WarChild
Bluelighter
Hi all
So being the invincible teenager I was (thought I was) I smoked a mountain of weed from the age of 15 to the age of 18. We're talking a smoke before school, a smoke at lunch, a smoke after school and a smoke before bed. For 3 years. At the end of those three years I had a severe psychotic breakdown in which i developed an INTRICATE fantasy world where my enemies (including my parents) wanted to kill me. I would often hallucinate them at my window shouting at me, stealing my parent's car, etc. Bad. The worst of it lasted about two years before i got put on a drug actually appropriate to my condition (was mis-diagnosed for 2 years)
So here I am 18 years later and I am still on medication, and i still have psychotic episodes occasionally, allthough they are now controlled VERY well by my anti-psychotic drug Clozapine. But i've been through 20 or so other drugs, none of which were satisfactory for a whole range of reasons.
Its looking like i'll be on clozapine for life. I've tried coming off 4 times and its ended badly every time, and i've found myself back on my stable dose. Its not the end of the world.. a lot of people need a medication of some sort. It has annoying side effects, but hey, it works.
It was the weed that sparked the illness. I have mental illness in my family, so i was pre-disposed, but the weed brought it to the surface.
I implore everyone - if you are starting to notice yourself getting increasingly paranoid when you're stoned, FUCKING STOP! Because thats what happened to me, and i ignored it, and shit REALLY hit the fan. If you stop now you may be saving yourself from a complete breakdown further down the track.
Has anyone else developed a psychotic illness from smoking marijuana? Especially one that is life long?
WC
So being the invincible teenager I was (thought I was) I smoked a mountain of weed from the age of 15 to the age of 18. We're talking a smoke before school, a smoke at lunch, a smoke after school and a smoke before bed. For 3 years. At the end of those three years I had a severe psychotic breakdown in which i developed an INTRICATE fantasy world where my enemies (including my parents) wanted to kill me. I would often hallucinate them at my window shouting at me, stealing my parent's car, etc. Bad. The worst of it lasted about two years before i got put on a drug actually appropriate to my condition (was mis-diagnosed for 2 years)
So here I am 18 years later and I am still on medication, and i still have psychotic episodes occasionally, allthough they are now controlled VERY well by my anti-psychotic drug Clozapine. But i've been through 20 or so other drugs, none of which were satisfactory for a whole range of reasons.
Its looking like i'll be on clozapine for life. I've tried coming off 4 times and its ended badly every time, and i've found myself back on my stable dose. Its not the end of the world.. a lot of people need a medication of some sort. It has annoying side effects, but hey, it works.
It was the weed that sparked the illness. I have mental illness in my family, so i was pre-disposed, but the weed brought it to the surface.
I implore everyone - if you are starting to notice yourself getting increasingly paranoid when you're stoned, FUCKING STOP! Because thats what happened to me, and i ignored it, and shit REALLY hit the fan. If you stop now you may be saving yourself from a complete breakdown further down the track.
Has anyone else developed a psychotic illness from smoking marijuana? Especially one that is life long?
WC
