Aspects of weed might have medicinal value in the future if they can be separated from the harmful effects. And there are harmful effects. The link to SZ is becoming too large to ignore.
Also, it’s hard not to notice that the more chronic a person’s weed use, the more difficulty they have holding up their side of a conversation. I’m not the only one to notice:
Took me a long time away from weed to get my curiosity back.
Pixel.
I feel weed destroyed my curiosity as well, I as always inside my head, not looking for outside stimuli.
The only harmful effect that I see from this conversation is the chance that it might trigger sz symptoms. I’m not coming from the point of view of someone with sz, or even a family history of sz. For those who have a family history of sz it is a good idea to stay away from any mind altering drugs that can trigger sz.
Marijuana has many benefits that should not be ignored, you should watch the Dr. Gupta CNN special on marijuana. There is one case in particular where a little 3-4 year old girl suffers from dozens to 100’s of seizures a day. Even with very powerful anti-seizure medicines they cannot control the seizures. They find a couple guys in CO that grow a special strain of marijuana, high in CBC, and low in THC (CBC has the medicinal qualitites, THC gets you high). They create an oil and give it to the girl in a little medicine dropper, and over the next several months she drops down to a seizure or 2 a week. She is now able to talk and run around and just be a happy little girl. There are several other stories like that in the special.
For pain management, my grandmother eats a bit of brownie to help sleep instead of using heavy duty sleeping aids that include side effects like driving your car and not remembering it!
The list goes on and on and on.
Look at the side effects of prescription drugs and compare it to the side effects of marijuana, you can’t really tell me that marijuana is more or as harmful than anything else out there. There are a lot of benefits that it can provide to people that are not sz, no need to throw the baby out with the bath water.
I guess I want to say that if we want to have a conversation about all the great things marijuana can do as long as you don’t have sz and aren’t prone to developing sz, maybe an sz board isn’t the best place to have that conversation?
These kinds of threads worry me because there is such a high rate of marijuana use in szs, and not only are there unignorable links between marijuana and first psychosis, but it interferes in treatment and recovery. Many szs are struggling mightily to kick their habit, or are refusing to consider that they even should. Talks about how awesome marijuana can be (even if you add, “for everyone but YOU, sz reader!”) seem to run directly counter to recovery.
Yeah, speaking as a recovered addict, not a conversation I’m wanting to have, either. Seriously, if you have SZ the best advice is to stay away from weed unless your doctor prescribes it for you and it had better be a doctor who knows what head meds you’re on and what your ongoing symptoms are. Self-medicating is usually bad news.
Pixel.
Smoking up gives you the giggles…
But in the long run it makes you lethargic and dumber than a bag o’ hammers.
Yes, alcohol is way worse than pot. In fact, alcohol is actually the worst drug of all! It is considered a drug. People who are severe alcoholics, the ones who can’t get through the day without getting completely drunk, if they try to stop drinking, it can literally kill them. Four point restraints and Ativan in a hospital! Heroin is safer and easier to get off of than alcohol. What concerns me, though, when it comes to pot is how it affects my Sz son and does it interfere with his medication? Will he relapse because he smokes pot? And did the pot smoking at an early age, along with a family history of Sz, cause his Sz to come on earlier? Would he be Sz today if he hadn’t smoked? I know I can’t go back and change the past. I don’t even know if I could have prevented it had I known.
I don’t think there is any official data, so I can only extrapolate from my own experience. Pot probably had a marked effect on your son’s sz.
It isn’t the same old pot any more. I smoked pot with friends about a handful of times in high school and college, and I would get a nice mild buzz, giggle alot, get hungry and fall asleep right away…which didn’t impress me so I didn’t smoke it much!!
Twenty years later, I had the opportunity to smoke pot again on three separate occasions with different friends, all of whom were recreational users. The first two times, one hit gave me a buzz equivalent to binge drinking hard liquor all night. The third time was the worst. Two hits, and I couldn’t stand or walk any more, I lost my balance, I couldn’t speak properly, I had to leave the party immediately (bummer it was a great party), and I have no memory of how I got home that night. I hated the experience, it was dangerous, and it scared me so much that I will never smoke pot again. I had always thought of pot as fairly harmless based on my high school and college experiences, but no more. The stuff that’s out there now is like slamming a fifth of tequila vs. drinking a can of domestic beer. Bad news for anyone already at risk of getting sz.
i remember when i smoked mary i was totally slow in my thinking and had the munchies. it made me hear music differently and tv was more fun(back then i was watching TV). i stopped after like 5 joints, because i didnt like to be this stupid.
It’s just marijuana because it’s never killed anybody. It’s just marijuana because people kids who go to the emergency room for it, get sent home. It’s just marijuana because it’s just a plant. It’s just marijuana because Colorado, Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska have realized it makes most people well and makes people rich. The underlying illness is sz, sza, bipolar marijuana is not for those with underlying conditions such as psychiatric conditions.
Thc is not for us but maybe CBD?
turningthepage, youtube eaze, or highify in approved states you can get your card, get your weed delivered to you in under a hour. It’s a versatile plant. Thousands of strains yet people just call it marijuana. Yet people who never smoked quality cannabis call it a drug. CBD THC if it’s me as long as it’s quality.
I have read in the book Surviving Schizophrenia that it does not increase the likelihood of developing schizophrenia. Areas where marijuana use has increased in the population has not increased the number of people with schizophrenia.
That said it can bring on the disease of schizophrenia quicker in people who already have schizophrenia.
If you find yourself getting paranoid from smoking marijuana I would recommend not doing it. As much as I would like to take a hit now and then I won’t because odds are I’ll get paranoid and it will make my symptoms worse.
Maybe some day if you can buy it like in a package store and it lists the proof or thc and cbd but otherwise forget it.
I think over time my mind got used to being paranoid when stoned and since I was stoned alot my mind was used to operating in a paranoid mindset and it stayed that way when not high.
My 2 cents.
I live in ct it’s a medical state…my pdoc won’t give me PTSD diagnosis…I’m too embarrassed to state my trauma. He’s anti marijuana in every way, even charlottes web I bet. He knows I want mmj from PTSD diagnosis…I could say I got the worst trauma in the world he still would refuse. Im gonna bring up charlottes web with him next apt. Alots changed since I asked for a PTSD diagnosis a year and a half ago.
Explain to your pdoc your trauma in a non embarrassing way. How could my pdoc know I had anxiety if I never told her about my excessive worrying?
Yep. The weed nowadays isn’t what we smoked in high school and college, MUCH higher THC content.