TW: mentions & personal stories of suicide, detachment from reality, psychosis
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.
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?
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 -
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!
