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Serious How common is full blown psychosis resulting from cannabis use?

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cowardescent

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Jun 29, 2017
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I want to start using cannabis mainly for curbing my anxiety and sensory issues that come with being autistic. I do worry however about the risk of psychosis. I know that most who smoke it and even go overboard and smoke large amounts every day don't develop mental issues. If they do, it's usually temporary.

I have had issues with mania in the past before using any drugs. The first time two times I smoked cannabis as well, I heard voices telling me "Listen, kill yourself" which subsequently disappeared after I turned lights on. The second time, I saw a semi-transparent hallucination of an animal figure darting through my vision which then fizzled out. This was also while I was listening to music.

Some people I talk to (including my psychiatrist) say that it might indicate an underlying mental disorder as it's not at all normal to hear voices or see things on cannabis. Whereas others say it's unusual but not totally abnormal if it's your first time as your brain does 'wacky' things when exposed to exogenous cannabinoids.

I know a lot of people whose lives have been improved from cannabis but fear I might be the few who become totally psychotic and end up having to take antipsychotics for life to keep a psychotic disorder at bay.
 
Pace yourself and you should be fine. I never saw anything weird but did hear voices and music more than once when stoned. However everything I've heard was from my memories and positive.
 
How much did you smoke? If it was from the first toke then your psychiatrist was probably correct, immediately hearing/seeing things when smoking isn't normal and could very well be the surface of an underlying mental health problem. If that was the case smoking would massively accelerate the development of that condition. I've known people try to 'power through it' by smoking little and often and it was the most rapid degredation in mental health I've ever seen.

Then again you might just be particularly imaginative when smoking and all of that doesn't apply to you, I would just try a little again in a safe environment that's unlikely to trip you out and see what happens. If you hear/see things again then don't smoke again.
 
Weed is mostly safe and it does have a lot of really good properties that help a lot of people. But just like any other substance it does carry some risks and it doesn't agree with everyone. It can precipitate psychosis, paranoia, anxiety and other mood disturbances. So if you find these things occurring when you have THC, simply avoid it.
 
I tried it in bigger doses thinking it would help my tinnitus. It certainly didn't help, it just increased the ringing to near deafening levels and caused major anxiety surrounding that issue. I thought my hearing was going on me in my right ear (again?!), but I didn't make the connection that I'd just consumed tincture containing 30mg THC and that set off some huge upsurge in the tinnitus, it went from 3/10 to 13/10.
 
cowardescent said:
I want to start using cannabis mainly for curbing my anxiety and sensory issues that come with being autistic. I do worry however about the risk of psychosis. I know that most who smoke it and even go overboard and smoke large amounts every day don't develop mental issues. If they do, it's usually temporary.

I have had issues with mania in the past before using any drugs. The first time two times I smoked cannabis as well, I heard voices telling me "Listen, kill yourself" which subsequently disappeared after I turned lights on. The second time, I saw a semi-transparent hallucination of an animal figure darting through my vision which then fizzled out. This was also while I was listening to music.

Some people I talk to (including my psychiatrist) say that it might indicate an underlying mental disorder as it's not at all normal to hear voices or see things on cannabis. Whereas others say it's unusual but not totally abnormal if it's your first time as your brain does 'wacky' things when exposed to exogenous cannabinoids.

I know a lot of people whose lives have been improved from cannabis but fear I might be the few who become totally psychotic and end up having to take antipsychotics for life to keep a psychotic disorder at bay.
Click to expand...

If you already heard voices telling you to kill yourself your first time I would say your risk is very high, not necessarily of "full blown psychoses" but of weed worsening your mental health in one way or another.
 
negrogesic said:
To be blunt the true efficacy of cannabis in psychiatric disorders is unproven and generally cannabis isn't so great in treating psychiatric disorders
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I must have been stoned when i wrote that sentence 🤣

In any event I would avoid cannabis in your situation because 1) it could exacerbate or precipitate some psychiatric issue and 2) it doesn't really work all that well for the problems you're hoping it will resolve.

If you smoked cannabis and heard voices telling you, "Listen, kill yourself" what makes you think there isn't more where that came from? Perhaps try some high dose CBD, maybe 50mg a day.
 
Flynnal said:
I tried it in bigger doses thinking it would help my tinnitus. It certainly didn't help, it just increased the ringing to near deafening levels and caused major anxiety surrounding that issue. I thought my hearing was going on me in my right ear (again?!), but I didn't make the connection that I'd just consumed tincture containing 30mg THC and that set off some huge upsurge in the tinnitus, it went from 3/10 to 13/10.
Click to expand...

Interesting. It did help mine. But dissos helped it more although they are known to cause tinnitus. However mine has a physical cause (a stupid accident), so perhaps that's why.

burn out said:
If you already heard voices telling you to kill yourself your first time I would say your risk is very high, not necessarily of "full blown psychoses" but of weed worsening your mental health in one way or another.
Click to expand...

Some people, me included, don't respond well to high THC weed. Try a mellower strain.
 
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