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How could cannabis cause psychosis if it's not a stimulant?

My opinion is that it is due to its psychadelic nature. I also think whatever mechanism creates the overpowering paranoia (which can be compared to the paranoia from crack in my experience) is responsible for psychosis in some users. I don't claim to know the exact reason behind it but this is my best guess.

Cannabis is known for its peculiar combination of different effects. I find it to be both psychadelic and anti psychotic, as well as stimulating and depressing.
 
when i first started with cannabis id hear sounds voices even music that didnt exist. sometimes id just pass out after 5 minutes of hitting the bong, fall to the floor and go deaf tripping inside my head staring at my own brain and having out of body experiences then wake up seeing patterns was pretty intense as my dmt trips but after a while smoking cannabis my tolerance went up or something because i cant hallucinate from it anymore. one day i made some hash and hit that and my carpet turned all colorful with pink circles then spiders crawled out of the circles over my carpet, i then freaked out cause i was walking in weird green eggs that were covering the carpet and i ran out of my room :P
 
^Sounds like you should never ingest cannabinoids ever again but thanks for the information.

I've definitely heard voices which didn't exist while high on weed. Its very sporadic though and usually only appears when I smoke too much. Gradual hits works.
 
well i smoke good hydro every day and night now for a year and i cant seem to get high enough any more to produce any of them effects lol :P quiet annoying thats why i have some lsd. whats weirder is that when i use to smoke it sometimes i wouldnt hallucinate at all then the next day same strain id have 2 cones and my vision will start forming patterns and id feel like im dying from all the skin sensations, my skin would feel like it was ripped off mostly my chest was very painful and my testicles felt electrified and id fade in and out of consciousness hearing these loud rushing waves in my head was terrifying tbh worst then smoking dmt or a bad lsd trip
 
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^A good point about opioids triggering mania in bipolar patients.

Another way of looking at this is caffeine, which is a stimulant but not a "classic" one in the amphetamine-class sense of "classic stimulants". Caffeine can cause mania in bipolar patients as well. I know a few people who are bipolar and smoking cannabis generally sends them right into mania. I don't want to know what taking amphetamines or psychedelics would do to them.

Everybody is different, and, as Cane said, its as simple as "a drug that releases dopamine will cause psychosis". There are many different receptor systems involved here.

Well, as someone who has some bipolar and schizophrenic tendencies, I can say that for myself, and I think generally for people in those categories, based on individuals I've spoken with, the effects tend to be homeopathic, i.e., they tend to be contra-effects. So cannabis sends me into a spiral that would look to many like an LSD or angel dust trip, but can also manifest like speed or any other amphetamine, depending on my mood at the time. I've found when I start off in a good mood, it has more of the amphetamine effect. When I'm in a more contemplative or moody place, I find it sends me on one of those hallucinogenic/paranoid trips. Needless to say, I avoid cannabis entirely for that reason - I don't like the feeling it gives me at all. In the past, it would sometimes make me tired and I'd fall asleep, but more recently, I've been involved in more creative work, and for whatever reason (maybe different receptor reaction in the more-active part of my brain?) cannabis hits me with those bad trips. Also, the study that came out of the UK earlier this year separated cannabinoid from THC to see the effects, and THC was the compound that caused the "speedy" effects in people with bipolarity or schizophrenia (and psychosis too, I believe). An interesting note, which I read but cannot verify, so it could be completely false, is that THC vaporizes at about 180 degrees F, and cannabinoid at 220-225 degrees F. Many people with vaporizers will set the temperature around 200 degrees F, which maximizes THC. It also eliminates the countering effects that cannabinoid has on THC (CBD is considered an anti-psychotic), thus being the absolute worst thing for someone with a MI to ingest.

As to your other question, I've done a pretty solid range of uppers in my life, and generally speaking, the same homeopathic tendency is there. Uppers tend to even me out and bring the highs in a bit closer and less manic. Others I've talked to have had similar experiences. Now, realize this is relative to a level of mania that's not present in the general population per se, so my being evened out and "chill" personality may be higher than your tweaked to the rafters I can't believe I did that I'm flying self. But I can say with certainty that typically they make me far less anxious or manic. There are exceptions, of course, but those could be outliers caused by other substances or due to the pharmacology of the upper itself (we're not talking tested by the FDA here).

Oh, and one last thing. I tend to think cannabis accentuates whatever is already present, rather than being the causal factor, at least short term. I think long term it could be a contributing factor in changing blood chemistry and reactions.
 
I think laugh's point was that not all overdoses are caused by stimulants, like not all psychoses are caused by stimulants.

Several systems have been implicated in psychosis - dopamine, cannabinoid, 5-HT2A, glutamate.

thanks skillet.

sorry neko., i thought it was a facetious thread...
 
^^ No its okay, I totally misread or just misinterpreted the context of what you wrote. I have some dyslexia, which i admit gets worse when I'm stoned. And I'm often stoned when i am on BL. haha. So I'm sorry, you made a good point. =^.^=

Well, as someone who has some bipolar and schizophrenic tendencies, I can say that for myself, and I think generally for people in those categories, based on individuals I've spoken with, the effects tend to be homeopathic, i.e., they tend to be contra-effects. So cannabis sends me into a spiral that would look to many like an LSD or angel dust trip, but can also manifest like speed or any other amphetamine, depending on my mood at the time. I've found when I start off in a good mood, it has more of the amphetamine effect. When I'm in a more contemplative or moody place, I find it sends me on one of those hallucinogenic/paranoid trips. Needless to say, I avoid cannabis entirely for that reason - I don't like the feeling it gives me at all. In the past, it would sometimes make me tired and I'd fall asleep, but more recently, I've been involved in more creative work, and for whatever reason (maybe different receptor reaction in the more-active part of my brain?) cannabis hits me with those bad trips. Also, the study that came out of the UK earlier this year separated cannabinoid from THC to see the effects, and THC was the compound that caused the "speedy" effects in people with bipolarity or schizophrenia (and psychosis too, I believe). An interesting note, which I read but cannot verify, so it could be completely false, is that THC vaporizes at about 180 degrees F, and cannabinoid at 220-225 degrees F. Many people with vaporizers will set the temperature around 200 degrees F, which maximizes THC. It also eliminates the countering effects that cannabinoid has on THC (CBD is considered an anti-psychotic), thus being the absolute worst thing for someone with a MI to ingest.

As to your other question, I've done a pretty solid range of uppers in my life, and generally speaking, the same homeopathic tendency is there. Uppers tend to even me out and bring the highs in a bit closer and less manic. Others I've talked to have had similar experiences. Now, realize this is relative to a level of mania that's not present in the general population per se, so my being evened out and "chill" personality may be higher than your tweaked to the rafters I can't believe I did that I'm flying self. But I can say with certainty that typically they make me far less anxious or manic. There are exceptions, of course, but those could be outliers caused by other substances or due to the pharmacology of the upper itself (we're not talking tested by the FDA here).

Oh, and one last thing. I tend to think cannabis accentuates whatever is already present, rather than being the causal factor, at least short term. I think long term it could be a contributing factor in changing blood chemistry and reactions.

This is a very insightful post, and very well written. I was surprised when I looked up and saw this is your only post on BL. My boyfriend is bi polar and has manic tendencies, but no schizophrenic tendencies. He used to be veryyy abusive on benzos and got started on them because of his anxiety and his mania. He's alwaysss been a smoker, but now he only uses benzos occasionally and therapeutically when he is having a long manic episode. They usually last about a week, but i have seen them go longer and i see how stressful it is to not me able to just calm your mind down for a second.

These days he mostly smoked weed, good weed too. It helps calm him down alottt, and helps him regular sleep, just like it does me. I on the other hand am kinda the opposite of him, I have have pretty severe inattentive AD/HD, so all my life by nature i am very calm and spacey, I used to be veryy quiet and shy and an introvert. For me though, even from a young age, pot always had a slightly stimulating effect, especally when i first get high for the day, and even more so when i was younger. It helped me open up in social settings, i very rarely got paranoid, when ever i was with other stoners and i was high i felt more chatty, more giggly obviously, but i felt more outgoing. Now I take adderall for my adhd, something i find also helps wonders with my dyslexia and my dysgraphia. It also helps boost my very poor working memory, something else iv had all my life. And while pot sometimes can worsen my dyslexia to the point i might make more reading mistakes, or more sentences will just not make sense to me, it does help me focus in ways. Helps me find more interest in those things that might bore me otherwise and cause me to space out more, something i really have little control over.

Its just interesting to me how truly different one substance can make various people feel.
 
Is it possible to be ADHD and have weed cause symptoms of psychosis?

Because for me I think this might be the case.
 
Well that really depends. What kind of ADHD do you have? I am only on the inattentive side, im not hyper at all I am actually very calm, and spacey. I am naturally mellow and have never ever gotten psychosis from weed, i rarely ever even get it when i abuse stimulants.

if you are on the hyper active side of ADHD or impulsive, i suppose maybe it could.

I mean tell us more about your case, do you always get psycosis when smoking weed? Is that the only mental issue you have? Do you have anxiety or paranoia?
 
I will just chime in on something here,

We are forgetting about POLYDRUG USE.

Many Bluelighters that suffer negative effects from cannabis use do not take into consideration their other drug use, such as mdma, ketamine, cocaine, amphetamines, hallucinogens etc.

These will all greatly have an impact on your mood levels, your anxiety levels/sensitivity and also to a degree perhaps the euphoria or dysphoria you may experience.

I Personally love Ketamine but i find it really fucks my cannabis highs up, i actually make out shapes and stuff to be faces or people in the dark or even the daylight. That's fucked up.
 
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