Cannabis Usage: what you might need to know before you become addicted

[Matthew Ed Moran]

Hi, I just had a thought about my cannabis usage over the past 5 years (with a 1 year break) that I began in my journal. I wanted to share it with you

 

Cannabis can relieve anxiety in the moment, but if it breaks through, it will be more present. It will be more uncomfortable, and at times nearly unbearable. It will be a physical experience of anxiety without any limitation or method of managing it. 

 

What does this remind me of?

 

My mother. I was not able to control my mother's anxiety. I was able to master this anxiety I felt by recreating my own mother in my head, and adhering to what I thought would make her more anxious, and by facilitating what I thought would make her less anxious. 

 

Many people experience uncontrollable anxiety when they first use cannabis. I did. Even now I sometimes do - often, in fact. Every smoking experience I've had over the past year has involved at least some anxiety while I've smoked. I think this is a sign of relative health compared to when I was able to smoke without any anxiety. 

 

What is the effect of cannabis overall on anxiety? It increases anxiety. 

 

This is because if cannabis is being used to manage anxiety, the user will not have to manage their anxiety with their foresight and frontal lobes, or an "inner parent" (not to be confused with an inner abuser). And the body will create more anxiety in response. When the body is then without cannabis, the person is left off unpracticed in managing their anxiety without cannabis. The more the cannabis use, the more frequent, the more well-timed, the more the person loses the ability to manage their anxiety without it.

 

I think I used cannabis despite it making me more uncomfortable in my first uses because I felt insecure that there was not an uncontrollable source of anxiety in my life. I had spent my whole life managing anxiety from my mother, from the fact that I was afraid of being rejected and abandoned (another way of saying from my mother), from public school; that when I was living on my own at 19, doing well in a philosophy college course, I felt insecure by the relative lack of anxiety in my life, and I sought to create more. It was trauma-recreation to create an uncontrollable anxiety in my life that I would have to learn to master, and find ill-found joys in. It is no coincidence that my cannabis use began when I moved out of my mom's at 19, and that my anxiety management (in terms of alleviating it without cannabis) has worsened the more I've used weed. 

 

Thank you for reading and I hope this encourages you go avoid becoming addicted to cannabis, and to work to quit (with professional guidance if possible) if you are already addicted.

[Tibith]

Hi, Matthew! Thank you for this post - I think you are spot on on your observations.

 

Cannabis does seem to give you momentary relief from direct anxiety, but it does so by distracting you with intense feels. Meanwhile, your background anxiety just increases as it passes more and more into your subconscious.

 

I used to smoke a lot of pot ever since I was 16-ish - I'm 25 now. I completely stopped just 4 months ago. I used to think I could not work without smoking (I'm a cg artist). I would spend hours fumbling around anxiously, talking randomly to myself in my head, trying to convince myself that what I was doing was so innovative, intense and fun. Sometimes I would get these snippets of inspiration and feel an intense rush of creativity that would last for about an hour or two. I had myself convinced that THIS was the main reason why I did weed and that the anxiety was just an unwanted physical response, nothing more.

 

Since I stopped I learned all of this was utter bullshit because not only that I can work without it - I can stay concentrated for a much longer period of time and get direct emotional feedback from the work that I'm doing without adding extra layers of fluff on top so that I feel good about it no matter what. I came to similar conclusions as you have - that it is a sort of trauma reenactment from my childhood. My mother was always controlling and manipulative (my father was an appeasing absentee alcoholic) and as a result I grew up with a pretty confused mindset. Always on the lookout - searching for where the next temper tantrum would surface.

The constant anxiety that I put myself through while stoned made me feel that I was the one in control of it and not my mother, father or sister (she's extremely un-empathetic to put it nicely) - and this pseudo-relaxation gave me enough immediate distance from my problems so that I could be creative. Truth is, my joy and creativity were always there, but I could not access that state while sober. After a series of very long discussions with my fiancee I decided I will put off pot indefinitely. Now I'm more emotionally stable then ever and I use my time more to further my skills and grow then to avoid anxiety locked in a smokey bubble of emotional escapism. My memory could be better, though )

 

Sorry for the long rant - It's my first post on FDR, btw . Hope my story has some informative value on you or other people here.
I have a question for you: what made you come back to smoking pot after the year-long pause?

[Carl Green]

If cannabis use is inhibiting your path to self development, it's good to stop using it.

 

Addiction, from what I can tell, pretty much doesn't care how it gets to the feel-good chems that it wants. Whether it's cannabis, heroin, gambling, sex, etc.. That's not to say that you can just interchange the sources. Once your mind identifies where it can get relief, it'll stick with it, but the point is that problem isn't what the addiction desires, but the existence and cause of the desire itself.

 

Any substance will have differing affects on people. The overall affect of cannabis on anxiety (as well as all drugs) will be different for each individual.

 

That being said, I think it's important to mentally frame the work of 'fixing this' as "resolving the cause of addiction" as opposed to "quitting my addiction to ____"

[dsayers]

That being said, I think it's important to mentally frame the work of 'fixing this' as "resolving the cause of addiction" as opposed to "quitting my addiction to ____"

Great post

 

There's no doubt that moderation is key. I wonder how much anxiety associated with cannabis use is external. When I drink a Mountain Dew, I don't have to worry about armed thugs kicking in my door or people judging me.

[Mantis]

Marijuana is really stupid. I smoked plenty of it. I'm now sober and I can say that pot heads are stupid. The cannabis culture is even more stupid. Watch a video on YouTube of one of those pothead rallies if you want to see a mass of people who never grew up and decided to stick a green foam pot leaf on their head and dance around with joints and bongs and smoke coming out their ears, goofing around and druling.

 

The whole culture is built around this absolutely false idea that pot will save the world. How stupid and brainwashed. It's a pretty bad state of affairs.

 

The science is clear that it reduces IQ by 10 points. Even Michael Bloomberg came out recently and said marijuana legalization was the stupidest thing we've done yet. I agree with that.

 

Now if a person smoked a few times a year I see no problem. But the cannabis culture is a complete sham and pothead really are as stupid as you think.

 

Not to mention the coexisting mental health disorders you find with pot smokers.

 

Major depressive 11%

Anxiety 24%

Bipolar I 13%

Antisocial 30%

OCD 19%

Paranoid 18%

 

So not only are pot smokers stupid but they have mental health problems as well. Those numbers above, come from the DSMIV, under cannabis use disorder.

[Matthew Ed Moran]

Hi, Matthew! Thank you for this post - I think you are spot on on your observations.

 

Cannabis does seem to give you momentary relief from direct anxiety, but it does so by distracting you with intense feels. Meanwhile, your background anxiety just increases as it passes more and more into your subconscious.

 

I used to smoke a lot of pot ever since I was 16-ish - I'm 25 now. I completely stopped just 4 months ago. I used to think I could not work without smoking (I'm a cg artist). I would spend hours fumbling around anxiously, talking randomly to myself in my head, trying to convince myself that what I was doing was so innovative, intense and fun. Sometimes I would get these snippets of inspiration and feel an intense rush of creativity that would last for about an hour or two. I had myself convinced that THIS was the main reason why I did weed and that the anxiety was just an unwanted physical response, nothing more.

 

Since I stopped I learned all of this was utter bullshit because not only that I can work without it - I can stay concentrated for a much longer period of time and get direct emotional feedback from the work that I'm doing without adding extra layers of fluff on top so that I feel good about it no matter what. I came to similar conclusions as you have - that it is a sort of trauma reenactment from my childhood. My mother was always controlling and manipulative (my father was an appeasing absentee alcoholic) and as a result I grew up with a pretty confused mindset. Always on the lookout - searching for where the next temper tantrum would surface.

The constant anxiety that I put myself through while stoned made me feel that I was the one in control of it and not my mother, father or sister (she's extremely un-empathetic to put it nicely) - and this pseudo-relaxation gave me enough immediate distance from my problems so that I could be creative. Truth is, my joy and creativity were always there, but I could not access that state while sober. After a series of very long discussions with my fiancee I decided I will put off pot indefinitely. Now I'm more emotionally stable then ever and I use my time more to further my skills and grow then to avoid anxiety locked in a smokey bubble of emotional escapism. My memory could be better, though )

 

Sorry for the long rant - It's my first post on FDR, btw . Hope my story has some informative value on you or other people here.

I have a question for you: what made you come back to smoking pot after the year-long pause?

 

Hey, welcome! No worries for the rant, I definitely enjoyed reading your post.

 

That interesting. I used to play a lot of video games on pot - halo specifically - and I was convinced that I was a better player when I was high. But the truth was I was a more consistently good player when I was not smoking - I could play well for hours on end if I wanted to, and yes I was more aware of the correct moves I was making as well as my mistakes. But the appeal of smoking, I think, was that when I was lonely or upset about the empty days I'd have, where each day was a replication of the next and equally as empty, I could tune out and play video games.

 

The thing about pot was, the more I used it, the less I enjoyed the time I was high. But once I had smoked, I felt like I was literally incapable of doing anything for an extended period of time besides playing video games. So I'd play, get bored after a few games, but I felt so autistic and anxious that I could do nothing else but force myself to keep playing - or else face the depression that was underlying. This lead to me getting more and more frustrated, angry, and even feeling hateful towards myself for putting myself in these situations. For the last year of smoking, it felt more like a punishment I was inflicting upon myself than anything else. And the more I realized this, the more I would get angry at myself for forcing myself to smoke and endure the bad consequences that I knew were to follow after the high faded.

 

Of course, without weed comes emotional reality of loneliness, and the presence of other difficult emotions, but overall I feel much more capable of handling them without weed. They contain very important information for me, so I'm also appreciative that they're there. In fact, they are the basis for my motivation to heal and become productive, so without them I would truly be irreparable. 

 

I definitely agree with concentration lasting longer without weed. Weed can produce the appearance of passion, but it is all the more painful when the low comes after the high, because it really reveals (at least to me) that the passion was not authentic or sustainable or spontaneous, it was just an external source of temporary disillusionment. It is enjoyable to lose yourself in the moment, but in the end we all come back to reality. And if reality needs your attention, it will make itself present no matter how many chemicals you put in your head - unless you're willing to go down a path you can't return from.

 

To answer your question, I was without weed for a year not by choice, but by practical circumstance. I still would even be so desperate as to hope to magically find a bag of weed on the ground while walking my dog - talk about wishful thinking! I was planning to buy lots of weed when I got a job, and it was a large part of the motivation for me to find work. It is amazing to me now how insistent I was on smoking without focusing on what I was trying to escape from and whether it would do me well over the course of time. 

[Matthew Ed Moran]

If cannabis use is inhibiting your path to self development, it's good to stop using it.

 

Addiction, from what I can tell, pretty much doesn't care how it gets to the feel-good chems that it wants. Whether it's cannabis, heroin, gambling, sex, etc.. That's not to say that you can just interchange the sources. Once your mind identifies where it can get relief, it'll stick with it, but the point is that problem isn't what the addiction desires, but the existence and cause of the desire itself.

 

Any substance will have differing affects on people. The overall affect of cannabis on anxiety (as well as all drugs) will be different for each individual.

 

That being said, I think it's important to mentally frame the work of 'fixing this' as "resolving the cause of addiction" as opposed to "quitting my addiction to ____"

 

yes, I agree that addiction is never fully the problem in itself, but a symptom of an underlying problem that is being "medicated." 

 

However, I do think ultimately that to self-medicate is to take a short term strategy to relieve the symptoms of an underlying issue, rather than to deal with the contents of the issue itself. If there is not a reason you must continue your addiction, except to relieve a psychological problem, then I think it is best to deal with the underlying source of addiction, than to continually relieve the symptoms. There may be a period of time in which you relieve the symptoms unconsciously, but as you become more conscious of what you are doing, I think the impetus to stop pain relief and deal with the source of the hurt increases, especially if you're ingesting your self medication in toxic ways (I was smoking blunts, but looking back I'd wish to have used edibles/vaporizers as often as I could instead).

[dsayers]

Even Michael Bloomberg came out recently and said marijuana legalization was the stupidest thing we've done yet. I agree with that.

You agree that people should be stolen from, abducted, and killed if they resist for disagreeing with you?

 

Now if a person smoked a few times a year I see no problem.

At what point does it become problematic? Let's say your answer is X times without Y span of time. Why is X problematic, but X-1 is not? Wouldn't body weight factor into it? Diet? Since we're talking about a symptom, wouldn't the severity of the damage done be of greater importance that frequency?

 

This is a totally unprincipled conclusion.

[Mantis]

Yes... Dsayers...

 

Hi how are you dsayers, good to see you again.

 

To clarify my position on the two points you posted above.

 

I do not think people should be persecuted for marijuana, smoking or growing. I agree that legalization is sound.

 

However I think the habit is stupid, and the marijuana movement is stupid.

 

As for XY&Z, I make an exception to say that using pot a few times a year as a special treat as a religious ceremony, as a ritual, I think that's the healthiest way to use it. In other words it's not pot use that's bad, it's potheadism and multipotculturalism that's bad.

 

Good to see you dsayers. I'm sure you are going to find a flaw in that post.

 

Oh dsayers, I finally read through the porn thread and found the post where you stated your opinion. I'm sorry to hear you experienced some trauma around religion and sex. Learning that made me understand you much better.

[dsayers]

I do not think people should be persecuted for marijuana, smoking or growing. I agree that legalization is sound.

 

However I think the habit is stupid, and the marijuana movement is stupid.

Right. You had said that already. I didn't respond to it because it's an opinion and I don't pretend to have any say over your opinions. What I was responding to, as evidenced by my quoting it specifically, was where you quoted Michael Bloomberg as having said (paraphrased) "the stupidest thing we've done yet is stop threatening to harm people for engaging in a particular voluntary behavior" was something that you agreed with. I sought clarification, to which you've responded with deflection. Thankfully, this provides the answer I was looking for all the same.

[Carl Green]

However I think the habit is stupid, and the marijuana movement is stupid.

 

As for XY&Z, I make an exception to say that using pot a few times a year as a special treat as a religious ceremony, as a ritual, I think that's the healthiest way to use it. In other words it's not pot use that's bad, it's potheadism and multipotculturalism that's bad.

 

So really, cannabis use is okay/bad when you feel it is? Than the same goes for me, great.

 

 

 

The science is clear that it reduces IQ by 10 points. Even Michael Bloomberg came out recently and said marijuana legalization was the stupidest thing we've done yet. I agree with that.

 

Now if a person smoked a few times a year I see no problem. But the cannabis culture is a complete sham and pothead really are as stupid as you think.

 

Not to mention the coexisting mental health disorders you find with pot smokers.

 

Major depressive 11%

Anxiety 24%

Bipolar I 13%

Antisocial 30%

OCD 19%

Paranoid 18%

 

So not only are pot smokers stupid but they have mental health problems as well. Those numbers above, come from the DSMIV, under cannabis use disorder.

 

I'd be really interested to see the 'clear science' you've reviewed that theorizes cannabis causing IQ reduction. Or any studies that show long term detrimental effects CAUSED BY cannabis. Unless you're talking about temporarily while on it. That makes sense, your brain kind of changes gears while on cannabis.  And if all that matters to you is a maxed out IQ all the time, than I suggest you don't use cannabis.

 

As for your link between the disorders %s and cannabis use, I'm not good at logic and even I can see where you've made a mistake here.

 

 

 

However, I do think ultimately that to self-medicate is to take a short term strategy to relieve the symptoms of an underlying issue, rather than to deal with the contents of the issue itself....

 

No need for the however here, everything you said, including what I cut, I agree with and it goes perfectly fine with what I said earlier as well.

(unless you were howevering your own first line, than disregard this)

[RCali]

Even Michael Bloomberg came out recently and said marijuana legalization was the stupidest thing we've done yet. I agree with that.

 

 

 

I do not think people should be persecuted for marijuana, smoking or growing. I agree that legalization is sound.

 

 

Contradictions, contradictions... Adding to that is: there's no empirical evidence of such a thing as "mental illness". Therefore, it doesn't exist.

[Mantis]

Yes I contradicted myself. I was ranting at the time.

 

I think legalization is sound. But I agree with Bloomberg's tone that there are problems with "pot culture".

 

Carl Green: I'm sorry but I wasn't clear on the IQ statistics. Pot lowers IQ in teenagers. Get your favorite search engine and type (pot lowers IQ), you'll find a stack of articles if you are curious about the IQ statistics.

 

Regarding the % numbers of related mental disorders to pot users, those numbers are taken directly out of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, latest addition. If you don't know what that is......

 

Those aren't my numbers. Take it up with the psychologists that wrote the DSM. It'd up to you to decide if the DSM is a valid resource or not.

 

Perhaps you can find an online version of the DSM and search (cannabis use disorder). There is such a thing as cannabis use disorder and it has comorbid health disorders that exist along side it.

 

Major depressive 11%

Anxiety 24%

Bipolar I 13%

Antisocial 30%

OCD 19%

Paranoid 18%

[Carl Green]

Carl Green: I'm sorry but I wasn't clear on the IQ statistics. Pot lowers IQ in teenagers. Get your favorite search engine and type (pot lowers IQ), you'll find a stack of articles if you are curious about the IQ statistics.

 

Regarding the % numbers of related mental disorders to pot users, those numbers are taken directly out of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, latest addition. If you don't know what that is......

 

Yes, I could easily have just googled the topic you mentioned. "google it" is not a good answer to "what information are you basing this statement on?". Can you refer to something specific or are you just going with your feels on this as well?

 

As for the list of percentages, what does that have to do with anything, and what are they even saying? 11% of people that are considered 'major depressive' use cannabis? Okay fine, but what does that tell us? So of all the major depressed people, 11% use cannabis. Out of all the people that aren't major depressive, what percentage use cannabis? If it's more than 11%, doesn't that tend to indicate that cannabis is actually GOOD for people in that category?

[RCali]

Those studies on cannabis are as valid as the global warming alarm. Look enough and you'll see it's all bullshit. And you ignored most of what I wrote.

[Mantis]

I love FDR forums.

 

Rcali: OK, so you stated that there is no evidence that mental illness exists. What evidence do you have that there is no evidence of mental illness?

 

And. What evidence do you have that the IQ studies aren't accurate?

 

 

Carl Green: I based the IQ information simply on heresay. I heard it mentioned in two places and repeated it. Is it empirically accurate? I can't say for sure. I am assuming that there is some validity to it,but I'm not saying it's written in stone from the Abraham scroll, the day they traversed the desert on camels.

 

Absolutely right, digging deeper to find the truth on the IQ studies is required. If I cared I would do that, but I don't care. I see your point though and it would be interesting to find out how accurate the study is.

 

The numbers I gave are as follows. Sourced out of the DSM, under cannabis use disorder, it states that out of the number of people who smoke pot X number have this mental health problem.

 

So for example, according to them, 30% of pot smokers have Antisocial disorder, and, 24% have an Anxiety disorder. Are those statistics accurate? I can't say for certain.

 

Why is it relevant? I think it's interesting to note that smoking marijuana is a indicator of preexisting mental health problems, be it anxiety, depression or antisocial.

[Carl Green]

Mantis, I'm not debating the accuracy. I'm debating what you're abstracting from the numbers.

[RCali]

I need to have evidence of something not existing, if there's no evidence of something existing? That's not how it works. Refer to Hitchens' Razor.

When there are two opposing sides to the same story, you can assume various things: one side is completely wrong, they are both wrong, and there can be some truth in the middle, they are both completely wrong, etc. With cannabis, it's pretty evident there are two opposing sides. On mental illness the same. Global warming? Same thing.

[Carl Green]

Great post

 

There's no doubt that moderation is key. I wonder how much anxiety associated with cannabis use is external. When I drink a Mountain Dew, I don't have to worry about armed thugs kicking in my door or people judging me.

 

Thanks dsaysers.

 

my pretty useless 'medical opinion' would be that external factors like fear of being judged or arrested would be the majority of the cause of such a side affect. THC in high enough doses will induce anxiety pretty consistently though, so it's not all external.

[Mantis]

Rcali: You handsome devil. You stated that there is no evidence of mental illness, that mental illness doesn't exist. I'm asking you to prove this to me. Show me the proof. Somehow you reasoned your way to that conclusion and I want to know what you are basing that off of.

 

I agree that many things are nuanced, it's grey area, grey matter in the brain,the color gray, classical like like a rainy day on a river boat.

 

So, given the Hitchens Razor construct, with regards to those three topics, mental illness, cannabis, and global farming, where do you think they each fall in the spectrum?

 

Carl Green: all that I am abstracting from the numbers is that marijuana use is correlated with underlying mental health disorders. That you can gain a deeper insight into the pot smoking population when viewed from the lens of mental health disorders. That people aren't well in the cannabis culture.

 

 

But look I smoked for 10 years, and I don't blame people for smoking.

[Mister Mister]

I smoked pot for a long time, but basically had to take a break for 2 years when I lived in S Korea, when I came back I went back to smoking briefly, but decided I didn't like how it made me feel anymore.  In some ways it relieves stress and anxiety, but for me it would tend to make my mind run, causing me to internalize and over-analyze everything, and become neurotic and anti-social.  Having learned to manage stress and anxiety through exercise, meditation, tea, self-knowledge, and so on, I didn't find very much positive effects anymore to outweigh the negatives.

Mantis - I haven't looked into that specific data, but how do you know that cannabis is causative and not simply correlative with regards to those mental conditions?  It seems just as likely that people with certain psychological dysfunction would gravitate towards a soft psychotropic drug like cannabis, not that smoking pot causes these things.  Though I do believe it can make them worse in some situations.

I think RCali is kind of arguing an irrelevant point - perhaps mental illness as it is often described in the culture is not valid, but nonetheless feelings and patterns of depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive behavior and so on, are very real.

[Mantis]

 

I smoked pot for a long time, but basically I didn't like how it made me feel anymore. In some ways it relieves stress and anxiety, but for me it would tend to make my mind run, causing me to internalize and over-analyze everything, and become neurotic and anti-social. Having learned to manage stress and anxiety through exercise, meditation, tea, self-knowledge, and so on, I didn't find very much positive effects anymore to outweigh the negatives.

 

RoseCodex: That's a great story, one I can relate to and one that I think will be beneficial to others.

 

I really like how you mention dealing with stress and anxiety with exercise, meditation, drinking tea, and self knowledge. I'm a big tea drinker as well.

 

Ya you are absolutely right, it's not marijuana that causes mental health problems, it's like you said, people with mental health problems have a propensity to use low grade psychoactives like pot. That's what I was saying, sorry if my wording wasn't clear. People who have those disorders smoke pot, not pot causes those disorders.

 

I also agree that Rcali is making a circular argument.

 

Thanks for sharing your story.

[Jer]

I don't have anxiety beyond the usual fear of uniformed thugs but I am a more kind, empathetic and patient person when I have some (my wife and therapist agree).

 

I assume Mantis is referring to the Nixon study where monkeys were effectively suffocated in smoke for 5 minutes at a time with no oxygen. All that proved is that oxygen deprivation causes brain damage.

[RCali]

Behaviors aren't proof of illness. For something to be considered illness, there must be physical evidence of a cause. If there has been shown no cause, by science, it's wrong to say such illness exists. Read carefully: I didn't say behaviors don't exist, I said illness causing such behaviors does not exist. And this is where you can use Hitchens' Razor: "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

 

And it's pretty silly saying that what I'm discussing is irrelevant. Mental illness has been referred in this thread, and I'm refutting it. It's just silly to say that.

[Mister Mister]

Behaviors aren't proof of illness. For something to be considered illness, there must be physical evidence of a cause. If there has been shown no cause, by science, it's wrong to say such illness exists. Read carefully: I didn't say behaviors don't exist, I said illness causing such behaviors does not exist. And this is where you can use Hitchens' Razor: "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

 

And it's pretty silly saying that what I'm discussing is irrelevant. Mental illness has been referred in this thread, and I'm refutting it. It's just silly to say that.

Yes, I agree that it is inaccurate to call these things "illness".  But what I was saying, was that this doesn't fundamentally affect the argument.

[Carl Green]

People who have those disorders smoke pot, not pot causes those disorders.

 

So what was the point of bringing up the correlations you shared? Was it to back up your opinion that "pot is stupid"?

[Mantis]

Pothead & Psycho

[J. D. Stembal]

What are people's thoughts on using cannabis to relieve pain and lower inflammation? It is well documented that tobacco and cannabis have healthful properties for reducing pain, inflammation and muscle soreness. I use tobacco and cannabis for the therapeutic effects in conjunction with sports. I endeavor to push myself hard at the gym and get the most bang out of my buck, and as anyone with a fitness background can tell you, muscle building initiates catabolism and local inflammation within joints and muscles, especially.

 

[Jer]

What are people's thoughts on using cannabis to relieve pain and lower inflammation? It is well documented that tobacco and cannabis have healthful properties for reducing pain, inflammation and muscle soreness. I use tobacco and cannabis for the therapeutic effects in conjunction with sports. I endeavor to push myself hard at the gym and get the most bang out of my buck, and as anyone with a fitness background can tell you, muscle building initiates catabolism and local inflammation within joints and muscles, especially.

 

 

I use after workouts since I think I lose a small amount of power. I think it helps me with pain relief for sure, also helps me eat more and sleep better.

Do you notice any strength difference if you have cannabis before workouts? I have heard people say it helps with endurance too, but the only thing I noticed on that front is I am able to go longer without getting bored.

Climbing Mag sent a survey on cannabis to a bunch of pro climbers http://www.climbing.com/blog/pro-climber-marijuana-survey/

[J. D. Stembal]

I use after workouts since I think I lose a small amount of power. I think it helps me with pain relief for sure, also helps me eat more and sleep better.

Do you notice any strength difference if you have cannabis before workouts? I have heard people say it helps with endurance too, but the only thing I noticed on that front is I am able to go longer without getting bored.

Climbing Mag sent a survey on cannabis to a bunch of pro climbers http://www.climbing.com/blog/pro-climber-marijuana-survey/

 

I don't know as I don't use cannabis before workouts. I would not want my senses dulled while throwing weights around, but I could see how a mind altering substance would change an athlete's ability to lift. It's all about the mind over the body in the gym. If you don't think you can lift it, you can't lift it. If you know you can lift it, you will.

 

Rarely, I use low dose edibles (10mg) for soft tissue damage like lower back muscle pulls and swollen shin splints. Post workout, especially when I lift heavy in a strength class or hit a PR, I smoke a cigar which soothes my mind and body, so that I'm ready for the next work out two days later.

[Stephen Jennings]

If cannabis use is inhibiting your path to self development, it's good to stop using it.

 

Addiction, from what I can tell, pretty much doesn't care how it gets to the feel-good chems that it wants. Whether it's cannabis, heroin, gambling, sex, etc.. That's not to say that you can just interchange the sources. Once your mind identifies where it can get relief, it'll stick with it, but the point is that problem isn't what the addiction desires, but the existence and cause of the desire itself.

 

Any substance will have differing affects on people. The overall affect of cannabis on anxiety (as well as all drugs) will be different for each individual.

 

That being said, I think it's important to mentally frame the work of 'fixing this' as "resolving the cause of addiction" as opposed to "quitting my addiction to ____"

 

There have been researches done into addiction that i saw on the BBC, and they found that all the cocaine addicts tested in a continuing study, had a dopamine deficiency.

 

It stated that 10% of the human population had this deficiency, and it correlated with the fact that out of everybody who drank alcohol 10% became addicts.  

 

Is addiction a result of a life event, or simply just a chemical imbalance in the brain? or better still could addiction be causing the deficiency?

[Carl Green]

There have been researches done into addiction that i saw on the BBC, and they found that all the cocaine addicts tested in a continuing study, had a dopamine deficiency.

 

It stated that 10% of the human population had this deficiency, and it correlated with the fact that out of everybody who drank alcohol 10% became addicts.  

 

Is addiction a result of a life event, or simply just a chemical imbalance in the brain? or better still could addiction be causing the deficiency?

 

Addiction is a result of life. I mean that in the sense that the factors are myriad. The genes you're given at birth, which epigenetic switches have been flipped throughout your life, parent/peer usage, availability of the  substance, availability of help for substance abuse, etc. etc.

[Stephen Jennings]

Addiction is a result of life. I mean that in the sense that the factors are myriad. The genes you're given at birth, which epigenetic switches have been flipped throughout your life, parent/peer usage, availability of the  substance, availability of help for substance abuse, etc. etc.

 

Yes i am aware of epigenetics, in my comment i wrote that maybe the deficiency could be a caused by addiction or life event, or visa versa.

I am pointing out the correlation between addicts and dopamine deficiency, that they are very close with regards to the population percentage effected. 

 

We cannot rule out the possibility that we are born with this, or totally opposite, we adopt it, either through epigenetics, environment and/or life experiences.

We just don't know yet, to say we gained these traits through life and are not born with them is a bold statement, in the fact that the cards are still on the table scientifically.

Remember, most of the knowledge we have learned throughout history has turned out to be wrong.

 

Addiction, coming from an ex Heroin addict myself, can be filled with anything which provides that same feeling when dopamine is released.

 

The BBC documentary hosted by ex addict Russel Brand, called from addiction to recovery, is very good and the source for the dopamine correlation. 

His political views can be a bit suspect, but his take on addiction is really good, and the neuroscientist he interviews is doing a very in depth study into addiction, and the correlation between addiction and dopamine deficiency.

I don't know as I don't use cannabis before workouts. I would not want my senses dulled while throwing weights around, but I could see how a mind altering substance would change an athlete's ability to lift. It's all about the mind over the body in the gym. If you don't think you can lift it, you can't lift it. If you know you can lift it, you will.

 

Rarely, I use low dose edibles (10mg) for soft tissue damage like lower back muscle pulls and swollen shin splints. Post workout, especially when I lift heavy in a strength class or hit a PR, I smoke a cigar which soothes my mind and body, so that I'm ready for the next work out two days later.

 

I think i need your input, i have left work to care for my wife and son who are doth disabled which has left me sort of house bound.

As a result i have started smoking more in high quantities, and it's very high grade, this has left me lethargic and overweight (i used to be very fit).

I recently climbed Scarfell Pike, the highest mountain in England (about 2 months ago) and it nearly killed me, we wild camped at the summit and it was amazing, my big toenails are black but it was worth it.

I beat a Heroin addiction cold turkey 13 years ago, yet i'm really struggling with this.

[Carl Green]

We cannot rule out the possibility that we are born with this, or totally opposite, we adopt it, either through epigenetics, environment and/or life experiences.

We just don't know yet, to say we gained these traits through life and are not born with them is a bold statement, in the fact that the cards are still on the table scientifically.

Remember, most of the knowledge we have learned throughout history has turned out to be wrong.

 

"Addiction is a result of life. I mean that in the sense that the factors are myriad."

 

My point here was that when someone is addicted to something, it's going to be 'because of' a great many factors.

 

Have you come across any research which covers people both before and during addiction? For example, if the study from that BBC show says that X% of people have a dopamine deficiency, does it say whether they tested their dopamine levels before they became addicted to cocaine? I don't claim any accuracy for this, but with addiction, my finger will always initially point to the parents of the addicted first, and look into their early environment.

[Stephen Jennings]

My point here was that when someone is addicted to something, it's going to be 'because of' a great many factors.

 

Have you come across any research which covers people both before and during addiction? For example, if the study from that BBC show says that X% of people have a dopamine deficiency, does it say whether they tested their dopamine levels before they became addicted to cocaine? I don't claim any accuracy for this, but with addiction, my finger will always initially point to the parents of the addicted first, and look into their early environment.

 

 

 Is addiction a result of a life event, or simply just a chemical imbalance in the brain? or better still could addiction be causing the deficiency?

 

I 100% agree with the fact that many factors are the cause of addiction.

As for the causation of the dopamine deficiency, if you look at what i have quoted you can see that is what i put forward, like i said the cards are still on the table scientifically.

 

I should have been clearer in saying, i was putting this forward as a possible causation (one of many).

The thing is this, if you do have a dopamine deficiency and are subject to addiction, this documentary shows you ways to fill the gap in your addiction, with a addiction which is much more productive for yourself.

Dopamine is released when you do something you enjoy, and by doing this it can balance the dopamine deficiency, which previously relied on drugs.

 

Russel himself says he filled his gap with the addiction of his work in TV

 

Addictions can be made to work to your advantage, if you find something you love and put it all into it.

Yet if your addiction comes from traumatic life experience's, then a different approach is necessary, counselling, and mental hurdles which are very different to the ones with a dopamine deficiency.   

 

Ed Stafford, Bear Grylls, football players, athletes, musicians , and actors the list goes on, all addicts in their own right. 

 

I'm new here can i post links to the doc on here?