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Ways to minimize marijuana induced anxiety? Why does weed sometimes cause happiness / sometimes cause paranoia?

I know what you mean. I took acid and had a horror trip. Afterward, I couldn't smoke weed anymore. I don't know what to do about it. I get far more of an intense body high that is plainly just uncomfortable as fuck. I also get really fucking paranoid. It's a horrible experience throughout and I haven't yet found anything that helps
 
For the most part it is other drugs that help minimize my weed anxiety, and I'm NOT telling anyone to do them, but the ones that work for me are alcohol, Kratom, other Opiates (Hydrocodone and Oxy are what I've used as I've never used Heroin and never will), Phenibut and Fluro-Phenibut and a cheap but actually nice herb called Indian Warrior that no one knows about.

Indian Warrior actually gets you high on it's own and it tastes great an has beautiful purple buds. It's unusual because it actually REALLY directly counteracts the weed anxiety.

Like I did an experiment where I packed a bowl with half weed on one side and half Indian Warrior on the other and I'd go back and forth hitting each herb from the other side with my lighter and I'd literally hit the weed and be like "ok, I'm a little anxious" then hit the Indian Warrior and be like "whoa, now it's gone but I'm mostly feeling the Indian Warrior type high", then go back to the weed and feel that again.

The only thing is I would say that whichever I hit last was the one I would feel more and that the Indian Warrior seems to take away some of the weed high in a way by removing the anxiety, but you are obviously still high on both.

I'd recommend trying it.

I barely ever smoke weed anymore and one of the reasons is that it causes me more anxiety than it used to and pretty much anytime I do choose to smoke I combine it with at least one of these other drugs and/or get drunk both because that's the only way I can truly enjoy it and also because obviously it feels awesome to combine it with these drugs, but I'm not telling anyone they should.

I mean I also take Klonopin for anxiety but believe it or not FOR ME Klonopin does NOTHING for my weed anxiety.

I know one reason I get more anxiety from weed than in the past is that I have no tolerance and barely ever smoke whereas in the old days there were many years where I smoked multiple times a day every day so obviously I had a better tolerance to the negative effects, but also for sure when there are specific issues in my life that are really bothering me that I'm trying not to think about I am way more likely to get very anxious when smoking then when everything is going well in my life cause I'll dwell on those issues when high.

So if we are NOT including drugs to mix weed with but other ways to lessen the weed anxiety here are the few things that have worked for me:

Smoking alone or at least ONLY with very good close friends is the obvious one cause then you won't get social anxiety.

I drink way too much coffee and that makes me anxious anyway, so if you do drink coffee then not having any or at least having less might make you less anxious when you smoke, or even if you do then perhaps to drink tea and not coffee cause it has L-Theanine which is an anxiolytic and tea also usually has less caffeine than coffee.

If you get in a really good hard workout before you get high then that is going to probably be likely to help somewhat because of the endorphins and the natural blood-pressure lowering and anxiety relieving effects of exercise.

Either vaping or using edibles rather than smoking may produce less anxiety, especially for someone like me who has asthma cause coughing fits aren't exactly stress free lol.

Obviously smoking less also, and some might say indicas over sativas but I don't live in a weed legal state so I never know what I'm smoking.

Also having gotten a good nights sleep and probably be healthier overall and exercising more frequently and eating better and eating less sugar will probably help you have less anxiety when high as I think doing those things naturally makes a person less anxious.

And trying to redirect your mind towards positive thoughts or get really into something specific like music or a movie or whatever and focus on that if you get anxiety and again, choosing to maybe avoid smoking at all if you think you are in a bad mental state or things haven't been going so well in your life lately so you don't dwell on them and maybe only smoking when things are going better.

But most of those tips still don't usually work for me anymore which is why I usually will only smoke like once or twice a year and combine it with those substances if I do so I don't get anxious, yet I know I should be using fewer substances overall so I'm not really into going out and getting weed to smoke now so I can then go get super fucked up with other drugs I should be using less of.
 
Alright so I think I know the reason to why this happens... I believe this is like some strange reverse tolerance taking place.

I started smoking cannabis at 15 and pretty much went full in immediately smoking every day. My family smoked and condoned cannabis more or less, so my use was heavy partially due to that. But I also gained medical benefits, like my horrible asthma getting better then disappearing completely, migraines got better, random nausea episodes for better..

I smoked daily up until I was 25 when I thought I needed to quit, at the time I had no direction in life and blamed it on my cannabis use. I literally had to sit in a detox center for a week, my withdrawals were so bad. To give perspective, when I detoxed off an IV heroin habit I was ready to go in like 48 hours. My body was really adapted to having cannabis and went haywire without it. I can tell more about that experience if anyone wants to hear it.

Once I quit I was clean for about a month before I decided to try taking one hit every Sunday, just something to look forward to.. Well little did I know just how powerful one little hit would be, each time Id literally freak out.

I remember I would literally take one calyx off a nugget, place that one a one hitter and lightly smoke on that and still get insanely ripped. It felt as if there was absolutely zero wiggle room between sober and so high that I think I’m going to die.

Symptoms typically were this odd sensation like a delayed response almost to the point where it feels like reality is a skipping record. Strange tingly sensations in the hands, neck often feels warm and tingly while simultaneously missing. Anxiety like nothing I’ve ever felt, unreasonable anxiety.

So I did this for a few months until one day, I can’t remember how, I started smoking again daily. I somehow pushed through this insane reverse tolerance to get back to my normal tolerance.

Within a few days I completely reverted back to how I felt on it in high school. Euphoria, motivation, better sleep, better sex, just good stuff.

It’s my belief that after a certain amount of use ones tolerance becomes less than it was even before ever using it at all. Think about how people who first try it sometimes need a lot to get high. My first few times I had to smoke a few bowls by myself just to get high. Our receptors become more sensitive to activation from THC and other cannabinoids.

Just a theory.
-GC
 
G_Chem said:
Alright so I think I know the reason to why this happens... I believe this is like some strange reverse tolerance taking place.

I started smoking cannabis at 15 and pretty much went full in immediately smoking every day. My family smoked and condoned cannabis more or less, so my use was heavy partially due to that. But I also gained medical benefits, like my horrible asthma getting better then disappearing completely, migraines got better, random nausea episodes for better..

I smoked daily up until I was 25 when I thought I needed to quit, at the time I had no direction in life and blamed it on my cannabis use. I literally had to sit in a detox center for a week, my withdrawals were so bad. To give perspective, when I detoxed off an IV heroin habit I was ready to go in like 48 hours. My body was really adapted to having cannabis and went haywire without it. I can tell more about that experience if anyone wants to hear it.

Once I quit I was clean for about a month before I decided to try taking one hit every Sunday, just something to look forward to.. Well little did I know just how powerful one little hit would be, each time Id literally freak out.

I remember I would literally take one calyx off a nugget, place that one a one hitter and lightly smoke on that and still get insanely ripped. It felt as if there was absolutely zero wiggle room between sober and so high that I think I’m going to die.

Symptoms typically were this odd sensation like a delayed response almost to the point where it feels like reality is a skipping record. Strange tingly sensations in the hands, neck often feels warm and tingly while simultaneously missing. Anxiety like nothing I’ve ever felt, unreasonable anxiety.

So I did this for a few months until one day, I can’t remember how, I started smoking again daily. I somehow pushed through this insane reverse tolerance to get back to my normal tolerance.

Within a few days I completely reverted back to how I felt on it in high school. Euphoria, motivation, better sleep, better sex, just good stuff.

It’s my belief that after a certain amount of use ones tolerance becomes less than it was even before ever using it at all. Think about how people who first try it sometimes need a lot to get high. My first few times I had to smoke a few bowls by myself just to get high. Our receptors become more sensitive to activation from THC and other cannabinoids.

Just a theory.
-GC
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I don't really understand what you mean by "reverse tolerance."

Didn't you say that when you were smoking regularly you got less anxiety and when you stopped you got more?

That's what happened to me, and that's just obviously partially to do with less tolerance towards negative side effects.

Do you mean that you kept taking month long breaks until after one of them THEN when you started smoking again your anxiety was gone??

If so that is kind of weird.

But really, no matter what some people are going to sometimes get weed anxiety and I know I've read studies about why it happens but it's just part of the effects it can cause.

Based on my experience I'd think that the more weed once smokes and the more often the more tolerance one will have to negative side effects just as one gets fewer and less severe hangovers if one drinks larger quantities and/or more often.

I do remember though how I didn't get high until the 3rd time I smoked so it is weird like how you mentioned that.

I was 17 the first time I smoked weed and I still remember the first time I smoked a few bongs to the dome and felt nothing.

The 2nd time I smoked a fair amount and in retrospect I realize I was getting some effects but that they weren't noticeable as a "high" yet.

Kind of funny, but me and my cousin were down at the Jersey Shore on the beach at night smoking with some guy we met and I was sucking on a Tootsie Roll pop trying to count the number of licks it takes to get to the center and kept losing count and now I realize that the weed was effecting my memory but I still didn't feel high LOL.


So then the 3rd time I'm smoking with my cousin and two friends and I had probably smoked like 3 really fat bowls between just me and 2 other people and should have been really high and my friend told me to go running on the beach and that the blood would rush to my head and i'd get high.

Now, afterwards my friend said he didn't think it would work and just said that because they wanted to laugh at me running around, but in truth I think maybe HE didn't think it would work but the friend who said it would did believe it would work.


Well, guess what guys, turns out IF YOU AREN'T GETTING HIGH THEN DOING EXERCISE SO THE BLOOD RUSHES TO YOUR HEAD TOTALLY WORKS!!!

I started running really fast down the beach and all of the sudden the blood and endorphins rushed to my head and I got SUPER high for the 1st time in my life and suddenly forgot what I was doing and wondered where my friends were (they were just down the beach as I'd run away from the them) and then I looked back at them and got an AWESOME auditory hallucination of some kind of song in my head with rising tones going "Ah--Ah--AH AH AHH!!!" like as if some secret was being unfolded to my brain.

It was amazing and that was the 1st time I ever got high many many years ago lol.


Anyways...that works lol.

It's pretty weird that weed HELPED your ashtma though, as it has always made mine worse.

It's true that THC by itself without the tar is good for asthma and used to treat it, but the tar itself is bad for asthma, so in my case at least I think smoking weed is bad for my asthma but that vaping or eating it is probably good for my asthma.
 
“Do you mean that you kept taking month long breaks until after one of them THEN when you started smoking again your anxiety was gone??

If so that is kind of weird.”

They were week or so long breaks between each use during that period, and yup soon as I started to use it every day again I went right back to how it felt the first time around.

I believe that once you’ve smoked a lot frequently for awhile you become more sensitive when you finally stop. BUT.. If you can push through the anxiety and discomfort like I did for a few days, you can get back to how it was before.

The only thing is, once you’ve reached this point with cannabis. There’s no going back to “once in awhile” type use, it’s all or none. Trying to use once every week or so, based on my experience, only leads to discomfort.

Did I explain that any better? Lol I’m not the best at that sometimes.

-GC
 
I think cognitive behavioral therapy can help, mainly building your ability to identify cognitive distortions within your own thinking.
 
G_Chem said:
“Do you mean that you kept taking month long breaks until after one of them THEN when you started smoking again your anxiety was gone??

If so that is kind of weird.”

They were week or so long breaks between each use during that period, and yup soon as I started to use it every day again I went right back to how it felt the first time around.

I believe that once you’ve smoked a lot frequently for awhile you become more sensitive when you finally stop. BUT.. If you can push through the anxiety and discomfort like I did for a few days, you can get back to how it was before.

The only thing is, once you’ve reached this point with cannabis. There’s no going back to “once in awhile” type use, it’s all or none. Trying to use once every week or so, based on my experience, only leads to discomfort.

Did I explain that any better? Lol I’m not the best at that sometimes.

-GC
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Yeah I understand what you mean, but it just seems weird to me that taking week long breaks would help you with weed anxiety. I'm not sure how that would work chemically as far as WD goes but hey, if it works for you then great.

Yeah, it's totally true that if you go long periods without smoking you just lose your tolerance, but the thing is that I don't usually feel like smoking weed anymore, and when I do, even if I didn't get weed anxiety, I would probably want to drink with it and/or mix other substances with it cause that's fun, and I am trying to cut down on other substances so that's not great for me now.

I mean yeah, if I got ZERO weed anxiety and it just felt great then that would be awesome and I'd totally be less likely to feel like I have to mix other substances with it to get rid of the anxiety, but I don't believe that will happen for me, and I think for me personally that just taking week long breaks wouldn't work and that in order to do anything as far as tolerance is concerned to get less anxiety, I would have to be smoking weed on a regular basis, and I just don't want to do that anymore for a bunch of reasons.

I think the more you smoke and the higher your tolerance the less weed anxiety you get, but I would really like to try those high CBD low THC strains cause I think maybe they might produce less anxiety, but being in a state where weed is still illegal I don't have that option.

So when I do smoke weed those very few times a year I will drink with it and/or use Kratom and Phenibut/F-Phenibut for the anxiety and I won't have any.

Like, if I am drunk I get ZERO anxiety on weed, if on Phenibut/F-Phenibut I get ZERO anxiety, and Kratom usually works well too though sometimes I can still get anxious if only on Kratom but then if I have a few beers or a little Phenibut it's gone, so I still get to enjoy weed when I want, but I have to use other substances.
 
i think both low tolerance and stimulant use effect your highs on THC (negatively).
 
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Scout2004 said:
I wish I could enjoy weed.
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Me too man.

Like I said, I need to mix it with other drugs that reduce the anxiety and potentiate it like booze, Kratom or Phenibut or else I generally can't enjoy it much as I get too anxious.

I wonder if maybe if I got a high CBD strain if that would work but I don't live in a weed legal state so I don't know.

I mean, if I could just get all of the positives and none of the negatives of weed it would be amazing.

It's pretty much the one mind altering substance (other than some psychedelics) that has ALMOST no WD except under extreme circumstances and I think it could really improve my life if it didn't cause anxiety.

I have pretty bad anxiety and depression and I think it would definitely help with the depression because except for when I get anxious on it and then that brings on my depression, I usually can't get depressed on it, but the anxiety is too much.
 
Part of the psychedelic effect includes strobing or neural retriggering,.
wehn it is new to you this is all quite funny.
If you notice this and react against it, however, you will become tense and even paranoid.

Expect the beats you feel to have an underlying polyrhythm, and keep on relaxing intentionally, maybe using breathing awareness or calming breath exercises.
 
I've been noticing that hibiscus tea decreases weed-induced anxiety/paranoia.

It is serious, cheap and efficient (it helps, it is not miraculous)
 
13526

I am buying it like that, drinking without sugar. Especially during the night, very relaxing along with marijuana
 
I find that continusously smoking the Cannabis plant over and over again, as much as possible all day, every day dispels anxiety.

On the paranoia however; that is up to the user to continue using a substance that causes paranoia.
 
It's just the way it is- weed makes most people relaxed, but some people anxious.
 
Regarding people that initially enjoyed weed but after a long period of smoking often or daily begin to suffer from anxiety:
There is research indicating that use of THC upregulates 5HT2A receptors in the brain.
This Serotonin receptors subtype is associated with mood and perception, and is one of the, if not the main target for all psychedelics of the tryptamine and phenethylamine classes.

CANNABINOID RECEPTOR AGONISTS UPREGULATE AND ENHANCE SEROTONIN 2A (5-HT2A) RECEPTOR ACTIVITY VIA ERK1/2 SIGNALING
 
OpiateKiller said:
So a little background... marijuana was my heart and soul for a long time. I smoked it daily for years through high school, and I loved it. everything about it literally was the miracle drug. Eventually I graduated to harder drugs (unfortunately) and was forced to quit, and when I smoked again after a long period of abstinence was overwhelmed with paranoia, anxiety and great social fear. Now in the event I smoke I make sure I only take 1 hit and usually am not too high to get extreme anxiety...

This is a pretty broad question, but do you guys think marijuana amplifies your current emotional state? Like a lot of drugs if you take them in good spirits you'll have fun, but if you take them in a depressed state it could make things worse...

Like last week I smoked weed one night and had a great time (I have basically no tolerance). Before I smoked I was in good spirits and a good mood. Then the next night I thought I was in a pretty good mood and smoked the same weed and the same amount and found myself consumed with negative thoughts and anxiety? It's so strange and hard to differentiate why sometimes its positive and sometimes its negative.

On a side note, I somewhat believe being addicted to opiates changed my brain chemistry, because before I abused opiates I never had the same problems with anxiety and weed but afterwards it was fairly common, that or some other drug such as K2 or benzos, but never really abused them that hard.

I know this is kind of a ramble, but does anyone have any insight on all of this? I know if I smoked more I could likely overcome the anxiety and paranoia as a became more accustomed, but I don't really want to smoke weed all day everyday like I used to because it's not conductive to my life? Has anyone else faced anxiety from smoking? I love marijuana I just hate how I can't predict if I'm gonna be overwhelmed with anxiety and fear.. which is why I used to smoke in the first place all those years ago to help overcome.
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The opiates definitely have an effect on brain chemistry, I can tell yah... Anyway, you have a few potential things you could do that may help you:

1) Find some good ole 80% or higher Cannabis indica genetics. Preferably, an indica which has been allowed an extended time to flower in comparison for normal flower times - will result in more amber-colored trichome heads and therefore a higher Cannabinoid:THC ratio, which promotes the least anxiety. However, any ol' pure cannabis indica should do you well.
2) Vaporize or consume CBD after you smoke, to potentially reduce anxiety
3) Try low-moderate doses of edibles, preferably that come from reputable dispensaries.
4) Take opioids when you smoke (not necessarily recommended)
5) Take an antihistamine like doxylamine, chlorpheniramine, or diphenhydramine when you smoke (For the anxiety relief, not the sedative properties)
6) Take a benzodiazepine (not recommended)
7) Try chamomile tea, or possibly a little valerian root extract

I would recommend option #1 the most, followed by #3, then #7, then #2, then #5. I would not recommend #4 and #6 (however 4 and 6 would be effective in reducing anxiety, but addictive and not a good choice).
 
I've been a daily user (99% smoked) for over 10 years now and let me tell you, I still to this day struggle with Cannabis-induced anxiety. It's a major drag when it does occur, which I would say is about 10% of the time. Typically my anxiety takes on this narrative:

"Oh God, I forgot that I have X Y or Z going on in my life, be it rent or social stuff, whatever"

I know a lot of people would probably say, try to think happy thoughts, but I find that being real with myself about what I have going on prior to smoking decreases that heart-thumping, paranoid anxiety. I've already thought about all of my problems in reality. It's not as if I'm being blindsided by it while I'm high at which point I will be much more affected by it. I hope this made reasonable sense.
 
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