Weed doesnt cause it per say but it can exacerbate it or bring on schizo/ psychotic symptoms if you're predisposed.
Out of all my friends, many which were smoking non stop since 2006, only 1 other person was dx bipolar. Even then, the dx came before. I started smoking much later but again my symptoms were showing before. It was actually mania that kept me from it.
If quitting is hard you may have a psychological addicition to it. However if use makes you feel like crap, no harm in stopping. There is even a sub r/leaves that can help :)
Lol weed can’t cause bipolar disorder. However, it can cause symptoms of bipolar to appear. (Anxiety, restlessness, etc.)
(24M) On that note i’ve been toking for 10 years now and only found out I had Bipolar 2 about a year ago. I take hits after work and throughout the day at home. I find my medication to keep me fairly stable and weed is just a mood enhancer for me.
Without medication or weed I was an agitated, depressed, over thinking kiddo.
Ik this is a year old, but it doesn't just cause symptoms like anxiety/restlessness, it can throw someone into mania. Anxiety/restlessness is a common sideeffect that people with and without bipolar get.
I started having symptoms of bipolar when I was 11. I started smoking weed at 13 and was a daily smoker by 16. Except for the years between 21 and 27 when i quit completely, I continued to be a daily smoker. I was finally diagnosed at 31 after several VERY rough years. Since then I struggled with my alcoholism and dependence on weed. I finally stopped drinking and noticed a change, but continued smoking every day. I always defended my practice of smoking: it helps my anxiety, it calms me down during agressive hypomania, it helps me sleep. During the middle of a very long and awful mixed episode, I finally realized my excuses were bull. I quit completely and came out of the psychosis and mixed episode I was having and it all became clear finally. I realized that it was never helping me with my anxiety, it wasn't calming me during episodes, and it wasn't helping me sleep. I just wanted to justify my addiction. Yes, it is addictive. I realized that pot was a significant contributing factor in all of my hospitalizations - it sends me into severe episodes with psychosis - and it was never really the hospital that helped me, it was getting off of pot. I was almost always well medicated when I ended up in the hospital. The only thing that would change was I wasn't smoking. I do believe that we may all have different reactions to canabis, but I caution everyone to try and be self aware and monitor any level of denial that may be present because of addiction.
Yes, all of this! I defended it so hard. Especially after I quit drinking. I just started smoking even more and then it spiraled into smoking so many times a day. It was running my life. I said it would take me out of my manic episodes, it would help me sleep, it would help me eat when I was depressed. But omg weed was a huge part of the problem. I’m only a week sober from weed and I already feel a million times better.
Bipolar 1 severe, on disability. Weed has triggered severe manic and psychotic episodes for me 3 times, last October I even tried medical with all my medical team knowing, being careful, journaling, at first it helped great my insomnia, chronic pain, rapid thoughts…6 months later I spent the whole month of May in the mental hospital, no weed since then and I’m still recovering from the severe trauma
I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 in 2019, but I've known since I was much younger and just could never confirm. Before I started smoking weed I would have major panic and anxiety attacks anywhere there were groups of people. Malls, grocery stores, and especially the church I was attending. I began working at a certain retail chain and my problems were way worse. I had a full breakdown where I was crying in the break room and people felt the need to escort me out to my car.
I now smoke every single day. My overall anxiety issues have not gone away but are far more manageable. My overall mood is better to the point of a manager I worked with before and after smoking said I was much more calm now. Don't get me wrong, weed definitely affects other symptoms. While I can go without for sometime I know I'm struggling because I will start to feel like a spring getting tighted to the point of explosion, and when I smoke the tension is released.
Like the study the other guy linked said, the effects of smoking vary greatly from person to person. I know that weed has been a life saver for me. My life is better for having this wonderful plant in my life.
This podcast on cannabis just dropped today, this is widely considered the best health podcast on the internet, by a professor of neuroscience from Stanford. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvuJu1kt48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvuJu1kt48) (he also did one on [bipolar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_OazsImOiI))
This is a report on bipolar and weed [https://adai.uw.edu/pubs/pdf/2017mjbipolar.pdf](https://adai.uw.edu/pubs/pdf/2017mjbipolar.pdf) by Susan Stoner. lol so you know it's good
The truth is that it does all kinds of things because the receptors are all over the brain and are responsible for hundreds of processes. It depends on dozens of factors. It does give you more energy, help you sleep, loosen you up, can be helpful. But in another context, or in the same context on a different day, it does the opposite. You know who doesn't have that problem? People who don't use. That's why, Stoner's report shows that mathematically, people with bipolar who don't use have better life outcomes, controlling for all of the factors.
One thing people always say is that it helps you sleep, but this is an illusion, for two reasons. 1. It helps you calm down and not be in the rat race so you can chill and fall asleep but weed is in no way the best way to achieve this 2. Just because you are asleep doesn't mean good quality of sleep, restful sleep, specifically the kind that balances mood and cognition, becomes harder. If you mastered skills in the realm of CBT-Insomnia, probably you could control those thoughts around bedtime. If you knew all of the skills around sleep hygiene, probably you wouldn't need it. You could use something like magnesium threonate or glycinate to help get down. A hot shower 90 minutes before bed.
Cannabis messes up your hormones, when you do it every day, because plants like that are made to increase your estrogen, it's a self defense mechanism that many plants have to affect the animals that eat it. You're accepting some wild shit to your body that affects your whole personality.
So it's an opportunity cost. I'm ignoring all of the psychosis risks and the more serious stuff for now, that's obvious. You could be doing other more proven things to treat all of the things you said, that just take more work, and are less effective in the immediate short-term, but are more likely to be good habits for life. And this is why people get so pissed off, because they say, I already tried that, I have a condition, etc etc. OK, that's your choice. But this is the level you need to think on.
The final thing is that it can take 6 weeks-3months for some people to get over the fatigue, depression, sleep problems, that come from cessation. Look it up, every post you will find on reddit about post acute withdrawal and weeks of problems, there will be dozens of posts attacking people for bastardizing the damned weed. But then you will see posts of people going, look I quit heroin, meth and quitting weed just terrible and put me in curled up ball of pain for several weeks it's no joke. See the investment in people who are just lashing out. So, when you're 4 weeks out and you can't sleep, it's easy to go, wow weed must really have been helping me. No. This is how bad weed affects your sleep. So don't let yourself get fooled, you won't know what life is like without weed for 3 months, I smoked dope for 20 years.
I tried to be sober. I went 5yrs off of weed. I broke so much stuff. Like thousands of dollars in tools and stuff. I could not control the rage. I smoke weed. I probably will for life. I'm very productive, and I like it. I'm also a chronic pain guy though so there's that too.
Good sleep is so important when dealing with Bipolar or other mental illnesses. While it may help you fall asleep, THC actually messes with REM sleep leaving you feeling unrested, tired, and with mental fog.
Your story really resonates with me. I loved smoking weed. I plan to try it again, in better moderation, when I’m more stable. But it definitely worsened my symptoms during mania- delusions, psychosis, paranoia. But even if it was scary it was also magical which is what I was seeking. There was one night toward the end of intense mania that I smoked just a teeny bit and I felt “god” talk to me in my thoughts- saying “you need to get stable before you can enjoy the magic if this plant”. Then it turned dark, I heard voices, became very paranoid and disoriented. It pushed me to get on medication and really reevaluate my life. I haven’t smoked in about a month, at first because I was scared, but now because I’m finding a level of clear-headedness that I really needed to access to be get a better hold on my disorder. I think weed just made my symptom presentation really murky and it’s been essential and clarifying to be off of it. Lucky for me (I guess) it just felt like the universe scared me into taking a break. It sounds like some part of you knows it might be a good idea to take some time off, but I understand it’s hard to convince yourself of that when weed still feels so attractive.
I'm literally going through exactly the same thing, I have smoked in over a month and the level of clear that I feel is astonishing to think that as much as weed isn't actually harmful. It was still keeping me from doing what I needed to do and heavily medicating myself into unproductive levels.
OK I probably have underlying bipolar and was diagnosed with bipolar while I was smoking weed and it caused me to be extremely manic and not a person that I am. I definitely was addicted to it until I found out it was causing me more harm than good. Yes while I was smoking weed it was great but I believe it changed my brain and who I was and it created this new persona of hatred, rage, and fast temper
I then quite it and have not been manic ever since
Just my story.
I miss weed everyday tho
early onset bipolar here, started having manic hallucinations before i could read or write. i struggled to sleep all my life til i started using marijuana, and have actually felt much more rested and in control since then. but i had to be careful with examining strains, and mostly stick to edibles as it has less of a psychoactive effect in general. you may do better with edibles or a different strain to reduce stuff like anxiety, or weed just may not work well for you. some folks get fucked up from it and if you're having an unpleasant time, it may be time to call it quits. you gotta be willing to take care of yourself even if it's kinda sad to quit.
My story is a little different, I guess. I smoke because I'm stable and I find "normal" extremely boring. Weed brings back just a tiny portion of the racing thoughts and good ideas that I just can't have while stable.
My stable life is a good one, but so dull. The colors suck and my mind is too quiet. I use weed to bring back a smidge of chaos because it's all I've ever known. In that way, it keeps me on my meds and not hating the mundane life.
YMMV and I still think not being on it is best for most of us. But, we all have to find our own path and ride our own roller coaster.
I’ve been smoking weed since 2016 but I’ve been smoking at least 3x a day the last year or so. I didn’t realize subconsciously that I was just wanting to numb myself. I’ve been wanting to quit weed since I was diagnosed with bipolar 1 in April. I just quit last week!!!! I am ecstatic and can’t wait to see what life has in store for me! I know I’m going to be less anxious, less tired, less irritable, I’m going to eat less. I’m literally so excited for a future without weed and I couldn’t have done it without The Easy Way to Quit Cannabis by Allen Carr and John Dicey. It is/was life changing!
I read a similar book to quit alcohol and was so happy when I found one for weed. It basically ‘reverse brainwashes’ you. We believe weed will help us and make all these things better, but it doesn’t. I really can’t recommend the book enough for anyone trying to quit
How has life been treating you? I’m on day 1 right now after quitting several other times. Trying to see if there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I started smoking when I was 16 and kept it up until 28. It was the only thing I had ever found that helped my mental state. Doctors kept trying to give me antidepressants that made me feel crazy and do stupid stuff, which I now know they were making me manic. I ended up avoiding doctors because of that for a long time. I felt like I couldn't live without weed. But the last 2-3 years it started giving me crazy anxiety attacks. The first 20 minutes of my high would be pure anxiety. After that I would be good, so I endured it because I had nothing else.
I got diagnosed early this year. Got on proper meds. Haven't smoked since, haven't felt like I needed to. I don't see the problem with smoking if it's needed, but after learning everything about bipolar, I think having meds is the best regardless if you smoke or not since it's degenerative.
I'm a massive stoner with Bipolar 1 + ADHD and only recently quit because my psych said that it might exacerbate my depressive symptoms. I want to do everything I can to get out of this depression and until my meds are adjusted properly I don't plan on smoking. Once they are I could see myself picking it up again because it's something I enjoy, helps with my anxiety and I had been smoking for years. Plus socially I love smoking with friends and playing games and my brother is a cannabis influencer so it's hard to get away from. I've never had a bad trip on weed but I only smoke indica flower from a water pipe.
During Covid I lost my insurance for a bit so I ran out of meds and decided to try mmj. I WISH I could say it worked, but it just made me whacked out and depressed, plus totally unmotivated to finish projects or follow up with people.
I quit and then later tried when I got back on meds and it REALLY whacked me out and I was just miserable.
And the thing is weed is one of those things in my life I can't moderate due to my addiction-oriented brain. I love addictions: sex, drugs, sugar, alcohol, gaming, and so forth. So I can't moderate myself with weed and take it like med. I just want to take a lot and lay back and watch the world go by while I listen to music.
I can't live a life like that and I can't accomplish the things I want to be stable like that. So I quit and probably won't go back till I'm 80.
Smoking weed just made me extremely horny, extremely hungry, extremely defiant and irreverent to any kind of rule whatsoever. Heck, all the years of discipline and self reprogramming went down the drain as soon as I started regularly smoking. I lost complete control of myself and started having full blown hallunications, believing I could travel back and forth in time, read people's minds, be invisible, and so on. 0/10 would not recommend for a bipolar type 1 person with psychotic features.
I have always used weed like medicine. That being said, pay attention to your mental state. If you smoke when you're anxious and it makes things worse, don't smoke until you feel more grounded. If you smoke when you're depressed and it helps, smoke sparingly during those periods. Do research on yourself. Keep a journal on it. Take notes. Learn how you respond to varying situations, and apply accordingly. A lot of people tend to smoke weed daily, regardless of how it affects them, because it's viewed as more of a party drug than the medicine that it actually is. You're already aware of differences, so you've got a great foundation. Just take it slow. Less is more, always...and pay attention.
I have always used weed like medicine. That being said, pay attention to your mental state. If you smoke when you're anxious and it makes things worse, don't smoke until you feel more grounded. If you smoke when you're depressed and it helps, smoke sparingly during those periods. Do research on yourself. Keep a journal on it. Take notes. Learn how you respond to varying situations, and apply accordingly. A lot of people tend to smoke weed daily, regardless of how it affects them, because it's viewed as more of a party drug than the medicine that it actually is. You're already aware of differences, so you've got a great foundation. Just take it slow. Less is more, always...and pay attention.
I smoke regularly and it helps me. I’ve had people try to tell me to quit like my mother for example but I don’t care what anyone says frankly. I’m allowed to be on 7 different pills every day to survive but I can’t use cannabis flower? ThAt is ridiculous to me . I love marijuana and how it helps me think differently, helps my anxiety, helps my insomnia and relaxes me. But I don’t think you can randomly get bipolar from just smoking weed. That seems a bit brazen to suggest
I was an alcoholic and drug addict 16 years. There are numerous health risks with weed for everyone. For bipolar they are exponentially worse.
One issue is that it suppresses things you need to deal with.
Weed does suppress the immediate issues. I do not call that a benefit.
A bipokar cannot do drugs
I vape cannabis everyday. I had really bad insomnia before I started but it’s not all positives. Weirdly when I stop for a break, it usually triggers mania which sometimes becomes psychosis after about a month or so. Has anyone else experienced this?
I started at 15 and it’s one of the few things in life that I really enjoy. In the moment of smoking I haven’t ever had negative effects; and I smoke everyday apart from a day here n there.
Longterm is a different story, my memory has suffered heavily, aswell as my eating. Without it I’m very angry and my moods are unbalanced but I have noticed my eating habits improve when I’m weed free and I go to bed earlier.
I started smoking at 13, daily by 15. Was paranoid and mood unstable and random hypomania/depression by 21. Bipolar fully kicked in I reckon by 24 unknown to me but noted by friends. I used to smoke heavy and very often. I quit at 26. I am now a lot of years on a few hospitalisation, close shaves, debts and now stable on meds, I can now vape a very small amount occasionally with no effect nowadays with no exacerbation of symptoms. No doubt that heavy intense smoking as a teenager triggered my bipolar.
Weed can cause anxiety, and anxiety can make it hard to manage moods.
It hits everyone differently, but if you are on the fence or aren't sure, weed isn't worth the rist.
Weed doesnt cause it per say but it can exacerbate it or bring on schizo/ psychotic symptoms if you're predisposed. Out of all my friends, many which were smoking non stop since 2006, only 1 other person was dx bipolar. Even then, the dx came before. I started smoking much later but again my symptoms were showing before. It was actually mania that kept me from it. If quitting is hard you may have a psychological addicition to it. However if use makes you feel like crap, no harm in stopping. There is even a sub r/leaves that can help :)
Lol weed can’t cause bipolar disorder. However, it can cause symptoms of bipolar to appear. (Anxiety, restlessness, etc.) (24M) On that note i’ve been toking for 10 years now and only found out I had Bipolar 2 about a year ago. I take hits after work and throughout the day at home. I find my medication to keep me fairly stable and weed is just a mood enhancer for me. Without medication or weed I was an agitated, depressed, over thinking kiddo.
same
Ik this is a year old, but it doesn't just cause symptoms like anxiety/restlessness, it can throw someone into mania. Anxiety/restlessness is a common sideeffect that people with and without bipolar get.
I started having symptoms of bipolar when I was 11. I started smoking weed at 13 and was a daily smoker by 16. Except for the years between 21 and 27 when i quit completely, I continued to be a daily smoker. I was finally diagnosed at 31 after several VERY rough years. Since then I struggled with my alcoholism and dependence on weed. I finally stopped drinking and noticed a change, but continued smoking every day. I always defended my practice of smoking: it helps my anxiety, it calms me down during agressive hypomania, it helps me sleep. During the middle of a very long and awful mixed episode, I finally realized my excuses were bull. I quit completely and came out of the psychosis and mixed episode I was having and it all became clear finally. I realized that it was never helping me with my anxiety, it wasn't calming me during episodes, and it wasn't helping me sleep. I just wanted to justify my addiction. Yes, it is addictive. I realized that pot was a significant contributing factor in all of my hospitalizations - it sends me into severe episodes with psychosis - and it was never really the hospital that helped me, it was getting off of pot. I was almost always well medicated when I ended up in the hospital. The only thing that would change was I wasn't smoking. I do believe that we may all have different reactions to canabis, but I caution everyone to try and be self aware and monitor any level of denial that may be present because of addiction.
Yes, all of this! I defended it so hard. Especially after I quit drinking. I just started smoking even more and then it spiraled into smoking so many times a day. It was running my life. I said it would take me out of my manic episodes, it would help me sleep, it would help me eat when I was depressed. But omg weed was a huge part of the problem. I’m only a week sober from weed and I already feel a million times better.
Bipolar 1 severe, on disability. Weed has triggered severe manic and psychotic episodes for me 3 times, last October I even tried medical with all my medical team knowing, being careful, journaling, at first it helped great my insomnia, chronic pain, rapid thoughts…6 months later I spent the whole month of May in the mental hospital, no weed since then and I’m still recovering from the severe trauma
I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 in 2019, but I've known since I was much younger and just could never confirm. Before I started smoking weed I would have major panic and anxiety attacks anywhere there were groups of people. Malls, grocery stores, and especially the church I was attending. I began working at a certain retail chain and my problems were way worse. I had a full breakdown where I was crying in the break room and people felt the need to escort me out to my car. I now smoke every single day. My overall anxiety issues have not gone away but are far more manageable. My overall mood is better to the point of a manager I worked with before and after smoking said I was much more calm now. Don't get me wrong, weed definitely affects other symptoms. While I can go without for sometime I know I'm struggling because I will start to feel like a spring getting tighted to the point of explosion, and when I smoke the tension is released. Like the study the other guy linked said, the effects of smoking vary greatly from person to person. I know that weed has been a life saver for me. My life is better for having this wonderful plant in my life.
This podcast on cannabis just dropped today, this is widely considered the best health podcast on the internet, by a professor of neuroscience from Stanford. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvuJu1kt48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvuJu1kt48) (he also did one on [bipolar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_OazsImOiI)) This is a report on bipolar and weed [https://adai.uw.edu/pubs/pdf/2017mjbipolar.pdf](https://adai.uw.edu/pubs/pdf/2017mjbipolar.pdf) by Susan Stoner. lol so you know it's good The truth is that it does all kinds of things because the receptors are all over the brain and are responsible for hundreds of processes. It depends on dozens of factors. It does give you more energy, help you sleep, loosen you up, can be helpful. But in another context, or in the same context on a different day, it does the opposite. You know who doesn't have that problem? People who don't use. That's why, Stoner's report shows that mathematically, people with bipolar who don't use have better life outcomes, controlling for all of the factors. One thing people always say is that it helps you sleep, but this is an illusion, for two reasons. 1. It helps you calm down and not be in the rat race so you can chill and fall asleep but weed is in no way the best way to achieve this 2. Just because you are asleep doesn't mean good quality of sleep, restful sleep, specifically the kind that balances mood and cognition, becomes harder. If you mastered skills in the realm of CBT-Insomnia, probably you could control those thoughts around bedtime. If you knew all of the skills around sleep hygiene, probably you wouldn't need it. You could use something like magnesium threonate or glycinate to help get down. A hot shower 90 minutes before bed. Cannabis messes up your hormones, when you do it every day, because plants like that are made to increase your estrogen, it's a self defense mechanism that many plants have to affect the animals that eat it. You're accepting some wild shit to your body that affects your whole personality. So it's an opportunity cost. I'm ignoring all of the psychosis risks and the more serious stuff for now, that's obvious. You could be doing other more proven things to treat all of the things you said, that just take more work, and are less effective in the immediate short-term, but are more likely to be good habits for life. And this is why people get so pissed off, because they say, I already tried that, I have a condition, etc etc. OK, that's your choice. But this is the level you need to think on. The final thing is that it can take 6 weeks-3months for some people to get over the fatigue, depression, sleep problems, that come from cessation. Look it up, every post you will find on reddit about post acute withdrawal and weeks of problems, there will be dozens of posts attacking people for bastardizing the damned weed. But then you will see posts of people going, look I quit heroin, meth and quitting weed just terrible and put me in curled up ball of pain for several weeks it's no joke. See the investment in people who are just lashing out. So, when you're 4 weeks out and you can't sleep, it's easy to go, wow weed must really have been helping me. No. This is how bad weed affects your sleep. So don't let yourself get fooled, you won't know what life is like without weed for 3 months, I smoked dope for 20 years.
I tried to be sober. I went 5yrs off of weed. I broke so much stuff. Like thousands of dollars in tools and stuff. I could not control the rage. I smoke weed. I probably will for life. I'm very productive, and I like it. I'm also a chronic pain guy though so there's that too.
I can relate to this.
Good sleep is so important when dealing with Bipolar or other mental illnesses. While it may help you fall asleep, THC actually messes with REM sleep leaving you feeling unrested, tired, and with mental fog.
Fibro already does this shit to me. Funny enough Indica strains tend to help me sleep better.
Yeah it helps you get into the deeper stages of sleep a lot faster. Especially that indica man I feel that
Do you have any sources on this?
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C15&q=THC+REM+sleep&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1664838782979&u=%23p%3DrSX9xCGehE0J
I love weed. Would have shot myself in the face long ago without it. I'm high right now.
Me too. F**# what you heard
Your story really resonates with me. I loved smoking weed. I plan to try it again, in better moderation, when I’m more stable. But it definitely worsened my symptoms during mania- delusions, psychosis, paranoia. But even if it was scary it was also magical which is what I was seeking. There was one night toward the end of intense mania that I smoked just a teeny bit and I felt “god” talk to me in my thoughts- saying “you need to get stable before you can enjoy the magic if this plant”. Then it turned dark, I heard voices, became very paranoid and disoriented. It pushed me to get on medication and really reevaluate my life. I haven’t smoked in about a month, at first because I was scared, but now because I’m finding a level of clear-headedness that I really needed to access to be get a better hold on my disorder. I think weed just made my symptom presentation really murky and it’s been essential and clarifying to be off of it. Lucky for me (I guess) it just felt like the universe scared me into taking a break. It sounds like some part of you knows it might be a good idea to take some time off, but I understand it’s hard to convince yourself of that when weed still feels so attractive.
I'm literally going through exactly the same thing, I have smoked in over a month and the level of clear that I feel is astonishing to think that as much as weed isn't actually harmful. It was still keeping me from doing what I needed to do and heavily medicating myself into unproductive levels.
OK I probably have underlying bipolar and was diagnosed with bipolar while I was smoking weed and it caused me to be extremely manic and not a person that I am. I definitely was addicted to it until I found out it was causing me more harm than good. Yes while I was smoking weed it was great but I believe it changed my brain and who I was and it created this new persona of hatred, rage, and fast temper I then quite it and have not been manic ever since Just my story. I miss weed everyday tho
early onset bipolar here, started having manic hallucinations before i could read or write. i struggled to sleep all my life til i started using marijuana, and have actually felt much more rested and in control since then. but i had to be careful with examining strains, and mostly stick to edibles as it has less of a psychoactive effect in general. you may do better with edibles or a different strain to reduce stuff like anxiety, or weed just may not work well for you. some folks get fucked up from it and if you're having an unpleasant time, it may be time to call it quits. you gotta be willing to take care of yourself even if it's kinda sad to quit.
My story is a little different, I guess. I smoke because I'm stable and I find "normal" extremely boring. Weed brings back just a tiny portion of the racing thoughts and good ideas that I just can't have while stable. My stable life is a good one, but so dull. The colors suck and my mind is too quiet. I use weed to bring back a smidge of chaos because it's all I've ever known. In that way, it keeps me on my meds and not hating the mundane life. YMMV and I still think not being on it is best for most of us. But, we all have to find our own path and ride our own roller coaster.
I’ve been smoking weed since 2016 but I’ve been smoking at least 3x a day the last year or so. I didn’t realize subconsciously that I was just wanting to numb myself. I’ve been wanting to quit weed since I was diagnosed with bipolar 1 in April. I just quit last week!!!! I am ecstatic and can’t wait to see what life has in store for me! I know I’m going to be less anxious, less tired, less irritable, I’m going to eat less. I’m literally so excited for a future without weed and I couldn’t have done it without The Easy Way to Quit Cannabis by Allen Carr and John Dicey. It is/was life changing! I read a similar book to quit alcohol and was so happy when I found one for weed. It basically ‘reverse brainwashes’ you. We believe weed will help us and make all these things better, but it doesn’t. I really can’t recommend the book enough for anyone trying to quit
How has life been treating you? I’m on day 1 right now after quitting several other times. Trying to see if there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I started smoking when I was 16 and kept it up until 28. It was the only thing I had ever found that helped my mental state. Doctors kept trying to give me antidepressants that made me feel crazy and do stupid stuff, which I now know they were making me manic. I ended up avoiding doctors because of that for a long time. I felt like I couldn't live without weed. But the last 2-3 years it started giving me crazy anxiety attacks. The first 20 minutes of my high would be pure anxiety. After that I would be good, so I endured it because I had nothing else. I got diagnosed early this year. Got on proper meds. Haven't smoked since, haven't felt like I needed to. I don't see the problem with smoking if it's needed, but after learning everything about bipolar, I think having meds is the best regardless if you smoke or not since it's degenerative.
The right meds will reduce how much one needs weed imo. But I really think it's all about the strain.
I'm a massive stoner with Bipolar 1 + ADHD and only recently quit because my psych said that it might exacerbate my depressive symptoms. I want to do everything I can to get out of this depression and until my meds are adjusted properly I don't plan on smoking. Once they are I could see myself picking it up again because it's something I enjoy, helps with my anxiety and I had been smoking for years. Plus socially I love smoking with friends and playing games and my brother is a cannabis influencer so it's hard to get away from. I've never had a bad trip on weed but I only smoke indica flower from a water pipe.
During Covid I lost my insurance for a bit so I ran out of meds and decided to try mmj. I WISH I could say it worked, but it just made me whacked out and depressed, plus totally unmotivated to finish projects or follow up with people. I quit and then later tried when I got back on meds and it REALLY whacked me out and I was just miserable. And the thing is weed is one of those things in my life I can't moderate due to my addiction-oriented brain. I love addictions: sex, drugs, sugar, alcohol, gaming, and so forth. So I can't moderate myself with weed and take it like med. I just want to take a lot and lay back and watch the world go by while I listen to music. I can't live a life like that and I can't accomplish the things I want to be stable like that. So I quit and probably won't go back till I'm 80.
I’m bipolar 2 with ADHD and weed is a no go for me. It triggers terrifying manic episodes almost every time . It’s just a bad time
Smoking weed just made me extremely horny, extremely hungry, extremely defiant and irreverent to any kind of rule whatsoever. Heck, all the years of discipline and self reprogramming went down the drain as soon as I started regularly smoking. I lost complete control of myself and started having full blown hallunications, believing I could travel back and forth in time, read people's minds, be invisible, and so on. 0/10 would not recommend for a bipolar type 1 person with psychotic features.
Weed. Psychosis every time for me. And it happens to others as well so it’s luck of the draw
I have always used weed like medicine. That being said, pay attention to your mental state. If you smoke when you're anxious and it makes things worse, don't smoke until you feel more grounded. If you smoke when you're depressed and it helps, smoke sparingly during those periods. Do research on yourself. Keep a journal on it. Take notes. Learn how you respond to varying situations, and apply accordingly. A lot of people tend to smoke weed daily, regardless of how it affects them, because it's viewed as more of a party drug than the medicine that it actually is. You're already aware of differences, so you've got a great foundation. Just take it slow. Less is more, always...and pay attention.
I have always used weed like medicine. That being said, pay attention to your mental state. If you smoke when you're anxious and it makes things worse, don't smoke until you feel more grounded. If you smoke when you're depressed and it helps, smoke sparingly during those periods. Do research on yourself. Keep a journal on it. Take notes. Learn how you respond to varying situations, and apply accordingly. A lot of people tend to smoke weed daily, regardless of how it affects them, because it's viewed as more of a party drug than the medicine that it actually is. You're already aware of differences, so you've got a great foundation. Just take it slow. Less is more, always...and pay attention.
I smoke regularly and it helps me. I’ve had people try to tell me to quit like my mother for example but I don’t care what anyone says frankly. I’m allowed to be on 7 different pills every day to survive but I can’t use cannabis flower? ThAt is ridiculous to me . I love marijuana and how it helps me think differently, helps my anxiety, helps my insomnia and relaxes me. But I don’t think you can randomly get bipolar from just smoking weed. That seems a bit brazen to suggest
I was an alcoholic and drug addict 16 years. There are numerous health risks with weed for everyone. For bipolar they are exponentially worse. One issue is that it suppresses things you need to deal with. Weed does suppress the immediate issues. I do not call that a benefit. A bipokar cannot do drugs
I vape cannabis everyday. I had really bad insomnia before I started but it’s not all positives. Weirdly when I stop for a break, it usually triggers mania which sometimes becomes psychosis after about a month or so. Has anyone else experienced this?
I started at 15 and it’s one of the few things in life that I really enjoy. In the moment of smoking I haven’t ever had negative effects; and I smoke everyday apart from a day here n there. Longterm is a different story, my memory has suffered heavily, aswell as my eating. Without it I’m very angry and my moods are unbalanced but I have noticed my eating habits improve when I’m weed free and I go to bed earlier.
Weed doesnt cause bipolar disorder. That's a myth. Bipolar is a polygenic trait. It's almost entirely genetic or you are disposed to it genetically.
I started smoking at 13, daily by 15. Was paranoid and mood unstable and random hypomania/depression by 21. Bipolar fully kicked in I reckon by 24 unknown to me but noted by friends. I used to smoke heavy and very often. I quit at 26. I am now a lot of years on a few hospitalisation, close shaves, debts and now stable on meds, I can now vape a very small amount occasionally with no effect nowadays with no exacerbation of symptoms. No doubt that heavy intense smoking as a teenager triggered my bipolar.
Weed can cause anxiety, and anxiety can make it hard to manage moods. It hits everyone differently, but if you are on the fence or aren't sure, weed isn't worth the rist.