After being a smoking for about eight years (about five years heavily) I finally worked up the nerve to throw the stuff out. Here’s why.
It started about a week ago. I was at the computer relatively late at night, (high) when i felt a strange pop in the back of my head. The pop made my vision go funny for a split second, kind of like tunnel vision I guess. After that, there was a weird pressure in that spot that was pretty much continuous. It was really light pressure, so I didn’t really worry about it at the time and wound up going to bed.
By the next night, the pressure had intensified so I started doing a little research online. I was reading stuff about aneurysms and found that they usually involve a very bad headache, which I didn’t have, so I figured I was OK. I then proceeded to get hit with this weird wave of what I can only describe as nausea, followed by a strong continuous sensation in the chest that was like that feeling you get if you get startled. My vision started getting fuzzy like it does when you’re about to pass out, so I got to the floor and blacked out. This whole process probably took about 10-15 seconds, but was probably the most frightening experience of my life. While it was happening, I thought for sure whatever was in my head was blowing open. I awoke a few seconds/minutes later with a cold sweat and ears ringing like crazy. There was no pain and I don’t have insurance, so amazingly enough I went to bed.
The next night, after seeking some advice, I went to the ER to have it all checked out. I was given a CT scan, EKG(?), and spinal tap. I was discharged with a diagnosis of headache and anxiety. The passing out was ruled to be an anxiety attack/panic attack probably due to the pop. The pop was a mystery to the doctor, but as I have seen, anxiety can do some weird things.
For the next couple days, I had a sore back in addition to my little pressure spot. I did my best to ignore it, figuring it would finally go away. Which it did. My memory is fuzzier on this part so I can’t remember exactly how the next bunch of stuff started. What I do know is the spot was finally gone, and my back was much improved. I had nothing to worry about.
But by that night, I had pretty extreme pressure in my chest (like the startled feeling in my anxiety attack), and this “tightness” in my gut. This was about three or four days ago. Ever since then, this pressure has been there pretty much all the time. It comes in cycles it seems like. At its lowest, there’s just a little bit of pressure. As the cycle goes up, the pressure increases and the feeling in my gut comes back. As the cycle reaches it’s peak, i get lightheaded, waves of heat or cold (very rarely cold) and the occasional thud in the chest. The thudding in the chest only happened one day about two days ago. Since then, the cycle normally peaks at the heat waves, or ,very occasionally, a little lightheadedness. It seems like I go through this cycle maybe two or three times a day. It all seems like symptoms of anxiety, so I’ve tried not to worry about it and have more or less adopted the stance of a very curious observer.
And this is where the weed comes back in. It’s important to note that, like a dumbass, I was smoking pretty much throughout this whole thing.:smack: Someone I know suggested that the weed might be doing all this. After a little research, I discovered that it was indeed possible. The DSM-IV has a diagnosis of substance induced anxiety disorder. I have noticed that the symptoms pick up when I smoke, so if weed isn’t causing this, it is at least making it worse.
I had thought about quitting a few times before all of this. If anything, I wanted to see if it was doing anything to me, and quitting would be a good way to see if it was. But that never happened, obviously. I should’ve known that it was a problem then, but as usual, nothing seems to motivate me except last minute disaster (an issue even before i started smoking). I hate to sound like an anti-marijuana shrill with all this. I’m not. It’s probably like anything else, OK or maybe even good in moderation, but destructive when taken too far. Plenty of people can apparently smoke to their heart’s content and be just fine. I realize that I am not one of those people.
Maybe someone else will have this happen one day and this info will be useful. If anything I feel better just getting it all off my chest. If you actually made it this far without being bored to tears(hell, even if you were bored to tears;)), thanks for reading.
