serverly paranoid after quiting smoking weed

ahhhhh... this site thread is very informative, here is my story.
When I was about 20 I smoked one joint and the very next day as I was driving I realized that I was not only being my typical deep thinking self, but going way deeper in conscience thought. Then I instantly thought to myself... no matter how safe they say this stuff is, I'm one that should never smoke it again, which I didn't for well over 25 years. Then I started to smoke it occasionally for relief from fibromyalgia symptoms. It seemed to help with the aches alright till about 5 years later realizing it was robbing me of my energy levels and I was becoming dependent on the stuff daily, which resulted in me feeling exhausted after it wore off. I quilt cold turkey from fear of the stuff. Within month's of quilting I become paranoid, suffered anxiety, and couldn't sleep. My wife and I split after 20 years (she too started and quit smoking the stuff at the same time).
I couldn't understand why we had changed... all I knew is that we were accusing each other most of the time, without knowing why!
 We had a very good relationship prior to using weed. Many looked up to us for how well we got along. I saw the paranoia in her, and thought she was the one with the problems. I guess she must of thought the same about me! Any way, now 5 years later I still struggle with anxiety, and fear still. I'm positive now this is what cost us our marriage.
I find when I don't eat anything for a day I begin to feel normal and 20 years younger, although when I eat (not sure yet which foods are causing this... I see coffee. pop and sugar for starters) I begin to start to struggle with different forms of depression. My ears start ringing loudly, and if I start on negative thoughts I can so deep into my head it's hard to break back out. I also can sleep for more than 20 hours and still feel very tired.
You know they used to say weed was harmless.... and to some it maybe, although some peoples genetics I believe it "toys with". It's a game of Russian Roulette.
For anyone considering starting this stuff, and today's current strengths of weed, is it worth the gamble of throwing away your marriage, career, friends, etc. not to mention the long road back to recovery. For me, knowing about the paranoia, still doesn't stop or help me from feeling weird, and different around other people. I thought it was mold growing in the house or something causing this, till I started to Google "feeling paranoid after eating".... and, I didn't get it all typed when feeling paranoid after quitting weed came up first!!!
All I can say is stay away from ever using this stuff, especially if you value your later life.... remember I'm in my 50's now, always considered quite smart by others (until using that stuff... and now paying the price). B.T.W. when you get older, most people need to start to hanging onto as many brain cells as possible, even if it's just your memory that gets affected, it still makes you appear (and feel) dumber!
This has been... just my two cents worth... and I hope I remember this lesson and tell as many people as I can about this... even if it saves just one person from thinking about using it!
I also believe, not all people seem to have this same reaction, or perhaps varing amounts of symptoms, although, I'm convinced this is not our imagination... I don't need millions of $$$ spent on long term studies to proof (or disprove) this theory... it's real for me (and others), as most of you have conveyed.
It also sounds like it's taking myself and others longer to get over the effects of the damage it has caused.

I pray everyone finds the healing they are expecting and looking for.

im also trying to stop for a couple months or so in hopes of feeling less depressed or whatever. my question is what if i toked hard for a couple days say on this ski trip i got comin up will those 2 days make what im trying to do a complete waste of time? or should i just not blaze for those couple days?

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I need help bad I was smoking & caught a panic attack & it never wore off. Dat was like 3 months ago & I still feel, high, depressed, parinoid. Someone message me please when will this go away ? Im only 15 years old

i started smoking pot on my 18th birthday, then it turned into an all day everyday thing till new years. i got super paranoid and ran out on a new years party, got into a small car accident and ran away from that. that day i stopped smoking pot. it was 420 yesterday and i went to a party. i smoked i got super paranoid again

Hello guys, I have a very physical but quite weird explanation of this feeling, of all anxiety and paranoia.

About 10 years ago I got into smoking skunk heavily. Coming off it was horrendous. I had voices in my head, paranoia, delusions. I wanted to get away by myself, I just became ultra sensitive to people. Couldn't even trust that my thoughts were my own. It was a bloody horrible experience. I went through it once, got cleaned up and straightened out then after a while I fell back into my old ways and had to do it all over again. I lost a lot of good friends and I upset my family. To get through it I had counselling, I went to a group for people with drug problems where you all did acupuncture and drank herbal tea - that really helped a lot.

Most of all, for me, when it was at its worst I found going for long walks helped. Try not to lock yourself away. Talk to people you can trust but not everybody and you don't have to tell them everything- a lot of what is going through your mind is probably bollocks anyway so don't scare people with it, just let them know if you're in a bad way and ask for help and understanding. In the end it's down to you and you have to just pick yourself up and get on with it. And I had to do it over and over again, every day, for a long time. Just make a start by doing the little things first- get up, get washed, eat breakfast, washup, tidyup, do washing, fetch groceries. Cook yourself some good food. Then build from there. I got through it and now I'm just as happy as I've ever been.

I hope this might help somebody. Good luck.

The internet is an amazing thing. Think of all people that have had problems like this in but not knowing wtf is going on!

For me when i started getting paranoid all i could do is tell myself i'm crazy, how come all of my friends are smoking and are fine and i'm the only who is feeling like a f*****g weirdo. I started smoking when i was 16 with my brother and my best mate, and it was amazing. All you ever get told from school/parents/mainstream media is that weed is only terrible for you and you should never do it ever. But the first time i smoked it was amazing. It just made everything better. From then on i smoked most days, most days eventually turned into everyday. 

My family has always been dysfunctional. My brothers would ALWAYS fight. Things would get extremely violent between the two of them and my parents could do nothing to make them stop. I have no idea wether it was purely my parents fault for raising them badly or they were just angry teenagers on crack (a metaphor ofc :P). It would get to the point where i (a 12yo kid) could not take it anymore and i would burst out of my room and scream at my brothers to stop and then i would run out of the house crying and just walk for ages to get away from it all. I still think my parents got divorced partly due to my brothers fighting(others things aswell i'm sure). My mum moved away and my dad took me and my 2 brothers. 2 parents couldn't raise our family how could 1?

Nehooooooooo. After a few years of smoking i started to feel, different. Eventually i had my first panic attack. It was early one morning after a night out of doing driking/drugs. We went to this dudes house to smoke. I started to get really paranoid and ended up just running out of the house and ran to the car, sat in it and cry'd(to everyone else that was in there i just randomly got up without saying anything and ran out the door...). I guess i cry'd because i didn't know what was wrong with me and i thought i had lost it. From there on i started to distance myself from everyone. 

Fast forward to today. I only ever leave my house to go to work. I'm scared to go anywhere. Iv'e missed my friends weddings, their kids being born, so much sh*t! I can't believe that this is what i am. Just some scumbag who gave up on his friends & family to sit at home and do nothing.  I missed out on a lot of growing up. I'm still a paranoid retard. Someday's are not bad. Probably because i don't socialize or talk to anyone because i think i'm going to come off as a crazy person. 

 

Being paranoid and depressed for 3 years has changed me from who i used to be. I used to turn anything into a positive. Coming from a screwed up childhood made me develop a really good sense of humor. I'ts a harder sometimes now to find the positive in things. But i try. I keep telling myself i need to tell someone about this but i'm too scared to. I feel like i already screwed up my life and there is no way back from here. 

Halfway through this year i started listening to the Joe Rogan podcast. It taught to be more positive, exercise and be healthy.  Healthy body healthy mind type thing. It did help but its hard to keep positive and stay healthy when everyday i think i'm crazy.

I know i should tell either one of my family members or a friend wtf is going on with me but i'm scared. I have been like this for years now. Maybe i'm just beyond the point of no return. I think about killing myself but i couldn't do that to my dad. He's been put through so much sh*t by my family and i can tell he is depressed or something. Finding a dead son wouldn't be good for any parent. 

I know that it was the paranoia that got me to this dark depressed place but now i think i'm too lost to get out.

There are receptors for alcohol - GABA receptors. Weed does kill brain cells, it up-regulates the activity of an enzyme called PLA2 that can destroy brain cells.

hey bro dont worry bro i have the same problem u quit 4 years ago but i still get anxiety of sometimes i feel weird i dont know how to remove this c**p i think i smoked once once in school i collapsed and i felt dizzy i was really messed but i stopped and after 4 years my eyesight is messed i feel weird sometime

i am a female of 21 years and i have been smoking since i was 9. i have just recently quit about 4 months ago and i feel paranoid as well, i didnt really feel this way when smoking. i have always seen signs or "coincidences" but now its different its like im in a constant state of feeling like im forgetting something or that my head is racing with thoughts but its not, it only feels that way if that makes sence.. i feel like something is trying to control me or keep me oblivious to something, or that people have drugged me to make me feel this way or like im being observed by an unseen force, or that the people around me are conspiring against me, and all of this is just a very brief explanation of what it really feel like .. and i know that sounds rediculous so i tell myself that its rediculious and stupid or that its just the effects from quitting smoking and i'll get better or anything else that makes logical sense, but i cant help that gut base reaction.. logically this sounds like paranoid schizophrenia but only some symptoms of it and i havent heard any stories about people who actually have schizophrenia who can discern reality from their paranoia so i dont believe its that.. i dont know what it is but i do know that i dont feel right at all and i dont know what to do, and its driving me crazy. i just want to feel ok again. has anyone else felt like this or can give me any advice on what may be going on here? email me please.

Just give him time. Re-assure him, how him you love him and just be an all round positive presence. That's all I want from my girlfriend and I'm quitting right now.

Hey all, i know this forum was a long time ago and what not.

But i just want to say, i smoked weed extremely heavily for 2 years straight, from 17-19, i'm now 20 and have been off pot cold turkey for 11 months. I smoked with my housemates for 2 years and never ever had a problem whatsoever, everything was always relaxed and obviously over time i began to smoke more and more a day up to 3-5g's a day. I couldn't pick up any one day until it was around 8pm at night and was bung out, withdrawals hit like a b***h through the day, but i always said to my housemates and to myself it wasn't that big of a deal not having it honestly.. well i figured that was the case, but i took 2 hits in about 5 minutes after getting it, felt insanely dizzy and uncomfortable shortly after the hits my partner wanted to go to a friends place, so even being as dazed as i strangely was, i was keen to go with her, so we walked down there, the fresh air did me some good, her mates were all smoking up and offered me a hit while i was there, i turned it down, the cravings inside me wanted it so badly but i just felt mentally fried beyond belief, as i sat there the feeling only got worse over time, so bad i had to walk home, my partner came with me, but i was so god damn paranoid and anxious for no real reason whatsoever, i'd walked the streets from a kid without a worry, but my body wouldn't calm down, i got back home and the housemates offered me a hit as i walked in, i had it in an attempt to calm myself, (honestly didn't expect it to was just hoping), it really did nothing but make me into more of a zombie, so i crashed, the next morning i woke up, didn't smoke for a few hours after waking up as opposed to a daily wake n bake even if i had work etc. Went and had 1 bong, it made me completely loopy, worse then the night before, i thought my partner was trying to set me on fire with the lighter, although she was just lighting a smoke.. haha.. i was f*****g tripping and i remember it all so vividly, my housemates mum was over and she was smoking up with them etc, and i sat down with them and tried to have a conversation, but all of a sudden their voices blurred out and it was like i could only hear select words being spoken, anyhow my mind somehow assumed that they were planning to kill me or something of the sort, i got that scared that i literally ran out the house and ended up staying at my sisters house where i knew i was safe and comfortable as they are anti drug etc. And after that night i just couldn't bare to smoke weed any more, i moved out and quit cold turkey, but ever since that day i've had horrible depression,anxiety,sleepless nights, hot sweats, paranoia, all the general symptoms of what id had with withdrawals in the past, with paranoia and anxiety shoved on top of it, which i find really strange and to this day 11 months later, i can't shrug it, i'm a hermit, i only see my partner everyday and a few anti-drug friends once or twice a month. I can't handle going to the shops to buy a pack of smokes, i can't go out, i can't even speak to anyone properly anymore, the paranoia eats me alive. Somedays i wake up and feel like i'm high... impossible i say to myself, but f**k the dizzyness is there.

I remember how i felt before i smoked pot, i remembered having a physique that wasn't all skeletal and most of all i remember my personality. But nothing is the same anymore and it's killing me wondering if i'll ever at least shrug how i've been feeling these past 11 months off..  i don't have cravings, i have no moral want to do it anymore, i also don't speak to a single person who does it anymore, it may seem hypocritical but it helped the cold turkey process at the start and now i'd like to stay clean. One thing i know is i'm a little bit healthier now, my diet is a tiny bit more routine, some nights i sleep, most i don't like currently it's 5:50am where i am, been awake since 9am yesterday..

If anyone at all has absolutely anything they can tell me that can assist me in any way, please do so, i'm begging. I just want to be normal again and not feel like the world is against me. I just need to feel like living is on my agenda..

My partner was never addicted to marijuana but she would smoke it quite occasionally, since seeing what's happened to me, she will never touch it again, because we grew up together, we went to school together, she knew who i was then and now she knows a completely different person today as we speak.

 

 

I am a novice re experience with cannabis but have some idea of pharmacological mechanisms from a student point of view. Cannabis components cannabinol and cannabidiol especially seem to have antipsychotic effects to some extent e.g. see Wikipedia discussions on these. At the same time, it is easy to imagine adaptive processes in which neuron signaling comes to rely on cannabis and makes adaptive accommodations (somewhat reducing the strength that might be felt with initial use). Sudden withdrawal then can leave pharmacy adaptations in place thus acting as a negative drug (accomplishing a negative antipsychotic effect). Something like this occurs in depression with use of an SSRI drug e.g., Prozac-like which can calm anger but then can produce a terrible short term effect when suddenly withdrawn which has been related to violence. Slow withdrawal may be better. And there are potential marijuana adulterants which can be dangerous so that withdrawing may be a really smart move especially for some persons more vulnerable perhaps than others. Dramamine II or generic (meclizine) over the counter antinausea (half usual dose daily? full dose?) may alternatively take the edge off paranoia but perhaps limit driving etc as meclizine can still make you a bit sleepy. Even with meclizine don't stop suddenly but cut in half and half again to help sleep. Good Luck

I'm on day 4 of quitting weed and the first couple of days and some what today I been really anxious with no appetite and depressed a bit. It has gotten better man but I've been doing Alot of prayer. I don't know if you believe in god but I recommend trying it. Maybe join a church etc and never lose faith. But maybe try some l theanine for your anxiety it's a natural amino acid and alot of people seem to have liked it. May god help rid yu of yur problems.

Very interesting theory..

Just as some may say that science is killing religion, I would say that science would need to be examined differently.

As for the body being a universe - is it possible that everything operates the same on a macro and micro scale? Highways look like blood vessels. Internet wires look like the nervous system. Integrated circuits look like a birds eye view of a city.

We are each individually made up of a multitude of cells, each with their own purpose - yet we are each an individual cell. Communities are tissues, regions are organs -nations are organisms.

Look at time lapse satellite images of Las Vegas over the past few decades - an expansion of gray. Could an x-ray of a cancerous tumor on a person look similar?

As far as weed goes... I'm facing these same effects. Years or routine have convinced my source of pleasure to be anything. Smoke and watch a movie - whoa this is so deep. Smoke and watch traffic - whoa man this is 21st century. Smoke and play a video game - this is REAL. WHEREAS IT USED TO BE GO HUNT AND KILL MY FOOD AND IRRIGATE MY CROPS AND USE MY BODY TO FERTILIZE MY WOMAN. That is the true natural pleasure.