out why then i remembered i had a bunch of my friends herb in my house he left here. So thats what caused my paranoia. And i really didnt even know it. Its like my bodys natural reaction was to be paranoid n i had to figure out what was causing it. Are you gettig paranoid cause maybe you got something to hide n it makes you tweek when the high hits? Lol just saying.. But try taking a little break, exercise and get good sleep. Also make sure ur 100% comfortable where ur smoking at. That plays a big role.
 
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Pretty much exactly the same thing happened to me a few years ago.. Took my a while to work out that it was the weed that was making me feel that way! People don't say it can cause/exacerbate anxiety/paranoia for nothing, It's true! I felt completely shit (anxious/depressed) for a good few years, which I don't say was caused by the weed, but it definately didn't help! For a while after I realised that smoking weed made me feel like shit, I would keep on smoking it anyway, thinking that this time would be different, but it never was, until I cut it completely out of my life.

This was a few years ago now and I have smoked it plenty of times since then, with varying degrees of success. In fact, nowadays I'm starting to get back into it again hehe :p, but I only smoke hash and I only ever smoke by myself or when I've had a few drinks etc. and am on a good vibe :). In other words, I have figured out my relationship with this drug and now know instinctively (and from lots of practice/reflection/trial and error) when I can smoke it and get those nice feelings that make weed so fun, and when its not a good idea for me to smoke it (and after lots of practice I now have no problem turning it down if this is the case). I also started doing lots of meditation, which helped me become more aware of my own mind and thoughts,, something which I would highly reccommend!

Hope this is helpful, it sounds like it could be a good idea for you to cut it out for a bit.. I'm no scientist but weed definately causes (or can cause) these kind of feelings, so if you feel like this, then not smoking weed is more than likely going to help!

All the best!
 
I've only had this issue sort of, when I had a low or no tolerance to herb at all, and I would smoke way too much with someone who had a tolerance, and I would be in public in a place where I had to act sober like the few times I went to university classes stoned when a friend and I had smoked 15-20 hits out of a bowl I had in his car before class. But I just went with the intense high, and relaxed even if I did trip on the THC and when we first got out of the car I was so stoned it was as though everything was tilted and I couldn't walk correctly.

I don't use cannabis or other drugs at all now but some of my friends who used a lot of other drugs like disassociative drugs alcohol, uppers/downers, psychedelics, etc. can handle those and enjoyed them; but don't like cannabis because it gives them paranoia and anxiety or panic attacks. Some of my friends find that Sativa strains make them paranoid or anxious so they avoid using those and only smoke an Indica dominant strain, or pure Indica type.

I've seen it happen to other people. It usually happens when they smoke way too much. Once I was at a party with friends in college and my friend's housemate, myself, and two other guests decided to smoke a joint of some Indica I had brought with me and afterwards I wanted to smoke more since I had a high tolerance and I was drinking beer so my friend's housemate at the time pulled out a bowl of trainwreck and after we smoked that he got very paranoid that his neighbors would call the cops or find out we'd been smoking and put the bowl and stash away completely. He did tell me how some women he knew had smoked a joint or two of trainwreck and thought they were going to die but they were just really too high. I just found it to be a very nice Sativa/Indica mix that went well with the Indica that we smoked, and the beer we were drinking.
 
It's one of two things,

-you are smoking in bad company

-there are things about your life/circumstance/environment that you can no longer hide.

I smoked everyday for years. Paranoia and anxiety cost me years and countless relationships.

The thing is weed makes you relaxed if you have a clear conscious. If your conscious is not clear, it draws your awareness to your consciousness.

Basically your mind is telling you "dude I love getting high but look at all this shit you have been ignoring!" Take care of your business. Smoke occasionally or ritualistically alone after your tasks are completed.

Those things that make you feel awkward are the things you must face in order to enjoy cannabis again. That's how you grow.

Weed can bring a meditative self reflective state. Which is great until you start to see your reflection and think "the fuck is this loser...and how much longer does he think he can bury his feelings in ganja?"
 
Boupstarnm said:
It's one of two things,

-you are smoking in bad company

-there are things about your life/circumstance/environment that you can no longer hide.

I smoked everyday for years. Paranoia and anxiety cost me years and countless relationships.

The thing is weed makes you relaxed if you have a clear conscious. If your conscious is not clear, it draws your awareness to your consciousness.

Basically your mind is telling you "dude I love getting high but look at all this shit you have been ignoring!" Take care of your business. Smoke occasionally or ritualistically alone after your tasks are completed.

Those things that make you feel awkward are the things you must face in order to enjoy cannabis again. That's how you grow.

Weed can bring a meditative self reflective state. Which is great until you start to see your reflection and think "the fuck is this loser...and how much longer does he think he can bury his feelings in ganja?"
Click to expand...


This is bullshit, don't listen to this apothecary bullshit advice.

Paranoia and Panic attacks is Neurology/chemistry at work. Low tolerance= paranoia and anxiety.

Smoke weed for a few weeks, indica dominant, in less than a month your tolerance will be so high, you can go grocery shopping stoned as fuck. CBD/Indica strains of course.


It has nothing to do with inner demons or a succesfull/clear conscious. That's pure bullshit
 
HEY OP! =D

Sorry to hear that it has become like that. If, you truly want to go back to enjoying your cannabis and/or getting back the therapeutic qualities that you need from the ultimate plant. Then, there is some general information that I can provide you with that may help you understand why you are having such debilitating anxiety, while providing a clear HR approach to choosing the correct strain and also how to cure and care for any cannabis that you get that is still very fresh (signs of high, apparently naturally containing moisture, spongy, chlorophyll filled) cannabis.

:?//: TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT STRAIN:


If you have access to medical, then you can just choose lab-tested medicine that shows both THC and CBD (at the very least). Choose a high CBD, low THC, but still very well grown and cared for (looks right and smells strong) and ORGANIC!

If you DO NOT have access to medical, (try to get it if you need it..!), then ask for non-sativa buds, or ask for indica buds. If this is unfamiliar to whomever you get high with or medicate with or get your medicine from (I don't know really why you're using, but I'm hoping and writing this in the fashion that it is my ONLY exerience and I recommend it to people who need cannabis for health/well being/etc..), then you will have to rely on examining the buds available.

You can find much info on the web about CBD and it's therapeutic and extremely high potential for medicinal breakthroughs (many including myself feel that this was proved way back in the late '70's by a Israeli scientist and even explained and elaborated by a current scientist in Spain.

Unfortunately, most strains are so inbred that it's hard to find anything pure so, you're gonna want to find a cross that has indica (and also ruderalis, if possible) therapeutic and/or mental and physical effects. You can sometimes identify these buds by looking and smelling and "investigating" the buds, in order to see if they are indica or sativa dominant. Here are some general tips: 1.) Buds smell skunky (not moldy or stagnant), 2.) Buds are more "squat" or rounded in shape, rather than lanky or Christmas tree shaped, 3.) Buds are cured right (if not then if they are still fresh you can achieve this by putting the buds in a brown paper bag and storing in in a dark cool place for ~5 months) - by converting (not downgrading, IMO) some of the THC to CBN (another useful cannabinoid that promotes sleep and has anxiolytic properties.

And, IMO if you've chosen a high CBD, moderately low THC, cured for (or capable for production of) high CBN bud. Then, IMO I believe that you will find that you are enjoying you're smoke like you used to. Since CBD is an antipsychotic, as well as also reducing pain...if you can build up the levels of it in your body, then you will find that the paranoia, psychosis, and/or schizophrenic debilitating states will drastically reduce and can actually disappear completely (speaking from personal observation and experience).

But, in absolutely no way am I making any actual medical claims, just my and my kin's opinions, as well as that of internationally respected, uber smart (most likely blacklisted), talented and sincere scientists who have the balls and know that our god-given rights to the plants that mother earth provides us with are put here for our use.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL, AND ENJOY YOUR MEDICINE THE WAY IT SOULD BE...with knowledge and respect.... peace out y'all ! %)
 
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People who use marijuana will experience a high. This includes feeling happy, calm and generally relaxed. Some people may experience bouts of paranoia, coupled with being more talkative and animated. As with most drugs, marijuana has a comedown. Coming down from marijuana can make a person feel paranoid, twitchy and depressed. Feeling tired and irritable are also common with the marijuana comedown. Brandsy a creative branding agency, expertise in marketing and sales domain for marijuana and cannabis
 
Ignot said:
It has nothing to do with inner demons or a succesfull/clear conscious. That's pure bullshit
Click to expand...

...Those two things can fuck a person's mental state up if left unchecked, though.

Can't say about in this particular case, and I can't say I would've worded it the same, but I essentially agree with Boupstarnm. Not that "it's one of those two things," but that the both of those two things he mentioned can affect a person similarly to what the OP has described. Anxiety tends to come from somewhere. It's pretty rare to have an anxiety disorder that's physiologically-based instead of "all in your head...." .....I THINK. Source links on this topic would be most welcome. :)




annnnnnd I'm off to Google some shit



[EDIT: mmmmm this was fun to read. Didn't quite answer my question but it's informative:

http://www.algy.com/anxiety/files/barlow.html
 
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Ignot said:
This is bullshit, don't listen to this apothecary bullshit advice.

Paranoia and Panic attacks is Neurology/chemistry at work. Low tolerance= paranoia and anxiety.

Smoke weed for a few weeks, indica dominant, in less than a month your tolerance will be so high, you can go grocery shopping stoned as fuck. CBD/Indica strains of course.


It has nothing to do with inner demons or a succesfull/clear conscious. That's pure bullshit
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You're response is bullshit. I think he hit the nail on the head with the clear concious thing. Weed can make you very introspective, and when you're trying to escape things that are constantly on your concious, especially things in your life you've been hiding from other people, it can really exacerbate the negatives on your concious, making you much more aware of them.

Of course weed effects the chemicals in your brain, but the way that chemical reaction is going to make you feel is going to depend entirely on mindset. Now that i've gotten away from my gripes and addictions with other serious drugs, and came clean to my family, I can again smoke cannabis and relax on it. I've also noticed I can't smoke weed if I have important things to do, it makes me overthink and put to much pressure on myself.

Tolerance does play a factor in the paranoia and anxiety one might experience, and I agree it CAN just be caused by smoking to much, but usually there is a much deeper root problem to your paranoia and anxiety, and you are likely just not willing to face the issues in your life that can become much more apparent when high and introspective from cannabis.

Also, yes, strain will play a factor. A nice, well grown indica, is much less likely to cause anxiety and paranoia, and provide a more stoning and peaceful high in my experience. Sativa's seem to cause a more introspective high, which is when your concious can no longer hide from itself, and that causes anxiety and paranoia, as you are brought to your problems head on in your own brain, whether or not you are ready to deal with them.
 
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