Paranoia, Depression, Lack of Motivation, starting to throw her life away...

[Psychonaut08]

I made another post about my friends but this one is a separate matter...

Pretty much one of my best friends was a really bubbly sociable person when I first met her, smoked weed every now and then like the rest of us e.t.c
Nowadays I notice she's pretty much high every day, and smokes with her stoner mates and I feel she's creating a bubble around them, people who wont give her grief for smoking and enjoy it just as much as she does, slowly and indirectly cutting off the other people in her life who care about her equally if not more.
She's in college and got an A in her january exam, but since her excessive weed smoking has started missing weeks of school to get stoned, falling behind in her work, stopped going into work and is probably going to lose her job, and is getting paranoid about her other friends and people around her, quoting "hates to be around more than 3 people unless drunk or on mephedrone".
Also I can just see she's getting more and more depressed, not wishing to quote things I've heard that can prove this.
Also, she just seems like she's giving up on life and has lost all drive and motivation.
But she says weed is the only thing that makes her happy in life and doesn't want to stop smoking it, which I'm sure is a cause for all these problems.
I've been there before, you only get high-grades in my area sprayed to fuck with all this bollocks and I've had paranoia and depression from weed pretty bad, but after stopping for a few weeks my head became more clear and I realised just how much it affected me, and have since been able to smoke it recreationally but gauge when I think things are starting to get bad again so I can stop before they do.
I'm just getting this off my chest really but wondering how many people would agree cannabis is a large factor in this.

 

[F1n1shed]

It definitely seems like a factor in this and am starting to see some of this in my self. Been smoking strong bud daily for the past 2 years but have been smoking for 4 years total. I really connected to some of the things you said in that post and Im thinking i need a break now. It just seems so hard though because I'm so use to getting high everyday, everything is such a fucking bore(weeds fault i know). But to answer your question yes cannabis could def. be a large factor in this, but not the only one.

 

[paranoid android]

Id say it's a factor but she may also be developing depression unrelated to drug abuse. I got like that for a long ass time except for me it was alcohol as well as bipolar disorder. Although ive used every substance in the book alcohol was really the only one that made me isolated.

If you can try and get her some help and preferably not just from some shrink who will toss a sample pack of paxil at her as soon as she walks through the door. Watching friends spiral down into depression and isolation is rather hard as ive learnt first hand.

 

[Sweet P]

There are many possibilities... the drug abuse is making her depressed, she's developing depression unrelated to the drug abuse like Paranoid Android suggested, or she's using the drugs as a means of coping with an underlying depression. Talk to her. Tell her how you've noticed the change within her, and offer to be there if she decides she wants some help. That's really all you can do, unfortunately.

 

[fivelinefury]

I agree with all above. For me, not weed, but using substances everyday was originally for my depression and anxiety and later on also bordom. It took 6 years and I still struggle a bit today, but realise that i'm now 100 times more anxious and depressed sometimes than before I started self medicating. So I do think there is usually an underlying reason for using frequently in the first place, but yeah the weed obviously probably isn't helping. If there is an underlying problem such as depression, the sooner treated properly the better.

 

[paranoid android]

Drug or alcohol abuse is rarely the underlying problem from what ive seen in other people and from what i know for myself. Every drunk, pothead (the ones who actually have problems from it), crack head, speed freak and junkie usually has a reason why they use. Could be depression or any number of factors really. Too bad you have to face these problems sober when you do quit and that ain't easy. There still there ya just blotted them out with your DOC for fuck knows how long.

I am not making a generalization here by any means it's just what ive observed in people.

 

[thelung]

help her help herself by getting her some professional help