I’ve had social anxiety and intrusive thoughts for nearly all my adult life and now that I have a lifetime of missteps to my “credit” the intrusive thoughts are becoming a real nuisance. Every unkind word I’ve said, every time I’ve let down a friend, every time I did something stupid or cowardly, scrolls through my brain on a never-ending loop, to the point where I can find myself screaming “Will you just f***ing SHUT UP.” I try to suppress the outbursts when other people are around, but it’s a struggle.
Anyhow, after reading a couple of SD threads on cannabinoids, it occurred to me that maybe some form of mj might be useful. Googling finds anecdotal reports that CBD, sometimes with and sometimes without THC, is helpful. So I ordered some “Full Spectrum CBD Gummies with THC” on line. Each gummy has 50 mg CBD and 2 mg THC. I figure if this dose is too high I can just cut them into smaller pieces.
For all of you who are more knowledgeable than I, what have I gotten myself into? I haven’t used cannabis in any form since the 60s. Have any of you out there in the Dope-verse successfully relieved social anxiety and/or OCD symptoms with cannabinoids? Any advice on what dose to start with?
I’ve used hemp oil under the tongue drops which relieved my anxiety to a great degree. No THC available here, but I’ve heard smoking pot relieves a plentitude of maladies, so just do that.
Thanks but smoking has enough drawbacks that I have ruled it out as an option for me. The oils or tinctures are another option, of course and it’s good to know that it has helped you. My fingers are crossed – can’t wait until my order comes!
I believe it is the CBD that is supposed to have anxiolytic properties, actually affecting GABAA from downstream effects. And you can get that even in places where marijuana is illegal, it seems (though check your local jurisdiction). I would have suggested trying that alone first.
The only advice I have about edibles is second hand: take it slow. The effects will take half an hour or more to take effect.
I took THC infused chocolate before I went to the dentist yesterday and was very very calm. The time before I had an anxiety attack and had to cancel the appointment.
IF you decide to try it out, do it at home first. Some strains calm you down while others can make anxiety worst.
I’ve only recently been able to experiment with this, so take my 2 cents for what it’s worth. I’m not sure that CBD is anything more than snake oil for all it does. I got some of those 2mg/50mg THC/CBD gummies that you mentioned and the impact of that low of a THC dose is difficult to predict, presumably based on my stomach contents and what’s going on around me. But really they haven’t been any different from just taking a quarter of a 10mg pure THC gummy. 5mg will get me going pretty good, 2 or 2.5 is a crapshoot. And the CBD in them is unnoticeable.
As for THC, I was hoping it would help my anxiety, but, you know, it’s weed. Like Jon Stewart in Half Baked, weed just enhances whatever I was feeling anyway. Funny TV shows are extra funny, good food is extra good. So to quote Jon… You ever had anxiety? You ever had anxiety… on weed?
Yeah. It just made me hyper aware of my anxiety. Same thing with headaches/back pain or anything else. Oh boy, now these headache pains are crystal clear and I can feel every vein in my skull with every beat of my heart.
Weed affects everyone differently, so you won’t know until you experiment. But my experience confirms what I suspected – weed is fun as a recreational activity, but if it were actual medicine, they’d put in a boring pill so the dosing could be regulated much better.
Like you, I have a fairly skeptical attitude toward all of this. The claims for the benefits of CBD, THC and CBD/THC combo are all over the place and I think probably 90% wishful thinking or hyping by the purveyors. A while back, I succumbed to some glowing references on line and invested in some CBD chewies for my dog, who has crippling arthritis and can’t take Metacam anymore because her kidneys can’t handle steroids. She thought the treats tasted good, but it didn’t seem to help her pain or mobility at all. IMO, we aren’t going to know exactly what, if anything, CBD does until there is better science (i.e., more controlled studies).
Ugh. My own very limited experience with mj is so long ago that I don’t remember all the effects, but I don’t think it heightened any sense of anxiety. However, that was puny Midwestern 60s cannabis which is probably nothing like today’s pumped up strains. Thanks for the heads up. I plan to be cautious.
Pretty sure its not a placebo effect as I’ve used it in other situations as well. Over the last year I’ve noticed anxiety attacks coming on more often and I blame them as an after effect of the two year long COVID isolation. Spoiler: IT SUCKED!
I go in for a hour long massage about once or twice a month and look forward to them, but started to have issues with placing my head face down through the donut hole pillow they have. Was feeling anxious when doing so even though I knew I was going to enjoy what was happening and totally trusted the person giving the massage. An edible helped take away that anxiety, consistently.
I rarely use marijuana recreationally anymore, but thank God for medical applications such as anxiety relief and giving cancer victims another option to help in their struggles.
I’m not trying to be a jerk, but have you already tried talking to a psychiatrist about this? I know plenty of people with this problem who have been helped a lot by medication and talk therapy combined. I know it can be hard to find good mental health care, but it’s not impossible, and these kinds of symptoms (especially the intrusive thoughts) are often very treatable. You can get good relief, and (unlike CBD or THC), you can probably get it covered by insurance.
If you’ve tried that and it hasn’t worked, or just don’t want to go that route, you’re really going to be going with anecdata and trial and error. And there is a problem that sometimes, for some people, THC in particular can make intrusive thoughts and social anxiety MUCH worse (usually just for a short time, but it’s extremely unpleasant). Edibles in particular can have this effect because it’s so hard to judge when and how they will affect you. A half-hour wait for any effect is common…but it can be as much as three hours, or as little as 15 minutes, before you even know how it’s going to hit you. And when it hits you too hard, it feels terrible.
I’ve used cannabis recreationally for about 40 years, and I can still be unpleasantly surprised by an edible, even with lots of practice. Take edibles very cautiously, in low dosages, and wait a long time (like 8 hours, I would say) before deciding that you need to take more.
I am not sure that edibles are the safe way to go to reduce anxiety, be careful of the dose and start out small, perhaps even very low dosage expecting nothing to happen. Then another time, on a different day, a larger dose until you get to a point where something happens. And after you eat some DO NOT eat more because you aren’t feeling anything after an hour. That is about how long it will take to feel effects. Once it is in your body you can’t get it back out until it is metabolized. These products are not FDA regulated and tested like other drugs, most do have some labled levels of THC/CBD but that does not directly equate to the effects.
The difference between smoking and eating pot products is that if you smoke some and get uncomfortably high, have a panic attack or something, it will go away in a short time, you should get back to semi normal in an hour or so. When edibles kick in, and if they REALLY kick in, you can get uncomfortably high for a much longer time, like a roller coaster that is scaring you to death but you can’t get off until IT decides to stop and you can’t tell when that will be. That might be all day or all night. I understand the aversion to smoking but be aware that the effects between smoking and eating are very different.
NYT columnist Maureen Dowd had a bad edible experience in Colorado.
What could go wrong with a bite or two?
Everything, as it turned out.
Not at first. For an hour, I felt nothing. I figured I’d order dinner from room service and return to my more mundane drugs of choice, chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand.
But then I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. I was thirsty but couldn’t move to get water. Or even turn off the lights. I was panting and paranoid, sure that when the room-service waiter knocked and I didn’t answer, he’d call the police and have me arrested for being unable to handle my candy.
I never liked CBD, it just gave me depression but did nothing for my anxiety. However hopefully it works better for other people.
THC can help with anxiety but only in low doses. And the difference between a low and high dose can be minor. This article discusses how 7.5mg can lower anxiety but 12.5mg can increase it.
BTDT, and it was strikingly unhelpful. I’m not in that bad shape.
Thanks for the insight, it’s exactly the kind of info I’m looking for. I intend to be very cautious, and if the CBD/THC combo doesn’t help or makes things worse, I’ll just flush the stuff.
If you want to try THC by itself, some dispensaries sell THC in 2.5mg tablets, or you can buy 5mg gummies and cut them in half. Like I said, for me, CBD caused depression. It wasn’t until I quit the CBD that the depression lifted so I have to make sure any products I use are just THC