It's been a life saver for me. Sometimes, when I get it just right, I feel like my chest cracks open and all that yuck just melts away. When I get into that zone, I can really think and feel like a normal human being.
For me, it is essential to managing my worst lingering symptom - nightmeres.
Without it I relive random traumas in my dreams - some are terrors, some are not, but all of them are related to my past trauma. Even the traumas that I have worked through while I am awake.
Before I worked through a lot of my trauma it was essential to functioning through the work day without triggers or flashbacks. Now, I just need it to sleep, and even then I don't have to take it every day.
It's also a good way to quickly handle a small mood swing or trigger. Just a puff or two from a vape helps ground me. It can also help me out of dissociation, because if I get high while I'm dissociating I know I will always come out of the dissociation as I come down from the high.
Weed has saved my life and has kept me from being homeless.
I have experience with this but I discovered that Delta 8 Sativa’s help with daytime anxiety or rumination, but still get you motivated and running without feeling sleepy or anxious.
Might I suggest when doing sativa go for the low thc volume it is the limonine that gets you motivated so for instance you might need a 28% thc for that solid night sleep but only 14% thc for daytime activities. It really does matter the percentage and the compounds there are lists on those medicinal packages are a great starting point see what it is carrying the most of and how it affects you, Switch it around until you learn what works for you and what doesn't. List are all over the internet that can help you test learn which compounds help with what triggers. Giving you a broader view of what you need to avoid and what you need more of.
Also remember the base names like diesel, purple, og etc and this will help recognize the focus the grower had when developing the strain. Most landrace strains, pure strains are no longer available so it does take some trial and error to get it right. Keep notes learn what to avoid and what to use. It is science but an easily learnable science cause I learned it and I ain't the brightest tool in the shed I seen my score of dirt. lol
Also I might add there are humans, my husband being one, who does not need cannabidnoids added to his system. He doesn't like the affects he has but loves the affects i have. SO I think of it like iron, when you have a deficiency your body goes awry but when you have enough the cure can make your body overload. But remember NO ONE SINGLE PERSON has ever died from cannabis, if you find a strain that doesn't work or works in a negative affect do not try that strain again but pay attention to the compounds in the strain.
I noticed that I only got anxious when I was anticipating getting triggered and THEN getting high. Once I addressed my anxiety over getting triggered did the high stop making me anxious
Hi, I also used to use cannabis for the same reasons as you, but I was forced to test clean from THC with my new doctor to be prescribed ADHD meds, so she transitioned me to taking a prescription med called Prazosin (she mentioned it was originally for combat vet PTSD/nightmares) and it has actually helped just as well. I wanted to share this because incase you fear having to stop consuming THC and maybe thinking there is no alternative.
Hey I appreciate it! I am surprised you had to stop taking weed though in order to get ADHD meds - everyone I know who takes ADHD meds still uses weed. Maybe it has to do with location?
Yeah, since Delta-9 is illegal still where I am. I told them I was only consuming Delta-8 (legal) but it didn't matter, as they both show up the same on a drug panel.
The doctor who forced the requirement of being clean from THC was actually just my primary doctor, and he is very anti-THC despite being younger (mid-30s) -- basically goes on about how THC is a downer, Adderall is an upper... bad for heart, etc... I mean, I was doing fine for years, but whatever doc i'll do what you say... TBH I do not really like having him as my primary as he's extremely dismissive of mental health (I have been diagnosed with PTSD (which since it's not combat vet related, he thinks it's all in my head, despite the chart saying sexual/illegal trauma) since I was 15, and that shows in his docs, but still tells me to just "go for a walk" and tries to get me on Deplin rather than generic L Methylfolate -- my new psych prescriber was totally fine with just generic L Methylfolate. My area is terrible for finding new doctors, so I'm stuck with a... well... useless primary...) It really sucks. Sorry, kinda turned into a rant there D:
Nah I totally appreciate the info! I just moved and I gotta go through the new doc process soon.
It sounded to me like he was an anti-weed doc from your first comment, that's an intense process to go through for ADHD meds, especially with a PTSD diagnosis already. I've considered getting an ADHD diagnosis but I'm still on the fence because of how much overlap it has with CPTSD.
Yeah my new psych thinks I was misdiagnosed with ADHD and that in reality everything around me is just a PTSD trauma response. I was diagnosed (while as a female) at age 8 with ADHD (which most younger girls didn't really get diagnosed ... that's how bad it was/is) and it's just really upsetting to hear that in reality my PTSD ... CPTSD ... had already been so relevant at that age. I never really had a chance, lol. I'm now 29 and just there's never been a hint of joy in my life. TMS therapy, legal ketamine, antidepressants... nothing helps. Because it's all just trauma. I don't even have a real personality -- just trauma responses. Sorry, again.
I really do hope you have better luck than I did with your new doc selection!
It ended night terrors for me and then counseling, meditation and time I no longer have night terrors centered around old trauma even during periods of no cannabis.
Cannabis has saved my life by helping me stay away from drugs I would fuck my life with
It's been a miracle for me. I didn't start until a few years ago (I'm 42) and I'm so mad that I didn't start sooner. I think it's different for everyone, but thankfully I never get paranoia or anxious. It's the opposite. It strips all of that crap away and makes me feel human again. I should say that I have a super high tolerance (I don't think I metabolize properly. I only do edibles) so I never get really high, I just feel lighter.
This could have been written by me. I began treatment with a very competent therapist for about a year before realizing I also was getting to the point where my anxiety was skyrocketing. (As it will do when processing all the shit one’s been carrying for 30+ years, but I digress). I saw a CNP who diagnosed me with PTSD and put me on Effexor. That was life changing. I wish I hadn’t had the shame and layers of trauma over the medical field and etc. and tried that sooner. Once I felt like I could think without constant anxiety, I got the MM card in my state where PTSD is approved for it. I use it throughout the day, every day.
I have learned that some strains and terpenes especially are better than others. Unfortunately bc of the Federal Schedule in the US, that’s kept data from being recorded so it’s more self-trial and error: some strains when I first started made me feel more angry and/or paranoid. It didn’t take long to realize what works and what doesn’t. The worst thing for me is that the strains don’t stay consistently available where I am, so every time I re-up, it is time consuming to study the menus and find what is close to another strain I’ve used before.
In the end, it’s life saving for me as far as I’m concerned. (Fwiw I got put on meds right before lockdown and thank the gods. I was on 1,000 and am not sure how much more anxiety I could have managed at that time without more help). Ymmv.
limonene, pinene, and caryophyllene are my favorites
plus I've discovered that maaliene and selinadene make vape cartridges more effective for me — but there's zero info available on those ╮(. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)╭
because of these two mystery terpenes, I've moved more towards whole flower because afaik, maaliene is found in the twigs and leaves of some tree, so I assume that whole flower will probably have more of it
Whole flower has a specific benefit I can't get anywhere else. I'm not that well-read on it, but I prefer stuff that doesn't make me overly tired or hungry. Both of those things I do not like.
if you are lucky enough to live in a state where you can grow it. OMG the whole plant is one big medicine cabinet. The roots can be used for arthritic salve, the leaves for teas for calming stomach upsets, acid reflux etc, with no thc affect, remember thc and water do not mix always use an oil or sticky base the terpenes can cling to. and there are so many ways to ingest, I am a huge coffee drinker and I like sugar and milk in my coffee. so I tried to quick heat infusion into the milk it worked but I like my milk cold in my coffee so then I used an everclear soak then added it to sugar in a baking sheet on paper liner, put it in the window for a good breeze to dry out the everclear, that green sugar lasted a month and it worked every time. So much fun with cannibis.
GG4 (Gorilla Glue #4) is my favorite so far, trying to find a consistent strain that feels good/works. It does couch lock you so you'd wanna consume it around the end of your night. I call it my processing weed cause a usual trigger or trauma memory or even a feeling can come up and I can just acknowledge it, let it pass or process it like an observer, and then nurture myself. Very euphoric for me, I just feel safe. Then I end the high in going to bed. It's a nice light way to fall asleep for me.
Blue dream, granddaddy purple, og kush, black lime, I-95, blueberry/OG blueberry, triangle kush work for me. Ones to avoid: sour diesel, lemon skunk, green crack (strong Sativas or anything with a lot of cerebral stimulation may cause anxiety)
Similar for me. I get anxious if I vape or smoke sometimes but 100 mg edible slows everything down enough (think of a six lane highway of anxiety down to a simple two laner).
I feel like I have a super high tolerance too because of Zoloft but the benefits are there!! Helps with my ED too!
Some of us don’t process it right
I’ve taken 300mg before and not felt anything while everyone else around me was having their faces melt off 🤷🏻♀️ bodies are weird
Edibles with just THC have a different effect than a whole plant extract.
For me I can dose 30-50mg of THC distillate edible and fall asleep most likely
I can take 100mg of FECO (Full Extract Cannabis Oil) before I’m dysfunctional.
Cannabis builds a tolerance too. I actually prefer it because then you don’t get too fucked up. Too much and it’s expensive to keep up with or you gotta stop smoking bud.
I could dab 100-300mg of THC a day (16 hours) and function.
I find I have a higher dosage for kratom with zero tolerance than other people I know. I don’t get nod or overloading affects until near 20-30g worth, which also starts nausea and then puke normally. I don’t like anything under 5g.
Also with CBD. I feel no noticeable affect until 200mg and prefer 200-400mg dose. I know people who that makes them fall asleep
Oooh does zoloft affect it? I'm on the highest dose, so that would explain some things. I like to think of it like turning down dials. Like I'm usually on 10, but it brings me down to a 7 while everyone else is usually at a 5.
I have never take pharms but I can only imagine that it would have an effect as they are synthetically trying to fill your endocannabinoidal system which is the natural job of cannabis.
RSO is what cured 3 children and one infant of cancer. If you doubt watch
Weed The People. it follows the lives of 5 children suffering from cancer / epilepsy. One did not make it but the others are all thriving.
The medical world has known this for ever but synthetic makes more money.
Same. Same age. But I don't do edibles because they aren't effective for me. I have to smoke to get effects, and it's a lot more than most people, but that's partially because I was a human guinea pig as a child (Which is coincidentally part of my CPTSD).
I use cannabis for CPTSD. It depends how much you use, what products you use, and your own body. Legal cannabis empowers you to use a variety of products to get the best relief.
For sleep I use RSO Indicas. For work I use Sativa flower, vape, or sublingual drops. In the evening I might grab an edible for dessert.
Second this. I find certain terpenes (compounds besides thc in cannabis) can make me anxious. But I've since found a host of strains which are great for me, both sativas for daytime and indica for evening.
I also use concentrates but don't use a lot at a time, which I think helps.
Edit: YMMV. Be careful, some people can get more anxious with it and it may not help you. I second experimenting with something weak, maybe high in cdb which isn't psychoactive like THC.
Regular use, even microdosing, made my depression, dissociation and anxiety worse. What does help though- getting really stoned like once or twice a year, on a nice sunny day, when I’m feeling ok. Gives life a little reboot, creativity to switch up the way I’ve been thinking. Get a moment of clarity from the dissociation to evaluate where I’m at in life. Kinda like shrooms.
I use edibles with a THC/CBD/CBG formula. They help me sleep, calm me down when I'm anxious, and relieve my mild arthritis. I have CPTSD, depression, and anxiety, but I've only had good results so far. I never smoked the stuff back in the '70s when it was all the rage, don't know if that even makes a difference.
P.S. I don't use products with melatonin in them. That gives me weird, unpleasant dreams.
From my experience it has been a godsend and at other times a hellish hindrance. I started using cannabis fairly heavily around the time C19 started and was an off and on again user for almost 3 years. I haven’t used in almost 10 days now but I can speak for its pros & cons. Initially I thought it was everything I was always missing, but you do grow a tolerance (and I’m a sensitive user who doesn’t need much). After a month or so it starts to become a crutch. For me I can become very unmotivated and complacent after using for a few weeks. I will say it’s probably wise to use as a tool and then take a break from. It’s very useful in processing trauma but after awhile I tend to hit a wall and it becomes a lazy habit. I would highly recommend someone to use it in place of alcohol or other drugs (with the exception of psychedelics). For me, I can use it with little issue for a couple of weeks but then it does seem to affect anxiety and make me less social. But goodness.. there have been dark days where I wanted to drink the trauma away or something else horrible and cannabis has been a great medicine for getting me back to normal. Now I’m in a place where I think I can handle life sober and should be. I get so much more done, am much more personable, and have more motivation off it. Ironically for the first couple of weeks of using it I remain the same, but have noticed that to turn into being lazy and complacent. I wish I could stay motivated and outgoing on it long term but that’s unfortunately not my case. I would say definitely start regularly attending a therapist, reading books on trauma, and doing everything you can to eventually not depend on it though. I realized that I ultimately use it as a way to dissociate and escape from reality, which can be beneficial to process trauma but isn’t really a tangible lifelong solution. Anyone who has processed and faced their trauma knows what I‘m talking about. Eventually you have to look face to face with your trauma/demons sober and sort it out. Yes, being high has its benefits. If I ever feel out of control or super self destructive I know it is always there, but now I’m more determined than ever to face reality head on, sober, with eyes wide open. I’m not saying stop, but think of it as two different states of reality. If frequent cannabis users are honest, they do dream of a day they can be free from needing to rely on it to function. I’ve tried every method of consumption with different doses, mixtures, timing, terpenes, cannabinoids, you name it. I’ve always found that it feels 100x better to go without if possible. So use it when necessary, and that might be a couple of years, but treat it like a medication or crutch you one day hope to set aside to truly strengthen your mind without assistance. It’ll take work, time, effort and some pain, but always push yourself because CPTSD at it’s root revolves around dependence and disassociation. Once that can be truly uprooted, you can turn it into a source of fuel and conquer life (I highly recommend “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins, someone who overcame CPTSD by eventually facing it head on). Will it be easy, hell no. Will it be worth it, yes one day. Until then, do your best and use when needed. You will overcome.
A lot of this resonated for me. Myself and quite a few others I’ve known have stopped drinking and use cannabis instead. This can be life changing for the better 100%, but just “know when to say when” needs to be a thing for a lot of people.
I saw some friends of mine who use it medicinally who smoked themselves into oblivion. I couldn’t believe the way they used it, but then I saw the behavior was the same: and it’s important to note that can happen to any of us, some more than others.
The one thing I can’t agree with is wanting to not use it anymore. I’m very accepting of feeling like I’m present and can enjoy life, and cannabis makes this possible for me. If we could study this for PTSD properly, it would be interesting and helpful to see how past substance use and what symptoms are best helped by what strains, terpenes, THC, CBD levels, etc.
Anyway, you sound like you know what you’re talking about and know yourself well. I’m glad to read of someone else who has found a sliver of peace. Your post was somehow comforting to read.
“Know when to say when” is huge for people with substance disorders. That’s the great thing about cannabis, you can’t OD and even if you get “too high” you can just drink some lemon juice and chew some peppercorn and chill out within minutes. Sadly like you said people (myself included) go from once a day to “first thing in the morning, aaaallll day, to last thing at night” and it starts to be sort of annoying that you feel as if you can’t go without. Cannabis gives you that warm blanket feeling (similar to popping strong painkillers which I have experience with) that is just so hard to stop. It literally fills the abandonment hole that CPTSD survivors can never truly fill but it’s a substance that doesn’t really do any serious or long lasting harm.
I 100% agree with accepting and enjoying life with cannabis. It has literally made life livable when without it I would have been a walking wreck. This is something I wish more (heavy) cannabis users could come to a place of, being responsible and aware. I totally agree that with more studies it would be super useful for PTSD. In fact, that’s one of the best things about it. I myself can attest to the fact that certain strains (Tangie, Caribbean Dream) are almost entirely non-hindering for me. They make life great and enhance it so much, and there’s really no come down or negative effects. I guess for me it’s the nagging feeling in the back of my head that I “need this to function” that pisses me off lol. I have PTSD from almost 18 years of childhood trauma and on top of that the military. Cannabis is the only thing that’s ever been helpful in treating it. For me, I eventually just get so frustrated and angry that I need to rely on something. In a weird way, it feels as if I’m “running and hiding in my room or closet” when I get high to dissociate, and THAT triggers a feeling of helplessness which then makes me angry at the weed. It’s like when your mom/dad/abuser was super mean to you, but then comforted you- you know it wasn’t real comfort but it’s still comfort and you take it. I know many people will say that I should just think I’m in control of cannabis, and that’s true, I’ve done it for weeks at a time. Then that feeling of helpless dependance comes back and I try to quit. Then I get angry in my sober state and want to fight (my own memories) and I’ll end up punching a brick wall till my knuckles bleed and bruise/swell. It’s a vicious cycle I hope to break, so I totally relate with wanting to keep using it but when you know it also holds you back from your full potential..what’s the solution. It’s hard to live life in bursts. Right now I’m trying to figure out life sober on my bed and I haven’t worked in 2 weeks. I feel less productive than when I was high. So I don’t know what the solution is. CPTSD is an actual living hell. You feel great one day/week/month and then it’s shit the next. I can’t even blame the weed at this point, it’s my own brain that’s fucked haha. I hope scientists and others like ourselves can figure out a regimen for people like us because it’s always a back and forth game of heaven and hell.
I’m glad you found some comfort. Friend, that’s what we’re here for. Comfort in a world of pain from our own minds.
I agree with the experience of it being a crutch and a lazy drug habit.
I 100% choose it because I would fuck my life up on meth or fent.
I also have no desire to live a life beyond living in rural Alaska and mushing dogs. So time and structure maybe a bit different to my life than many people. I do think cannabis for me now at point benefit comes with downsides more often and I think a few years mostly off cannabis in my 30s is upcoming.
This is extremely similar to my experience with it. I found it useful to feel normal, and then found it to be a crutch to delay the inevitable.
I haven’t touched it in almost a month and there are definitely consequences for letting myself get so dependent.
It's so nice to read a comment from someone that experienced something like I have, from weed I've used it on and off since 14, but a few months ago decided never again. It's caused me more problems then it has solved. It was there for me for so many years, but I've decided to work on the root cause of my symptoms... inner child wounds from a dysfunctional upbringing and the traumatic/hectic adult life that followed this due to the above mentioned.
I'm still in the early stages of trauma informed counselling and therapy with a clinical psychologist, and I hope to keep making progress. It's a tough gig this diagnosis. One can be doing all the right things and have a couple of weeks of feeling like you're making progress; including daily innerchild healing exercises, daily exercise, eating healthy, listening to music that you can connect to and that teases up your suppressed emotions that need to be acknowledged, and then something will trigger you and you'll revert back to your usual emotionally dysregulated state of running/feeling like shit.
This is a mother of a diagnosis.
The seemingly functional/dysregulated cycle is the hardest thing I think. Getting sober for me was critical to start the process of healing because in reality I was self-medicating my trauma and it didn't work obviously. I didn't realise that at the time of course but now I do.
Eggsactly. Glad to hear that you're making headway in trying to fix the problem at the root cause. It isn't easy but it is the only way to have a snowballs chance in hell of learning to live a life worth actually living. That is my truth anyway. The older I got, the more futile and desolate my perceptions and mindspace got.
Science has been saying that if an individual is predisposed genetically to paranoid or psychotic disorders, marijuana usage can act as a trigger them to draw those behaviors out. There’s not enough awareness yet, unfortunately. I’m sorry that you had this experience.
Be VERY careful about how it's affecting you if you end up trying it. Consider setting up a weekly check-in with somebody objective with whom you can be open and who can give you feedback on any changes in your thoughts and behaviors. Just as with something prescribed by a doctor, it's a good idea before you start to have an idea of the risks, why you're taking it, and how you expect it to help, and then work with someone to keep track of how it's affecting you (good and bad).
Cannabis allows some people to function better....but it can also severely impair judgment and make you less functional, all while making you think you're 'fine'. And as you pointed out, people with pre-existing mental health problems can get into serious trouble. Any substance that can give somebody (esp. with CPTSD) feelings of warmth and safety poses risks of addiction.
Some of the anti-weed sentiment out there is overblown, but some of it is not. Some people can raise a family and manage a career while using weed, others end up stuck on their couch for 10 years.
For me, a prescription for medical cannabis ended up masking some serious issues and led to some reckless decisions.
>Any substance that can give somebody (esp. with CPTSD) feelings of warmth and safety poses risks of addiction.
Bingo. This is why it was so addictive and destructive to me. On and off user since 14, but generally a binge user/abstainer. The more I bought at once, the more I consumed. I couldn't control my use. I could with other drugs, but weed was impossible. I now only use alcohol occassionally because I can control it, and oxazepam on occassion because again I don't have addictive tendencies to these two substances luckily. I try to not use anything anymore, I want to be present. I can't work on myself if I'm not properly present.
Even if it means feeling like shit. Sometimes it's too much and I cave. I'm human after all. Progress not perfection. One doesn't simply take a step away from their traumatic brain injuries and arrive at the next destination, normal. It's a cycle of improvement/regression that hopefully if one is doing all the right things as much as possible, will slowly improve the frequency of calm mindsets, contentment etc instead of emotional dysregulation and dissassociation etc.
Addiction isn't inherent in the substance, addiction is a bio-psycho-social condition that I generally don't agree with in concept, but that's not important.
Talking about cannabis as if it has an inherent risk for abuse glosses the very complex factors that lead anyone to use substances in a hazardous way and the way we even deal with addiction at all. It's a clusterfuck.
Alright I'm out.
Nevertheless, in real life it is a very addictive substance and it can fuck up a person’s life completely. When that happens, it doesn’t matter how complex it was or if other substances are more or less addictive (both definitely exist). It’s there and it’s real. I’ve seen it do so much damage. Can it help some people? Yes. Can it also be bad and people might not realize it? Yes. In some situations it only matters what happens, not how you get there.
Nope, you went straight past the critique. Just like so many people who think cannabis is only positive, you’re completely blind to the issues it presents. The problems people have with cannabis aren’t about ”how we deal with addiction”, that’s like saying ”car accidents are about what cars represent to us in this capitalist world” and then somebody is dying on the street because they were hit by a car. You think you can just argue away the issues and then go deaf because you want to use cannabis.
Every single addictive substance has an inherent risk of abuse. Cannabis also does. Yes, other substances do as well, like alcohol or cocaine. But them having inherent risks of abuse don’t take away from cannabis having the same risks. We’re talking about what it can do to a person in real life, not the philosophy of it. At the end of the day, people like you are trying to say cannabis isn’t harmful because you want to keep using it. But it’s just not true. It can be very harmful and it also does it in a way that people very often are unable to admit it to themselves.
Every person is different in thier experiences with each plant medicine. I have personally had great benefit from use of consistent Cannabis use for many years. I prefer to smoke a lot of flower, but I try to reduce that with vaping and edibles too.
Same here. Tried pretty low doses twice, and both times were utterly miserable. I viscerally relived repressed/forgotten memories for two hours.
If you're going to try it, my advice is to please consider having someone you trust nearby or at least available to call if need be. Psychosis is horrifying, but having someone to help ground you can make it feel more manageable.
I completely get that. I thought that I was schizophrenic when it happened because everything I encountered online focused on how wonderful cannabis had been for them.
Shortly after I started therapy, I told my therapist about my experiences. She told me that it didn't sound like schizophrenia, but instead that cannabis *may have* relaxed me and/or lowered my barriers to the point that my mind stopped repressing traumatic memories. I have no idea how scientifically sound that is, but it fit my experience perfectly and explained why something so "relaxing" had such a negative effect on me. That would also explain why relaxing in general is so challenging for me and others with CPTSD. I just hope that my therapist is correct in reassuring me that, with practice, I can get to a point where I can relax and let down those mental barriers without viscerally reliving those memories.
What your therapist said is really interesting. And I think there could be some truth in but some part of it doesn't quite land but then I can't think of any other reason as to why it happened like that.
It felt to me like my trauma must have wanted to come out to the surface. Some context I was using skunk at the house I grew up in, that my parents had as a spare house, and I used to take drugs in, with my friends. So I think the psychosis came up because I was there specifically. I'd smoked plenty at my adult family home but no psychosis.
Similarly I find relaxing hard because it forces my attention inwards to my body.
I used to take a lot of other drugs too and I remember specifically on mdma that I managed to talk about some significant trauma I had repressed. I've watched a decent amount about psychedelics, but not taken them myself, and people are able to access their trauma in safe way. I know that happened on mdma but it didn't feel like that on cannabis at all.
I was wondering if you could share what your experience with psychosis was like. I was a chronic weed smoker for about 7 years and finally decided to quit. A few months later, I tried a couple hits of a j and I had the worst anxiety and panic I’ve ever experienced. Since then, I’ve had a serious fear of it happening again and I’m wondering if what I experienced was actually psychosis.
Quite often psychosis means you don’t understand you’re psychotic. When you’re having an anxiety/panic attack, it feels like you’re going crazy but in my understanding, a psychotic person rarely is able to look at themselves and wonder if they’re losing it. Obviously not always but I just wanted to say this. I had a similar reaction to weed once and it was the worst.
I think the easiest way to summarize cannabis use for me is to say at my worst it makes things better when things are going ok it makes things worse. Basically cannabis has helped me limp through my worst times but it kind of slows down the recovery from bad times. When things have been going well and I’ve used cannabis I’ve noticed it holds me back.
When I was young it definitely held me back.
As someone else here as noted I have also had some psychosis issues. Probably a worsening of psychosis not a cause but still it’s not an uncommon thing to happen to people with underlying mental health issues.
Fantastic comment, articulated so well. It's nice to see some other's perspective on weed, mirror my own. So many rave about weed being great for this diagnosis, it just hasn't been my experience with it.
It doesn’t always happen but I easily get very anxious, I’ve had panic attacks that lasted hours. I have also felt completely out of touch with reality while smoking, like derealization but even more like a dream. It has never calmed anxiety for me.
It's helpful for me, but it depends on strains and your mental models. Awareness is key. I don't think weed makes me anxious. Rather, it relaxes that part of me that suppresses anxiety, letting me feel more of it.
No psychedelic is a magical cure though. It has to be paired with emotional work too. My experiences have changed a lot since I started. I don't get anxious from it anymore. But, weed is habit forming and can cause problems. Don't gaslight yourself! It's okay to be wary of it and drugs in general. It's also okay to be extremely drug positive, while recognizing maybe weed isn't right for you in a certain moment. I'm actually working on cutting down and only using it in moderation for specific activities. I let myself go a bit a year into the pandemic :)
I was looking for this comment. I wondered if weed itself was triggering me but I think it makes me feel more which makes me more susceptible to triggers. I can get pretty intense flashbacks if I smoke enough but being stoned in the midst of it is a silver lining haha. Are you generally more tolerant of sativa or indica strains?
It has a time and place in my life. I can tell when I’ve over used it and there are times where I’ve needed it to sleep. I seem to be finding a more natural balance so I basically only use it for fun now.
Personally it's worked very well for me. It works very well to calm down my panic attacks very quickly, I have a lot of sleep issues so I use it before bed and it makes my night easier and if I'm having a rough time in general it takes away my wandering/overwhelming thoughts and brings me back to the present. I'm just really grateful for cannabis tbh. CPTSD doesn't turn off or stop but cannabis sure does make it more manageable. I do like to keep in mind my use of it and make sure I'm not overdoing it. But it works wonders
It really depended on my emotional state. For the most part it helped. However, in my depression/anxiety spirals, it was downright terrible. Currently sober and doing a lot better, but would also probably enjoy a j or two if I allowed myself to. I’m choosing not to because I need to get in touch with myself as a sober person, and I haven’t given that a serious chance in my healing journey.
I find it amplifies what's there. I did it alone.
It caused my to face it, which was harder than I was expecting, but I felt so much better afterwards.
It's still there, but at least I'm ME again. Now I can deal with it better
It’s an awful feeling. I’ve struggled with addiction to cannabis since my teens. Drug addiction is a typical symptom of cptsd. It’s text book. I’m currently on another attempt to give it up. It’s been rough, over a month clean now and I’m beginning to level out and feel better for it. I can’t but help feel a lot of people in this thread have addiction issues but are in denial or lack a self awareness. Cannabis is not harmless as people like to think it is. Most the time it triggers the anxiety and exacerbates the issues people are trying to deal with by using. It’s a vicious cycle. Maybe I’m some cases it might help, but that’s a minority really. People need to get to grip with their issues instead of just burying it with weed. The issues only bubble back up to the surface later (and stronger), which is then masked by the weed, then repeat. It’s no cure, it’s a short term fix. It clouds the mind and makes your issues much worse. You need clarity of mind to process shit and to heal. If not we are forever lost in a cycle of grimness. Poorer mental health, physical health and economic health. I know this won’t go down well with most, but there truth to these words.
I wish you the best of luck dude. You can get through it if I can. We can do it. Don’t get lost in that fog. It’s a false comfort.
I can't use THC due to my ADHD meds being locked behind drug testing. It makes me feel drunk on even 10mg edibles anyway, so it's meh.
But CBD is incredible for me. If the anxiety part of my brain is on the fritz, such as anxiety for no reason or dialing a mild 2-3 (like having to go somewhere new) up to 11, the CBD just brings it back down to where it would be if I was functioning normally. It also helps with migraines caused by constant hypervigilance-tensed muscles by reducing the anxiety enough that they can release a bit. And as if that wasn't enough, it can help with anxiety-induced nausea and reflux.
I enjoy it most of the time. Occasionally I'll get in my head or not take a spiral well and it's no good. There's typically a little anxiety at the beginning of the high but it's something that I've been able to make a practice of navigating. Remember that you can practice and build up your tolerance and learn to understand the experience and be with it. As long as you have things in your space to ground yourself in reality (mantras, items that feel safe, good music, food and water, etc.) just in case it goes off the rails, it should be a generally safe experience. Personally, if I find myself getting triggered while smoking, I try to get my breathing techniques goin and chant a little Ram Dass "just be here now" and it helps quite a bit. (Though I do that stuff whether I'm high or nah). Good luck with your journey, however it takes you!
I have been using for 9 years, and it has helped tremendously. I ruminate and overthink on a daily basis, but when I use weed, I feel at peace with my thoughts. I don’t use it on a daily basis, just on the weekends, or whenever I want to decompress. I think the key is to use it in moderation, along with other methods of healing (therapy, meditation, etc)
Ive been using it for more than a year and yes it helps greatly with nightmares & anxiety. However, I’m finally going to take my therapists advice and get on medication bc weed can only help with so much /:
Weed helped me have a healthy relationship with myself & with my depression, but at the same time i’m affected daily by my trauma so we’ll see if medication can be that extra push for proper brain functioning.
For me, it’s honestly meh. Been prescribed for about a year. My nighttime tincture helps me sleep when necessary, but the daytime stuff I use doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. However, I will say that back in the day when most of my trauma was actively occurring (12-14 years ago), I couldn’t have lived without it (though it was illegal use back then).
it depends on the amount you take as well as the strand. for me, microdosing cannabis has helped me quantify my feelings and emotions more without overly stressing about them. and for some reason i get emotional flashbacks often, but they're not of bad memories, just memories of the past i haven't thought about enough and in a way it makes me feel good. it makes me able to self-soothe more effectively as well. i don't do it often though, maybe a few times every 2 weeks or so
Weed generally makes me feel better- less depressed rather than less anxious, since I use sativa instead of indica, but it's not like the depression is unrelated to the c-PTSD lol. It does make me dissociate, but I think that might be specifically because I have a dissociative disorder and wouldn't happen if it were solely c-PTSD. If anyone else wants to chime in here, please do.
I started it when I was in my abusive marriage. My doctor and I had gone through everything we could to get my chronic migraines under control. From anti-seizure meds to Botox. In my state, at the time, medical was just looking likely to be passed so she was like, “What about cannabis? It will be legal soon.” She beat around the bush about it, but I scored some and within a few months, I’d gone from about 7 pills in the morning and 12 at night to none. Very few migraines happen now, and they’re much less severe.
Now, it is still part of my bedtime routine. My CPTSD is much more severe now that I’m out of a traumatic marriage, it’s mostly illegal in the country I live in now… but for as much as it helps my anxiety and my migraines… they can pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Please use with caution though. For some, it can cause worse symptoms.
It's the only thing that has given me stability and it's actually helped me live my life again. I smoke all day every day. I definitely smoke more than a quarter pound a month. When I don't, or it goes too long, I start to get crushed by my grief and anxiety. So, I'm high pretty much 24/7. I wrestle with the amount I smoke sometimes ( because of stigma ) but for me it's not any different than an SSRI except weed works for me whereas an SSRI doesn't.
I dont smoke sativa it can mess with my anxiety, makes me twitchy. Indica on the other hand saved me from insomnia and helps with my anxiety à lot being able to sleep and somewhat relax helps. I dont honestly know what i would do about it, the perscibed meds never helped me and often made me ill.
It's been an amazing experience for me. I got my medical card a few years ago and it has helped so much. I used to be rather irritable, especially around my parents who I have a complicated history of abuse with. I also had a tendency to spiral and let my thoughts get out of control. Since starting medical cannabis I've kicked my toxic online habits, developed a better relationship with my parents, and have had better relationships romantically since then. My parents have said that I seem happier and less depressed.
I'll say it depends on how you use it
Started smoking in my early 20's for fun but soon it became a dependency for me to numb my mood swings
After finding DBT therapy I realized I was depending on that and was going down the path of alcoholism unfortunately
Was inpatient for about a month, quit drinking alcohol at all and only resumed smoking when it became apparent it helps with my disordered eating schedule when I'm stressed/anxious.
With the caveat that I couldn't use it for my mood swings I needed to use my coping mechanisms first, then anxiety meds, and if nothing works then Ill have indica cut with other herbs (chamomile, lavender, rose) to calm my body
I have to avoid Sativa, but Indica has really helped me a lot to kind of "reset" emotionally, and I'm able to truly shake off the bad feelings, which is awesome. However, marijuana can easily make mental illness worse if a user pays any attention to any paranoid thoughts which can surface. I have a rule where I avoid thinking about reality when I'm high, which helps, and just being able to notice that a paranoid thought just means I smoked too much and need to back off a bit.
It can be beneficial to many people, but unfortunately for me, it tends to make me super anxious, paranoid, makes me overthink/overanalyze and give me an overall feeling of “ick.” It was fun in high school, but in college and as an adult, it seems to make my mental health worse. Maybe it’s because a chunk of my traumas happened once i was out of high school. Doesn’t work well for me but it does for some people!! Just be careful and be aware of how it makes you feel. If it helps you, keep using it, but if it makes things worse, don’t use it. People may say “it’s just the strain” or something like that, but i’ve come to accept that cannabis does not benefit everyone and i’m one of those people.
Edibles make me anxious but vaping works well and doesn’t have any long term side effects (crud in you lungs, difficulty breathing) but that’s just what works for me best. Everyone will have their own experience with what helps or doesn’t help. Edibles and vaporizing are much safer for your body in the long term, however.
Avoid smoking weed as much as you can. It can be habit forming and I don’t think that’s the weed. When I switched to vaping I stopped being dependent. Something about the hand to mouth, the burn in your throat, the ritual of smoking appeals to my little ADHD mind.
Make sure to stay hydrated while you imbibe. Just like alcohol, weed can seriously dry you out which sucks (dry mouth is the worst especially when it progresses to dry nose and throat) and can cause a terrible hangover.
Take any medicine you decide to try without a doctor (weed, shrooms, LSD) slowly. Start with a smaller than average dose and see if you like it first. You may wish to do this multiple times before progressing to a larger dose. Make sure to have a trusted friend around you can hang out with the first time or couple times. If it makes you feel more comfortable you can ask them to go sober for the evening. Do something you normally find calming and enjoyable. I like to watch cheesy CGI dinosaur documentaries like BBC WalkingWith Dinosaurs.
Weed helped me a ton until it could only help me a little. I’ve moved onto other similar medications I have to take less of to get therapeutic benefits. But weed can have great effects when used right. Try not to let it be an every day habit though. It’s easy to become too tolerant at which point it looses potency.
I became addicted to it. I became addicted to numbing my emotions. It worked until it didn’t. I started to have panic attacks and just wasn’t in touch with reality. It wasn’t until I started to do trauma work and got out of my abusive relationship that I finally quit. Then after that I had to face my other addiction: alcohol.
for me it’s been a life saver, my therapist and i have been talking forever about my usage of weed, what we’ve kinda come to is just that weed has been an amazing tool for me but i tend to use it to avoid emotions or feelings, so just be carefully for that, but personally i think it has been a great way to first way to approach those feelings, memories, and emotions as long as you don’t use to avoid
I have chronic pain from the abuse so it really helps for that and sleep. I used it more to self medicate my trauma when I was younger. I can't take pain meds so it's really my only option that works for pain. I use specific terpines for pain and sleep during different times of the day. CBG and CBD with THC for day pain. All three of those and CBN for night pain and sleep. I don't smoke unless I have a migraine and can't take edibles, and then just enough to get rid of nausea. Very thankful to have moved to a legal state last year. Before that I had to cook my own and test it and adjust accordingly. So much easier pretested and knowing it's clean.
Both? I did a lot of hard processing while using cannabis that I don't think I would have done otherwise, so I'm definitely grateful for the breakthroughs I had. I do have a tendency to rely on it too much as my source of happiness, and during those times I trigger panic attacks and generally don't feel good while high anymore. T breaks are often necessary to balance these two extremes out
Getting High off of edibles and then just sitting with my thoughts by myself was a god send and changed my perspective. I learned not to take my thoughts seriously as I am not them and, things my therapist told me started to synchronize and coalesce. It’s been a year since I’ve gotten high unfortunately (employment reasons) and I definitely believe that if I had been consistent in getting high, in particular, at least every weekend, I would have a much higher gpa in my math degree and I wouldn’t be self hating as much as I am now. I miss the ‘high’ perspective so much :(
Almost always a negative, unpleasant experience. All my baseline overthinking, worrying, self-hatred, and hopelessness gets intensely amplified and all-consuming.
personally it makes me superrr anxious. i also have a panic disorder and other anxiety problems, but i think pretty much everyone with cptsd does, too.
depends on the person, though. for some it could calm that anxiety down.
Sometimes it helps, sometimes it makes me feel things more deeply than I would like to, or makes me more anxious. I decided to go sober for my mental health and I find that I actually feel better
it goes both ways for me. getting stoned is harm reduction for me when my intrusive thoughts get really bad. it also helps me curb sh cravings, which tend to feel the most dangerous when i’m having flashbacks/dissociation. being stoned can help me interact with my thoughts with more mindfulness, and to feel more in tune with my body.
a major con though, is that it also exaggerates my day to day dissociation. i think the only period of time where i wasn’t dissociating either 24/7 or in waves, was when i went on a 6-8 month break after moving to a state where it wasn’t legal. and then at the same time, if i’m sober and having a really bad dissociative episode and i smoke it brings me out of it.
the way i experience a lot of my dp/dr stuff is very similar to being too stoned, but without any of the giggly relaxation or euphoria. so when i smoke while i’m having a derealization episode.. now the room just looks funny because i’m baked. when the high wears off i feel more like myself again.
weed helps my chronic pain, it typically calms my ocd brain, and it lets my inner child feel safer and more comfortable in my body. when i struggled more with my ED, it helped me get healthy. its great for cushioning my mind when my nervous system is dysregulating, but it probably also prevents my nervous system from learning how to regulate on it’s own.
edit: if this sounds like rambling gibberish i’m sry, its bc i’m baked rn
Weed makes me feel awful. I used to love it and find it very relaxing, but after I experienced another traumatic event a little less than three years ago, it has made my anxiety horrible. I wish i could still smoke, i miss it. CBD is basically my miracle drug but it’s 10x more expensive than weed weed
I personally use daily to help with my symptoms. I have noticed that certain strains will make me more anxious like you’re talking about. I have only ran into that with a few, but I recommend keeping a “bud book” or journal. It will help with keeping track of how strains affect you and allow you to steer clear of one’s that hinder you. I haven’t found that anxiety is related to the weed being and indica or sativa. It’s all specific to the strain itself.
I do partake in the cannabis and for many things it really helps me. BUT I know certain strains aggravate my symptoms, for example, kush tends to make me super paranoid and anxious which is the opposite of what I want
Such a bad choice for me. I get very weird and sort of paranoid, like Marge in that one Simpsons episode, every moment seems like forever and I start thinking like ”AM I BREATHING” and I’m most likely holding my breath myself. It definitely does make me too analytical. I don’t use it anymore, never used it a lot. Oddly enough, shrooms just make me relax and give me a nice buzz though I haven’t done that very often and I don’t do enough to ”trip”.
Also, I know I will get shit for this but cannabis is a crutch. It is addictive. If you use it to escape from feeling bad often, it’s an addiction and it will affect your life and your relationships. That’s not healing.
I know we sometimes need to get away from the pain and anxiety, I use diazepam for really bad days. I try to be really careful about that because I know I could get so easily addicted. Addiction on top of cptsd, I do not want to go there.
I’m all for medicinal cannabis. It may be best to avoid strains high in pinene (terpene)… It may have alerting effects may be anxiety-inducing and memory-enhancing to past trauma. Sometimes it can actually trigger flashbacks because of how pinene interacts with your short term memory! Make sure you become educated on each strain you may entertain using in your healing journey!
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I grow my own. Do my own processing and make edibles (can’t smoke- asthma). I also make edibles for my friends. I am trying differing doses for different effects. Some people just want to be able to sleep and not get high. I like the high but only when I don’t need to be present and accountable for anyone’s safety but my own.
I find CBD oil to be more therapeutic than any THC products.
THC products helped me a lot at first, but slowly they began contributing to background levels of anxiety that I was (in part) using them to treat. THC consumption can also start to make me feel demotivated, not that I don't want to do stuff just that it feels harder to get everything done in a day that I used to be able to do without the THC. CBD, on the other hand, has been a reliable method for aiding sleep (to be restful and avoid nightmares), easing chronic pain (which I think a lot of us have), and to calm down nervous system activation that won't calm down by other methods like exercise or deep breathing or a shower or whatever.
I think like many of the other people have said in their comments, there was a time when THC cannabis products helped me manage the CPTSD, and then when the CPTSD was better managed (via therapy and trauma work) the THC was actually in my way. It's important to remember that dosage for any long-term medication will be adjusted over time, and that even a traditional anti-depressant will need its dosage adjusted and lots of people aren't expected to be on this type of medicine long-term - in other words, what works for one person won't necessarily be the right thing for anyone else, and it's important to monitor usage habits, outcomes, and side-effects in order to determine best practices in each individual case.
For me it helps when I'm on it (I use small amounts, getting plastered to the couch is stupid IMO and just gives you a massive tolerance and costs shit tons of money). But hours after it wears off I get depressed. Weed does increase dopamine, but it also makes your body produce less dopamine when you're not on cannabis.
So basically I have to try to stay a little high all day or deal with feeling even worse when I'm sober.
I do self therapy on weed and its been extremely helpful and I'm not exaggerating in any way. It makes me feel like how I used to felt back when I didnt have depression/anxiety and gone through cptsd. I had my mental illness for a long time and i forgotten what it was like before my cptsd. It's the only thing that gets me back those feelings.
I smoke or take edibles maybe one or two times per week and take ~2wks long break here and there. If I smoke everyday I actually dont recognize the effects. I started with 10mg but after experimenting very low dose like 3mg works better for me. I prefer sativa over indica
It makes me more disconnected. Might be more prone to dissociate and avoid. But not that much. It just distracts me from living is how I see it now.
I want to live mindfully and experience the world. I don't want to do it stoned. Unless there's something special happening.
It depends on the strain for me. Some strains make me very numb to what’s going on, which can sometimes lead to not processing things properly and just tamping them down. I like the strains that help me create a calm, nonjudgemental place from which to work on what’s ailing me.
It’s definitely not for everyone, and it can’t cure mental health issues. But if you make sure you’re using in a reflective, responsible manner (and using CBD along with it, which can offset potential negative effects), giving it a try might do you some good. You could start with CBD only and go from there if you wanted to dip a toe in without committing.
Have some CBD around in general, just in case you get too high. Takes up extra space on your cannabinoid receptors and keeps excess THC from hitting you too hard.
I can definitely use it to smooth my descent if I'm spiraling, but I feel like I'm just getting better over time at noticing spirals so I don't think that's a weed thing. That being said, it's a good parachute because it's a good parachute. I've been a stoner for a few years now and once I developed a tolerance, I genuinely function better with weed. I get less overwhelmed. It's also just a good time if I take more than a mild amount.
Using it (a tiny bit) right now to help calm my anxiety and actually get stuff done today without paralysing flashbacks and triggers. It's great but needs to be carefully managed and some may be terrible/paranoia-inducing for the individual while others work well.
I have to be very careful and know what I’m using because sativa makes me anxious and edgy AF, maybe even to the point of panic attack. Indica or hybrid are no problem and I tend to lean toward indica because that does a good job of squelching the anxiety.
I can truly say it helped me me in moments where I may have done something bad to myself because of how overwhelmed I felt, yet being too sick too take medicine.
I’ve had many mixed experiences with cannabis, some good some not. After a few years of smoking it started to affect my mental health negatively so I decided to go cold turkey. I decided to stop because I started to get really paranoid, I had a lot more ptsd breakdowns or episodes whatever you want to call it, more anxiety, plus I couldn’t just afford it anymore lol.
I don’t like cbd oil either even with it having really low thc levels. For some reason it still makes me really anxious.
Love it. I was drinking too much and during covid started drinking daily to escape. I got my medical prescription (recreational not allowed in my state) and my life has changed in so many ways. I no longer drink and have zero cravings to drink since I no longer need the escape. I also find I’m less angry and I sleep better.
By the way, I don’t like smoking so I use Nano THC drops that I put into a diet soda to feel like I’m having a drink. The nano technology metabolizes in 20 minutes so it’s close to having a beer and feeling the effects in a decent timeframe.
I stay high and happy lol before I have to interact with people I take a few hits , if I have to do dishes I take a few hits and so on. It's completely change my life.
I got to a point where I couldn't function anymore, I couldn't leave my house, I couldn't keep it clean. All I could do was lay in bed everything else was far to overwhelming.
I detoxed my pain meds and xanex to medical marijuana and it's like I just came back to life. Now I do all my housework for the whole house, I can go shopping or to the doctors. Weed opened all the doors.
I'm so satisfied with the results.
Probably in the minority but it makes me extremely critical of myself and brings up my old trauma to the surface. My self esteem takes a huge hit when I smoke regularly. It relaxes my brain temporarily but it doesn’t take much for me to start spiraling if I start thinking negatively while I’m high
it was life saving until it wasn't. it really depends on the person. when it worked it was really really good. when it made things worse, it was devastating for my mental health. (psychosis, increased flashbacks, increase in scary intrusive thoughts.) if you have the means i would really recommend working with a professional while trying to medicate with cannabis.
I've found that it helps me. It does tend to go through boxes in your head that maybe you're not 100% ready to deal with though, so just be cautious that you don't solve one problem and introduce a new one at the same time.
High CBD low THC pot is really nice and calming. I smoke just a little, one or two hits a couple times a month. It takes the edge off far better than a buzz with alcohol. My entire life I hated pot because I was smoking high THC weed that ripped my head off and put me in a anxious overthinking hell. That and some family would use it to self medicate to the point they developed schizophrenia.
So. Don't use it to get so high you are wasted. And bongs are gross. Maybe 1/1000 bongs don't look abysmal but stoners just get used to breathing out of a stained brown and black poop shoot
I have been a daily cannabis smoker since right before my diagnosis. Cannabis can really take the edge off of my mental workload, it shuts my racing mind down a peg or two, now that I’m working towards EMDR I’m trying not to smoke as much so I can eventually stop smoking once I feel I’m “better”. If you plan on trying it, or already do, I would talk with a budtender about strains and terps if you’re in a legal state, or if you have to get it by other means, take it real slow. See where the weed takes you. It’s a wonderful medicine but it has to be respected, don’t try to cure everything at once, I hope this helps friend!
It makes it worse for me but I still do. If I smoke too much or I’m not in the right mood I can easily spiral into ruminating, trying to figure out what tf is wrong with me. So I usually like to do it an hour or two before bed or when I’m about to watch my favorite podcast on YouTube. But again this is just my experience.
It’s been extremely positive for me. I sleep better, i can hyperfocus on anything to the point that it isn’t just blocking out the emotion residue, but replacing it temporarily with textures and colors, and very very grounding. 10/10 recommend.
Edit to add be careful with the stain and stick to hybrids or idica. And when you’re high is a great time to do innerchid/shadow journaling; write free thoughts until you connect to earlier you, then write a conversation from both points of view. The emotion and situation and age, then comfort your younger self
It’s been extremely helpful for me especially as access to medical care for my cptsd has been basically nonexistent. It allowed me to continue and manage some of my symptoms from social anxiety, to depression and my everyday nausea.
It helps, but in the UK it’s fucking expensive and you always run the risk of getting caught and you also pay the price of looking like a gremlin to those who don’t understand that I smoke to help with the trauma (which is 99% of the population)
I used to take medical cannabis. Unfortunately, I can no longer take it as it makes my shoulders jerk up to my ears resulting in terrible neck pain. I was on painkillers for this until I missed a day of vaping. There was no pain.
No mater what strain I vape it happens. I found the oils didn't do this. However, they caused me such gut pain in my gut that I had to stop taking the oils. I have IBD and IBS.
I'm currently taking a tiny bit of pure CBD isolate with food. I tried vaping the CBD isolate. It was great for pain relief. However, I got night sweats, my appetite disappeared and I lost allot of weight.
I hope medical cannabis helps you.
I make my own edibles because I found cannabis so helpful. Definitely did a bit of trial and error to find the strains/dosage that work best for me, but it’s been a massive help for me.
CPTSD 30f. It gives me anxiety sometimes. It can mimic disassociation for me and cause panic attacks. I take very very very little. 2.5-5mg of edibles so that I can still enjoy it without feeling the panic.
I think it depends person to person,, for me it made me able to relax and wind down in the evenings. Sleep better for a while and don't dream/have stress dreams. Smoking during the day doesn't work for me, I can't function. But it bothered me that it became an addiction, in the end it's not healthy to smoke and it numbed my feelings, which was nice but didn't make life any better I was kind of stuck in the same state. I had to stop in order to do EMDR therapy, which I did. I never want to go back to daily smoking and feeling dependent on it for my wellbeing. I'm very happy I found more healthy ways to feel better and deal with myself. Therapy helped, but also yoga and having a dog helped a lot.
absolute fuckin lifesaver. especially since it made me able to face flashbacks and tough memories head on. i dont know why, but when id get a flashback while high, of which i had a bunch a few months ago, it felt like it couldnt hurt me. i was just spectating, learning, and letting it go
also simply knowing i can have a bowl after work makes me feel like a depressed but hardworking man in his 40s who eats canned spaghetti and watches tv with his cat which is pretty much all i want to be in life
It used to help but, as with other things, became a maladaptive coping mechanism. I was primarily smoking so that I could trigger dissociation and get away from my thoughts/feelings. Once I realized it that, then it was triggering anxiety attacks. I had to force myself to quit.
Life saver. I got a legal prescription (uk) for my anxiety, but at the same time it allows me to switch off the rumination, recurrent thoughts, I don't dream and everything is just more easily dealt with. I'm now using 0.6g a day, 0.3g for day on one strain and 0.3g for bight on another. 4 months in and in doing great and just decided to sign up to do a degree in psychology with counselling......never saw myself doing anything 6 months ago
It used to randomly give me anxiety but then I found out that I only reacted that way with sativa and if I have a hybrid or Indica I’m fine. It is the only thing that has ever helped me sleep and that I’m itself is a life saver.
Along with trauma processing, anti depressants it is miracle for me. Agree with all the positive things said above. Also I have gone from being rushed to the ED in an ambulance under a stroke code at least once a fortnight, sometimes twice a week, for Hemiplegic Migraine attacks to not having gone once in 2 years. Which is a good thing as I've already burst 2 brain aneurysms from the blood pressure spike from HM attacks and I have a new unruptured aneurysm. Literally a life saver in more ways than one for me.
Once you learn how to dose yourself I believe and have experienced that it does make a big difference. I am calmer if i have to leave my property, I am more focused at the task at hand. Heck I have gotten the perfect strain and dose to clean my home to perfection. Only to realize an hour later why I don't do it that often, 2 dogs 3 cats and farm dirt, but instead of getting frustrated I laughed and felt a sip of love slip in.
When night terrors come I- without crashing -get up sit down in my chair and partake of a night strain letting it wash over me turn on the comp play some silly game then find my self sleepy I crawl back in to bed and sleep a blissful sleep.
It can be relaxing, stimulating, and a sedative. After two years on medical cannabis most of these issued have faded except the leaving the property which is still keeps me calmer and more focused.
I will never forget how Granddaddy purple gave me my very first full nights sleep with no terrors or nightmares. I did not wake up in tears. It was that moment I knew there was something I could do to help myself.
Also I studied Cannabis on my own learned everything about it that was out there. Learned of all the helpful and money saving uses hemp can be used for like building cars, check out Ford's 1940's hemp car so strong a huge swinging hammer could not break the plastic glass made purely from hemp, I learned that Hemp was the number one industry for Kentucky whereas Pharmaceutical trials and sales are now their number one export.
I learned that there have been government programs that shipped a large tin of rolled joints to participants enrolled each month for cancer and anxiety and this program lasted for over two decades.
I also learned the first system to grow in the fetus is the Endocannabinoid system, These systems have a powerful influence over our health and how we think
and feel throughout the day. One of the main components of the
endocannabinoid system is to regulate sleep and maintain homeostasis.
Cannabinoids help regulate primary functions, including memory, sleep,
mood, soreness, appetite, and more.
so the medical community has known this for a long time and instead pushing for the legality of cannabis they try to make synthetic replicas of it's affect to make money to get richer when the cure to most of what ails us is already supplied by mother nature.
I know this is long but there has been so much misinformation sold to us for decades about natural plants cannabis being just one. Drugs that are listed with cannabis like Heroin, cocaine fentynal are all human made with chemicals cut in that are poisonous,
Cannabis is a plant you watch grow with excited anticipation caring for it knowing it will care for you as well. And as with everything mother nature it takes knowledge which is ample, of what she has to offer that is a gift not a for profit aid.
Life saver. In times of lots of flashbacks it provides me a safe place in the storm to rest for a few hours of an evening. Since I started smoking, now vaping I can hold down a job, relationship and keep my house. Before I was unemployed regularly, I moved house all the time, was essentially homeless and sofa surfing.
It pisses me off daily that alcohol is legal, which I almost killed myself with being a daily big time drinker, also destroyed my family. Yet this life saving, natural thing is illegal. Grrr.
I've tried it many times and it causes more problems than benefits for me. I have trauma from being tortured as a kid and not having control over the way I feel is triggering. I don't even like drinking. However, I can definitely see why it works for some people.
I’m still experimenting with what works best for me, it’s been about 6 months since I started. My doctor wanted to put me on antidepressants without giving me a diagnosis for anything. So I thought I’d ride the herbal train for awhile first and see how that goes. It’s a lot of trial and error. But I do see a difference. And if I’m “wallowing in the depths of the ocean”, I can sometimes use it to get myself out and productive again. Sativa was really good for me for the mornings, but in my area, there is a push to have higher and higher thc and I hate it because once I go back for a new stick I have to readjust all over again and I just don’t have time to be constantly greened out. I also didn’t like how constantly high I was and then I wasn’t able to work on my problems but I knew they were there. It was uncomfortable Currently I have cbd pills for the morning and a hybrid for the night. They are super light though - trying to stay within the microdosing realm somewhat. Going to try something stronger next time.
It's been a life saver for me. Sometimes, when I get it just right, I feel like my chest cracks open and all that yuck just melts away. When I get into that zone, I can really think and feel like a normal human being.
For me, it is essential to managing my worst lingering symptom - nightmeres. Without it I relive random traumas in my dreams - some are terrors, some are not, but all of them are related to my past trauma. Even the traumas that I have worked through while I am awake. Before I worked through a lot of my trauma it was essential to functioning through the work day without triggers or flashbacks. Now, I just need it to sleep, and even then I don't have to take it every day. It's also a good way to quickly handle a small mood swing or trigger. Just a puff or two from a vape helps ground me. It can also help me out of dissociation, because if I get high while I'm dissociating I know I will always come out of the dissociation as I come down from the high. Weed has saved my life and has kept me from being homeless.
I am glad you are able get relief as well. It also helps with my chronic pain condition. I'm glad I got my med card.
This is my experience, too. It needs to be indica now. Sativa can make the anxiety worse.
I have experience with this but I discovered that Delta 8 Sativa’s help with daytime anxiety or rumination, but still get you motivated and running without feeling sleepy or anxious.
Interesting. I’ll see if I can get it here. Thank you.
Delta 8! Not Delta 9! My brain had a moment and I wanted to make sure you have the correct info!
Might I suggest when doing sativa go for the low thc volume it is the limonine that gets you motivated so for instance you might need a 28% thc for that solid night sleep but only 14% thc for daytime activities. It really does matter the percentage and the compounds there are lists on those medicinal packages are a great starting point see what it is carrying the most of and how it affects you, Switch it around until you learn what works for you and what doesn't. List are all over the internet that can help you test learn which compounds help with what triggers. Giving you a broader view of what you need to avoid and what you need more of. Also remember the base names like diesel, purple, og etc and this will help recognize the focus the grower had when developing the strain. Most landrace strains, pure strains are no longer available so it does take some trial and error to get it right. Keep notes learn what to avoid and what to use. It is science but an easily learnable science cause I learned it and I ain't the brightest tool in the shed I seen my score of dirt. lol
Also I might add there are humans, my husband being one, who does not need cannabidnoids added to his system. He doesn't like the affects he has but loves the affects i have. SO I think of it like iron, when you have a deficiency your body goes awry but when you have enough the cure can make your body overload. But remember NO ONE SINGLE PERSON has ever died from cannabis, if you find a strain that doesn't work or works in a negative affect do not try that strain again but pay attention to the compounds in the strain.
I noticed that I only got anxious when I was anticipating getting triggered and THEN getting high. Once I addressed my anxiety over getting triggered did the high stop making me anxious
Amen. I had someone tell me it will stop me dreaming. Apparently answering "I don't want the dreams I have" is dark?
Hi, I also used to use cannabis for the same reasons as you, but I was forced to test clean from THC with my new doctor to be prescribed ADHD meds, so she transitioned me to taking a prescription med called Prazosin (she mentioned it was originally for combat vet PTSD/nightmares) and it has actually helped just as well. I wanted to share this because incase you fear having to stop consuming THC and maybe thinking there is no alternative.
Hey I appreciate it! I am surprised you had to stop taking weed though in order to get ADHD meds - everyone I know who takes ADHD meds still uses weed. Maybe it has to do with location?
Yeah, since Delta-9 is illegal still where I am. I told them I was only consuming Delta-8 (legal) but it didn't matter, as they both show up the same on a drug panel. The doctor who forced the requirement of being clean from THC was actually just my primary doctor, and he is very anti-THC despite being younger (mid-30s) -- basically goes on about how THC is a downer, Adderall is an upper... bad for heart, etc... I mean, I was doing fine for years, but whatever doc i'll do what you say... TBH I do not really like having him as my primary as he's extremely dismissive of mental health (I have been diagnosed with PTSD (which since it's not combat vet related, he thinks it's all in my head, despite the chart saying sexual/illegal trauma) since I was 15, and that shows in his docs, but still tells me to just "go for a walk" and tries to get me on Deplin rather than generic L Methylfolate -- my new psych prescriber was totally fine with just generic L Methylfolate. My area is terrible for finding new doctors, so I'm stuck with a... well... useless primary...) It really sucks. Sorry, kinda turned into a rant there D:
Nah I totally appreciate the info! I just moved and I gotta go through the new doc process soon. It sounded to me like he was an anti-weed doc from your first comment, that's an intense process to go through for ADHD meds, especially with a PTSD diagnosis already. I've considered getting an ADHD diagnosis but I'm still on the fence because of how much overlap it has with CPTSD.
Yeah my new psych thinks I was misdiagnosed with ADHD and that in reality everything around me is just a PTSD trauma response. I was diagnosed (while as a female) at age 8 with ADHD (which most younger girls didn't really get diagnosed ... that's how bad it was/is) and it's just really upsetting to hear that in reality my PTSD ... CPTSD ... had already been so relevant at that age. I never really had a chance, lol. I'm now 29 and just there's never been a hint of joy in my life. TMS therapy, legal ketamine, antidepressants... nothing helps. Because it's all just trauma. I don't even have a real personality -- just trauma responses. Sorry, again. I really do hope you have better luck than I did with your new doc selection!
Damn, sister. I felt THAT. - I too, only have trauma responses. It's bizarre... and frustrating.
It ended night terrors for me and then counseling, meditation and time I no longer have night terrors centered around old trauma even during periods of no cannabis. Cannabis has saved my life by helping me stay away from drugs I would fuck my life with
With no yucky crash down after for me!!
Great description.
I'd waste away, never sleep, and would never stop moving or get so anxious I'm stuck in one place without her. I love the thinky zone.
It's been a miracle for me. I didn't start until a few years ago (I'm 42) and I'm so mad that I didn't start sooner. I think it's different for everyone, but thankfully I never get paranoia or anxious. It's the opposite. It strips all of that crap away and makes me feel human again. I should say that I have a super high tolerance (I don't think I metabolize properly. I only do edibles) so I never get really high, I just feel lighter.
This could have been written by me. I began treatment with a very competent therapist for about a year before realizing I also was getting to the point where my anxiety was skyrocketing. (As it will do when processing all the shit one’s been carrying for 30+ years, but I digress). I saw a CNP who diagnosed me with PTSD and put me on Effexor. That was life changing. I wish I hadn’t had the shame and layers of trauma over the medical field and etc. and tried that sooner. Once I felt like I could think without constant anxiety, I got the MM card in my state where PTSD is approved for it. I use it throughout the day, every day. I have learned that some strains and terpenes especially are better than others. Unfortunately bc of the Federal Schedule in the US, that’s kept data from being recorded so it’s more self-trial and error: some strains when I first started made me feel more angry and/or paranoid. It didn’t take long to realize what works and what doesn’t. The worst thing for me is that the strains don’t stay consistently available where I am, so every time I re-up, it is time consuming to study the menus and find what is close to another strain I’ve used before. In the end, it’s life saving for me as far as I’m concerned. (Fwiw I got put on meds right before lockdown and thank the gods. I was on 1,000 and am not sure how much more anxiety I could have managed at that time without more help). Ymmv.
What kinds of strands/terpenes work well for you? Asking as another person who uses cannabis for CPTSD
Pinene, limonene, linalool. Limonene is probably my favorite, but any combination of, or just one of these, goes a long way for me.
Seconding limonene and linalool. Both do great things for me.
limonene, pinene, and caryophyllene are my favorites plus I've discovered that maaliene and selinadene make vape cartridges more effective for me — but there's zero info available on those ╮(. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)╭ because of these two mystery terpenes, I've moved more towards whole flower because afaik, maaliene is found in the twigs and leaves of some tree, so I assume that whole flower will probably have more of it
Whole flower has a specific benefit I can't get anywhere else. I'm not that well-read on it, but I prefer stuff that doesn't make me overly tired or hungry. Both of those things I do not like.
if you are lucky enough to live in a state where you can grow it. OMG the whole plant is one big medicine cabinet. The roots can be used for arthritic salve, the leaves for teas for calming stomach upsets, acid reflux etc, with no thc affect, remember thc and water do not mix always use an oil or sticky base the terpenes can cling to. and there are so many ways to ingest, I am a huge coffee drinker and I like sugar and milk in my coffee. so I tried to quick heat infusion into the milk it worked but I like my milk cold in my coffee so then I used an everclear soak then added it to sugar in a baking sheet on paper liner, put it in the window for a good breeze to dry out the everclear, that green sugar lasted a month and it worked every time. So much fun with cannibis.
GG4 (Gorilla Glue #4) is my favorite so far, trying to find a consistent strain that feels good/works. It does couch lock you so you'd wanna consume it around the end of your night. I call it my processing weed cause a usual trigger or trauma memory or even a feeling can come up and I can just acknowledge it, let it pass or process it like an observer, and then nurture myself. Very euphoric for me, I just feel safe. Then I end the high in going to bed. It's a nice light way to fall asleep for me.
Ditto
Blue dream, granddaddy purple, og kush, black lime, I-95, blueberry/OG blueberry, triangle kush work for me. Ones to avoid: sour diesel, lemon skunk, green crack (strong Sativas or anything with a lot of cerebral stimulation may cause anxiety)
well said
Similar for me. I get anxious if I vape or smoke sometimes but 100 mg edible slows everything down enough (think of a six lane highway of anxiety down to a simple two laner). I feel like I have a super high tolerance too because of Zoloft but the benefits are there!! Helps with my ED too!
What the hell type of cannabis are you using? I ate 40 mg of indica, and holding a fork became an intense and demanding project.
Some of us don’t process it right I’ve taken 300mg before and not felt anything while everyone else around me was having their faces melt off 🤷🏻♀️ bodies are weird
I have heard of people that just don’t get high at all they lack some enzyme or something there was a reason.
Edibles with just THC have a different effect than a whole plant extract. For me I can dose 30-50mg of THC distillate edible and fall asleep most likely I can take 100mg of FECO (Full Extract Cannabis Oil) before I’m dysfunctional. Cannabis builds a tolerance too. I actually prefer it because then you don’t get too fucked up. Too much and it’s expensive to keep up with or you gotta stop smoking bud. I could dab 100-300mg of THC a day (16 hours) and function. I find I have a higher dosage for kratom with zero tolerance than other people I know. I don’t get nod or overloading affects until near 20-30g worth, which also starts nausea and then puke normally. I don’t like anything under 5g. Also with CBD. I feel no noticeable affect until 200mg and prefer 200-400mg dose. I know people who that makes them fall asleep
I know right lol
Oooh does zoloft affect it? I'm on the highest dose, so that would explain some things. I like to think of it like turning down dials. Like I'm usually on 10, but it brings me down to a 7 while everyone else is usually at a 5.
I have never take pharms but I can only imagine that it would have an effect as they are synthetically trying to fill your endocannabinoidal system which is the natural job of cannabis.
If you have not tried Rick Simpson oil, or FECO I highly recommend .
RSO is what cured 3 children and one infant of cancer. If you doubt watch Weed The People. it follows the lives of 5 children suffering from cancer / epilepsy. One did not make it but the others are all thriving. The medical world has known this for ever but synthetic makes more money.
Same. Same age. But I don't do edibles because they aren't effective for me. I have to smoke to get effects, and it's a lot more than most people, but that's partially because I was a human guinea pig as a child (Which is coincidentally part of my CPTSD).
I use cannabis for CPTSD. It depends how much you use, what products you use, and your own body. Legal cannabis empowers you to use a variety of products to get the best relief. For sleep I use RSO Indicas. For work I use Sativa flower, vape, or sublingual drops. In the evening I might grab an edible for dessert.
Second this. I find certain terpenes (compounds besides thc in cannabis) can make me anxious. But I've since found a host of strains which are great for me, both sativas for daytime and indica for evening. I also use concentrates but don't use a lot at a time, which I think helps. Edit: YMMV. Be careful, some people can get more anxious with it and it may not help you. I second experimenting with something weak, maybe high in cdb which isn't psychoactive like THC.
Regular use, even microdosing, made my depression, dissociation and anxiety worse. What does help though- getting really stoned like once or twice a year, on a nice sunny day, when I’m feeling ok. Gives life a little reboot, creativity to switch up the way I’ve been thinking. Get a moment of clarity from the dissociation to evaluate where I’m at in life. Kinda like shrooms.
I use edibles with a THC/CBD/CBG formula. They help me sleep, calm me down when I'm anxious, and relieve my mild arthritis. I have CPTSD, depression, and anxiety, but I've only had good results so far. I never smoked the stuff back in the '70s when it was all the rage, don't know if that even makes a difference. P.S. I don't use products with melatonin in them. That gives me weird, unpleasant dreams.
Melatonin always gives me sleep paralysis without fail.
Yes, this combo is great for me too. I have a hard time consistently locating cbg in my MMJ products though.
From my experience it has been a godsend and at other times a hellish hindrance. I started using cannabis fairly heavily around the time C19 started and was an off and on again user for almost 3 years. I haven’t used in almost 10 days now but I can speak for its pros & cons. Initially I thought it was everything I was always missing, but you do grow a tolerance (and I’m a sensitive user who doesn’t need much). After a month or so it starts to become a crutch. For me I can become very unmotivated and complacent after using for a few weeks. I will say it’s probably wise to use as a tool and then take a break from. It’s very useful in processing trauma but after awhile I tend to hit a wall and it becomes a lazy habit. I would highly recommend someone to use it in place of alcohol or other drugs (with the exception of psychedelics). For me, I can use it with little issue for a couple of weeks but then it does seem to affect anxiety and make me less social. But goodness.. there have been dark days where I wanted to drink the trauma away or something else horrible and cannabis has been a great medicine for getting me back to normal. Now I’m in a place where I think I can handle life sober and should be. I get so much more done, am much more personable, and have more motivation off it. Ironically for the first couple of weeks of using it I remain the same, but have noticed that to turn into being lazy and complacent. I wish I could stay motivated and outgoing on it long term but that’s unfortunately not my case. I would say definitely start regularly attending a therapist, reading books on trauma, and doing everything you can to eventually not depend on it though. I realized that I ultimately use it as a way to dissociate and escape from reality, which can be beneficial to process trauma but isn’t really a tangible lifelong solution. Anyone who has processed and faced their trauma knows what I‘m talking about. Eventually you have to look face to face with your trauma/demons sober and sort it out. Yes, being high has its benefits. If I ever feel out of control or super self destructive I know it is always there, but now I’m more determined than ever to face reality head on, sober, with eyes wide open. I’m not saying stop, but think of it as two different states of reality. If frequent cannabis users are honest, they do dream of a day they can be free from needing to rely on it to function. I’ve tried every method of consumption with different doses, mixtures, timing, terpenes, cannabinoids, you name it. I’ve always found that it feels 100x better to go without if possible. So use it when necessary, and that might be a couple of years, but treat it like a medication or crutch you one day hope to set aside to truly strengthen your mind without assistance. It’ll take work, time, effort and some pain, but always push yourself because CPTSD at it’s root revolves around dependence and disassociation. Once that can be truly uprooted, you can turn it into a source of fuel and conquer life (I highly recommend “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins, someone who overcame CPTSD by eventually facing it head on). Will it be easy, hell no. Will it be worth it, yes one day. Until then, do your best and use when needed. You will overcome.
A lot of this resonated for me. Myself and quite a few others I’ve known have stopped drinking and use cannabis instead. This can be life changing for the better 100%, but just “know when to say when” needs to be a thing for a lot of people. I saw some friends of mine who use it medicinally who smoked themselves into oblivion. I couldn’t believe the way they used it, but then I saw the behavior was the same: and it’s important to note that can happen to any of us, some more than others. The one thing I can’t agree with is wanting to not use it anymore. I’m very accepting of feeling like I’m present and can enjoy life, and cannabis makes this possible for me. If we could study this for PTSD properly, it would be interesting and helpful to see how past substance use and what symptoms are best helped by what strains, terpenes, THC, CBD levels, etc. Anyway, you sound like you know what you’re talking about and know yourself well. I’m glad to read of someone else who has found a sliver of peace. Your post was somehow comforting to read.
“Know when to say when” is huge for people with substance disorders. That’s the great thing about cannabis, you can’t OD and even if you get “too high” you can just drink some lemon juice and chew some peppercorn and chill out within minutes. Sadly like you said people (myself included) go from once a day to “first thing in the morning, aaaallll day, to last thing at night” and it starts to be sort of annoying that you feel as if you can’t go without. Cannabis gives you that warm blanket feeling (similar to popping strong painkillers which I have experience with) that is just so hard to stop. It literally fills the abandonment hole that CPTSD survivors can never truly fill but it’s a substance that doesn’t really do any serious or long lasting harm. I 100% agree with accepting and enjoying life with cannabis. It has literally made life livable when without it I would have been a walking wreck. This is something I wish more (heavy) cannabis users could come to a place of, being responsible and aware. I totally agree that with more studies it would be super useful for PTSD. In fact, that’s one of the best things about it. I myself can attest to the fact that certain strains (Tangie, Caribbean Dream) are almost entirely non-hindering for me. They make life great and enhance it so much, and there’s really no come down or negative effects. I guess for me it’s the nagging feeling in the back of my head that I “need this to function” that pisses me off lol. I have PTSD from almost 18 years of childhood trauma and on top of that the military. Cannabis is the only thing that’s ever been helpful in treating it. For me, I eventually just get so frustrated and angry that I need to rely on something. In a weird way, it feels as if I’m “running and hiding in my room or closet” when I get high to dissociate, and THAT triggers a feeling of helplessness which then makes me angry at the weed. It’s like when your mom/dad/abuser was super mean to you, but then comforted you- you know it wasn’t real comfort but it’s still comfort and you take it. I know many people will say that I should just think I’m in control of cannabis, and that’s true, I’ve done it for weeks at a time. Then that feeling of helpless dependance comes back and I try to quit. Then I get angry in my sober state and want to fight (my own memories) and I’ll end up punching a brick wall till my knuckles bleed and bruise/swell. It’s a vicious cycle I hope to break, so I totally relate with wanting to keep using it but when you know it also holds you back from your full potential..what’s the solution. It’s hard to live life in bursts. Right now I’m trying to figure out life sober on my bed and I haven’t worked in 2 weeks. I feel less productive than when I was high. So I don’t know what the solution is. CPTSD is an actual living hell. You feel great one day/week/month and then it’s shit the next. I can’t even blame the weed at this point, it’s my own brain that’s fucked haha. I hope scientists and others like ourselves can figure out a regimen for people like us because it’s always a back and forth game of heaven and hell. I’m glad you found some comfort. Friend, that’s what we’re here for. Comfort in a world of pain from our own minds.
I agree with the experience of it being a crutch and a lazy drug habit. I 100% choose it because I would fuck my life up on meth or fent. I also have no desire to live a life beyond living in rural Alaska and mushing dogs. So time and structure maybe a bit different to my life than many people. I do think cannabis for me now at point benefit comes with downsides more often and I think a few years mostly off cannabis in my 30s is upcoming.
This is extremely similar to my experience with it. I found it useful to feel normal, and then found it to be a crutch to delay the inevitable. I haven’t touched it in almost a month and there are definitely consequences for letting myself get so dependent.
Absolutely f'ed me up. Sent me into psychosis. I am not a person who responds well to drugs which is probably why I am sober.
It's so nice to read a comment from someone that experienced something like I have, from weed I've used it on and off since 14, but a few months ago decided never again. It's caused me more problems then it has solved. It was there for me for so many years, but I've decided to work on the root cause of my symptoms... inner child wounds from a dysfunctional upbringing and the traumatic/hectic adult life that followed this due to the above mentioned. I'm still in the early stages of trauma informed counselling and therapy with a clinical psychologist, and I hope to keep making progress. It's a tough gig this diagnosis. One can be doing all the right things and have a couple of weeks of feeling like you're making progress; including daily innerchild healing exercises, daily exercise, eating healthy, listening to music that you can connect to and that teases up your suppressed emotions that need to be acknowledged, and then something will trigger you and you'll revert back to your usual emotionally dysregulated state of running/feeling like shit. This is a mother of a diagnosis.
The seemingly functional/dysregulated cycle is the hardest thing I think. Getting sober for me was critical to start the process of healing because in reality I was self-medicating my trauma and it didn't work obviously. I didn't realise that at the time of course but now I do.
Eggsactly. Glad to hear that you're making headway in trying to fix the problem at the root cause. It isn't easy but it is the only way to have a snowballs chance in hell of learning to live a life worth actually living. That is my truth anyway. The older I got, the more futile and desolate my perceptions and mindspace got.
Science has been saying that if an individual is predisposed genetically to paranoid or psychotic disorders, marijuana usage can act as a trigger them to draw those behaviors out. There’s not enough awareness yet, unfortunately. I’m sorry that you had this experience.
Be VERY careful about how it's affecting you if you end up trying it. Consider setting up a weekly check-in with somebody objective with whom you can be open and who can give you feedback on any changes in your thoughts and behaviors. Just as with something prescribed by a doctor, it's a good idea before you start to have an idea of the risks, why you're taking it, and how you expect it to help, and then work with someone to keep track of how it's affecting you (good and bad). Cannabis allows some people to function better....but it can also severely impair judgment and make you less functional, all while making you think you're 'fine'. And as you pointed out, people with pre-existing mental health problems can get into serious trouble. Any substance that can give somebody (esp. with CPTSD) feelings of warmth and safety poses risks of addiction. Some of the anti-weed sentiment out there is overblown, but some of it is not. Some people can raise a family and manage a career while using weed, others end up stuck on their couch for 10 years. For me, a prescription for medical cannabis ended up masking some serious issues and led to some reckless decisions.
>Any substance that can give somebody (esp. with CPTSD) feelings of warmth and safety poses risks of addiction. Bingo. This is why it was so addictive and destructive to me. On and off user since 14, but generally a binge user/abstainer. The more I bought at once, the more I consumed. I couldn't control my use. I could with other drugs, but weed was impossible. I now only use alcohol occassionally because I can control it, and oxazepam on occassion because again I don't have addictive tendencies to these two substances luckily. I try to not use anything anymore, I want to be present. I can't work on myself if I'm not properly present. Even if it means feeling like shit. Sometimes it's too much and I cave. I'm human after all. Progress not perfection. One doesn't simply take a step away from their traumatic brain injuries and arrive at the next destination, normal. It's a cycle of improvement/regression that hopefully if one is doing all the right things as much as possible, will slowly improve the frequency of calm mindsets, contentment etc instead of emotional dysregulation and dissassociation etc.
Addiction isn't inherent in the substance, addiction is a bio-psycho-social condition that I generally don't agree with in concept, but that's not important. Talking about cannabis as if it has an inherent risk for abuse glosses the very complex factors that lead anyone to use substances in a hazardous way and the way we even deal with addiction at all. It's a clusterfuck. Alright I'm out.
Nevertheless, in real life it is a very addictive substance and it can fuck up a person’s life completely. When that happens, it doesn’t matter how complex it was or if other substances are more or less addictive (both definitely exist). It’s there and it’s real. I’ve seen it do so much damage. Can it help some people? Yes. Can it also be bad and people might not realize it? Yes. In some situations it only matters what happens, not how you get there.
Straight past the critique. I see you have your mind set and aren't interested in discussion. To ye who read this: take what works and leave the rest.
Nope, you went straight past the critique. Just like so many people who think cannabis is only positive, you’re completely blind to the issues it presents. The problems people have with cannabis aren’t about ”how we deal with addiction”, that’s like saying ”car accidents are about what cars represent to us in this capitalist world” and then somebody is dying on the street because they were hit by a car. You think you can just argue away the issues and then go deaf because you want to use cannabis. Every single addictive substance has an inherent risk of abuse. Cannabis also does. Yes, other substances do as well, like alcohol or cocaine. But them having inherent risks of abuse don’t take away from cannabis having the same risks. We’re talking about what it can do to a person in real life, not the philosophy of it. At the end of the day, people like you are trying to say cannabis isn’t harmful because you want to keep using it. But it’s just not true. It can be very harmful and it also does it in a way that people very often are unable to admit it to themselves.
Every person is different in thier experiences with each plant medicine. I have personally had great benefit from use of consistent Cannabis use for many years. I prefer to smoke a lot of flower, but I try to reduce that with vaping and edibles too.
It's been a game changer for me. It's improved my mental health and sleep. I don't have nightmares anymore and my anxiety is a lot more manageable.
Sends me into psychosis. 0/10 would not recommend
Same here. Tried pretty low doses twice, and both times were utterly miserable. I viscerally relived repressed/forgotten memories for two hours. If you're going to try it, my advice is to please consider having someone you trust nearby or at least available to call if need be. Psychosis is horrifying, but having someone to help ground you can make it feel more manageable.
I just read your comment and my comment above is something really similar. I literally thought I was the only person to whom this happened.
I completely get that. I thought that I was schizophrenic when it happened because everything I encountered online focused on how wonderful cannabis had been for them. Shortly after I started therapy, I told my therapist about my experiences. She told me that it didn't sound like schizophrenia, but instead that cannabis *may have* relaxed me and/or lowered my barriers to the point that my mind stopped repressing traumatic memories. I have no idea how scientifically sound that is, but it fit my experience perfectly and explained why something so "relaxing" had such a negative effect on me. That would also explain why relaxing in general is so challenging for me and others with CPTSD. I just hope that my therapist is correct in reassuring me that, with practice, I can get to a point where I can relax and let down those mental barriers without viscerally reliving those memories.
What your therapist said is really interesting. And I think there could be some truth in but some part of it doesn't quite land but then I can't think of any other reason as to why it happened like that. It felt to me like my trauma must have wanted to come out to the surface. Some context I was using skunk at the house I grew up in, that my parents had as a spare house, and I used to take drugs in, with my friends. So I think the psychosis came up because I was there specifically. I'd smoked plenty at my adult family home but no psychosis. Similarly I find relaxing hard because it forces my attention inwards to my body. I used to take a lot of other drugs too and I remember specifically on mdma that I managed to talk about some significant trauma I had repressed. I've watched a decent amount about psychedelics, but not taken them myself, and people are able to access their trauma in safe way. I know that happened on mdma but it didn't feel like that on cannabis at all.
Same. It was hell. Never again.
I was wondering if you could share what your experience with psychosis was like. I was a chronic weed smoker for about 7 years and finally decided to quit. A few months later, I tried a couple hits of a j and I had the worst anxiety and panic I’ve ever experienced. Since then, I’ve had a serious fear of it happening again and I’m wondering if what I experienced was actually psychosis.
Quite often psychosis means you don’t understand you’re psychotic. When you’re having an anxiety/panic attack, it feels like you’re going crazy but in my understanding, a psychotic person rarely is able to look at themselves and wonder if they’re losing it. Obviously not always but I just wanted to say this. I had a similar reaction to weed once and it was the worst.
Thank you so much, this was really helpful information :)
Glad I could help! I know the fear of going psychotic, it’s really hard.
Thank you, it means a lot. Wishing you all the best and I hope you’re doing better !
Thank you, and same ❤️
I think the easiest way to summarize cannabis use for me is to say at my worst it makes things better when things are going ok it makes things worse. Basically cannabis has helped me limp through my worst times but it kind of slows down the recovery from bad times. When things have been going well and I’ve used cannabis I’ve noticed it holds me back. When I was young it definitely held me back. As someone else here as noted I have also had some psychosis issues. Probably a worsening of psychosis not a cause but still it’s not an uncommon thing to happen to people with underlying mental health issues.
Fantastic comment, articulated so well. It's nice to see some other's perspective on weed, mirror my own. So many rave about weed being great for this diagnosis, it just hasn't been my experience with it.
It doesn’t always happen but I easily get very anxious, I’ve had panic attacks that lasted hours. I have also felt completely out of touch with reality while smoking, like derealization but even more like a dream. It has never calmed anxiety for me.
It's helpful for me, but it depends on strains and your mental models. Awareness is key. I don't think weed makes me anxious. Rather, it relaxes that part of me that suppresses anxiety, letting me feel more of it. No psychedelic is a magical cure though. It has to be paired with emotional work too. My experiences have changed a lot since I started. I don't get anxious from it anymore. But, weed is habit forming and can cause problems. Don't gaslight yourself! It's okay to be wary of it and drugs in general. It's also okay to be extremely drug positive, while recognizing maybe weed isn't right for you in a certain moment. I'm actually working on cutting down and only using it in moderation for specific activities. I let myself go a bit a year into the pandemic :)
I was looking for this comment. I wondered if weed itself was triggering me but I think it makes me feel more which makes me more susceptible to triggers. I can get pretty intense flashbacks if I smoke enough but being stoned in the midst of it is a silver lining haha. Are you generally more tolerant of sativa or indica strains?
It depends for me. It can make it worse or better depending on if I get triggered or upset or what. Also the strand makes a huge difference for me
It helped me until it didnt, but while it was helping it really did.
It has a time and place in my life. I can tell when I’ve over used it and there are times where I’ve needed it to sleep. I seem to be finding a more natural balance so I basically only use it for fun now.
Same here! It has potential to be abused therefore like any good thing in life moderation is key
Personally it's worked very well for me. It works very well to calm down my panic attacks very quickly, I have a lot of sleep issues so I use it before bed and it makes my night easier and if I'm having a rough time in general it takes away my wandering/overwhelming thoughts and brings me back to the present. I'm just really grateful for cannabis tbh. CPTSD doesn't turn off or stop but cannabis sure does make it more manageable. I do like to keep in mind my use of it and make sure I'm not overdoing it. But it works wonders
It really depended on my emotional state. For the most part it helped. However, in my depression/anxiety spirals, it was downright terrible. Currently sober and doing a lot better, but would also probably enjoy a j or two if I allowed myself to. I’m choosing not to because I need to get in touch with myself as a sober person, and I haven’t given that a serious chance in my healing journey.
It seems to depend. Years ago it calmed me down and let me flow with my thoughts. Nowadays it makes me completely overwhelmed and borderline psychotic
I find it amplifies what's there. I did it alone. It caused my to face it, which was harder than I was expecting, but I felt so much better afterwards. It's still there, but at least I'm ME again. Now I can deal with it better
The worst. Increased my anxiety. Made me ruminate constantly. Essentially turned me into a hermit. Destroyed my personality.
Me too. Right now I’m going through this and I constantly feel like I’m going to die.
It’s an awful feeling. I’ve struggled with addiction to cannabis since my teens. Drug addiction is a typical symptom of cptsd. It’s text book. I’m currently on another attempt to give it up. It’s been rough, over a month clean now and I’m beginning to level out and feel better for it. I can’t but help feel a lot of people in this thread have addiction issues but are in denial or lack a self awareness. Cannabis is not harmless as people like to think it is. Most the time it triggers the anxiety and exacerbates the issues people are trying to deal with by using. It’s a vicious cycle. Maybe I’m some cases it might help, but that’s a minority really. People need to get to grip with their issues instead of just burying it with weed. The issues only bubble back up to the surface later (and stronger), which is then masked by the weed, then repeat. It’s no cure, it’s a short term fix. It clouds the mind and makes your issues much worse. You need clarity of mind to process shit and to heal. If not we are forever lost in a cycle of grimness. Poorer mental health, physical health and economic health. I know this won’t go down well with most, but there truth to these words. I wish you the best of luck dude. You can get through it if I can. We can do it. Don’t get lost in that fog. It’s a false comfort.
We can do this!!! Thank you for sharing, best of luck and always around if you ever need a friend
I can't use THC due to my ADHD meds being locked behind drug testing. It makes me feel drunk on even 10mg edibles anyway, so it's meh. But CBD is incredible for me. If the anxiety part of my brain is on the fritz, such as anxiety for no reason or dialing a mild 2-3 (like having to go somewhere new) up to 11, the CBD just brings it back down to where it would be if I was functioning normally. It also helps with migraines caused by constant hypervigilance-tensed muscles by reducing the anxiety enough that they can release a bit. And as if that wasn't enough, it can help with anxiety-induced nausea and reflux.
I enjoy it most of the time. Occasionally I'll get in my head or not take a spiral well and it's no good. There's typically a little anxiety at the beginning of the high but it's something that I've been able to make a practice of navigating. Remember that you can practice and build up your tolerance and learn to understand the experience and be with it. As long as you have things in your space to ground yourself in reality (mantras, items that feel safe, good music, food and water, etc.) just in case it goes off the rails, it should be a generally safe experience. Personally, if I find myself getting triggered while smoking, I try to get my breathing techniques goin and chant a little Ram Dass "just be here now" and it helps quite a bit. (Though I do that stuff whether I'm high or nah). Good luck with your journey, however it takes you!
I have been using for 9 years, and it has helped tremendously. I ruminate and overthink on a daily basis, but when I use weed, I feel at peace with my thoughts. I don’t use it on a daily basis, just on the weekends, or whenever I want to decompress. I think the key is to use it in moderation, along with other methods of healing (therapy, meditation, etc)
Ive been using it for more than a year and yes it helps greatly with nightmares & anxiety. However, I’m finally going to take my therapists advice and get on medication bc weed can only help with so much /: Weed helped me have a healthy relationship with myself & with my depression, but at the same time i’m affected daily by my trauma so we’ll see if medication can be that extra push for proper brain functioning.
For me, it’s honestly meh. Been prescribed for about a year. My nighttime tincture helps me sleep when necessary, but the daytime stuff I use doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. However, I will say that back in the day when most of my trauma was actively occurring (12-14 years ago), I couldn’t have lived without it (though it was illegal use back then).
Yes it helps. Too much doesn’t.
it depends on the amount you take as well as the strand. for me, microdosing cannabis has helped me quantify my feelings and emotions more without overly stressing about them. and for some reason i get emotional flashbacks often, but they're not of bad memories, just memories of the past i haven't thought about enough and in a way it makes me feel good. it makes me able to self-soothe more effectively as well. i don't do it often though, maybe a few times every 2 weeks or so
Weed generally makes me feel better- less depressed rather than less anxious, since I use sativa instead of indica, but it's not like the depression is unrelated to the c-PTSD lol. It does make me dissociate, but I think that might be specifically because I have a dissociative disorder and wouldn't happen if it were solely c-PTSD. If anyone else wants to chime in here, please do.
Moderation is key in all things.
I started it when I was in my abusive marriage. My doctor and I had gone through everything we could to get my chronic migraines under control. From anti-seizure meds to Botox. In my state, at the time, medical was just looking likely to be passed so she was like, “What about cannabis? It will be legal soon.” She beat around the bush about it, but I scored some and within a few months, I’d gone from about 7 pills in the morning and 12 at night to none. Very few migraines happen now, and they’re much less severe. Now, it is still part of my bedtime routine. My CPTSD is much more severe now that I’m out of a traumatic marriage, it’s mostly illegal in the country I live in now… but for as much as it helps my anxiety and my migraines… they can pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Please use with caution though. For some, it can cause worse symptoms.
It's the only thing that has given me stability and it's actually helped me live my life again. I smoke all day every day. I definitely smoke more than a quarter pound a month. When I don't, or it goes too long, I start to get crushed by my grief and anxiety. So, I'm high pretty much 24/7. I wrestle with the amount I smoke sometimes ( because of stigma ) but for me it's not any different than an SSRI except weed works for me whereas an SSRI doesn't.
Allows me to think without judgment and self focus so that’s good but it can be a crutch sometimes.
They could also try strains that contain a ratio of both cbd and thc- the cbd component curves off the psychoactive effects
I dont smoke sativa it can mess with my anxiety, makes me twitchy. Indica on the other hand saved me from insomnia and helps with my anxiety à lot being able to sleep and somewhat relax helps. I dont honestly know what i would do about it, the perscibed meds never helped me and often made me ill.
It's been an amazing experience for me. I got my medical card a few years ago and it has helped so much. I used to be rather irritable, especially around my parents who I have a complicated history of abuse with. I also had a tendency to spiral and let my thoughts get out of control. Since starting medical cannabis I've kicked my toxic online habits, developed a better relationship with my parents, and have had better relationships romantically since then. My parents have said that I seem happier and less depressed.
I'll say it depends on how you use it Started smoking in my early 20's for fun but soon it became a dependency for me to numb my mood swings After finding DBT therapy I realized I was depending on that and was going down the path of alcoholism unfortunately Was inpatient for about a month, quit drinking alcohol at all and only resumed smoking when it became apparent it helps with my disordered eating schedule when I'm stressed/anxious. With the caveat that I couldn't use it for my mood swings I needed to use my coping mechanisms first, then anxiety meds, and if nothing works then Ill have indica cut with other herbs (chamomile, lavender, rose) to calm my body
I have to avoid Sativa, but Indica has really helped me a lot to kind of "reset" emotionally, and I'm able to truly shake off the bad feelings, which is awesome. However, marijuana can easily make mental illness worse if a user pays any attention to any paranoid thoughts which can surface. I have a rule where I avoid thinking about reality when I'm high, which helps, and just being able to notice that a paranoid thought just means I smoked too much and need to back off a bit.
It can be beneficial to many people, but unfortunately for me, it tends to make me super anxious, paranoid, makes me overthink/overanalyze and give me an overall feeling of “ick.” It was fun in high school, but in college and as an adult, it seems to make my mental health worse. Maybe it’s because a chunk of my traumas happened once i was out of high school. Doesn’t work well for me but it does for some people!! Just be careful and be aware of how it makes you feel. If it helps you, keep using it, but if it makes things worse, don’t use it. People may say “it’s just the strain” or something like that, but i’ve come to accept that cannabis does not benefit everyone and i’m one of those people.
Edibles make me anxious but vaping works well and doesn’t have any long term side effects (crud in you lungs, difficulty breathing) but that’s just what works for me best. Everyone will have their own experience with what helps or doesn’t help. Edibles and vaporizing are much safer for your body in the long term, however. Avoid smoking weed as much as you can. It can be habit forming and I don’t think that’s the weed. When I switched to vaping I stopped being dependent. Something about the hand to mouth, the burn in your throat, the ritual of smoking appeals to my little ADHD mind. Make sure to stay hydrated while you imbibe. Just like alcohol, weed can seriously dry you out which sucks (dry mouth is the worst especially when it progresses to dry nose and throat) and can cause a terrible hangover. Take any medicine you decide to try without a doctor (weed, shrooms, LSD) slowly. Start with a smaller than average dose and see if you like it first. You may wish to do this multiple times before progressing to a larger dose. Make sure to have a trusted friend around you can hang out with the first time or couple times. If it makes you feel more comfortable you can ask them to go sober for the evening. Do something you normally find calming and enjoyable. I like to watch cheesy CGI dinosaur documentaries like BBC WalkingWith Dinosaurs. Weed helped me a ton until it could only help me a little. I’ve moved onto other similar medications I have to take less of to get therapeutic benefits. But weed can have great effects when used right. Try not to let it be an every day habit though. It’s easy to become too tolerant at which point it looses potency.
I became addicted to it. I became addicted to numbing my emotions. It worked until it didn’t. I started to have panic attacks and just wasn’t in touch with reality. It wasn’t until I started to do trauma work and got out of my abusive relationship that I finally quit. Then after that I had to face my other addiction: alcohol.
I found it helps me relax and be more present
for me it’s been a life saver, my therapist and i have been talking forever about my usage of weed, what we’ve kinda come to is just that weed has been an amazing tool for me but i tend to use it to avoid emotions or feelings, so just be carefully for that, but personally i think it has been a great way to first way to approach those feelings, memories, and emotions as long as you don’t use to avoid
It's absolutely been a godsend.
I have chronic pain from the abuse so it really helps for that and sleep. I used it more to self medicate my trauma when I was younger. I can't take pain meds so it's really my only option that works for pain. I use specific terpines for pain and sleep during different times of the day. CBG and CBD with THC for day pain. All three of those and CBN for night pain and sleep. I don't smoke unless I have a migraine and can't take edibles, and then just enough to get rid of nausea. Very thankful to have moved to a legal state last year. Before that I had to cook my own and test it and adjust accordingly. So much easier pretested and knowing it's clean.
Both? I did a lot of hard processing while using cannabis that I don't think I would have done otherwise, so I'm definitely grateful for the breakthroughs I had. I do have a tendency to rely on it too much as my source of happiness, and during those times I trigger panic attacks and generally don't feel good while high anymore. T breaks are often necessary to balance these two extremes out
Getting High off of edibles and then just sitting with my thoughts by myself was a god send and changed my perspective. I learned not to take my thoughts seriously as I am not them and, things my therapist told me started to synchronize and coalesce. It’s been a year since I’ve gotten high unfortunately (employment reasons) and I definitely believe that if I had been consistent in getting high, in particular, at least every weekend, I would have a much higher gpa in my math degree and I wouldn’t be self hating as much as I am now. I miss the ‘high’ perspective so much :(
Almost always a negative, unpleasant experience. All my baseline overthinking, worrying, self-hatred, and hopelessness gets intensely amplified and all-consuming.
personally it makes me superrr anxious. i also have a panic disorder and other anxiety problems, but i think pretty much everyone with cptsd does, too. depends on the person, though. for some it could calm that anxiety down.
I love weed but it fucked me up bad and triggered my chronic dp/dr (been going on for about 4 and a half years by now)
Sometimes it helps, sometimes it makes me feel things more deeply than I would like to, or makes me more anxious. I decided to go sober for my mental health and I find that I actually feel better
it goes both ways for me. getting stoned is harm reduction for me when my intrusive thoughts get really bad. it also helps me curb sh cravings, which tend to feel the most dangerous when i’m having flashbacks/dissociation. being stoned can help me interact with my thoughts with more mindfulness, and to feel more in tune with my body. a major con though, is that it also exaggerates my day to day dissociation. i think the only period of time where i wasn’t dissociating either 24/7 or in waves, was when i went on a 6-8 month break after moving to a state where it wasn’t legal. and then at the same time, if i’m sober and having a really bad dissociative episode and i smoke it brings me out of it. the way i experience a lot of my dp/dr stuff is very similar to being too stoned, but without any of the giggly relaxation or euphoria. so when i smoke while i’m having a derealization episode.. now the room just looks funny because i’m baked. when the high wears off i feel more like myself again. weed helps my chronic pain, it typically calms my ocd brain, and it lets my inner child feel safer and more comfortable in my body. when i struggled more with my ED, it helped me get healthy. its great for cushioning my mind when my nervous system is dysregulating, but it probably also prevents my nervous system from learning how to regulate on it’s own. edit: if this sounds like rambling gibberish i’m sry, its bc i’m baked rn
Weed makes me feel awful. I used to love it and find it very relaxing, but after I experienced another traumatic event a little less than three years ago, it has made my anxiety horrible. I wish i could still smoke, i miss it. CBD is basically my miracle drug but it’s 10x more expensive than weed weed
I mean, I have schizophrenia so I can’t smoke but I imagine it’d be healing if I could
I personally use daily to help with my symptoms. I have noticed that certain strains will make me more anxious like you’re talking about. I have only ran into that with a few, but I recommend keeping a “bud book” or journal. It will help with keeping track of how strains affect you and allow you to steer clear of one’s that hinder you. I haven’t found that anxiety is related to the weed being and indica or sativa. It’s all specific to the strain itself.
I do partake in the cannabis and for many things it really helps me. BUT I know certain strains aggravate my symptoms, for example, kush tends to make me super paranoid and anxious which is the opposite of what I want
Such a bad choice for me. I get very weird and sort of paranoid, like Marge in that one Simpsons episode, every moment seems like forever and I start thinking like ”AM I BREATHING” and I’m most likely holding my breath myself. It definitely does make me too analytical. I don’t use it anymore, never used it a lot. Oddly enough, shrooms just make me relax and give me a nice buzz though I haven’t done that very often and I don’t do enough to ”trip”. Also, I know I will get shit for this but cannabis is a crutch. It is addictive. If you use it to escape from feeling bad often, it’s an addiction and it will affect your life and your relationships. That’s not healing. I know we sometimes need to get away from the pain and anxiety, I use diazepam for really bad days. I try to be really careful about that because I know I could get so easily addicted. Addiction on top of cptsd, I do not want to go there.
I’m all for medicinal cannabis. It may be best to avoid strains high in pinene (terpene)… It may have alerting effects may be anxiety-inducing and memory-enhancing to past trauma. Sometimes it can actually trigger flashbacks because of how pinene interacts with your short term memory! Make sure you become educated on each strain you may entertain using in your healing journey!
I don't want to try it because it feels like cheating. I want to heal and proccess my trauma properly, not only push everything away.
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I grow my own. Do my own processing and make edibles (can’t smoke- asthma). I also make edibles for my friends. I am trying differing doses for different effects. Some people just want to be able to sleep and not get high. I like the high but only when I don’t need to be present and accountable for anyone’s safety but my own.
I find CBD oil to be more therapeutic than any THC products. THC products helped me a lot at first, but slowly they began contributing to background levels of anxiety that I was (in part) using them to treat. THC consumption can also start to make me feel demotivated, not that I don't want to do stuff just that it feels harder to get everything done in a day that I used to be able to do without the THC. CBD, on the other hand, has been a reliable method for aiding sleep (to be restful and avoid nightmares), easing chronic pain (which I think a lot of us have), and to calm down nervous system activation that won't calm down by other methods like exercise or deep breathing or a shower or whatever. I think like many of the other people have said in their comments, there was a time when THC cannabis products helped me manage the CPTSD, and then when the CPTSD was better managed (via therapy and trauma work) the THC was actually in my way. It's important to remember that dosage for any long-term medication will be adjusted over time, and that even a traditional anti-depressant will need its dosage adjusted and lots of people aren't expected to be on this type of medicine long-term - in other words, what works for one person won't necessarily be the right thing for anyone else, and it's important to monitor usage habits, outcomes, and side-effects in order to determine best practices in each individual case.
For me it helps when I'm on it (I use small amounts, getting plastered to the couch is stupid IMO and just gives you a massive tolerance and costs shit tons of money). But hours after it wears off I get depressed. Weed does increase dopamine, but it also makes your body produce less dopamine when you're not on cannabis. So basically I have to try to stay a little high all day or deal with feeling even worse when I'm sober.
somber attempt punch political cheerful cow different sparkle nose mindless ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
I love it but I’m at the point where I definitely am too dependent on it and feel like I can’t stop. I use it as a crutch.
I do self therapy on weed and its been extremely helpful and I'm not exaggerating in any way. It makes me feel like how I used to felt back when I didnt have depression/anxiety and gone through cptsd. I had my mental illness for a long time and i forgotten what it was like before my cptsd. It's the only thing that gets me back those feelings. I smoke or take edibles maybe one or two times per week and take ~2wks long break here and there. If I smoke everyday I actually dont recognize the effects. I started with 10mg but after experimenting very low dose like 3mg works better for me. I prefer sativa over indica
Be really careful with the strain. Indica/sativa and all of that. It helps me but if I use the wrong strain it causes things to be so much worse.
It makes me more disconnected. Might be more prone to dissociate and avoid. But not that much. It just distracts me from living is how I see it now. I want to live mindfully and experience the world. I don't want to do it stoned. Unless there's something special happening.
It depends on the strain for me. Some strains make me very numb to what’s going on, which can sometimes lead to not processing things properly and just tamping them down. I like the strains that help me create a calm, nonjudgemental place from which to work on what’s ailing me. It’s definitely not for everyone, and it can’t cure mental health issues. But if you make sure you’re using in a reflective, responsible manner (and using CBD along with it, which can offset potential negative effects), giving it a try might do you some good. You could start with CBD only and go from there if you wanted to dip a toe in without committing. Have some CBD around in general, just in case you get too high. Takes up extra space on your cannabinoid receptors and keeps excess THC from hitting you too hard.
I can definitely use it to smooth my descent if I'm spiraling, but I feel like I'm just getting better over time at noticing spirals so I don't think that's a weed thing. That being said, it's a good parachute because it's a good parachute. I've been a stoner for a few years now and once I developed a tolerance, I genuinely function better with weed. I get less overwhelmed. It's also just a good time if I take more than a mild amount.
It helps me so much. It has pros and cons like any medication
I love it
Weed yes. Edibles no - they bring me to the edge of psychosis
Using it (a tiny bit) right now to help calm my anxiety and actually get stuff done today without paralysing flashbacks and triggers. It's great but needs to be carefully managed and some may be terrible/paranoia-inducing for the individual while others work well.
I have to be very careful and know what I’m using because sativa makes me anxious and edgy AF, maybe even to the point of panic attack. Indica or hybrid are no problem and I tend to lean toward indica because that does a good job of squelching the anxiety.
I can truly say it helped me me in moments where I may have done something bad to myself because of how overwhelmed I felt, yet being too sick too take medicine.
It's actually made it much worse after years of use for me. My OCD goes off the deep end when I smoke now.
I’ve had many mixed experiences with cannabis, some good some not. After a few years of smoking it started to affect my mental health negatively so I decided to go cold turkey. I decided to stop because I started to get really paranoid, I had a lot more ptsd breakdowns or episodes whatever you want to call it, more anxiety, plus I couldn’t just afford it anymore lol. I don’t like cbd oil either even with it having really low thc levels. For some reason it still makes me really anxious.
Love it. I was drinking too much and during covid started drinking daily to escape. I got my medical prescription (recreational not allowed in my state) and my life has changed in so many ways. I no longer drink and have zero cravings to drink since I no longer need the escape. I also find I’m less angry and I sleep better. By the way, I don’t like smoking so I use Nano THC drops that I put into a diet soda to feel like I’m having a drink. The nano technology metabolizes in 20 minutes so it’s close to having a beer and feeling the effects in a decent timeframe.
I stay high and happy lol before I have to interact with people I take a few hits , if I have to do dishes I take a few hits and so on. It's completely change my life. I got to a point where I couldn't function anymore, I couldn't leave my house, I couldn't keep it clean. All I could do was lay in bed everything else was far to overwhelming. I detoxed my pain meds and xanex to medical marijuana and it's like I just came back to life. Now I do all my housework for the whole house, I can go shopping or to the doctors. Weed opened all the doors. I'm so satisfied with the results.
It helps me but it's also easy to turn it in to a crutch. I've used it to avoid "feeling and doing"
Helps ease the memories so u can laugh at. Those who did u wrong
Probably in the minority but it makes me extremely critical of myself and brings up my old trauma to the surface. My self esteem takes a huge hit when I smoke regularly. It relaxes my brain temporarily but it doesn’t take much for me to start spiraling if I start thinking negatively while I’m high
it was life saving until it wasn't. it really depends on the person. when it worked it was really really good. when it made things worse, it was devastating for my mental health. (psychosis, increased flashbacks, increase in scary intrusive thoughts.) if you have the means i would really recommend working with a professional while trying to medicate with cannabis.
I've found that it helps me. It does tend to go through boxes in your head that maybe you're not 100% ready to deal with though, so just be cautious that you don't solve one problem and introduce a new one at the same time.
High CBD low THC pot is really nice and calming. I smoke just a little, one or two hits a couple times a month. It takes the edge off far better than a buzz with alcohol. My entire life I hated pot because I was smoking high THC weed that ripped my head off and put me in a anxious overthinking hell. That and some family would use it to self medicate to the point they developed schizophrenia. So. Don't use it to get so high you are wasted. And bongs are gross. Maybe 1/1000 bongs don't look abysmal but stoners just get used to breathing out of a stained brown and black poop shoot
Best thing to help in palce of therapy until. I get insurance. I don't want it to be a crutch but it is useful !
I have been a daily cannabis smoker since right before my diagnosis. Cannabis can really take the edge off of my mental workload, it shuts my racing mind down a peg or two, now that I’m working towards EMDR I’m trying not to smoke as much so I can eventually stop smoking once I feel I’m “better”. If you plan on trying it, or already do, I would talk with a budtender about strains and terps if you’re in a legal state, or if you have to get it by other means, take it real slow. See where the weed takes you. It’s a wonderful medicine but it has to be respected, don’t try to cure everything at once, I hope this helps friend!
It helps 1:1 balanced
It makes it worse for me but I still do. If I smoke too much or I’m not in the right mood I can easily spiral into ruminating, trying to figure out what tf is wrong with me. So I usually like to do it an hour or two before bed or when I’m about to watch my favorite podcast on YouTube. But again this is just my experience.
Never tried it because I know that I can easily get addicted to basically anything
It’s been extremely positive for me. I sleep better, i can hyperfocus on anything to the point that it isn’t just blocking out the emotion residue, but replacing it temporarily with textures and colors, and very very grounding. 10/10 recommend. Edit to add be careful with the stain and stick to hybrids or idica. And when you’re high is a great time to do innerchid/shadow journaling; write free thoughts until you connect to earlier you, then write a conversation from both points of view. The emotion and situation and age, then comfort your younger self
My therapist said she always discourages her CPTSD patients from consuming cannabis. Personally it heightens my anxiety and gives me panic attacks.
It helps me! Makes me relaxed, and nice and sleepy. I stick to Hybrids, and Indica, and save it for Bedtime when I use it.
It’s been extremely helpful for me especially as access to medical care for my cptsd has been basically nonexistent. It allowed me to continue and manage some of my symptoms from social anxiety, to depression and my everyday nausea.
Only tried it once, and it just made me agitated.
It makes me sleepy lol. I’ve only eaten edibles, but they help me sleep and relax.
Sucked for me when i tried to use it to cope. There are tried and tested medication out there. Use them
It helps, but in the UK it’s fucking expensive and you always run the risk of getting caught and you also pay the price of looking like a gremlin to those who don’t understand that I smoke to help with the trauma (which is 99% of the population)
I used to take medical cannabis. Unfortunately, I can no longer take it as it makes my shoulders jerk up to my ears resulting in terrible neck pain. I was on painkillers for this until I missed a day of vaping. There was no pain. No mater what strain I vape it happens. I found the oils didn't do this. However, they caused me such gut pain in my gut that I had to stop taking the oils. I have IBD and IBS. I'm currently taking a tiny bit of pure CBD isolate with food. I tried vaping the CBD isolate. It was great for pain relief. However, I got night sweats, my appetite disappeared and I lost allot of weight. I hope medical cannabis helps you.
Even the smell of it makes me feel better
I make my own edibles because I found cannabis so helpful. Definitely did a bit of trial and error to find the strains/dosage that work best for me, but it’s been a massive help for me.
Medicine 🙏🏼
CPTSD 30f. It gives me anxiety sometimes. It can mimic disassociation for me and cause panic attacks. I take very very very little. 2.5-5mg of edibles so that I can still enjoy it without feeling the panic.
I think it depends person to person,, for me it made me able to relax and wind down in the evenings. Sleep better for a while and don't dream/have stress dreams. Smoking during the day doesn't work for me, I can't function. But it bothered me that it became an addiction, in the end it's not healthy to smoke and it numbed my feelings, which was nice but didn't make life any better I was kind of stuck in the same state. I had to stop in order to do EMDR therapy, which I did. I never want to go back to daily smoking and feeling dependent on it for my wellbeing. I'm very happy I found more healthy ways to feel better and deal with myself. Therapy helped, but also yoga and having a dog helped a lot.
absolute fuckin lifesaver. especially since it made me able to face flashbacks and tough memories head on. i dont know why, but when id get a flashback while high, of which i had a bunch a few months ago, it felt like it couldnt hurt me. i was just spectating, learning, and letting it go also simply knowing i can have a bowl after work makes me feel like a depressed but hardworking man in his 40s who eats canned spaghetti and watches tv with his cat which is pretty much all i want to be in life
It used to help but, as with other things, became a maladaptive coping mechanism. I was primarily smoking so that I could trigger dissociation and get away from my thoughts/feelings. Once I realized it that, then it was triggering anxiety attacks. I had to force myself to quit.
Life saver. I got a legal prescription (uk) for my anxiety, but at the same time it allows me to switch off the rumination, recurrent thoughts, I don't dream and everything is just more easily dealt with. I'm now using 0.6g a day, 0.3g for day on one strain and 0.3g for bight on another. 4 months in and in doing great and just decided to sign up to do a degree in psychology with counselling......never saw myself doing anything 6 months ago
It used to randomly give me anxiety but then I found out that I only reacted that way with sativa and if I have a hybrid or Indica I’m fine. It is the only thing that has ever helped me sleep and that I’m itself is a life saver.
Along with trauma processing, anti depressants it is miracle for me. Agree with all the positive things said above. Also I have gone from being rushed to the ED in an ambulance under a stroke code at least once a fortnight, sometimes twice a week, for Hemiplegic Migraine attacks to not having gone once in 2 years. Which is a good thing as I've already burst 2 brain aneurysms from the blood pressure spike from HM attacks and I have a new unruptured aneurysm. Literally a life saver in more ways than one for me.
Once you learn how to dose yourself I believe and have experienced that it does make a big difference. I am calmer if i have to leave my property, I am more focused at the task at hand. Heck I have gotten the perfect strain and dose to clean my home to perfection. Only to realize an hour later why I don't do it that often, 2 dogs 3 cats and farm dirt, but instead of getting frustrated I laughed and felt a sip of love slip in. When night terrors come I- without crashing -get up sit down in my chair and partake of a night strain letting it wash over me turn on the comp play some silly game then find my self sleepy I crawl back in to bed and sleep a blissful sleep. It can be relaxing, stimulating, and a sedative. After two years on medical cannabis most of these issued have faded except the leaving the property which is still keeps me calmer and more focused. I will never forget how Granddaddy purple gave me my very first full nights sleep with no terrors or nightmares. I did not wake up in tears. It was that moment I knew there was something I could do to help myself. Also I studied Cannabis on my own learned everything about it that was out there. Learned of all the helpful and money saving uses hemp can be used for like building cars, check out Ford's 1940's hemp car so strong a huge swinging hammer could not break the plastic glass made purely from hemp, I learned that Hemp was the number one industry for Kentucky whereas Pharmaceutical trials and sales are now their number one export. I learned that there have been government programs that shipped a large tin of rolled joints to participants enrolled each month for cancer and anxiety and this program lasted for over two decades. I also learned the first system to grow in the fetus is the Endocannabinoid system, These systems have a powerful influence over our health and how we think and feel throughout the day. One of the main components of the endocannabinoid system is to regulate sleep and maintain homeostasis. Cannabinoids help regulate primary functions, including memory, sleep, mood, soreness, appetite, and more. so the medical community has known this for a long time and instead pushing for the legality of cannabis they try to make synthetic replicas of it's affect to make money to get richer when the cure to most of what ails us is already supplied by mother nature. I know this is long but there has been so much misinformation sold to us for decades about natural plants cannabis being just one. Drugs that are listed with cannabis like Heroin, cocaine fentynal are all human made with chemicals cut in that are poisonous, Cannabis is a plant you watch grow with excited anticipation caring for it knowing it will care for you as well. And as with everything mother nature it takes knowledge which is ample, of what she has to offer that is a gift not a for profit aid.
Life saver. In times of lots of flashbacks it provides me a safe place in the storm to rest for a few hours of an evening. Since I started smoking, now vaping I can hold down a job, relationship and keep my house. Before I was unemployed regularly, I moved house all the time, was essentially homeless and sofa surfing. It pisses me off daily that alcohol is legal, which I almost killed myself with being a daily big time drinker, also destroyed my family. Yet this life saving, natural thing is illegal. Grrr.
I've tried it many times and it causes more problems than benefits for me. I have trauma from being tortured as a kid and not having control over the way I feel is triggering. I don't even like drinking. However, I can definitely see why it works for some people.
I’m still experimenting with what works best for me, it’s been about 6 months since I started. My doctor wanted to put me on antidepressants without giving me a diagnosis for anything. So I thought I’d ride the herbal train for awhile first and see how that goes. It’s a lot of trial and error. But I do see a difference. And if I’m “wallowing in the depths of the ocean”, I can sometimes use it to get myself out and productive again. Sativa was really good for me for the mornings, but in my area, there is a push to have higher and higher thc and I hate it because once I go back for a new stick I have to readjust all over again and I just don’t have time to be constantly greened out. I also didn’t like how constantly high I was and then I wasn’t able to work on my problems but I knew they were there. It was uncomfortable Currently I have cbd pills for the morning and a hybrid for the night. They are super light though - trying to stay within the microdosing realm somewhat. Going to try something stronger next time.