Recovery Weed induced psychosis or schizophrenia

[DislikeSobriety]

Hello guys, have you experienced psychosis caused by weed before? How long did it last? Will you now be more prone to psychosis when smoking weed next time?

My experience was that... I smoked weed everyday for 9 months straight reaching 1 ounce/28 grams per week. Then I quit cold turkey, after one month clean I had mild delusions and just one 5 mins hallucination over the next 3 weeks+. I was then injected with 350mg paliperidone. And for close to two years now, I never had any relapse of psychosis to date and live normally. My doctor wants me to continue the medication till I've graduated.

My psychiatrist seems to think I have developed schizophrenia instead of the psychotic episode being caused by weed as the delusions lasted over 3 weeks and weed since my last dose must have been cleared from my system, so it couldn't possibly be due to weed.

I find it hard to accept/believe that I've developed schizophrenia and want to know if others had similar incidents to confirm the possibility it was just the weed that caused brief psychosis which won't happen again as long as I abstain from weed?

Thank you for taking the time read and sharing your knowledge about this! Have a great week ahead!

 

[darvocet21]

People who are predisposed to developing severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or psychotic episodes are at greater risk while using cannabis, hallucinogens, stimulants or any other drugs to a lesser extent. The diagnosis withdrawal psychosis is usually made in the direct aftermath of long-term chronic drug use. So your doctor is concerned that they're not related. However you sound like you're young and not enough attention has been paid to marijuana's effect on the still-developing brain.

If you lived in another culture with archaic values your hallucinations and delusions would not necessarily be considered pathological, but evidence that you had special abilities that could be potentially used for healing others.

Ultimately you need to make the decision. The medication you're taking does have side effects including increased prolactin which in men can cause unwanted sexual side effects including decreased ability, inability to produce sperm and enlarged breasts. If you decide you want to keep taking psychotropic drugs you might talk to your doctor about an oral dose that puts you at less risk for side effects

 

[mr peabody]

Maybe have a look here :

News - Cannabis Use Disorder | Strong evidence for causal role of cannabis in schizophrenia ->

High potency cannabis increases the risk of serious mental illness, study by Michelle Roberts | BBC News online | 20 March 2019 Smoking potent 'skunk-like' cannabis increases your risk of serious mental illness, say researchers. They estimate around one in 10 new cases of psychosis may be...

www.bluelight.org

 

[Fornax55]

If it is related to cannabis, using L-theanine can prevent some of the long-term effects (although this study focuses on adolescents and I believe indicates that you should use the l-theanine while you're still using cannabis)

 

[finitelifeform]

It could be one or the other, or both. Cannabis has a fairly good safety profile but it can trigger mental health issues in those typically predisposed. It can trigger mental health issues in those not predisposed but for what you are talking about, based on current understand at least how I know it to be true anyway, there are usually underlying factors for psychotic breaks to occur. This then more than likely given the existing variables, correlates with an underlying illness like schizophrenia. Likely but not guaranteed.

Those who experience severe side effects from smoking cannabis, from my experience, and I mean not just smoking too much and getting a little paranoid, withdrawing, depression, anxiety etc have underlying issues. These may be excerbated by cannabis but perhaps were not fully visible beforehand. I know quite a few people where cannabis triggered this cascading set of events to occur followed by psychiatric treatment of some sort. These situations are different, as mentioned above, to those where your typical abuse of cannabis causes issues but doesnt spiral into a full-blown psychosis and/or persistent pattern of behaviour characterized as being symptoms of a mental health disorder. And there is a difference even if its hard to recognize it.

For some people weed isnt very compatible with them. The thing that is both a blessing and a curse with weed is, you usually get a prolonged honeymoon period! This could be several months or even several years before any sort of significant side effects are felt that impact daily life. You are not simply thrown into the fire with weed and shown the end times. Instead you are serenaded into a longterm pattern of use until one day you wake up and you are like "F*ck! This stuff isnt working for me anymore". You might get tell-tale signs creeping up in the way you talk to others or see the world or yourself, how you deal with issues in life, how you handle yourself etc but its not fully evident until it hits hard. The temptation to continue going, especially if you are psychologically dependent on cannabis to now cope, is very strong. And then boom! The problem presents itself.

I have seen this happen to many people, including myself. They started out fine but then slowly they get picked off. Everybody responds differently but what remains relatively static is how longterm cannabis use/abuse usually climaxes into when the honeymoon period wears off and youve gotten all the T-shirts and postcards you expected (and some you didnt). The tipping point is pretty much the same. The only real difference is the degree to which people fall and whether they fall into a benign temporary pit of darkness to which they climb out of unscathed, or whether they climb out reeling from what could now be indicative of something more than just dealing with the fall.

Being honest with yourself is key. Love yourself and take care of yourself. Seek to come home to yourself so that the most important priorities when it comes to your own health and wellbeing are realized. You may then find that moving forward everything you do is aligned with living the best possible life you can live and seeking to fulfill the responsibilities you have to ensure that happens. Mental health and personal development in all areas blossoms as a result.