Somatic complaints -> anxiety with sativa... ideas?

[The Smoking Man]

For the longest time now, any time I hit some C. sativa, as I get that nice head high coming on, my body starts feeling like shit in various ways. My whole chest hurts (especially my heart and lungs), as does my stomach and my back, often get headaches, sweat way too much, and I feel like my motor functionality is reduced to shit, with uncontrollable shakiness or even twitching/spasms going along with it. Hell, if I'm super blazed, it feels like I have to make a strong conscious effort to not piss myself, due to the motor functionality/muscle control weirdness (seriously, what the fuck is this?!).

Should be worth mentioning that I have a pretty bad case of anxiety (I have reason to believe it's possibly in fact post-traumatic stress disorder, though without an actual diagnosis I can't commit to that being the reality; however I can do psychedelics without incident, I find them very pleasant actually, they've helped me reconcile with past events in my head, among other things), though I've had very and thoroughly gnarly sativa highs in the past, even with its notorious ability to cause (further) anxiety. All these side effects create a crushing weight of anxiety that quickly turns the amazing head high into dementia, putting me in a very bad and non-functional place indeed. After a while of that state of mind it just burns me the hell out; as in, way more than it should.

C. indica is just fine, as it always has been. More so now with sativa making me crash, though I didn't have a preference before this started happening all the time, both species of cannabis have their merits. Apples and oranges. I do get some kind of head space with indica, partly from it reducing my anxiety and therefore making me feel less crowded-out, but not the same as sativa. Unfortunately for me, sativa is way way more prevalent in these parts. Hybrid strains have been... fairly decent, although still the side effects were there to a degree. Haven't actually tried smoking indica followed by sativa or vice-versa, which may or may not be different from the high from hybrids. Something to experiment with maybe?

I've tried combining sativa with benzodiazepines, opiates, gabapentin, and alcohol. The benzo combination helped with the side effects... as well as made me absolutely retarded and black out. Not to mention I hate benzos with a passion. Opiates helped a lot, though also dulled the head-fuck and made it closer to an indica high, and the weed would totally overpower the opiate if I smoked enough and thus bringing the nasty side effects back. Gabapentin (of doses in the range of 600-2400 mg) did little, except made me feel dissociated at the higher doses. Alcohol before smoking was probably the only really good combination of these, though still not ideal since the high was reduced in return for the potentiation of the perceived effects of the alcohol. Alcohol after smoking was similar to the benzos.

Eating and drinking before and during the high doesn't help all that much. Neither does taking multivitamins daily.

Tried doing research on my own about this, and never found anything other than people saying they've given up on sativa for similar reasons, or that GABA agonists could help (but they're undesirable in my case for previously mentioned reasons). Anyone have any ideas on what can be done about this? It's getting very damn hard to enjoy sativa anymore and I'm about out of ideas. Whoever can help me fix my 4:20 gets my eternal blazed gratitude and thanks.

 

[Huaca]

You've probably already thought of this, but is your weed without pesticides and so forth? You could try cleaning your weed with a cold water wash.

 

[The Smoking Man]

You've probably already thought of this, but is your weed without pesticides and so forth? You could try cleaning your weed with a cold water wash.

Never washed my weed, but it consistently happens with any strain of sativa from a number of different sources, and never with indica, which makes pesticides pretty unlikely to be the cause. I can try that but I'm doubtful it'll make a difference.

 

[Chainer]

I understand hating on benzos, but in your case, I highly doubt a reasonable dose (let's say .25 xanax or even .5 kpin) mixed with weed wouldn't take care of your anxiety to a nice degree and prevent blacking out.

Sativa strains used to make my friend lose his shit and throw up... for about a month. He powered through it and stopped throwing up. Natural building of tolerance? Could be, who knows.

I'm not sure how Gabapentin helped, it's usually labeled as a mood stabilizer or neuropathology pain management. I have a lot of this stuff and usually it becomes noticeable in the 2g to 3g range and seems very close to ecstasy when dosed correctly.

I'm not sure how the opiates decreased your feelings of illness, usually it can tend to be the oppsite.

Regardless, I would advise against peigonholding yourself into a "If I smoke a sativa, I must take X to not freak out," as that can get ugly fast.

For now, why not stick to the stuff you know works well with you? Everyone had different preferences.

 

[The Smoking Man]

I understand hating on benzos, but in your case, I highly doubt a reasonable dose (let's say .25 xanax or even .5 kpin) mixed with weed wouldn't take care of your anxiety to a nice degree and prevent blacking out.

Sativa strains used to make my friend lose his shit and throw up... for about a month. He powered through it and stopped throwing up. Natural building of tolerance? Could be, who knows.

I'm not sure how Gabapentin helped, it's usually labeled as a mood stabilizer or neuropathology pain management. I have a lot of this stuff and usually it becomes noticeable in the 2g to 3g range and seems very close to ecstasy when dosed correctly.

I'm not sure how the opiates decreased your feelings of illness, usually it can tend to be the oppsite.

Regardless, I would advise against peigonholding yourself into a "If I smoke a sativa, I must take X to not freak out," as that can get ugly fast.

For now, why not stick to the stuff you know works well with you? Everyone had different preferences.

The blacking out, etc. happened with lower doses of benzos (varying kinds). Opiates didn't make me ill as it wasn't codeine (this particular one gets along bad with my stomach) or came with APAP (my stomach hates this shit at any dose regardless if it's in tylenol, nyquil, or vicodin/percocet). I stopped with the opiates altogether since I found I loved them too much, and due to the expense. (On the side, sativa rarely makes me actually nauseous, just causes the aforementioned effects.) Can't be bothered to do any combos other than alcohol->weed now.

The problem with sticking to indica is the availability of it around here. This market is pretty flooded with sativa and indica is at best an uncommon find. That, and I've had awesome times with sativa before the onset of the intolerable effects, and possibly not being able to have that again is a shitty reality, especially when it's due to unknown reasons.

 

[Chainer]

Wow, with low dose benzos you had blackouts? Very uncommon... .25 of alprazolam shouldn't do much to even people with no tolerance.

I've gotta say, in my unprofessional opinion, it's Sativa and your anxiety. Indica doesn't produce the same anxiety for many people.

 

[The Smoking Man]

Wow, with low dose benzos you had blackouts? Very uncommon... .25 of alprazolam shouldn't do much to even people with no tolerance.

Well, by itself it does absolutely nothing, and doesn't do so much as leave a scratch on my anxiety; I need 2-3 mg of the shit for it to begin to have any appreciable effect, even without tolerance, and with my low body weight. Weed for whatever reason just synergizes with it to a massive extent. I know of no reasonable explanation for either of these things.