Depersonalisation and anxiety after smoking marijuana

Thank you for the reply.To be honest, I actually do fear being like this forever and I hope that I don't feel like this for much longer. I think that this experience has made me stronger. It has made me stronger than many people and I think that it has made me strong enough to overcome many issues. I think I just need to stop reminding myself about my issues in these forums and on the internet in general. All the depersonalisation is, is bs in my head that I have associated myself to. I feel like if I were to not look into depersonalisation, I would have felt fine, but maybe not.

I saw that one person had mentioned in an earlier comment that while weed doesn't cause mental illness, it can certainly be a catalyst or trigger for a pre-existing (as yet dormant) mental health issue or mental illness. The example the poster used was schizophrenia, but it's important to recognize that severe depression and anxiety disorders are also mental health problems and can, as pre-existing but more latent issues, be brought to the foreground by drug use. Marijuana included. Hints that this might be the case with you may lie in what originally led you to want to try marijuana in the first place, and what its appeal was and is. If you were seeking some kind of comfort, escape, relief, etc. this is a very good indication that there is already something you should be but are not dealing with.

That said, quitting marijuana for a period to focus on working through any issues in your life or to better understand a mental illness is a great idea. Sometimes, marijuana can be reincorporated healthily. Sometimes it can even be a benefit. Sometimes it will end up being better to avoid it altogether.

What I'm getting at is, it's not a good idea to blame marijuana directly for your anxiety and depression issues, and you should seriously question if it is the sole cause if those feelings of paranoia, depersonalization, and derealization.

I have an advance degree in psychology, but that's not where I'm coming from with this. My brother-in-law was a heavy pot smoker throughout his teens because it helped him relax and have fun without stressing, and he felt it worked as a mood stabilizer. He actually has a pretty severe bipolar disorder, and without realizing it he'd been smoking pot in massive quantities to help with what he didn't know were symptoms of this mental disorder. He's doing a lot better now and still smokes pot, but nowhere near in the quantities he used to.

Now. I myself never smoked pot as a teen and tried it several times in college without any notable results. I had been suffering from extremely severe depression and having what my family colloquially referred to as "episodes" as far back as age 12 and had seen multiple doctors, psychologists, counselors and psychiatrists, but it wasn't until both issues became far more severe in my early twenties that I was diagnosed with a schizoaffective spectrum disorder. Yeah, I'm "crazy". It runs in my mom's family. It was the aforementioned brother-in-law who first introduced me to pot, and honestly, in very moderate amounts that I keep a close watch on, pot has been what has enabled me to live a comparatively normal life. I can go back to grad school, and I can deal with the headaches, auras, and mania that grip me on a regular basis. My psychiatrist says that as far as she can see it's made a wholly positive difference, so now I have a legitimate prescription.

Lastly, my brother is totally normal mentally in every respect, he just can't get high at all really without becoming convinced he can't breathe properly or that his heart is going into overdrive, so he just avoids the stuff and sticks to his microbrews.

Anyway the moral of the story is that pot didn't make my brother-in-law go nuts any more than it's cured me or permanently altered my brother's brain, and it certainly hasn't "given" anyone here an anxiety disorder. The simple test is this: stop smoking it for a bit. If the pot was causing the anxiety or paranoia or depersonalization/derealization, it will dissipate relatively quickly and maybe you can learn to moderate if you want to keep smoking.

If the anxiety etc. lingers, the way some of you have described it... that's not the pot. That's something else you're going to have to work on, and thinking it was the pot is only going to prove to be a major roadblock. Like i said though, quitting for a bit to work on it is a good idea.

And for Christ's sake, don't sit there on WebMD, Wikipedia, or forums like these reading about psychiatric symptoms and convincing yourself you're having some kind of breakdown. Anxiety is one of those symptoms that can really feed itself with overthinking it or focusing on it, and trust me when I say I would know.

I smoked marijuana for 7 years, quit recently. and for four months i had those panic attacks where i couldn't breathe and always found myself yawning, coughing and sighing from the constant hyperventilation.

I have already quit, not permanently, but until I get better. I already know the weed didn't cause my panic attack but I am not completely sure what did. I'll be seeing a therapist soon so hopefully I can get everything sorted out .

Wardzig, I just read this entire thread while having terrible depersonalization and anxiety, and you actually made me feel a ton better.

I too smoke everyday, and out of the blue about 2 weeks ago, my anxiety sky rocketed and is continuing to do so to this day. What you are doing is right...saying "f**k it"...it really does help. Also telling yourself you are having a bad anxiety attack, and the heart palputations and shortness of breath is all in your head.

I've personally decided that I am going to quit smoking though because I am on a baseball scholarship in a different state next year, and they are pretty strict. I believe that is contributing to my anxiety.

Lately though mainly today I've been feeling alot of depersonalization, like the world around me is fake, even I am fake. Its the most screwed up feeling I've ever had, and I don't understand it. My question to you is..How are you overcoming this feeling?

great story man and good luck

Alex

By overcoming it, I am hanging out with my best friends, watching my favourite shows, watching my favourite movies, eating good food, exercising while smoking weed a lot. I also am trying to have a positive attitude. Sometimes having a positive attitude doesn't work and sometimes it does. The exercise is definitely the main one because it releases your endorphins and makes you feel good.

I have the same problem you really just dont kno i have quit smokin weed for like six months because it made me just panic one day i use to smoke every single day good weed and all! today i smoked for the first time i took baby steps a little at a time and just said f**k it if i die i die i cant help it i love weed and it really works even tho i have bad acid refliux like it hurts right where my heart beats but i cant do nothin for that but take medcine and quit drinkin so much cuz i started drinking alot after quiting weed i hope i start being able to smoke again!! hope this helps you to!

Wow. This helped a lot! We are alike! Thanks soooooooo much. I felt so much better. I love u man.

I had to pay attention to the "kind"
of pot I smoked. I have severe Fibromyalgia and i take morphine
For pain. I took oxycontin for years
but pot does more for my pain than
Any pill BUT i can only smoke Indica.
Sativa causes severe anxiety attacks.
If the pot is dark green with dark orange or red hairs i can smoke without a problem. If i smoke light green pot with white hairs, except for
Kush, i always get a bad anxiety attack. If i smoke Sativa, say someone brought a rolled joint and i
didn't see the pot, the anxiety will be
so bad i will quit smoking at all for
months at a time. It helps so much
with this terrible pain, my appetite, sleep, etc. but this was a pattern i figured out somehow with the two
families of pot being so different. Also i like a full body relaxing high and do not like the mind only high as
this high is what causes the anxiety. I have anxiety attacks by myself and don't need any help from pot. I am a
Christian and believe some herbs were put here to use medicinally and
it is the best medicine for my pain as long as i only smoke "my kind".

But sad to say, the last i smoked was
the wrong kind so im currently not
smoking again because i smoked the
light green and won't smoke for
months now. I miss the pain
management a lot. : ( Morphine
doesn't touch my pain.

hey my names gavin, I have been having the same problems. i use to be chubby and i just hated what people think about me. I lost alot of weight but i still think im fat sometimes and i check in so many mirors and care alot of waht i look like. One day my friends and i wanted to smoke some weed. I did it on an empty stomach and right away i got really weird affects. i lost my vesion and everything turned weird colours and it felt like ii was havng a heart attack. my heart was racing alot and it lasted for about 3 hours. now everytime i smoke weed my heart still feels weird and feels like its racing but its not. i also get a warm feelings and when i sit down for awhile then get up im dizzy and my vesion goes blurry. is this normal? i also care about what i look like alot and im stressed alot too. even know my body just doesnt feel right and its like i can feel my heart inside me and it almost feels like life is not real like im dreaming. is there anything i can do?? sorry for spelling errors

I have had these problems before dude. Im a very deep thinker when im high. It was so bad one time i went to go urinate and just started to think i couldnt pee. Like my mind  and body had to put so much effort into peeing...my gave out and i past out right in the middle of what i think was a panic/ anxiety attack...i guess you would call it passing out...but i lost control of everything and hit the floor. Im 21 now. That was about 5 or 6 years ago. Recently been getting that tingly sensation telling me to start worrying about stuff ( overthink) im dying type stuff. Anyway. Its simple. Its your brain. YOU control it. Its not that hard. Get over it. People are truely dying right now. Just chill...blaze it up..enjoy it while you got it...and just remember.....Chill Out Dude!

Dude nice reply but there's just one problem with that answer my anxiety attack from smoking can last up to 4 hours and its not fear, I mean I have problems like anyone else but I just recently started having anxiety. This would be my third panic attack after yesterday. The only cure is to discontinue smoking, your seriously going to put him in a deathbed , anxiety isn't something that just comes in the middle when you smoke weed; It comes at the very beginning after the first pull, it just turns on, plus it slows your focus, depending on the level of the anxiety, simple stuff like turning on a light switch can be difficult. Thinking about nothing seems like the only way through it, and water. Even if he faces his fears and keep smoking, he'll never escape anxiety. Weed causes anxiety to certain people period. And I don't think you guys know what a real anxiety attack is....

Hey " JDOGG112990 "

I experienced something exactly how you where but i intended to strain and i felt all my blood rushing to my head. I was sick i had a uniary tract infection, which caused me to take a couple of seconds to start peeing. Anywhoo Im very worried about this :S

dou yo have pot in last days???'