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Marijuana Induced Paranoia

I used to smoke pot heavily. I used to take Acid on a fairly basis. I had a bad trip one time, my last time trip'd too. After that, not imeadatily but with in a year or so pot would start to gine me anxiety attacks. I used too love to smoke too. Now, when I smoke a get anxiety, I feel like I am going real fast, Its so uncomfortable that I cannot wait until the high goes away. I can take 1 toke and feel this way. Once I had two tokes of a J, I started to feel real fast, I wanted it to stop so I had to take a shower and concitrate and assure myself that it would stop. Its sucks because I used to love it and I can get good shit. I wish I could fix it, I would say it gives me anxiety, parinoa, NO! I could really care less if someone thinks I am high.
 
I haven't seen this mentioned yet: the type of cannabis you are smoking is a BIG determinant in whether your high comes with or without anxiety.

Sativa is the weed that gets your mind high and gives you energy. Sativa is more psychedelic then Indica. Paranoia is much more common on Sativa.
I find it is difficult to sleep on good Sativa. Sativa doesn't make me tired after it wears off, I simply return to sobriety.

Indica weed gives a narcotic body high. If you get "stoned" after smoking, and feel no need to move, you smoked a mostly Indica strain. The smoke is usually thicker and expands more in your lungs... if you are coughing up a lung each hit, it's probably Indica. Indica is usually more potent by weight then Sativa. Indica effects the mind less then Sativa, and thus causes less paranoia or anxiety. Indica puts me to sleep very easily. If I smoke Indica during the day, I'll usually get burnt out afterwards and need a nap. Indica is considered more medicinal--- medical marijuana patients get Indica weed.

Basically, I think you should try to find a different strain of weed. If you can find a nice potent Indica, you will probably relax a whole lot more then on a Sativa, which is a step in the right direction... Also, try smoking alone. I usually get quiet and anxious if I smoke around other people. Smoking alone makes me less paranoid and enables me to enjoy my altered mindstate. Once you start liking getting high again, then you can make it a social activity.
 
Brilliant_Frenzy said:
Questions:

1. Is it possible to be negatively conditioned concerning pot? Since I've had that first negative experience, I seem to go into that same mindset: things are going to be bad; the entire high scares me, especially the time distortions.

2. If negative conditioning exists, is it possible to recondition yourself to have positive experiences again? I mean, I would like to smoke pot again if it was a positive experience. I'm not sure if this would be effective, or how I could go about this. Does anyone have any suggestions?

3. Would my former coke problem affect my present pot experiences? I'm pretty sure pot and coke affect different neurotransmitters, but could the after effects of my coke use cause problems with pot?

4. Finally, I've never had bad trips on other psychedelics (acid, shrooms, ketamine); it's just been pot. Whenever I smoke pot, it's like a mini-acid trip. Whereas most people relax, it seems to make me (now) uptight and very anxious.

Purpose:

The purpose of this post was to get any suggestions as to how I might have a positive pot experience again, and to explain why I may have negative experiences now.
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1. Yes. In general once you've had a panic attack or just anxious feelings, it is much easier to get them again. Commonly you set youself up by worrying about if you are gonna feel paranoid, hence making yourself paranoid

2. Yes. It may be difficult but you can 'recondition' yourself. Try taking smaller hits, and only smoking when you feel totally comfortable. Don't smoke in large groups with people you don't know or places that don't make you feel good. Having something to do once you get stoned will help keep your mind from having a chance to wander to freaky thoughts.

3. Maybe. I've never done cocaine but still get paranoid.

4. Marijuana is a psychedelic. It isnt as powerful as acid or mushrooms but it can cause you to have a "trip".


As Antigod said, the type of pot you are smoking makes a big difference. Depending on the person, you may perfer a sativa (energetic) or indica (couchlock) type high. Personally a strong Indica dominant bud makes me more paranoid than sativa. Sativa buds make me feel focused and energized, while indica buds make me feel braindead and unfocused, which makes me anxious.

These days a lot of pot floating around the US is canadian commerical bud which i find often causes me paranoia. It is hard to control what kind of pot you are smoking when you are just an occasional smoker; even I have a hard time getting other stuff and i smoke all the time! Ask your dealer or shop around.


Anxiety is a nasty bitch.. it sneaks up on you and then you feel trapped. You start thinking these automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) and things spiral out of control. The adrenaline starts pumping, making you even more jumpy and anxious. Remember that nothing bad has happened to you every other time you've felt that way, and this time is likely no different. When that uncomforable feeling comes over you, don't try to run from it, confront it. ask yourself why you feel this way. if there is no reason, tell youself this. Tell youself these feelings are going away as quickly as they came. Squish those ANTs hehe.

One thing that i've found really helps is to breath in for 4 seconds, hold it for 7 and then breath out for 8. It really calms you down and clears your mind of negative thoughts. A lot of the time i only need to do one set of 4-7-8 and i'm a cool cucumber.

This is probably the most common question on BL about marijuana. do a search for "marijuana anxiety" or "marijuana paranoia" and you'll find lots of advice.

i recommend against using benzos just because they'll just make you more anxious later


bottom line: only smoke when you feel totally comfortable. Don't focus on the negative but don't try to 'run' from it either. If you get hit with the fear, don't worry, it'll pass.
 
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the only way to cure anxiety is accepting it.. when your stoned, use reverse psychology like " nah man anxiety is fun!" and start laughing cause your paranoid.. the only way i cured bad trips on pot is to laugh at the whole situation and then things will slowly get better and you'll appreciate like your first few times..

:)
 
Is it safe to assume that if one now experiences paranoia (anxiety) while smoking pot that they will also experience paranoia (anxiety) on other psychedelics like Mushrooms and LSD?
 
^^ not always. smoking pot while tripping would make it more likely though.


If you have anxiety in your regular life, without pot, then I would avoid psychedelics
 
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I have no anxiety unless I smoke pot. And hell no, I would never trip because I know I would freak my self out.
 
I have every day anxiety and I'm planning on doing mushrooms within the next month, I haven't done any drugs since april and I haven't done any major psychs since last October (that was BEFORE I got every day anxiety)

So I don't know how mushrooms will effect me...I'm going to go for it, I hope it goes good....but I'm worried and I'm more worried that my worryness is going to put me in a more negative mindset to begin with....grrrr...I just wanna enjoy tripping its been sooooooooooo long.

Any predictions or suggestions on what I should do?
 
neon_utopia said:
the only way to cure anxiety is accepting it.. when your stoned, use reverse psychology like " nah man anxiety is fun!" and start laughing cause your paranoid.. the only way i cured bad trips on pot is to laugh at the whole situation and then things will slowly get better and you'll appreciate like your first few times..

:)
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yeh, i agree, just laugh at it thinking, haha i must be so f**ked to think that everyone is [insert paranoia here].
 
I smoked pot for over a year with no problems. Always fun trips or at the very least a way to cure my boredom.

All of a sudden one day, after smoking LOTS everyday for months I just had this HORRIBLE high. The paranoia, the anxiety, and the torturous racing heart all just fed on each other to make me miserable. This continued, often accompanied by horrible body shaking and trembling, almost every time I smoked for about a month. Obviously my body was telling me take a break... so I did. ... for about a few months. .. most of summer.

All the while my friends were still smoking everyday so that kinda sucked for me. But it gave me a chance to clear my head and realise the paranoia was all in my head.

Anyway at the end of summer I smoked again and things weren't like they were when I first started smoking, but things were definately better. I found I needed to smoke a lot less pot to get high. In fact the more I smoked the more paranoid I would get. Just a few hits here and there would be the perfect amount. So try maybe taking a break, and smoking less... sounds simple enough. It definately worked for me.

Oh, and another thing... whenver I would get the anxiety attacks, the ONLY thing that would help me through it quickly was sex. hahaaha. It works though, I promise :)
 
A Pot Smoker is Busted Every 45 Seconds -- and You Wonder Why We're Paranoid.
 
After you've started to notice anxiety, I think it is really difficult to teach yourself not to be anxious about the anxiety. After I first began having panic attacks, I was terrified of them, which, in turn, would cause more.

One thing that really helps is to simply realize that physically, you are totally fine. The odds are good that you are not going to have a heart attack, you are not going to lose control of yourself, and you are not going to die. In fact, when you realize that nothing bad is truly going to happen to you, as you are more than likely sitting on your ass getting stoned, much of your anxiety will diminish.

I have had problems much the way many of the people in here have, and think that it shows that a great many of us really never built up any skills for dealing with stress effectively. Stress coping skills and relaxation skills are essential to anyone, with or without disturbing anxiety, as it allows you to live a happier, healthier life :D

hodgE podgE
 
I used to get anxiety a lot when I smoked. Small quantities I could handle in stride, but I'd often find myself feeling pressured to smoke more and more, with a certain group of people, which would invariably lead to insane paranoia.

As with everything, though, you get more experienced with it, and you learn to tell when the next cone is going to send you into the world of friends plotting against you, feeling your own heart leaking and evil creatures lurking in your skin. *cough*

But for me, it took quite a while, and I had to develop ways of dealing with the paranoia and anxiety when they would kick in, and it's amazing how well that reverse psychology stuff works, as with meditation (yes, you can do this without being taught specifically how..) and other drugs can be useful in helping determine the extent to which pot messes with your mind, and how much your mind messes with itself.

As hodge said, learning to relax, destress and unwind are all really useful with or without weed. Particularly if you have other 'problems' in life.

Mercy
 
I have suffered SO badly exactly what everyone has said, and it sucks too, because every once in a while you will have a great "stone" and you won't even get head fucked.

but anyway, i'm going to test a theory soon, i think that now i have read all of this, i will have alot more ammunition in my mind to fight off negative thoughts, i am also keen to get stoned again to "battle" my anxiety head on, either i win or lose, at least i'll now

great thread, made me feel normal:D
 
it's a difficult question, this.. i usually only experience the negative sides of marijuana a few days after the last time i smoked.(my brain is full of it all the time) since i am what the swedish authorities would call a chronic user, having been arrested and fined for use of hasch a while ago, i started noticing that so many aspects come to play with at least my head during but especially after a "high period".
i mean, life situation, social pressure, memories bad or good, and the good old swedish tendency towards depression and anxiety. psychedelic drugs and basic psychology goes hand in hand i believe, the rush you get shows who you are, and what you fear, if you see what i'm getting at?

Anyway, my problem isn't anxiety during the high, it's when i get back into the normal consciousness that my spirit seems broken in some way i cen't explain.
 
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