5 ms·

That has also been my experience. I’ve had anxiety since I was a child and was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. Back in 2014 or so, I was at my wits

by netule 3y ago

That has also been my experience. I’ve had anxiety since I was a child and was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. Back in 2014 or so, I was at my wits end and wanted to try medical marijuana since it was touted as a solution to my anxiety. I went to see a doctor, who doubled down on this being a good thing to try. So, I got my card, and went to a dispensary where I bought whatever they recommended for anxiety. Two hours later, I was having my biggest panic attack in years. If I didn’t grow up having panic attacks all my life, I would probably have called 911 or got someone to drive me to the ER. If there’s an easy fix for anxiety out there, I’d love to know about it. I’ve been fighting this for decades and it doesn’t get better as I get older. What kind of helps in the meantime is therapy, slow exposure to stressors (being careful to prevent flooding), and mindfulness meditation. None of this fixes my anxiety, but it makes it a little bit more manageable.

xanderlewis 3y ago
> I’ve been fighting this for decades and it doesn’t get better as I get older. As someone younger than you quite possibly suffering with the same thing, that’s saddening to hear. Is there anything you did that you wish you’d done sooner? Have you tried any (pharmaceutical) medication?
- thepasswordis 3y ago
  See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39278214 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39278214
- netule 3y ago
  I do take Clonazepam when I get severe panic attacks or right before something I know usually triggers a panic attack, but nothing on a day-to-day basis. Clonazepam does seem to help with my symptoms, though it just makes me feel euphoric (which, I guess, is better than feeling like I'm dying). I take a tiny dose, but it seems to help a lot. I have a few things I wish I'd done sooner if you'd indulge my ranty and highly personal list: * Moving out of the city and into the country. I know this one is not feasible for most people, but it helped me to get out of the hustle and bustle and back to an environment similar to where I grew up. * Reducing caffeine and increasing water intake. I limit myself to one cup of coffee in the morning and no caffeine afterward. * Quitting my high-stress job in favor of a job at a startup and taking more breaks. * Daily cardio exercise for at least 30 minutes. * Talking about how I'm feeling with my partner. It seems simple and silly, but this one is crucial for me. I tend to lock up when I'm feeling crappy and lash out. Overcoming that and talking about how I'm feeling has helped enormously. * Going to therapy. These are all helping me cope, so I still have panic attacks, but not as often as a decade or so ago.
  - xanderlewis 3y ago
    > if you'd indulge my ranty and highly personal list Not ranty at all; very helpful in fact! It’s interesting you say cutting down on caffeine helped… I feel the opposite would be true for me. For some reason it seems to have a calming effect. Anyway… good luck to you. I hope it continues to gradually improve.
thepasswordis 3y ago
Propanolol is a fantastic anxiety treatment. In some ways better than xanax, at least for me. Highly, highly recommend trying it. They say it's for "stage fright", which can be offputting because "stage fright" (at least to me) seems almost wholly unrelated to the type of anxiety I suffer from. It's a miracle from my perspective. If you suffer from generalized anxiety, please ask your doctor about it. Just to really hammer this home: I had doctors recommend this drug to me for years, and I always more or less ignored them. I have taken xanax for quite some time, and took this recommendation as them being apprehensive about prescribing it (which i understand, since many people abuse it). Propanolol seems to have the same type of calming effect, but with none of tired/disassociative feelings that xanax gives (which I don't like). The first time I took it I almost wanted to cry. It really was just like a switch that turned the anxiety off. It does take about 60-90 minutes to fully kick in, though.
- netule 3y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion; I appreciate it. Is this something you take daily or as you need it?
  - thepasswordis 3y ago
    As needed, but it's fine to take daily with no negative downsides. I'll take it before I need to go do something which might have triggered an attack, but the long term benefit here is that doing those activities without getting triggered lessens the sensitivity to the trigger (if that make sense). So lately I haven't taken any in weeks, but when I was first prescribed it I took it every day.
- throw3450 3y ago
  I feel that propanolol helps with physical effects of anxiety (which are not much of a problem for me), but doesn't affect the mental side of anxiety the same way benzos do. It's much less addictive than benzos of course, and preferable for that reason if it works.
  - thepasswordis 3y ago
throwaway11460 3y ago
It's very likely that you had way too much THC. Especially if you vaped or ingested it. When I first started smoking, 0.01g (yes, one hundredth of a gram - a barely visible layer on top of some tobacco) was enough to get a whole room of students incredibly high for a few hours. I used to buy 0.2g and that lasted 5 people the entire weekend. And that was before all of this lamp-grown craziness with 10% and more THC content. If you used more than 0.1g of these medical dispensary strains, it's really no wonder you had a crazy panic attack. I'd have too and I'm an experienced smoker. I know some people using weed to treat anxiety. They smoke so little they don't feel high at all. One gram might last them a month.
- oblib 3y ago
  I have 2nd this. I've been using weed for a very long time and have seen so many people try to take a lung full of smoke as opposed to a small sip. I don't do "vapes". That stuff is so highly concentrated that it makes me cough with even a tiny sip. Same with "gummies". I can't really know how the dose will affect me and I don't want to get "stoned". I do think that if you're wanting weed to help with anxiety you should probably look into CBD too. That probably works better for anxiety.
- DANmode 3y ago
  For the curious reader: that clownshow is at ~30% THC these days.
bowsamic 3y ago
Anxiety is likely to get worse as you age, unfortunately. If you have it when you're young, the prognosis isn't good.
- waingake 3y ago
  I'm way less anxious as an adult than I was as a kid. Likely due to various coping strategies that I've ingrained over the years.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
vitehozonage 3y ago
I have diagnosed GAD as well. And the first time I smoked marijuana I had an intensely anxious experience. However, i find that small doses of edibles are like magic. I am sensitive to it but the dose makes the poison.
supertofu 3y ago
Apart from mindfulness practices (which do help, but slowly), I've found the following to be life-changing regarding my lifelong, debilitating social anxiety: - psychedelic therapy (1-4 times a year, over 6 years, turned me into a functional person in social contexts) - strong chammomile flower tea (depresses my nervous system to a normal baseline -- this has been the most dramatic way to ease physiological symptoms of anxiety for me)

by netule 3y ago

xanderlewis 3y ago

> I’ve been fighting this for decades and it doesn’t get better as I get older. As someone younger than you quite possibly suffering with the same thing, that’s saddening to hear. Is there anything you did that you wish you’d done sooner? Have you tried any (pharmaceutical) medication?

thepasswordis 3y ago
See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39278214 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39278214
netule 3y ago
I do take Clonazepam when I get severe panic attacks or right before something I know usually triggers a panic attack, but nothing on a day-to-day basis. Clonazepam does seem to help with my symptoms, though it just makes me feel euphoric (which, I guess, is better than feeling like I'm dying). I take a tiny dose, but it seems to help a lot. I have a few things I wish I'd done sooner if you'd indulge my ranty and highly personal list: * Moving out of the city and into the country. I know this one is not feasible for most people, but it helped me to get out of the hustle and bustle and back to an environment similar to where I grew up. * Reducing caffeine and increasing water intake. I limit myself to one cup of coffee in the morning and no caffeine afterward. * Quitting my high-stress job in favor of a job at a startup and taking more breaks. * Daily cardio exercise for at least 30 minutes. * Talking about how I'm feeling with my partner. It seems simple and silly, but this one is crucial for me. I tend to lock up when I'm feeling crappy and lash out. Overcoming that and talking about how I'm feeling has helped enormously. * Going to therapy. These are all helping me cope, so I still have panic attacks, but not as often as a decade or so ago.
- xanderlewis 3y ago
  > if you'd indulge my ranty and highly personal list Not ranty at all; very helpful in fact! It’s interesting you say cutting down on caffeine helped… I feel the opposite would be true for me. For some reason it seems to have a calming effect. Anyway… good luck to you. I hope it continues to gradually improve.

thepasswordis 3y ago

Propanolol is a fantastic anxiety treatment. In some ways better than xanax, at least for me. Highly, highly recommend trying it. They say it's for "stage fright", which can be offputting because "stage fright" (at least to me) seems almost wholly unrelated to the type of anxiety I suffer from. It's a miracle from my perspective. If you suffer from generalized anxiety, please ask your doctor about it. Just to really hammer this home: I had doctors recommend this drug to me for years, and I always more or less ignored them. I have taken xanax for quite some time, and took this recommendation as them being apprehensive about prescribing it (which i understand, since many people abuse it). Propanolol seems to have the same type of calming effect, but with none of tired/disassociative feelings that xanax gives (which I don't like). The first time I took it I almost wanted to cry. It really was just like a switch that turned the anxiety off. It does take about 60-90 minutes to fully kick in, though.

netule 3y ago
Thanks for the suggestion; I appreciate it. Is this something you take daily or as you need it?
- thepasswordis 3y ago
  As needed, but it's fine to take daily with no negative downsides. I'll take it before I need to go do something which might have triggered an attack, but the long term benefit here is that doing those activities without getting triggered lessens the sensitivity to the trigger (if that make sense). So lately I haven't taken any in weeks, but when I was first prescribed it I took it every day.
throw3450 3y ago
I feel that propanolol helps with physical effects of anxiety (which are not much of a problem for me), but doesn't affect the mental side of anxiety the same way benzos do. It's much less addictive than benzos of course, and preferable for that reason if it works.
- thepasswordis 3y ago

throwaway11460 3y ago

It's very likely that you had way too much THC. Especially if you vaped or ingested it. When I first started smoking, 0.01g (yes, one hundredth of a gram - a barely visible layer on top of some tobacco) was enough to get a whole room of students incredibly high for a few hours. I used to buy 0.2g and that lasted 5 people the entire weekend. And that was before all of this lamp-grown craziness with 10% and more THC content. If you used more than 0.1g of these medical dispensary strains, it's really no wonder you had a crazy panic attack. I'd have too and I'm an experienced smoker. I know some people using weed to treat anxiety. They smoke so little they don't feel high at all. One gram might last them a month.

oblib 3y ago
I have 2nd this. I've been using weed for a very long time and have seen so many people try to take a lung full of smoke as opposed to a small sip. I don't do "vapes". That stuff is so highly concentrated that it makes me cough with even a tiny sip. Same with "gummies". I can't really know how the dose will affect me and I don't want to get "stoned". I do think that if you're wanting weed to help with anxiety you should probably look into CBD too. That probably works better for anxiety.
DANmode 3y ago
For the curious reader: that clownshow is at ~30% THC these days.

bowsamic 3y ago

Anxiety is likely to get worse as you age, unfortunately. If you have it when you're young, the prognosis isn't good.

waingake 3y ago
I'm way less anxious as an adult than I was as a kid. Likely due to various coping strategies that I've ingrained over the years.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

vitehozonage 3y ago

I have diagnosed GAD as well. And the first time I smoked marijuana I had an intensely anxious experience. However, i find that small doses of edibles are like magic. I am sensitive to it but the dose makes the poison.

supertofu 3y ago

Apart from mindfulness practices (which do help, but slowly), I've found the following to be life-changing regarding my lifelong, debilitating social anxiety: - psychedelic therapy (1-4 times a year, over 6 years, turned me into a functional person in social contexts) - strong chammomile flower tea (depresses my nervous system to a normal baseline -- this has been the most dramatic way to ease physiological symptoms of anxiety for me)