Marijuana Withdrawal Symptoms: Managing Anxiety and Depression During Weed Detox

Did you think that cannabis is not addictive? You are not alone — but if you have previously unsuccessfully tried to quit using weed or talked to people who've already stopped using marijuana, you know how hard it can be. 

Over half of those people who seek medical help with quitting weed report significant marijuana withdrawal symptoms, and while that doesn't mean that most of those who quit cannabis by themselves do as well, it does mean that it is good to be prepared for weed detox before you quit using marijuana. Common marijuana withdrawal symptoms include mood changes like anger and nervousness, behavioral difficulties like insomnia and restlessness, physical ailments like nausea and sweating, and psychological issues like depression and anxiety. [1]

What Causes Anxiety And Depression During Marijuana Withdrawal?

Weed has the reputation of being a largely harmless and non-addictive recreational drug — with some users not even considering marijuana a real drug. Research shows, however, that cannabis withdrawal is a very real phenomenon with clinically significant implications. The challenges users face when they attempt to ditch cannabis are partially due to the fact that the potency of the marijuana on the market today is much stronger than the potency of the weed of decades past. The anxiety and depression many newly quit cannabis users experience is, therefore, in part, due simply to the physical withdrawal process. [2]

The fact that many cannabis users combine weed with tobacco when they smoke joints means that a significant portion of people going through marijuana withdrawal will be going through nicotine withdrawal at the same time, if they only use tobacco when they smoke weed. Nicotine withdrawal is associated with many of the same symptoms you'll encounter during weed detox, which means that you may well be dealing with a "double whammy" — making an already tough process that much worse. [4]

Finally, there is evidence that a significant portion of heavy cannabis users either consciously turned to cannabis to alleviate the symptoms of pre-existing depression or anxiety disorders (social phobia and marijuana addiction are an especially frequent combination), or stumbled upon marijuana and then began using it as a means to self-medicate. Marijuana users in this group may find that their pre-existing depression or anxiety disorders rear their heads again once they go through cannabis detox. [5, 6] Since using weed is the obvious route toward alleviating these symptoms, quitting can be especially hard for people use were essentially self-medicating with cannabis.

How Can You Manage Anxiety And Depression During Weed Detox?

The first approach is trying to stick it out until your withdrawal symptoms improve, in the knowledge that most people feel better two weeks after they have stopped using weed — that is, to do nothing in particular.

The second is to turn to self-help methods that will help you get through your cannabis detox without medical help, and the third option is to seek professional assistance for your marijuana withdrawal symptoms. The latter two broad ways to manage anxiety and depression during weed detox again come with their own sub-categories. 

Let's take a look. 

Self Help For Anxiety And Depression During Marijuana Withdrawal

Research shows that moderate aerobic exercise is a surprisingly effective way to deal with the marijuana cravings many people experience while they are going through weed detox [7]. Exercise has also been demonstrated to lead to decreased symptoms of depression and anxiety, and — perhaps relevant to former cannabis users — sensation seeking [8].

Try these 2 breathing exercises for better sleep during weed detox: Diaphragmatic deep breathing​ and Pranayama breathing or yogic breathing — another science-backed way to decrease both anxiety and depression [9]. It costs you nothing to sit in a cross-legged position, inhale deeply through your mouth, hold your breath while contracting your throat slightly as if you were about to whisper, and then gently breathe out. Inhaling through one nostril while keeping the other closed, and then exhaling through the other while pressing the first shut with a finger, is likewise easy to do.

Herbal remedies for weed withdrawal are also at your disposal — St John's Worth is an effective natural treatment for mild depression, while kava kava can help you overcome anxiety [10], for instance. Valerian root is another natural treatment that appears ideal for marijuana detox, as it reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as the insomnia many people who have just quit weed suffer from [11]. GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is an amino acid used for the treatment of both substance abuse and anxiety that is available both as a pharmacological treatment and as a supplement in health foods stores [12].

Who Should Seek Professional Help During Marijuana Withdrawal, And What Options Are Available?

Anyone who has tried to quit weed unsuccessfully a number of times, who suspects they had pre-existing depression or an anxiety disorder before they started smoking marijuana, or who finds their marijuana withdrawal symptoms all but unbearable, should strongly consider seeking professional help as they embark on the path of leaving weed behind. 

Should you decide to go this route, you will likely be offered a form of cognitive behavioral therapy specifically targeted to people with substance abuse issues [13], as well as medications for which there is evidence that they target both anxiety and depression, and marijuana addiction — like Buspirone [14]. 

If you suspect that you already had an underlying anxiety disorder or were suffering from depression before you started using weed, and smoking pot was your way of self-medicating this disorder, know that you are not alone by any means [15]. In this case, the best way to fight the anxiety and depression you are experiencing during your marijuana withdrawal process is to be completely open about this fact. As the stigma around both weed use and mental health challenges lifts, you should be aware that clinicianss have seen countless people with similar issues before, and have science-backed ways to help you through the process of withdrawing from weed and finding other ways to manage mental health problems.