3 ms·

It's definitely more than just conflating "treating" THC withdrawal with treating anxiety, at least for me personally. I'll quit for months, have an anxiety att

It's definitely more than just conflating "treating" THC withdrawal with treating anxiety, at least for me personally. I'll quit for months, have an anxiety attack, and I'm able to interrupt it by using cannabis. It doesn't per say treat my anxiety but can be like a "rescue inhaler" to disrupt repetitive anxious thoughts and snap me out of an anxiety attack. Once they're disrupted, I have a fighting chance to confront my anxiety with other strategies (which are the real long term solutions). But it does make perfect sense to me that the effects of cannabis on someone who has been a longtime user are quite different and that it isn't great generic advice to tell people to try cannabis for their anxiety. I definitely think this current vogue of trying to apply cannabis to every problem is misguided and an artefact of the commercial environment around cannabis being increasingly legal, not our medical understanding of it.

DANmode 3y ago
I'm comfortable recommending broad-spectrum CBD with little or no THC as an anxiety aid. Not all cannabis has THC, high THC (the anxiety-inducing part, for most). Nor should it!
- maxbond 3y ago
  I'm aware, but I personally wouldn't recommend any mind altering substance to anyone without a lot of context. When I was a young troublemaker my friends and I fancied ourselves as knowledgeable and made very casual recommendations to people about what substances they should try and what dosages would be appropriate. It became apparent to me that a dosage that has no discernable effect on one person can put another under the table, and I became very, very conservative about such things. Eg, I've seen people smoke large amounts of weed and concentrates and then go off and do something productive, and I've seen people take a single hit or gummy and have a panic attack. Someone I know tried a CBD product to see if it would help their anxiety (to be clear, they didn't consult with me on this, this was of their own volution). They somehow had gotten the impression that they wouldn't feel high, and were alarmed when they did. In that case, there wasn't any lasting harm, they simply didn't try it again. I know another person who would have a lot of anxiety on CBD gummies. Again, no lasting harm, they just stopped taking them. But I don't believe that there is no cause for caution with CBD products. I see CBD gummies advertised for just about everything, from helping you sleep to helping you feel awake and helping you feel aroused. These are all plausible effects for someone to experience, but I don't believe we have it down to such a science that these experiences can be bottled and productized. There's clearly a lot of snake oil out there. To be clear I think it's broadly good that cannabis is being slowly legalized in the US and that people have the opportunity to experiment and see if it's helpful to them. I've just had a respect for mind-altering substances ingrained in me, so I'm not uncomfortable with how casually people sometimes recommend these products.
  - DANmode 3y ago
    Indeed, someone who, say, isn't even familiar with the difference between CBD and CBN-containing products probably should not be the person giving out recommendations.
    - maxbond 3y ago
      > Indeed, someone who, say, isn't even familiar with the difference between CBD and CBN-containing products probably should not be the person giving out recommendations. Well, it's disappointing that you are more interested in being snarky than engaging seriously, I just hope you don't hurt anybody. And I hope if you do, you're in a position to know that it happened and to learn from it. I'd like to leave you with this thought experiment. You probably wouldn't feel comfortable telling a stranger on the Internet they should be taking sertraline, right? Why should you feel more comfortable telling them to take a CBD product? Do you really feel you have the context to prescribe drugs to strangers? Is that a rational belief?
      - DANmode 3y ago
        No, I'll leave all of the drug recommending to the knowledgeable folks - like podcasters, and Coca-Cola! Nobody said anything about making a health recommendation to a stranger - almost always a mistake.¹ I make recommendations to people I have taken time to know well, who are struggling and ask for help. I also tell them I'm not a doctor - and to read! ¹Which is why doctors, with no true context, offering a psychiatric diagnosis (and prescription!) after an 11 minute appointment is often also ridiculous, ineffective - and potentially harmful.
        maxbond 3y ago
        You're injecting a lot of tone into a conversation where we're broadly in agreement. I'd appreciate it if you didn't do that. I'm here for discussion, not arguments.
        DANmode 3y ago

DANmode 3y ago

I'm comfortable recommending broad-spectrum CBD with little or no THC as an anxiety aid. Not all cannabis has THC, high THC (the anxiety-inducing part, for most). Nor should it!

maxbond 3y ago
I'm aware, but I personally wouldn't recommend any mind altering substance to anyone without a lot of context. When I was a young troublemaker my friends and I fancied ourselves as knowledgeable and made very casual recommendations to people about what substances they should try and what dosages would be appropriate. It became apparent to me that a dosage that has no discernable effect on one person can put another under the table, and I became very, very conservative about such things. Eg, I've seen people smoke large amounts of weed and concentrates and then go off and do something productive, and I've seen people take a single hit or gummy and have a panic attack. Someone I know tried a CBD product to see if it would help their anxiety (to be clear, they didn't consult with me on this, this was of their own volution). They somehow had gotten the impression that they wouldn't feel high, and were alarmed when they did. In that case, there wasn't any lasting harm, they simply didn't try it again. I know another person who would have a lot of anxiety on CBD gummies. Again, no lasting harm, they just stopped taking them. But I don't believe that there is no cause for caution with CBD products. I see CBD gummies advertised for just about everything, from helping you sleep to helping you feel awake and helping you feel aroused. These are all plausible effects for someone to experience, but I don't believe we have it down to such a science that these experiences can be bottled and productized. There's clearly a lot of snake oil out there. To be clear I think it's broadly good that cannabis is being slowly legalized in the US and that people have the opportunity to experiment and see if it's helpful to them. I've just had a respect for mind-altering substances ingrained in me, so I'm not uncomfortable with how casually people sometimes recommend these products.
- DANmode 3y ago
  Indeed, someone who, say, isn't even familiar with the difference between CBD and CBN-containing products probably should not be the person giving out recommendations.
  - maxbond 3y ago
    > Indeed, someone who, say, isn't even familiar with the difference between CBD and CBN-containing products probably should not be the person giving out recommendations. Well, it's disappointing that you are more interested in being snarky than engaging seriously, I just hope you don't hurt anybody. And I hope if you do, you're in a position to know that it happened and to learn from it. I'd like to leave you with this thought experiment. You probably wouldn't feel comfortable telling a stranger on the Internet they should be taking sertraline, right? Why should you feel more comfortable telling them to take a CBD product? Do you really feel you have the context to prescribe drugs to strangers? Is that a rational belief?
    - DANmode 3y ago
      No, I'll leave all of the drug recommending to the knowledgeable folks - like podcasters, and Coca-Cola! Nobody said anything about making a health recommendation to a stranger - almost always a mistake.¹ I make recommendations to people I have taken time to know well, who are struggling and ask for help. I also tell them I'm not a doctor - and to read! ¹Which is why doctors, with no true context, offering a psychiatric diagnosis (and prescription!) after an 11 minute appointment is often also ridiculous, ineffective - and potentially harmful.
      - maxbond 3y ago
        You're injecting a lot of tone into a conversation where we're broadly in agreement. I'd appreciate it if you didn't do that. I'm here for discussion, not arguments.
        DANmode 3y ago