Paranoia and panic attacks after smoking weed

BuddhaChild wrote:

healthnfitnessguy wrote:

BuddhaChild wrote:

I took a break after that. For about 6 months. It gave me a lot of time to think about things, and to find the real reason why this was happening. I realized I was just a a bad place in my life, and getting high was contributing to my problems and making me feel crummy. I was the reason for these anxiety attacks, not the marijuana itself. I recently started smoking again, but in moderation. I’m taking baby-steps to make sure something like that will never happen again. I really hope that I’ll be able to smoke socially with other people, but that probably wont happen until I’m older, wiser, and am more comfortable with myself.

Hey buddhachild, this was pretty enlightening. It's of course true that you don't want to trip out while you have demons to face down because marijuana will do you no favors in that department. What do you mean by moderation though? Are you smoking less than you used to?

I only smoke a few times a month now, as opposed to everyday like I used to.

That would make a big difference I think! I know that when you smoke marijuana that it releases a great deal of serotonin, and if you don't have that much in your system then it could lead to greater anxiety. Do you think that might have been a contributing factor?

Get to grips with your life, quit cannabis. Or it will only get worse dude. The more you continue the more you will imprint your paranoia and it will become hardcoded into your brain, to the mass of a pinch of shredded wheat :-) and your life will be hell. I done i,t been there, and got out of it, now victory is all mine. :-) smoking ganja isn't a good life, it's ill all over. And ugly. Get off and get high naturally strive for success don't be a bum.

Well I think it's good to be realistic--I know that some people can do it just fine without struggling with it. I think that people who have anxiety disorders and people who have stuff in their past that they have to deal with should avoid it for sure. Although I do think you have a good point. :)

Darn, am I glad I'm not the only one this happens to. Well, its happened several times to me, I guess pot is not my thing, but I like the high I sometimes get when I'm cruising and listening to good 80s songs (listen to live concert cds, like Depeche MOde 101, Metallica, etc...), but it is the nastiest horrible feeling I've ever had, for sure. And you know right away when you're gonna get one because you know it the second you get a hint that you're getting a panic attack. Walking helps a lot, but what has helped me the most is throwing cold water into my face, or if possible have someone grab you by your shirt and scream at you to "lighten up" the "in your face" situation makes your body and brain sober up instantly. But, people don't worry it WILL go away, you will not die! I discovered that if you give it one drag and wait 5 minutes between drags, you'll be okay, just dont over do it. Good luck!

Yeah, I do agree that if you have this condition that you can gradually temper your THC intake to keep from having panic attacks, or if you go with some lighter stuff you can feel better. The problem is that for me a week after I feel really depressed and low, so I don't even bother. I think it completely depletes your serotonin if I'm not mistaken, which can lead to panic attacks and depression. Thanks for your insight though! I liked reading it

Something very similar happened to me last night and i swear im still freaked out by it...im not much of a weed smoker but i like to get high once in a while and well i think i over did it last night..it was crazy, i was watching TV and out of nowhere it seemed liked everythng was on repeat, the conversations that were taking place around me..felt like i was hearing the convo's before they happened...like MAJOR de ja vu, it was a trip and i thought it wasnt going to stop and it started really annoying me but i stayed calm and didnt say anything and then i saw myself die...thats when i startd freaking out cause it felt like that was it, i couldnt see past that, i got up started telling my bf to call the paramedics and get me water, to not let me fall asleep, to keep me up and startd walking to the kitchen and fell on the floor, they said i wasnt breathing and then i was brought back onto the sofa where i passed out and someone checked my pulse and said i didnt have a pulse, and that i was dead, it was so crazy cause i could still hear them and thats when i started thinking about my family and nephews and everything good in my life and opened my eyes and was still freaked out, it felt like my brain was shutting off, and i couldnt recognize the people in the room, the only one my brain remembered was my bf and i didnt want him leaving me even for a bit and then slowly i started recognizing evryone else, it was crazy cause i felt like my brain was losing all the memory it had stored, and thinking about the ones i love really helped me get over it, i then was too scared to go to sleep, but eventually did, the next morning i was still freaked out and my brain was still trying to revive all my past memories, i remember that when it was happening to me there was someone present there who had the same experience, and he had mentioned that it was an anxiety/panic attack, i still dont understand why it happened to me, i have no stress or depression.

HI there! That sounds really scary of course but you're actually able to DEVELOP an anxiety disorder even if you're not depressed or anxious. All you have to do is be prone to it (and it's a genetic thing really) and pot can do that to you. I hate to tell you this but I'm the same way. It's best to avoid pot really. Does that help?

Today, I smoked pot for the first time. I didn't think I would get that out of body feeling, and I had never experienced a high so I took like 10 hits. It started out ok too. One my last hit, I started coughing and fell onto the ground and rolled on the grass and then once I got up, it was like I was transported to awesome land. Suddenly, it was like people were talking "to that kid I was", like they were talking and I could hear, but I didn't understand. When I was walking back to school (I had decided it would be smart to smoke before my last class), things went terrible. I started stressing, thinking I would get caught in my class and that if I didn't go I would miss homework. Usually homework isn't an extremely bad thing to miss, but it got worse and worse, when I then decided I HAD to go to class or else I might... die. So while I was walking to my class, I got very dizzy and felt like I was going to throw up in front of everyone. Right before I entered the classroom, I was so scared I almost ran to the nurse to tell her I was high and I really wanted to cry. I sucked it up just in time and sat down in class. All I though to myself was "Don't attract attention!". Fortunately, I wasn't quite peaked so when the teacher asked me a question, I was able to BARELY figure my way through it. I relied on my friend to help me with what we were doing while I had hot flashes and had to close my eyes to escape. When I got on the bus to go home, my high was finally starting to weaken and I felt a little happy. When I got home, my friend had texted me after finding out I got high and started sending messages I thought to be threatening and against me while all it was was "XD" and "TGIF". I sort of though he was laughing at me for getting high. For the next hour, I was in terrible depression. I thought maybe if I told my mom what I had done, she wouldn't care and would help me out. Instead, I sat down and slept for 2 hours. When I woke up, I felt like you do when you wake up in late afternoon - crummy and like you've missed out - so I was still a little depressed. I sat down and played video games for a while and felt much better. Now I'm just sitting here with the rare giggle I'm still getting. All in all, terrible start, good ending. I have been having other depression and feelings of being left out lately, so maybe that affected my response to the weed.

On another note, while I was high, I gave away my weed and forgot 6 times that I didn't have it. I also didn't remember my phone was in my pocket until 2 hours later when I was coming down.

Just 2 days ago I experienced this same panic attack as a result of smoking weed. I've smoked a few times before but I never got a really good high. It was always seed and stem or swag (crappy weed). My friends got some really strong stuff. After 4-5 bowls and a stem, I started laughing at some random conversation. After the laugh, I looked up and the high was too extreme for me to handle, and I kept repeating myself saying "dude wtf?" over and over like I was stuck in a loop. Then it happened. I started freaking out really bad. Screaming, shaking, etc. It was the worst feeling in my life. The best advice I can lend is to do something to take your mind of what is happening and focus on anything. A picture, tv, video game etc. I played my guitar and quickly came back to reality within 15 min. Hope this helps.

Hi there, I'm sorry that you went through all that but you know, even if you distract yourself that panic attacks don't always go away. The bes thing to doa ctually is to NOT distract yourself. Just realize that what you're feeling is just your brain. That really helps you come down faster. Trust me, the distraction thing workst great until it stops working--then it gets 10 times worse! Has anyone else had this happen?

Happened to me yesterday at school.

I think because it was a long time since I last smoked, that the one hit I took (such an EZ-Bake) mixed with my anxiety disorder made me feel like the world was spinning and it actually hurt to look at repetitive things (ie. brick walls). I was flipping out so much and my normal reaction if something is strange to me is to analyze so there I was trying to figure out what would make the hurt go away and I was trying to explain this to my friends but apparently I just sounded like a high nut-case.

I was shaking like nuts, heart racing, all the normal anxiety symptoms but the pot was making it worse. Another thing that just occurred to me was the location, it was very heat so I was naturally scared. Once I grasped that the reaction was pretty much inevitable, I was just plain stoned. It goes away, you just need to wait it out.

PS. had the best gum EVER while on that high; why did everything taste so good?

I just had a similar experience last night. I got really really high for the first time with my friends and everything was going fine until I started to feel somewhat strange. My body started to pulsate with my heartbeat and I just felt really uncomfortable. I went home and laid down, trying to go to sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about everything around me and how everything was so unreal. I all of a sudden started thinking that everyone around me was somehow out to get me and my entire life was just a weird game where everyone was playing some kind of screwed up joke on me. I began to think there was no point to life, at which point i was jumped out of bed, scared sh*tless. I went to the bathroom and tried to get myself together. My mom heard the commotion and came out of her room. I talked to her briefly trying to comfort myself but she was half asleep (it was about 2 a.m.) and it didn't really help. I laid back down honestly just wanting to die. I have always been an upbeat person and was never able to understand other people when they talked about feeling this way. I finally ended up calling my ex girlfriend who I had just separated from about a month ago because she was the closest person i really had to talk to, to my surprise she woke up and talked with me for a while about my problems and what was going on in our lives. She had been dealing with some past problems and was to actually doing a lot better. The comfort of her voice along with the news of how well things were going for her seemed to lift me out of my anxiety, untill at one point she became angry with me and hung up the phone. I looked at the time on my phone and it was exactly 3:00 a.m. which I don't know how familiar most people are with this fact, but supposedly 3 a.m. is the time of the devil. I saw some kind of connection with this and began to completely lose it again, thinking my life was pointless and i was just going to end up in hell. I called her back a couple minutes later and we talked a little bit longer. She ended up falling asleep on the phone after about an hour of talking so i hung up and ended up being able to fall asleep. I woke up this morning feeling much better than the night before, but still very unusually depressed. I had been the one that broke up with my girlfriend because I thought it would be the better move for both of us (we fought non-stop) but last nights attack made me realize what a great person she is and how much better I may be with her. She on the other hand had told me how much better she was feeling since the break up and how she hadn't had any panic attacks herself (something she struggled with) and was able to stop taking ambien to sleep at night. It leaves me with a bittersweet depressed feeling that I don't really know how to explain. The feeling I got last night was definitely the worst I have ever experienced in my life and I hope it never happens again, but I feel like the new I really needed the new outlook it gave me. I feel like marijuana is a much more powerful substance than most people think, that can actually alter ones consciousness for the better. I just don't know if I should try it again or not, because I don't want to have to deal another anxiety attack like that.

If you had a panic attack while high, you are prone to having another one. Please, if you are worried about having a panic attack, don't smoke up again. What do you think?

well the first time i evr smoked was last week and it was AWESOMEEE. i was having a really shitty day and it just made it totaly better. well... the second time i ever smoked was yesterday. the night before i had not slept AT ALL. not even 5 mins cause i was studying for a midterm and had no time for sleep. i also hadnt eaten anything because i knew i was going to smoke and i knew i would get hungry and i wanted it to be epically yummy!! and i smoked about half a blunt ish by myself really fast and i held in the big hits for like 10 seconds each... my friend had jsut as much as i did but he smokes a lot and hes a realy buff dude so it deff didnt hit him as hard... i started coughing and felt a little nauseous. but then the high hit me really really hard really really fast... t felt really good for like 30 seconds then i got the worst cottonmouth you could possibly imagine... remember i hadnt drinken or eaten anything all day anyways.... it got so bad i couldnt breathe and i started begging my friend for a drink. i couldnt even keep my head still everything was spinning.. he drove to cvs and went inside to buy something to drink. i waited in the car and i truely truely thought i was going to die... i opened the car door and threw up what seemed to be just stomach acid/bile and water... my friend came back with a mountain dew and i nearly chugged more than half of it at once... then i got nauseous again but this time i wasnt in extreme pain because i actually had somethin to throw up... i blacked out every 15 minutes ish for like 30 seconds it was werid. we got out of the cvs parking lot and drove to Moe's cause he kept saying "you HAVE to eat something"

let me just explain to you... how high i was... was seriously physically not healthy and the fact that i hadnt slept and hadnt eaten didnt help... the cotton mouth only slightly went away... the world that i was in was not this world... everything i looked at seemed somewhat not real.. i was lookin at my friend but i couldnt actually see him. my heart was beating so fast, i couldnt feel my arms and legs or my body in general... i started to get very very scared and started to pray to god because i TRULY thought i was going to die... it helped to look around the street and read signs and store names and i tried to talk to myself to try to get me to snap out of it... my friend turned on loud rock music... which i love... but im not sure it was the best for the state i was in.. everything i heard was like magnified 10 times more... i heard literally every note in the songs... i could pin point every instrument and every beat and every note... i was in extreme pain throughout this whole process... i felt like the life was literally being sucked out of me... then i looked over to my friend and i think i saw him praying for me too... which made me really sad... and being how high i was this feeling of sad i thought would also kill me... i just wanted someone to take my life so this pain and feeling would go away... everything i looked at made me dizzy cause everything was moving and pulsating. my arms and legs were too heavy to even move...

my friend bought me food from Moe's and i was sooo hungry like i saw literally starving but i couldnt even move my arm to eat it... i fell asleep in his car for about 15 mins?? and i woke up gasping... a little less high than i was... but still pretty screwed up... when he was driving i felt like we werent moving but everything else around us was which started to scare me... leaning my head against the car door letting the air blow in my face felt really good and it was somewhat waking me up... i hung out in my friends car for another hour or so.. he let me sleep which i desperately needed. he woke me up and told me he had let me sleep... he asked me if i could walk and i said no... the point where i was then was over the point of being f*****g dead and it had dubbed down to just being really high again like how i was for the first 30 seconds after that smoke... so i was high as sh*t but not the feeling of my soul being sucked out of my body.... my heart was still beating fast tho... so he got out of his car first and came over to my side... to like help me out of the car... every little tiny movement i made seemed like i was dancing or moving too much and it made me want to throw up so i tried moving really slowly... when i stood up i almost fell... my legs were still very heavy and i couldnt balance myself cause everything was still moving. i finally was able to balance and felt like i needed to throw up but it never came... then we started walking to sit down somewhere.. my friend kept telling me that i seriously looked like i was dead.. i had like black circles around my eyes and i think my lips were red/purple so ya i looked and felt like i was dead.... im pretty sure his high was gone... and i think he was really scared for me.. i felt a little better after walking but i wanted more than anything for that high to go away...

from when i smoked to the point of walking around.. about 3 hours had passed.. that was 3 hours of feeling like i was going to truly die... it was probably the worst experience of my entire life. the place i was and the state i was in... i would never wish that upon someone... even my worst enemy... god help anyone who ever has or possibly will go through what i did... when i got home.. it was about 3pm. i crashed and went to sleep. i slept til 8pm and i woke up to my phone ringing. when i woke up I WAS STILL KINDA HIGH.. at fckn 8pm... when i smoked at like 11:30 or so... i talked on the phone for a few minutes then went back to bed. i woke up again at 3am... i was shivering uncontrollably and my heart was still beating.. but i wasnt high anymore... i still felt like c**p so i went backk to bed and woke up at 630am to get ready for class. i went to the bathroom to weigh myself like i do every morning by habit. and i had lost 4 pounds since the morning before... i was shocked. my body was still heavy but once i started walking around i was ok again... i was sooo terrified i dont think i have ever been that scared in my entire life...

i looked online hoping to find something relating to what happened to me so i wasnt the only one and thank god i found this... i feel so much better now like im nott he only one. so ya i guess i had a panic attack?? but the worst possible one? cause iw as running on no sleep or food/water. i dont care what anyone says... it is possible to smoke TOOO MUCHHH weed... i dont ever wana smoke again... im not saying i wont... but as of right now... i never wana touch the stuff again.. and i asked a few people i know and some say they went through what i did too just not as bad... everyone says it just wasnt as bad as mine.. which sucks that i had to experience the worst of it... im just glad im alive..

I have the same problems. When I was 16 all the way up to 20 I smoked so much like 10 joints over the week (which might not be alot to some people but enough for me ) anyways I stopped for about a year and half when I met my girlfriend, she didnt like pot due to bad trips (go figure) . then one day convienced her to try it again and she loved and still continues to smoke it now, but I had a horrible trip, my heart felt paralized my spine felt frozen, I couldnt swallow, I fell down a couple times in my room walking over to put a dvd on. I thought watching something stupid and funny would make me feel better as it usually does. but when I crawled back to bed I started really panicing, heavy breathing, almost to tears, I felt that I couldn't regulate anything physical or mental it felt like I was gonna have perma high for ever which is very terrifying as all of you could imagine, and I work a at psychiatric hospital so I thought I would end up like them, walking around aimlessly saying the strangest things. I pulled the blankets over my face which kinda helped because I guess maybe because I had no stimulants to freak me out but I also felt like I was dead very calm and quiet, and I was explaining whats going on to my girlfriend. But I felt out of this world which would have been a nice high maybe I just couldn't dig this strain but my girlfriend was having a blast. after about 15 to 30 mins I calmed down and the high was mellow and relaxing.

So I thought it was only one bad trip but it seems that everytime I do sutable amount I have the same feelings, I just wanna know what the problem is cause I buy weed all the time and I dont wanna phase this plant outta my life. So I dont think I'm continously buying bad strains. but I also heard that being in a bad frame of mind might set it off which makes sense. about 4 months ago my girlfriend (stated in the story above) left me and I have been having bad trips. I guess you dont always know what your mind has going subconciously which is the part of the mind drugs unlock.

A bunch of times being high with her I was ok even if the trips started out bad, We watched funny movies and had copious amounts of sex (I know its personal but its something good to do to enjoy the high) Also despite the fact I dont really like techno music I like listening to Daft punk when I'm high or having a bad trip. Just relaxes me.