marijuana: the cause of my SA

[adamsj09]

So i am now 100% sure that smoking pot was the sole reason for my SA.

It's been 3 days since I've last smoked and I feel that my SA is almost completely gone. I used to smoke to relieve my depression and it worked, but meanwhile I was developing a strong paranoia for social situations. I was unable to really socialize with anyone, including my own roommates, for the longest time and today I chatted with several pretty girls and basically everyone freely. I didn't even feel a bit anxious and I will never smoke again because I am so happy that I no longer feel the wrath of SA.

Does anyone else here smoke? Ever tried quitting for a while? I know that some of my friends seem a bit anxious with social situations when they smoke as well so maybe those of you that smoke should try quitting for a while. Trust me, it's VERY worth it...

 

[CelestialDreams]

It's weird.. I started smoking pot and got pretty bad on it in high school, I didn't want to spend any time not being high.. but anyway, as the years passed, I noticed that I was getting super paranoid more so when I got high. I remember finally quitting and feeling like a totally different person, a brand new person that wasn't afraid of things.. but, I guess I just have that addictive personality, because once things got better, I started smoking again after it had been so long. Pretty stupid. So I'd fluctuate from feeling better and being better, to then going back to my old habits and falling into the bad spot again.

What's great is that you've found your so much happier, and I'm very happy for you. Keep it up, try not to fall back into it again like I did.

 

[DillJenkins]

Hey man, I have smoked for 7 years. I had Social Phobia, Depression, and Panic Disorder before I ever smoked and I eventually found the Cannabis relieves my anxiety.

I am the opposite of you. I have not smoked in aboot two months and my anxiety and depression has gotten much worse. I stopped because I want to get a good job. I am even on Celexa and Xanax at the moment and the Celexa makes me worse and Xanax helps some.

I think I am in the minority however because most people get anxious as hell when they smoke. It gives my buddy panic attacks so he doesn't smoke at all anymore.

I just wish I could use it in a legal fashion since I have responded to neither SSRI's or Benzo's in the long term. Hopefully I can find a med to replicate the anxiolytic effects of Cannabis for me.

 

[adamsj09]

thanks for the response... but here's my question for you.

Why don't you just quit? I mean I know how terrible SA is and I'd rather lose a limb than deal with it.. I'd always know that smoking made things worse but I'd just lie to myself and act like it didn't. I know my best friend has the same problem but he is basically a hopeless pothead and when he hears I quit will most likely not hangout with me. I think his problem is that he no longer knows how to do anything without smoking. I feel that the only way of feeling on "level ground" with others for him is for everyone to be stoned. It's a vicious cycle and every time I bring it up with him he gets so pissed and just avoids the conversation.

 

[adamsj09]

Dill, I'm really sorry to hear that. I wish it'd be as easy for all of you as it was for me, which just involved saying no. I do know that weed used to not make me anxious and most definitely relieved my depression but nowadays it just had to end. In your case, I really do hope they legalize medical marijuana because I know how debilitating SA can be.

 

[CelestialDreams]

I haven't smoked since April, so that's four months.. I go from quitting for awhile, to going back to it for a few months, to quitting for awhile. I'm just stupid, I think that "things are better now and this one time won't hurt" and then I get addicted to it again. I apparently get addicted pretty easily.. I also succumb to peer pressure.. I think I've smoked myself retarded honestly lol.. I just always think that for some reason it will be different than the last time.

DillJenkins, it's so true that it can go both ways. There have been times when smoking actually seemed to help me too, it's just it eventually goes the other way for me. I guess that's part of why I kept falling back into it because I thought "well maybe it will help me feel better this time" or whatever. Not saying that this would happen to you, I'm just saying I know what you mean. My boyfriend smokes on a regular basis for his stomach, he gets really bad nausea and stomach pains, and it seems to be the only thing that helps him.

Medical marijuana is legal in CA and there's even a college all about the education of marijuana called Oaksterdam University, there's horticulture 101 and "cooking with marijuana" classes lol it's a trip

 

[pandamonium77]

Nerp, smoking worsens my depersonalization

And i get AWWWFULLLLLL 3 day long panic attacks
Not fun
Weed helps a lot of people, just not me

 

[adamsj09]

I have a problem with my stomach as well. I can't really eat as much as I should and I'm DEFINITELY not anorexic or anything, my stomach just gets full and upset easily when I'm not high. So smoking did help me with that but I just force myself to eat now whenever I feel hungry and so far it hasn't made my stomach pains too bad.

I wish that America would inform their people more about SA and the effects of marijuana instead of just putting anti-weed commercials on TV where kids turn into slime. If anything, it makes kids wanna smoke more imo

 

[CelestialDreams]

Well this is the beginning for SA, the revolution of knowledge if you will.. have you ever read the book or seen the film Girl, Interrupted? I just saw this a couple of months ago for the first time, it's about a girl fresh out of high school that spends a few years in a mental hospital in the late 60s.. she was a product of her time and was seen differently because she came from a very successful family (both parents went to Harvard) but yet she had no interest in going to college. She was diagnosed with BPD, and for her time, this must have not been very well known. Now, whether she really had BPD or not is questionable, I think she probably did (in her book, she doesn't even know herself thirty years later).. but it was such a "weird", unknown thing back then, and nowadays BPD isn't so uncommon. So I think of SA like that.. we are the ones that mark the beginning of finding out more about this problem. In the future, kids like us will be able to get help when they're young, there will be more answers, more treatments, more understanding.

 

[adamsj09]

I think you are on to something their Celestial. I think that's why its so hard for us as well, because nobody understands it. It scares us because we don't even understand it completely, which just adds to the cycle. If it was "socially acceptable" to just start every conversation by first telling the person you suffer from SA but will try your best to work around it, how much easier would it be? I think one of the biggest problems for us is that we ALWAYS TRY TO HIDE IT, which just makes us worry even more.

 

[CelestialDreams]

Totally, I wish I could just say "hello, my name is ... and I have SA" and people would be like "oh okay, no worries, it's all good" lol

 

[adamsj09]

i know, how good would it feel to hear from the beginning that they weren't judging you. But the problem is, if you tell most people that they'd be like "uhh wtf is that?" and most likely question whether it is even real or if it's "just in your head". GOD I hate hearing that phrase, "its all just in your head." because it sure as hell isn't

 

[bobertius]

I found the more I smoked, the more I would turn into paranoid android. I could only smoke on my own cos I simply couldn't socialize cos I was too stuck in my own head to concentrate on what anyone was saying or have a good time. This simply made it worse.

 

[Mikefly]

Yeah i smoke weed and everyday i think about quitting, but i get so bored with only a few hobbies and inconsistent work that i continue to smoke. I admit im much more social when i don't smoke pot but i continue to do it, i also have an addictive personality so maybe that's it. Your on point tho with what you say about it causing paranoia and social anxiety because ive experienced this and when i smoke pot compared to when i don't is like night and day.

 

[Carina33]

At first, I thought pot was a miracle. I much more uninhibited when I smoked it, even enjoyed being the center of attention. Also, nothing else seemed to fully relax me the way smoking did.

Now I mostly stay away from it, only getting tempted occasionally when others around me are having fun with it. I'm slowly becoming my more my old self without it. I had begun to realize that I was feeling much, much worse, and was even following the famous track of isolating myself from people I had liked being around. Suddenly, the way I felt much more hypersensitive to other people's emotions, and even thoughts, didn't seem helpful anymore. Paranoia is the right word there. Every movement and facial expression that I or others made was a big event. I couldn't complete my simplest goals, even sober. Ordering coffee was too stressful. Now that my smoking is more occasional, I still can't avoid the paranoia that goes along with it. High at Wal-mart, my friend had to take my money and pay for my things for me. The other week I felt like it was impossible to go out of my room because my roommate was in the kitchen.

 

[satstrn]

I agree that being stoned in public makes you feel paranoid (it sure as hell does me), but I think we may be placing too much emphasis on how it contributes directly to social anxiety overall. I feel like maybe we get anxiety from smoking weed simply because when most of us are high we are rarely doing anything productive, which high or sober will lead to a lack of energy and therefore a lack of confidence, especially around people. So yes, I think it probably does contribute but in a more indirect way than people are implying. I quit for 2 weeks and felt no change in my day to day interactions with people (or lack thereof), and I think it was because I was sitting on my ass and not doing anything. At the same time I've had moments of hard work and accomplishment while maintaining a daily smoking habit and have felt huge surges of confidence. So I think that its not necessarily the weed that causes the anxiety but the lack of productive activity that goes along with it. A lack of productive activity will lead to anxiety REGARDLESS of the weed.

 

[madmike]

I'm also like you. Whenever i've smoked pot, around friends or on my own, i've always gotten extremely paranoid and anxious (it got so bad at one point that i couldn't even enjoy the high). I've heard that people predisposed to mental illness ( i guess SA counts) don't do well under the influence, and should avoid pot like the plague! I have nothing against it (my brother is a regular user, and it seems to do him no harm) but if you're noticing it making things worse you're right to stay away from it...

 

[Outshined]

Everyone's different, and you should do what's best for yourself. I can't say it affects my anxiety, because when I'm high I'm more relaxed and creative. I'm still the same person, sober or not. I go to classes throughout the week, and work a part time job in retail. When Friday and the rest of the weekend comes around it's my time to enjoy myself. Just as some people choose to do the same thing with drinking.. Anyways, I have a lot of respect for people who think for themselves, and don't judge others for it.

 

[Rheves]

I've smoked for about 6 years now. I'd say at first it was a whole lot of fun. Did it mostly at parties and just when hanging with friends. Moved onto buying my own bags and smoking everyday. Due to boredom mostly I guess. Now I smoke everyday still and I have noticed that if I smoke at the beginning of the day I am much more anxious the rest of the day. I tend to only smoke at the end of my day now. Unless its a total veg day, then its whenever it occurs to me. Think I might quit for a while, kinda hard when your room mates smoke just as much, if not more, than yourself.

 

[Noca]

Weed never did anything positive for me, nor does synthetic weed.