Panic attacks and marijuana

i recently experienced someting very similar to what you have described. my question is did you find out what made you start having these panic attacks out of nowhere? was it the pot? I have been a daily pot smoker for the past 4 years and out of nowhere my panic attacks started about a month ago. The thing is i love smoking and i don't want to quit and i'm trying to hold on to the idea that pot is not the cause of my anxiety and panic disorder. what do you think about this?

I have suffered from panic attacks from age 13 though i didnt know what they were back then. I am 19 now and have smoked weed since i was 14 and everyday since age 15. For me the weed keeps me calm and keeps me from having an attack. It also keeps me from undergoing mania or depression caused by bipolar disorder. I doubt it could be the weed causing your panic attacks. Have you been under stress, have u ate anything unusual? Ask yourself these ?'s.

I have been smoking weed everyday, more then once a day since I was 13. I'm 20 now and in college. I have smoked cigarettes on and off since the same time, but when I came to college I continued smoking for 2 years straight. I quit about 2 weeks ago and 1 week into quitting (cigarettes) I got my first panic attack. usually I would smoke a cigarette after smoking weed (I really only smoke blunts) and this is when the panic sets in. Cant breath, shortness of breath, contricted feeling in my throat, sweating, leg shakes, nausea and senstivity to noise. I feel like I am going to die, cannot breath. I pray when it happens for God to release me from the feeling. Two days later I had another one (both were at night time, after smoking the same weed) but this time I was able to control it a bi more... since I was ready for the feelings I tried to block them out instead of laying down and sucumbing to them until they pass. i kept my eyes on the clock to see how long th feeling last, and the worst was over in about 35 minutes but even the next day I still feel very out of sorts, very tired, my legs ache and I still feel a tightness of breath. So, I dont know if its the weed, the lack of cigarettes, or I finally reached the age where they are most common to occur. My mother started getting severe panic attacks when she was the same age as me, and she says she quit smoking because she had to, but also sought the help of a holistic healer which helped her a lot.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to quit smoking weed and furthermore, I am really ambivalent about how I feel about being forced to quit smoking for fear of panic attacks. A part of me is somewhat glad that my body gave me a real reason to quit that I never had before, but the other part of me is incredibly upset that my own body is rejecting my favorite mode of relaxation and enjoyment. As a smoker, all my friends smoke, and of course my boyfriend is my all time smoking partner and I'm afraid to lose him and what we have since my not smoking will change things a lot.

I've tried to quit smoking weed before I came to college and it made me miserable. I was depressed gained like 30 lbs and just slept. I couldnt do school work and had little interest in doing anything a side from eating. I don't want that to happen again. If Im going to quit I just want to feel ready to do it and be able to move on in my life normally. But then again, I guess you don't ditch an addiction of 7 years and not feel somewhat dejected afterwards. I'm worried I will become a b***h, that my boyfriend will not be able to tolerate me, that I wont be able to tolerate him being high constantly. Maybe when (if?) I quit he will cut down too and we can do this together? Wow, I am so nervous.

So i basically i can super relate with the last post. Im 22 years old and have been smoking since i was 14. Me and my boyfriend have been together for about 5 years and we love smoking pot together when we chill at home or when we go on trips pretty much all the time. The second time i smoked i had the worst panic attack of my life and didnt know who i was or where i was. I also thought i was dying and was taking really tiny breaths of air thinking it would be my last. Something really wierd also happened to me since im a spiritual person and believe in God i felt as though he was saying it was time for me to die. I saw my life flash before my eyes literally pictures of myself when i was child were in my head. I didnt know my name when my friends were asking me. So then after about an hour or so i kinda came out of it and started to puke. Then i went home ate hella food and passed out and was fine the next day. Looking back on it i totally understand why that happened because i wasnt used to smoking weed. but recently i had another attack similar out of blue. I was chillin watching tv and i felt like i was dieing. I coulnt breathe my heart was pounding SO hard and fast i was freaking out. i wanted to go to the hospital. I felt as though i was in a cartoon and i was in between this life and the after life. I cant even explain how scared i was. The thing that worries me most is i have this lingering feeling of depersonalization. I woke up feeling still very wierd about my episode the night before. So i smoked a few hours ago almost like to test if this would happen again and i had like two hits and started to feel panicky again. This TOTALLY sucks . I love smoking . And my boyfriend is constantly smoking I dont wanna give it up but its giving me serious anxiety and god forbid i go through all that again!!

i have felt all these things, depersonalization, derealization, and the cartoon feeling and because of my sprirituality the feeling of "its my time to die'. At least I know I am not alone. I feel bad because I started asking God to make me like it again. But I am battling between if God really thinks it is bad. There are so many other bad things that can kill you and i want to like it again.

I used to be a BIG weed head. I know it is mental because one day i drank a little before I did it and i was at least able to finish the whole blunt with my cousin. i just need help taking me back to where i used to be, in love with weed! now i also take 2-3 puffs and feel anxiety. sometimes I feel it right before I attempt to smoke, right before the blunt hits my lips. Is there anyone out there who can help us? I actually started to feel the derealization even when i wasn't high. I don't like these feelings I don't even smoke like that anymore, maybe 1 x a month and i only hit it 2-4 times.

There has to be a cure or a fix, my panic also lasted about 30 min then I would be fine, but i had a really bad one a couple of weeks ago, i was in the middle of having sex with my husband and I told him to get off me and ran to the bathroom to calm down, i had to talk to myself and tell myself it was going to be over soon. i started taking St. Johns Wort, that seems to help in my everyday life and it helps when I smoke, but i ran out, if anyone has any other cures let me know but so far, taking ST John's 2-3x a day ( the kind from Vitamin World) helps me get back to normal. I never want to be on those perscribed meds, I don't want to get addicted or become a zombie. Please, if anyone has any solutions, don't hesitate to write them here!

listen, im gonna tell u what I think. I really hope u read it... cause I understand ur problem... been going through it a lot.. and this is what i know.
When u smoke pot... u are someone else... defenitely, something in u changes... whether it's feeling more relaxed, or in the worst of cases, more anxious... u are someone else. But why more anxious. Let me go back to what I said about being someone else when smoking weed. I started smoking weed years ago. I'm a 22 year old male, and I first smoked @ 16 years. ever since... I did it very regulary for a couple of months until i reached the everyday train... I smoked pot everyday for years... I began to BE someone else.. someone who was high all the time... and not in real life. Pot was always great.. even when i started college at 19... it still gave me a little paranoia in social situations... but it was never this intense as now.. AT THIS MOMENT... because yes.. im writing in this stage of panic attack right now. which is when i most understand it. So yeah... pot was doing fine; it wasn't interfering with my life.. i was responsible with my classes, did my workout... went to parties... weed didn't get in the way.. it was not until i was caught with weed and sent back home for 1 year to "CLEAN UP".. that the real panic attack started. I began realizing the differences between the days i didn't smoke and the days that i did smoke.... I ALWAYS KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG WHEN I SMOKED... THE SECOND I DID IT... SECONDS BEFORE THE JOINT HIT MY MOUTH.. SOMETHING WAS UP...I KNEW THAT!! I JUST NEVER PAID ATTENTION TO IT UP CLOSE...it all started as a weird social phobia that i could barely control.. but i did.. i did control it from time to time...I WAS STRUCK BY THE IDEA THAT... EVERYONE SEEMED TO ENJOY THEMSELVES BY SMOKING WEED... AND THAT I WAS HAVING THE WORST TIME OF MY LIFE... ITS VERY LOW.. TO ADMIT THAT MAYBE IN THE DEEPIST OF ALL SENSES... U SMOKE WEED TO FEEL IN... AND THAT IT'S UR BODY'S WAY (WHICH WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND ITS VERY POWERFULL) TO TELL UR MIND THAT UR DOING SOMETHING WRONG... THAT IN REALITY... THATS NOT WHO U WANT TO BE... LISTEN PEOPLE... WE NEED TO LET GO OF THE SENSE THAT POT IS THE "GREEN PLANT"... THE "PEACE PLANT".. AND WHATEVER SLANG TERM U WANT TO USE... REASEARCH IS JUST STARTING TO SHOW EVER MORE AND MORE ARTICLES RELATING MARIHUANA AND PANIC ATTACKS... IF U FEEL BAD DOING IT.. STOP DOING IT... UR BODY AND MIND ARE WISE... SOMETIMES I EVEN SMOKED POT RIGHT BEFORE GOING TO BED WITH MY GIRLFRIEND... I SMOKED A BOWL (SHE DIDN'T APPROVE OF ME SMOKING) AND WHEN I GOT TO BED AND THE WEED STARTED TO KICK IN... A TERRIBLE PANIC ATTACK... AS IF I WAS GOING TO DIE... KICKED IN... ERECTION FAILS (DUE TO BODY'S NATURAL RESPONSE) WHEN U ARE FACED WITH A LIFE THREATENING SITUATION... AND AS WEIRD AS IT MAY SOUND... THE PANIC ATTACKS DUE TO SMOKING WEED WERE THAT STRONG... MY ERECTION WAS IMPOSIBLE AND I STARTED SHAKING...AT FIRST I THOUGHT THAT I HAD SEXUAL PERFORMANCE ANXIETY... AND THAT THE WEED JUST TRIGGERED A DEEPER PROBLEM... BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT WEED CAUSES THE SAME STRONG PANIC ATTACK WHEN IM NOT INVOLVED SEXUALLY.... AND SOMETIMES... DAYS GO BY THAT I WALK AROUND WITH THAT PANIC IN MIND AND HEART... BECAUSE THE CHEST.. THATS WHERE U FEEL IT THE MOST... RACING LIKE A MILLION RABBITS... SHORTNESS OF BREATH.. BLURRY EYES... DEPERSONALIZATION!!!!!!! COMPLETELY OUT OF URSELF AND INTO SOME OTHER "BEING".... MAYBE THATS THE WORST... BECAUSE ITS THE ONE THAT HITS IDENTITY DIRECTLY... AND THATS BAD NEWS... WE CAN LOSE OURSELVES WITH WEED... WE BEGIN THINKING THAT ITS NORMAL TO FEEL THAT.. THAT EVERYBODY FEELS IT.. AND THATS MISTAKE NUMBER 1... WEED WORKS FOR SOME... AND FOR SOME IT DOESNT
... MAYBE PANIC ATTACKS JUST SHOW US EARLIER THAT WEED IS NOT GOOD FOR US.. AND THAT THOSE THAT DON'T EXPERIENCE IT... MAY JUST BE CREATING SOME OTHER SERIOUS ISSUE IN THEIR BODIES, THAT THEY THEMSELVES ARE NOT AWARE OF... WHO KNOWS?... THE ONLY THING I CAN TELL U IS THAT PANIC ATTACKS BECAUSE OF POT ARE REAL... IN THE SENSE THAT THEY HAPPEN AND THEY ARE RELATED!!!... BUT UNREAL IN THE SENSE OF WHAT U BECOME... NEVER BELIEVE THOSE WHO TELL U THAT WEED JUST BRINGS OUT THE REAL U...IF U UNDERSTAND BY URSELF... THAT U LOSE PERSONALITY... U FEEL DEPERSONALIZED.... THEN THERE IS A REASON WHY U FEEL IT... PAY ATTENTION TO UR BODY AND MIND... THEY ARE WISE.. AND BOTTOM LINE.. STOP SMOKING POT AND LOOK FOR A HIGHER POWER (RULE NUMBER 1 FOR ANY ADDICT)... BECAUSE OUR LIVES BECOME OUT OF HAND... AND WE MUST ACCEPT A HIGHER POWER, WHICHEVER U UNDERSTAND IT TO BE, FOR HIM TO HELP US IN FINDING OUR TRUTH...FREE OF STIMULANTS... JUST BEING ABLE TO ENJOY... I JUST HOPE TO STOP SMOKING POT AND GET RID OF THESE PANIC ATTACS...LEAVE THE WEED... I JUST HEARD SOME GUY SAY TONIGHT THAT THERE IS A REASON FOR THE PLANT TO EXIST.. I SAY SOME PLANTS ARE ALSO TOXIC... HELL THERE ARE EVEN SOME PLANTS THAT U EAT AND DIE... SO WHY CAN'T MARIHUANA BE ONE OF THOSE? ONLY ITS KILLING U LITTLE BY LITTLE... JUST BECAUSE AT SOME POINT U FELT RELAXED WHEN USING IT? I DON'T THINK SO.... GIVE IT A THOUGHT. PEACE.

Smoked for 19 years. Was really buzzing and bam. A full blown panic attack. I also had the same rationalization that it was simply my time to die. I remember thinking I should call 911, but didn't. I stood outside for awhile, did some deep breathing techniques from yoga and got my act together. I think it lasted an hour, but it seemed like a lifetime. Considering I smoked 1000+ times and never had a panic attack, it's hard to believe its related to smoking. Yet I find it nearly impossible to get stoned for 6 months now. I also get anxiety if i am about to smoke. I think I am just associating anything with the panic attack with the panic attack. I cant dissociate smoking from it because i smoked when it happened. I rationalize myself this, but there's nothing I can do to get past this and get stoned again. Any help out there????

right now is day 21 or 23 (not to sure if I quit between the 3rd or the 5th but I know it was that weekend) and I still dont feel the same
its not as bad as it was on day 9 to 11 but its all still unreal
a blurr in the sense
I still want to smoke pot, but Im not sure if thats me wanting to smoke pot for myself, or being able to smoke pot as a sociel thing (not to fit in cuz I dont care) but when I was smoking I loved meeting other stoners, and just not even knowing them that well but having one interest that could make us good friends off that bat. This is tuff learning how it is to function, and start conversations without pot being number one in it, because usually that is how I made friends, or met people, and or got along with some.

@ 16 I WAS TAKING X AND I DID IT TILL I WAS 18 THEN I MOVED OUT OF MY PARENTS HOUSE AND STARTING SMOKING WEED HERE AND THERE AND WHEN I DID I WOULD FREAK OUT THINK I WAS GOING TO DIE AND THEN I WOULD CALM DOWN AND GO TO SLEEP AND THEN I STOPPED SMOKING FOR A YEAR AND I SMOKED CIGARETTS AND I WOULD ALWAYS START GETTING LITTLE PANIC ATTACKS ALL THE SUDDEN WHEN I WAS IN THE MALL OR WALMART LIKE I WANTED TO GET OUT OF THE STORE REAL FAST ... AND COULDNT THINK......THEN ONE DAY I HAD THE WORST PANIC ATTACK I WENT CRAZY IT WAS SNOWING OUT AN I GOT MY FRIENDS KEYS TO THERE CAR AND TOOK OFF AND WENT DOWN COUNTRY ROADS DIDNT KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING OR WERE I WAS GOING JUST WANTED TO GO THEN I STOPPED THE CAR AND COULDNT BREATHE AND STARTED SPITTING UP AND DRY VOMITING.....THEN START DRIVING AGAIN SO I WENT AND GOT CHECKED OUT AFTER THAT THEY SAID I WAS FINE NO FEVER NO COLD JUST SEVER PANIC AND TO GO RELAX AND TAKE SOME XANAX AT FIRST I DIDNT LIKE THEM I DIDNT REALLY FEEL ANY RELAXATION SO I KEPT HAVING THEM BAD I WOULD JUMP IN SHOWER 5 TIMES A DAY AND GO CRAZY SO I MOVED OUT TO COLORADO OUT OF NO WHERE AND STARTED SMOKING WEED WITH PEOPLE AND KEPT DOING IT AFTER I WHILE I GOT HOOKED ON HOW IT MADE ME FEEL.. NOW I GET PANIC ATTACKS FROM SMOKING WEED AND I CANT SIT DOWN AND I WANNA STOP SO BAD ...... I DO LIKE HOW XANAX MAKES ME FEEL NOW THESE DAYS I THINK MY BRAIN HAS JUST CHANGED .. I MEAN I WENT FROM NOT LIKING WEED TO SMOKING IT ALL DAY EVERYDAY AND THEN NOW I DONT LIKE IT AGAIN .....BUT I KNOW IF IM SOBER ILL GET A PANIC ATTACK TO ........IV BEEN TO DOCTORS THEY THINK I HAVE ----- Narcissism

I smoked weed for 4 years, then i got super high once and had the worst panic attack of my life. I got sick, dizzy, my heart rate skyrocketed, i had trouble breathing, my chest hurt, and worst of all, I could swear that i was going to drop dead any minute. This happened a couple more times while smoking weed so i just had to quit it. But then i started having these panic attacks without inducing them with marijuana. If you arent going to use medicine, the only other thing i found that is helpful is just letting it go, let your heart pump like crazy but just know that you cannot die from your panic. Other than that, you might want to consider not smoking.

for me cessation of smoking, and then trying it again weeks later had no effect, the panic attacks were still waiting... I've been doing this to myself off/on for about 3 years, I thought it was something that would pass I come from the same school of thought as all of you, pot used to make us more acute and aware, the positive effects were unbelievable, and then one day a panic attack,,, I say the drug takes something out of us that isn't easy to replace, there is no reaction without an equal or opposite reaction...

I have had panic attacks every once in a while since i was about 9 years old. I have smoked pot for almost 4 years and never had any experiences like the one i'm about to share. One day me and my friend got high and i seemed to have a "bad trip". i was freaking out an d couldn't control anything,. i was having twisted thoughts and felt like i was going knumb. The symptoms sort of reminded me of my previous panic attacks but not so much. For about a week after that, every time i smoked i felt weird like my throat was starting to close and my breathing got weird. (the same sort of symptoms i get when i am having an attack). But i just told myself it was in my head and i was crazy. So me and the same friend went and smoked a bowl one day, we were in her car driving back to school and i literally started flipping out. My throat felt like it was constricting and i couldn't breathe right, My heart beat felt uneven and it was practically pounding out of my chest. I went home and was trying to calm myself, but it kept getting worse and worse. Finally i got hold of my parents, my mom showed first and she was making me freak out worse. i was starting to hyperveltalate and felt like i was going to die. I knew i was having a panic attack because i had had pretty severe ones before, but never even close to this. I went on a long walk with my dad around the neighborhood and thought i was calming a little, although i still felt like i couldn't breathe rite and my heart was still messed up. we went back home and i sat down on the couch for a few minutes. all of a sudden my breathing started out of control and i was starting to black out in one eye. my left arm started to go numb, along with my rite arm and both my legs rite after. my hands muscle spasm out and were open hard clenched but it wasn't me doing it. i was hypreventalating worse and worse and convulsing. my dad got me in the car and the whole way to the hospital kept telling me to keep talking to him , but i could hardly speak and my speech was slurred and beligerent. all mean while i still was having severe muscle spasms and my hyperventalating was causing me to go numb and my body to convulse. (my dad later told the doctor he thought i was having a stroke). I got to the hospital and they hooked me to the heart monitors and were trying to calm me down. i kept freaking out and my body was flailing i was making weird noises and kind of half crying half screaming while trying to breathe, i was scared as hell. they sedated me and had me breathe into a paper bag off and on for almost 3 hours. i kept going through spells of hyperventalating and calming down all while in the hospital. the doctors couldn't find a reason for the attack, they said it just comes on kind of randomly and your brain really can't control it. they told me the knumbness and muscle spasms were from lack of CO2 in bloodstream caused by severe hyperventalation. They gave me the same meds to take home to use for further panic attacks. i don't think weed caused the attack, but i certainly think it triggered it. It doesn't make much sense to me that a drug can effect you fine for so long and then suddenly a switch is flipped. advice to anyone reading this, if you ever do start to get a bad attack breathing steadily into a paper bag will help a lot. breathe into it for a few minutes and then stop for a few minutes, and then so on so forth. It won't help completely but it will sure make it a little better .

Paranoia was something I always had to get past when I was smoking... But up until recently, my fear was limited to an intense, irrational fear. The more I smoked at once, the more irrational the fear. I've thought friends were bugged and trying to get me to say I just smoked marijuana, then the FBI would bust in and grab me. Then a white van drives past and proves me correct. CRAZY sh*t like that, but that particular time was after a blunt of dro when I had quit for a couple months.

Anyway, I've always believed marijuana proves something about oneself. If there is a problem with my mind when I smoke, I'm far too anxious normally. Taking this into consideration, I've been looking at smoking as a challenge: something I can only do if I change my everyday thinking.

I walked in my gf's room one day, she had this crazy weed she said. I normally just chill out and drink lately, but she wanted me to try this stuff so I said whatever, I'll do it. I took 1 hit and F*CK, I coughed for near a full minute which is very unusual. The coughing made my blood speed up and immediately I felt crazy. Higher than ever before. Heart began racing. My gf had no clue. She asked how I felt and I just had to say I'm freaking out. My chest started hurting, the marijuana confused all my perceptions though. Pain is something I never fully understand while high to that extent. I kept grabbing my chest and laying back on the bed. My vision was fading to white at a couple points. I grabbed out at my gf's hand because I thought I was going to die. And the fact that I was high, everything was intensified. I could see my death occurring and my fear multiplied beyond my own comprehension. That was the worst part; I learned a new level of fear and infinitely beyond that. All the while I was feeling a pain in the center of my spine, white palms, freezing cold, heart racing, my entire body was randomly twitching.

Now, a few weeks after this I still feel like my mind is screwed up. I've been getting unusual pin and needle feelings all over at random points and I feel a faint aura of impending doom around me.

Hi Everyone,

This advice is for everyone who wants to smoke weed without any anxiety and panic attacks.

Take 30 mg of citalopram (celexa) everyday..like in the morning, then smoke weed in the evening or at night..you wont have any panic or anxiety attacks..this is due to the reason that citalopram reduces your heart rate and thus makes u more relaxed. This will prevent you from having any anxiety or panic attacks while smoking weed. This is a proven way and I hope it helps everyone like it has helped me!!!

Good luck!