cyanwrites:
sarcasticnymphet:
felicitousfeline:
spaceykiid:
sadiepickles:
Be careful with marijuana, bipolar, paranoid, and psychotic folks. You may not realize until you’re already in it, but marijuana can trigger psychotic episodes, paranoid episodes and make bipolar mania worse. There has been a fair amount of research on this and google is free.
For only anxious/depressed folks, do whatever helps you. Just be aware the marijuana doesn’t help everybody and the persistent “Marijuana is Cool” culture can hurt people.
also! if you’re on lamictal, pleeease be careful around marijuana since it has triggered seizures in folks on lamictal in the past!!
Shit this is extremely helpful to know. I’ve been put on Lamotrigine (Lamictal) since my last encounter with marijuana. Stay safe!
marijuana has a vasodilation effect meaning it expands or “dilates” blood vessels, which in turn lowers blood pressure, which in turn speeds up heart rate. people with anxiety, including myself, can sometimes suffer actual worsening of anxiety with marijuana due to the brain misinterpreting the physical effect. this has happened to me multiple times. I’ve had a friend go to the ER because her anxiety got so much worse after smoking weed that she thought she was having a heart attack. even if you only suffer from anxiety, be aware of the possible side effects weed can have.
As an ER doctor, I see patients with marijuana side effects fairly frequently. A lot of people don’t know that marijuana can trigger latent psychosis, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder; even if you don’t have any symptoms of these conditions you might get them from using marijuana, and it can happen the first time or the hundredth time. If you have a close relative with any of these disorders, you have a particularly high risk of triggering them in yourself.
I know marijuana is a very popular drug, and for some people the effect of using it is worth the risk - after all, everything has a risk; I see patients who’ve been in traffic accidents every day too, or fallen off horses or bicycles, and most of them go right back to driving/biking/riding… People do things that might be a little bit dangerous because they consider the benefits worth the risk. But it’s important to educate yourself about the risk so you can make an informed decision. :)
If you do use marijuana and see a doctor for some reason, even unrelated, please tell us! We aren’t allowed to tell anyone else (breaching patient confidentiality will have our medical license revoked), and marijuana can interact with medication (as mentioned about Lamictal above), so it’s very important that we know it when treating you. :)
