TW: mentions & personal stories of suicide, detachment from reality, psychosis
After all this time, I think we have to consider the simplest explanation...
SRBM
Meg... what an absolutely beautiful post. I applaud you. And very much agree with the fact that being alone with our own thoughts is the most dangerous place for many of us. I know it is for me. Thank you for your well thought out and heartfelt post. It was a pleasure to read it.
Good point. And something else besides weed could have been consumed. We still don’t know. But had the weed in his bag tested positive for something hallucinogenic, it could have strongly pointed toward a drug induced psychotic episode. But since it didn’t have anything else in it, everything is still on the table IMO.
Hi happyday!
So, a lot of people don't know this, but weed itself can
for sure cause psychotic episodes, etc. I cannot smoke weed, period, it triggers massive anxiety within me and has caused depressive or anxious episodes that have lasted
weeks at a time (absolute hell, for anyone wondering).
I wanted to be able to smoke weed because all my friends did and they were doing just fine! They loved it! But unfortunately, I have dissociative issues as well as severe anxiety and a history of depressive episodes, as well as a couple of suicidal/almost-killed-myself-but-got-very-lucky instances. Weed makes everything worse for me. I panic in a way that it spirals to be completely out of hand and out of control. If I was in Jason's shoes that night, and I was stoned, I would have almost certainly ended up deceased.
I did have a sort of mental break at 16 and it followed a night of heavy smoking. It was a dissociative episode that lasted for 6 months, with LOTS of paranoia involved. I hardly went to school. I brought a knife into the shower with me if I was home alone because I kept thinking that I was going to die soon or be killed by someone. It was one of the scariest things I've experienced, I know that for sure, but I do not recall very much of that time.
Apparently I'd wake my mom up crying hysterically that I couldn't remember my own name. And my parents didn't really get me help. They had no idea what to do with me. They figured I was being overdramatic or something. I feel like trauma has definitely impacted my ability to function 100% successfully and 'normally', but I am lucky nearly 10 years after that experience to be mostly healed from it and I haven't smoked weed in 3 years - I did try it periodically to see if anything would change, and no, it made my heart rate go to like 170 every time and I couldn't think straight.
Does Cannabis Cause Psychosis?
“Mr Green” is a 39 year-old African-American male with a history of chronic schizophrenia, cannabis use disorder, and alcohol use disorder. He started smoking cannabis almost daily at age 20. When he was 22, he was in a motor vehicle accident while under the influence of substances and suffered a head injury. Several months later, he was hospitalized for a first episode of psychosis (FEP). Thereafter, he participated in a long-term antipsychotic clinical trial.
Over the past 2 decades, there has been extensive research on the association between cannabis and psychosis.
Modulation of the endocannabinoid system by the main psychoactive component in marijuana,
Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, can induce acute psychosis and cognitive impairment.
Carney and colleagues investigated the prevalence of cannabis use and its association with symptoms in participants at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis. Across 30 studies (n=4205 UHR), there was a 27% current and 53% lifetime prevalence of cannabis use, and a 13% prevalence of cannabis use disorders (CUD). This corresponded to a 2.09-fold and 5.45-fold increased odds of lifetime use and CUD, respectively, in patients at UHR compared to n=667 controls. Furthermore,
UHR cannabis users had a higher prevalence of both suspiciousness (ES=0.21) and unusual thought content (ES=0.27).
Johnson and colleagues11 conducted a large genome-wide association study of those who use cannabis (n=20,916) and controls (n=363,116). They identified 2 loci with genome-wide significance: a novel locus on chromosome 7 (
FOXP2; OR=1.11, 95% CI 1.07-1.15), and a previously identified locus on chromosome 8 (near
CHRNA2 and
EPHX2; OR=0.89, 95% CI 0.86-0.93).
Importantly, cannabis use and CUD were significantly, positively, and genetically correlated with schizophrenia in this study.
Szoke and colleagues4 meta-analyzed 29 studies of cannabis use and schizotypy (attenuated psychosis).
Lifetime cannabis users had significantly greater scores for total (ES=0.42), positive (ES=0.44), negative (ES=0.18), and disorganized (ES=0.33) schizotypy versus never users. Furthermore, current cannabis users had significantly greater scores for total (ES=0.21), positive (ES=0.23), and disorganized (ES=0.27), but not negative schizotypy scores versus subjects that do not currently use cannabis.
For anyone wondering about schizotypal personality disorder (SPD),
here is more information. My brother has it, so I feel comfortable speaking to it. It is difficult to witness your loved one go through paranoia and delusions.
Here's some of the common symptoms -
People with schizotypal personality disorder have odd behavior, speech patterns, thoughts, and perceptions. Other people often describe them as strange or eccentric. People who have this disorder may also:
- Dress, speak, or act in an odd or unusual way
- Be suspicious and paranoid
- Be uncomfortable or anxious in social situations due to their distrust of others
- Have few friends
- Be very uncomfortable with intimacy
- Tend to misinterpret reality or to have distorted perceptions (for example, mistaking noises for voices)
- Have odd beliefs or magical thinking (for example, being overly superstitious or thinking of themselves as psychic)
- Be preoccupied with fantasy and daydreaming
- Tend to be stiff and awkward when relating to others
- Come across as emotionally distant, aloof, or cold
- Have limited emotional responses or seem “flat”
Obviously I don't know if these symptoms describe any of Jason's behavior. I just wanted to provide some information regarding the fact that marijuana can
definitely increase your chances of having a psychotic break of some sort yet people always say that it's good for "everyone" when it isn't.
No drug works for every person, and weed can indeed be a dangerous substance for those with mental illness issues.
Sorry for the novel y'all, this is just something I've thought about & researched extensively and wanted to let everyone know!
I was just watching a video that explained the accident. Such a strange situation, the clothes, him missing.
