panic attacks caused by marijuana

Ok let me explain something, i have had panic attacks for 3 years now.. When i first got them they were every night for 6 months, i had not even been smoking at this time. I felt all these symptoms, as if i was dying. I am hesitant to smoek pot because of my anxiety issues, even tho i have not had a panic attack in 8 months. I believe that when u remove something or add something it increases the chance. When i started drinking coffee i had one. When i stopped i had one. So basically things like that cause them, also if u are to smoke pot, that is something that makes your heart accelrated, and mroe aware of everything, when u are aware u notice all these little things, as if your dying, like maybe you had some bad stuff in the weed. With all these reasons u are very easy target for anxiety. I remember for 3 weeks i had panic attacks because one night i heard a beep, for the next 3 weeks thot it was Carbon monoxide... I mean see its just ur mind messing with u,

i smoked marijuana for about 4 months about 2 or 3 times a week. everything was good and great. Then one time at night i smoked alot with my friends in a car n it was a stronger type of weed. after we were done i felt tingling in my throat and as if it were starting to close. my heart was beating so fast i felt like i was having a heart attack. i felt like i was going to die. i was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance but i didnt tell them i was smoking marijuana. i jus told them i had asthama and they said it was a panick attack. Now, even when im around marijuana my heart beat faster and my throat feels like it is closing. how can i stop this from happening.? %-)

last night something really similar happened to me. I just started smoking weed 6 months ago and since my brother deals and i was staying with him this summer so i smoked a lot. last night him and 2 friends came to my house and we got weed from this kid . he said it was really fire weed and that he home grew it. when we got home we rolled a blunt and started smoking ,everything was fine and then about 10 minutes later my heart started to pund extremely fast and hard. i felt my neck and chest and my heart felt like it was going to pop out. my throat got really dry and i felt like i wasnt in my body, like nothing i did would make this feeling go away. i went inside and laid down. i got a wet washrag and put it on my chest and head. i felt like calling the ambulence and going to the hospital but i didnt. i thouhgt i was having a heart attack. i have never been that scared in my life. all i could think is that i was going to die. after about 30 minutes the feelings went away and i had the best high ive ever had. i think i was overthinking what was happening because nothing like this has ever happened to me before. after i calmed down and told myself that no one dies from weed i was fine. i feel better now but my chest feels heavy and a little sore.

we were sitting on the couch smoking a little bit, and then i started to feel so high, like, higher than i've ever felt while smoking weed. he put on a movie, and we were sitting there, and then the last thing i really remember is thinking that i couldn't sit there, that i had to go lay down. i knew that i got up first, and he followed me to his room. i don't remember a lot after that. i felt like something was really wrong, but i couldn't figure it out. i didn't know if anything that was happening was real or if anything in my life had really happened. i was crying, but i didn't know why. i kept asking him what was wrong with me, and he said he didn't know. the worst part was that i didn't know when the feeling was going to end. it was like i was going crazy. i remember saying, "show me that this is real," but he didn't know what to do except hold me. after about an hour i was to the point where i felt like i might be coming out of it, and i asked him again what he thought was happening to me. "i think you might be having a panic attack," he said. this has never happened before. i don't know what caused it or what i should do next. i'm so afraid it might happen again. times where i have felt that vulnerable are very few. i don't know what i would have done if he hadn't been there with me. i had to spend the night. this morning i felt fine. i didn't really want to open my eyes because i was afraid i might fall back into the same state. mike hardly seemed phased by any of it. he said i could always call him if i felt like that again, and he'd be there for me. i just called him again to talk about it. he said he would look up some info on how to deal with it if it happens again. he thinks it's due to a gradual build-up of stress in my life that might have been triggered by smoking. he suggested i stop smoking for a while. i basically agree with everything he said. i can't get over it though. i had a f*****g nervous breakdown. i actually had a panic attack. everything i've googled about panic attacks fits last night's description. it also meets the DSM-IV criteria for a panic attack. during an attack a person must have at least four of thirteen listed symptoms. i had the following: trembling or shaking, sensations of shortness of breath or smothering, feeling dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded, or faint, derealization (feelings of unreality) or depersonalization (being detached from oneself), fear of losing control or going crazy, and chills. that's six. maybe i should seek help for this. i'm scared.

Thanks everybody for your posts. This thread has been very informative.

I first smoked pot 15 years ago. Since then I have smoked it thousands of times, mostly with good results. Along the way, I realize now that I have had several panic attacks and seen others also have panic attacks. Underlying all these was almost always a lot of repressed emotions and untended thoughts: stuff was bothering me and I hadn't come to grips with it, and/or was depressed, etc.

Recently I had been drinking a lot and smoking. I'd have a toke and a cigarette after each beer. It was quite manageable, no freakouts. There were stresses in my life, more so recently, but they hadn't surfaced. I had a couple weeks off work and so had been drinking and smoking daily. Nothing out of the ordinary, I was handling it.

Until, last weekend, I was doing some cooking and canning while my wife was out for the evening. I drank a lot of beer and smoked a lot of grass and was pretty loaded by the time I went to bed. This was like the 18th day in a row of this.

I woke up the next day and went out for Sunday brunch with my wife. Felt crappy from the heavy drinking but nothing unusual, so to speak. Then we went to Home Depot to get a couple things. I was looking at CFL bulbs and felt this "blub" in my chest. Felt a couple more palpitations. I had had similar palpitations before, occasionally, so I initially wasn't so alarmed, but after a few, I got a bit freaked out. Drove home a bit shaky. Still had the feeling in the chest. Thinking about it. Then the panic hit. I was sober at the time. An awful, crushing weight, tingly, palpitations...panic attack to a tee. My wife left for a couple hours (I didn't let on what was happening, thought it would go away or something) and I was home alone. The attacks kept up. It was horrible. The whole nine yards, the fear, the sweat, all the symptoms people describe here. I went to a walk-in medical clinic and got the pulse checks and ECG done and saw a doctor. He said all the tests were normal and prescribed me a beta blocker to normalize any heart irregularities. After that my attacks went away but I was really shaken up. They have been gone since and I have been able to "zen" my way out of the precursor feelings the one or two times I felt like one was coming on.

At this point I don't have any concrete answers but can point to alcohol withdrawal, cannabis abuse, and stressors in my daily life as causative factors. Pot would not be the cause of this, it would be a trigger. Like, of all the times I have smoked, why only a few times would it make for the bad effects, and at times when I had a lot of stress?

One post upthread said to make a list of things that bother you. I suggest doing that. One thing that seems to be happening with the panic attacks is that you have a lot of psychological and emotional baggage on your subconscious mind, and the subconscious remembers everything, so somehow it can be tipped into sending a panic signal when you get high. I haven't researched it enough to know why, but this seems to be the mechanism.

Be in good physical health. Be in good emotional health. Be in good physical health. Take a b vitamin supplement occasionally (not all the time). Don't drink too much or get high too often. But above all, tend to your mind as if it was a garden. Face up to the unpleasant facts, and come to better terms with them rather than blocking them or suppressing them. If you let issues pile up, they will create a mess in your subconscious, like a coiled spring underneath a pile of confetti, and when that spring tips off, it makes a big mess.

Practice positive affirmations: "I am becoming perfectly healthy," "My mental health is becoming perfect" whenever you feel like it, and before you fall asleep, and first thing in the morning: sleeping and waking are the times when it is easiest to access your subconscious. Avoid saying "I'm not going to have panic attacks" - your subconscious can't compute the negative "not" and it will reinforce it.

Mind over matter. Find a way to pull out of panicky feelings and calm yourself down. I suggest meditation to promote alpha brain waves naturally (marijuana induces them artificially). Above all, relax. Take the time each day to look at something beautiful, to smell a nice smell, to listen to beautiful music, to get some positive vibes into your mind.

Panic is a self-defeating feedback loop: you create what you fear and the fear breeds more fear. You have to develop strength at being calm and collected in order to be unaffected by panic.

Before this turns into a book chapter I will wind this post down. I hope to see more discussion on here. Thanks to everyone who posted, good luck, positive vibes, may the force be with you. Your willpower and the power of your mind can overcome any situation if you give it a try in good faith. Stay positive, stay calm, and find what works.

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Marijuana caused panic attacks

Same thinq happened 2 me cept it never went away i think it affected me for life plz help me and message me ):

Exactly the same thing here mate . Been smoking on and off for most of my life now . I am 29 atm and recently the panic attacks are getting worse . It started few ears ago . The first attack was when i traveled to Israel to visit some friends as i now work in CZ. Naturally we smoked a bit (for me it was after 2 years of brake). Then i started feeling my heart shaking my entire body + the chair i was sitting on . Your hands and feet get colder and sweaty . All your essence is trapped at listening to your body and every weird thing freaks you out beyond believe. I was always a very healthy person i think i didn't see a doctor for more then 15 years now even with a common cold . I doubt that i even have any medical file at all and that what freaked me even more, i wasn't familiar with my body having trouble . I was 100 % sure i was having a heart attack so i took a cab to the hospital got my heart checked by the doctor and after all was fine and i got better i went home and out to party with my friends. Ever since even tho the doctor said my heart was ok it kinda stuck in my brain . Now on occasions when i smoke (not always) i get same feelings as before : Heart races like crazy and sounds and feels weird hands and feet get sweaty and cold . You start paying all your attention to you heart and breathe getting more and more freaked out until you are sure you are going to die . Usually over only when i fall asleep . Next day i wake up fresh and new feeling great but my mind takes me buck to the day before and focuses on my heart and this in turn make it all happen all over again .