11 replies to this topic

[eGomes2107]

First time poster, long time reader here

 

I've been a daily weed smoker for almost 14 years with a 2-3 year break in between (Trying to quit and now down to about 1x every other week). I've always had mild depression but was never a big problem and life circumstances seemed to make it come and go. The only anxiety that Ive ever had was social anxiety (I dont like being the center of attention) which is worse now then probably its ever been. Being around lots of people does not bother me but if I am the center of attention of that large group I become very uncomfortable. I do best in small groups of people, like 4,5,6 etc and dont do well in 1v1 situations especially with people I dont know very well. I might have something to contribute to a meeting at work but rarely say anything and just sit there in the back of the room. These are things ive always had growing up so I dont believe its weed induced, once I got into high school and made lots of friends (I was part of a popular clique in high school) these symptoms were greatly reduced and that tells me its more of a confidence thing then anything else but I do believe weed has made it worse. 

 

The long term use of weed has also blunted and dulled my personality, I was never the most excitable person on the planet but its a problem for me now. Ive had people tell me that they get the same reaction out of me whether the news is good or bad, face looks the same. Laughing hard is not very common for me, a giggle or a smirk is much more common and I am a very passive person currently. Negative emotions are much stronger then positive ones.

 

I dont know if its symptoms of being schizo or it puts my ADD symptoms into overdrive but whenever I do smoke now, I am completely isolated into my own world, I dont talk alot but when I do I dont make alot of sense, my listening ability is greatly diminished, I try to watch a movie but end up getting lost in my own thoughts and get completely lost with what is going on in the movie.

 

 

I do have alot of ADD symptoms like, Especially the bolded ones but have never been diagnosed.

 

“zoning out” without realizing it, even in the middle of a conversation

extreme distractibility; wandering attention makes it hard to stay on track

difficulty paying attention or focusing, such as when reading or listening to others

struggling to complete tasks, even ones that seem simple

tendency to overlook details, leading to errors or incomplete work

poor listening skills; hard time remembering conversations and following directions

poor organizational skills (home, office, desk, or car is extremely messy and cluttered)

tendency to procrastinate

chronic lateness

constantly losing or misplacing things (keys, wallet, phone, documents, bills)

 

 

Other then these ADD symptoms, I believe majority of my depression issues do stem from a complete lack of self confidence at this time. I did start therapy to help regain that. I am naturally a very cocky confident person in my ability to do things (sports, learning new things, work etc...) , I am the complete opposite when it comes to communicating with other people but now this lack of self confidence is leaking into other aspects of my life.

 

I started supplementing for low or imbalanced serotonin and dopamine levels last week. Im currently taking

5 HTP (night before bed)

L-Tyrosine (morning when I get up)

Vitamin B Complex (morning)

EGCG (night)

Vitamin C (mid afternoon)

Magnesium (Night)

l-methionine with V B6 (morning)

 

I started this last week and I do feel more calming but I have this feeling of tightness in my brain like I get when I have high anxiety, except nothing is really causing anxiety.

 

So in short,

 

I want to supplement to help reverse the negative impact weed has had on my dulling personality (if possible), and to help with my ADD symptoms. I am not a big fan of pharmaceuticals so would like to avoid them and want to save them as a last resort option.

 

I am also interested in trying psilocybin mushrooms (ive done them in the past and have experienced great positives from them) to help with depression and self confidence issues because recent studies about their effects on people with depression has been amazing.

 

Any info or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

 

[Sleepdealer]

It seems that, from what I've heard, cannabis can be quite detrimental on people who start smoking when they are young, 13, 14, 15 etc. since it messes with the development of the still not entirely developed frontal lobe. You say you have been smoking for 14 years. How old were you when you started?

[eGomes2107]

Around 19-20... I'm 34 now

[medievil]

It seems that, from what I've heard, cannabis can be quite detrimental on people who start smoking when they are young, 13, 14, 15 etc. since it messes with the development of the still not entirely developed frontal lobe. You say you have been smoking for 14 years. How old were you when you started?

Any source of this? Collecting all evidence of negatives associated with whatever substance is crucial and should be repeated, thats why i allways appreciate objective evidence even if it disagrees with my viewpoint.

 

http://www.longecity...f-cannabinoids/

 

Go to that thread my friend.

[noot_in_the_sky]

 

 

I've been a daily weed smoker for almost 14 years with a 2-3 year break in between (Trying to quit and now down to about 1x every other week).

 

First of you need to stop smoking.  

 

Here are some studies:

http://www.scienceda...50312082906.htm

 

 

Teens who were heavy marijuana users -- smoking it daily for about three years -- had an abnormally shaped hippocampus and performed poorly on long-term memory tasks, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

 

 

http://www.reuters.c...227147420080602

 

 

Among the 15 heavy marijuana users in the study, the hippocampus volume was 12 percent less and the amygdala volume was 7 percent less than in 16 men who were not marijuana users, the researchers said.

 

 

https://www.psycholo...-linked-anxiety

 

Cannabis Targets Receptors in the Amygdala Linked to Anxiety

Marijuana may hijack cannabinoid receptors in the amygdala to reduce anxiety.

 

 

Possible solutions:

Natural

Lion's Mane

Play 30 min/day of a 3D plataformer game:  Mario 3D, Jak and Dexter, Rachet and Clank.

Huperzine A (before bed cycle with Ashwagandha)

Ashwagandha (before bed cycle with Huperzine A)

Mucuna Purifier whole herb in powder form, not the extract

 

Non-Natural

Selank

Semax

Noopept

Selegiline or Rasagiline

[Sleepdealer]

 

It seems that, from what I've heard, cannabis can be quite detrimental on people who start smoking when they are young, 13, 14, 15 etc. since it messes with the development of the still not entirely developed frontal lobe. You say you have been smoking for 14 years. How old were you when you started?

Any source of this? Collecting all evidence of negatives associated with whatever substance is crucial and should be repeated, thats why i allways appreciate objective evidence even if it disagrees with my viewpoint.

 

http://www.longecity...f-cannabinoids/

 

Go to that thread my friend.

 

 

There are a couple of articles on it. Here's a study: http://www.sciencedi...878929315000699

Impact of cannabis use on prefrontal and parietal cortex gyrification and surface area in adolescents and emerging adults

What I heard it from was a radio talk about the therapeutic use of marijuana on Swedish radio a couple of weeks ago. A doctor implied these effects on the frontal lobe of young users. There's also articles on brain connectivity increasage that makes up for the shrinkage of the gray matter areas, up to a certain point. http://www.scienceal...en-you-re-young

 

It seems inconclusive how much the smoking actually affects IQ from what I can find. Here's a study that says it has a negative impact on IQ. It might be an effect of the alterations in the hippocampus that noot_in_the_sky point to, it might be something else too. I'm not sure.

[eGomes2107]

I dont believe its had a negative impact on my IQ, I believe the opposite actually. Its made me smarter in alot of different ways and I got alot of benefits from it while vaping which is why I continued to do it, but now I believe its benefits have pretty much Capped out and anxiety is the only reason why I continue to vape it.

 

 

Its def had a big negative impact on my social life though. 

[Sleepdealer]

Okay. I'm not super well read on marijuana, but isn't the CB2 receptor what people usually benefit from stimulating when it comes to the medical or "therapeutic" usage? Like have you tried cannabidiol oil, to exclude THC and the CB1 stimulant (which I heard are the causes of side effects like paranoia and fiddling with brain structure etc)?

Edited by Sleepdealer, 27 December 2015 - 09:22 PM.

[BadApples]

There is evidence that supports the anti depressant action of cannabis, but moderation is the key next to staying miles away from what idiot breeders, growers and sellers of all those high THC strains with little to no CBD to work as antagonist on THC.

 

This stuff does make people psychotic, it's addictive enough as the duration of action is short and effects intense.

 

For me it has been an excellent alternative to nasty benzodiazepines, trazolan and neuroleptics which all had very negative effects.

 

I started using it at the age of 15 somewhere, a result of untreated ADHD, it worked fine, much better then all stuff that medical pro's were stuffing me with.

 

The only reason I quit, was because a judge told me too.   The issues because of it were all a direct result of it being illegal.

 

I'm 39 now, laws have changed, and I won't ever swap it for anything else, but again, stay away from the for profit only drug mob.

 

Take care

 

BA

 

 

[Londonscouser]

Hey dude, we got basically the same problem !

I smoked 5 years though, everyday, approximately 2 grams daily, from ages 16-21.

 

I know exactly what you mean when you said you cannabis has dulled your personality ! I bet you rarely laugh and rarely cry right ? Weed has kind of made us into 'boring' people, without any spontaneous behaviour....I also agree that i don't think cannabis has contributed to decreased intelligence, although we probably have lost a few IQ points....

 

But yeh i understand about the social anxiety as well...for me it started when i started smoking daily, and ever since i quit about 5 months ago, it has decreased a bit, but it is still there 

 

I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, but people like me and you surely must have abnormal brains...i think parts of the brains that may be implicated in our symptoms are mainly the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and probably the hippocampus and corpus callosum...but that's just a theory. I also think the serotonergic system is very different in comparison to a normal person.

 

I currently am taking no supplements to be honest, i kind of gave up taking vitamins B, C , E ect a few months ago, but i do think exercise, socializing, just doing things sober are key aspects of recovery.

 

This is some atypical drug-induced depression characterized by apathy and anhedonia for me, i'm not so sure for you though, if you could explain please !

 

also when did you start noticing these negative symptoms ? Btw i very much doubt you will turn schizophrenic...it usually happens late-teens-mid-20s...I've been waiting for the postive symptoms to manifest for some time now..but they don't happen

[misterE]

Around 19-20... I'm 34 now

 

I started smoking around age 14. I also see to have the same issues as you, except I have severe depression, anxiety and obsessive tendencies. I quite smoking weed due to paranoia, and began to abuse alcohol from age 21 to just recently (age 26).

 

 I grew up a formula-fed infant and ate a terrible diet until I was about 19 or 20 years old. From what I have researched into this, is that omega-3 deficiency causes major mental disorders. The American diet is so overloaded with omega-6 (the adversary to omega-3) that most of the lipids in the brains of Americans is omega-6 and their brains are severely lacking in omega-3, leading to a wide array of mental disorders.

 

The omega-3 and omega-6 lipids not only form the structural part of the brain, but also are used to make a long list of hormones. There is a hormone called anandamide which is derived from arachidonic-acid; the biologically active omega-6 fatty-acid. Anandamide is an endocannabinoid that effects not only the brain, but also virtually every other organ as well. Marijuana contains cannabinoids that also bind to the same receptors as anandamide and activates the receptors as well.

 

Anandamide is used by the body to block memory and to dull emotions. The reason why this hormone evolved is because it would be a disadvantage to remember every little detail and aspect of life and to have strong emotions linked to these memories. So anandamide is used to filter out important and unimportant memories. This is why marijuana causes memory-loss.

 

Anandamide also reduces energy expenditure and promotes laziness. Since Americans have an overload of anandamide in their tissues, they often have altered memories and emotions tied to everyday activity. Smoking marijuana only contributes to more activation of the endocannibinoid system leading to more and more altered emotions and memories.

 

There are three ways to reduce activation of the endocannibinoid system:

 

1. Stop smoking marijuana, and let the fat-soluble cannibinoids clear out of your system (takes about 30 days).

 

2. Reduce consumption of omega-6 lipids (which are found in animal-fats, vegetable-oils and nuts/seeds/avocadoes).

 

3. Supplement with omega-3 lipids, which reduce anandamide (omega-3 fats are found in beans, flaxseeds, green-vegetables and fish-oil).

 

Also avoid alcohol which depletes omega-3 lipids from the brain.

[drew_ab]

Something else worth mentioning - I'd be curious to see what a hormonal profile would reveal. Testosterone, estrogen, SHBG, prolactin, T3/T4, etc.  It could be part of the picture.  Diet is quite important as well.  Maybe as much as 50% of the picture here.