2 ms·

I guess I am somewhat different than many of the commenters in this thread. Cannabis has caused anxiety in me before, but I had anxiety problems prior fwiw. In

I guess I am somewhat different than many of the commenters in this thread. Cannabis has caused anxiety in me before, but I had anxiety problems prior fwiw. In a weird way, I kind of used the anxiety from Cannabis as "training." What I mean, is that when I would get anxious from cannabis, I would try and talk myself down, remind myself that nothing bad was going to happen, and then kind of intentionally try to refrain my thoughts in order to force myself to enjoy the experience. I learned that the more I did this, the better I was at being able to do this in other situations where I would be inappropriately anxious about something (even without Cannabis). It's not perfect, but has seemed to work better than anything else I have tried. So, my point is that I learned the only way I can apparently beat anxiety is to charge it head on.

janeerie 3y ago
You basically just did exposure therapy (the most effective therapy for anxiety) with cannabis as your trigger.
mikhmha 3y ago
Wow, same thing for me as well. It was very effective because it was like OK I know for sure I'm in a state of anxiousness right now because I just consumed something mind-altering - there is no ambiguity to it. So then you roll with it and gradually start to become bolder in your actions. Because its like "well I thought I was gonna die last time but I didn't so it really was all in my head. Why do I waste so much brain CPU on things that are meaningless?". It didn't 100% solve my anxiety but it put me on the path to finally seek out a legitimate and effective solution because I had enough reference to compare to.
cthalupa 3y ago
Not exactly the same situation, but... a little similar, I guess? Cannabis has never given me generalized anxiety - sometimes it does, however, force me to pay attention to some real truths that I tend to ignore while sober. e.g., I gained 60lb from the start of quarantine to now, became way less physically active, etc. If I get particularly high, it forces me to confront this, and that it's a destructive lifestyle I need to change instead of continuing to put it off. And, well, I think that anxiety is deserved? It's objectively true and a literal life and death matter. For me it's less I have anxiety in general because I am very good at not being honest with myself while not high, but that the anxiety I sometimes get really is constructive, because otherwise I ignore it. A recent shift in my eating habits for the better was directly brought on by a particularly bad bout of anxiety around all of this while very high, and I would consider that to be a good thing. Most of the time when I get stoned I don't deal with any sort of anxiety, though.

janeerie 3y ago

You basically just did exposure therapy (the most effective therapy for anxiety) with cannabis as your trigger.

mikhmha 3y ago

Wow, same thing for me as well. It was very effective because it was like OK I know for sure I'm in a state of anxiousness right now because I just consumed something mind-altering - there is no ambiguity to it. So then you roll with it and gradually start to become bolder in your actions. Because its like "well I thought I was gonna die last time but I didn't so it really was all in my head. Why do I waste so much brain CPU on things that are meaningless?". It didn't 100% solve my anxiety but it put me on the path to finally seek out a legitimate and effective solution because I had enough reference to compare to.

cthalupa 3y ago

Not exactly the same situation, but... a little similar, I guess? Cannabis has never given me generalized anxiety - sometimes it does, however, force me to pay attention to some real truths that I tend to ignore while sober. e.g., I gained 60lb from the start of quarantine to now, became way less physically active, etc. If I get particularly high, it forces me to confront this, and that it's a destructive lifestyle I need to change instead of continuing to put it off. And, well, I think that anxiety is deserved? It's objectively true and a literal life and death matter. For me it's less I have anxiety in general because I am very good at not being honest with myself while not high, but that the anxiety I sometimes get really is constructive, because otherwise I ignore it. A recent shift in my eating habits for the better was directly brought on by a particularly bad bout of anxiety around all of this while very high, and I would consider that to be a good thing. Most of the time when I get stoned I don't deal with any sort of anxiety, though.