Weed is a plant based drug that you can smoke or eat. You can roll them into “spliffs”, “joints” and some people like to mix it with tobacco. Or you can put them in brownies or any other type of food and you can mix it in with tea. Weed is also known as cannabis, pot, marijuana, hash and so on.
There are many people that smoke weed, whether it’s for their pleasure or to help relieve mental or physical problems. This is called self-medication and although it will make you feel better, in the long run it can increase and/or create new problems.
How can weed make me feel?
Weed can make you feel really good, it can heighten your mood and make you relaxed, but it can also make you very paranoid and disorientated. Research has found there is a link between weed and developing psychosis or schizophrenia.
The more weed you smoke, the more resilience you will have to the effects, which will cause you to smoke more to have the same effect it did when you first smoked it.
Is weed addicting?
Just like every other drug, weed can be addicting. If you smoke and enjoy it, the more you will smoke. This can become a very addicting habit and you may find yourself relying on it. And just like everything else, you can have withdrawal symptoms. These may include:
Sleep problems
Irritability
Mood swings
Cravings
Restlessness
Depression
Anxiety
Brain fog
Hostility
What are the advantages of weed?
There are many advantages to weed, however if abused and you decide to stop smoking it, it can have a bad effect on your mental health. Some of the advantages are:
Relieves chronic pain
Slows and fights cancer
Helps sleep
Reduces anxiety and PTSD
Helps weight loss
Helps with diseases such as Parkinson’s
Cannabis and your mental health
There has always been a big debate on whether weed is good or bad for people, although it can have different effects on everyone. Some people can smoke cannabis and have no effects on their mental health whatsoever, but it can affect others quite the opposite. There are both advantages and disadvantages of smoking weed, and although there can be really good benefits that come from smoking weed, weed is linked to psychosis and schizophrenia which has a really bad effect on your body.
What is psychosis?
Psychosis is a mental health problem that affects the mind and causes people to perceive or interpret things differently to people around them. People with psychosis tend to struggle to know the difference between what is real and what is fake. Symptoms include:
Delusions
Hallucinations
Confused and/or disturbed thoughts
Lack of insight and self-awareness
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a severe mental health condition and is more likely to develop through certain triggers such as a stressful life event or drug misuse. Also family history has an increased likelihood of developing it. Although there is not a cure, there is medication you can take to help the symptoms. They may include:
Hallucinations
Delusions
Confused thoughts based on hallucinations and delusions
Wanting to avoid people
Not caring about personal hygiene
Schizophrenia is often associated with psychosis as the symptoms can be very similar.
Weed, psychosis and schizophrenia
Although smoking weed can develop these mental health issues, it is normally from a stronger weed strain such as skunk. The more THC, the higher the chance. However, lots of people can smoke weed and not experience any mental health problems, so it’s not to say that it’s really bad because it does have its benefits, but it can really affect your mental health just like any other drug misuse.
Weed effects on the brain
Not only can weed affect your mental health but it can affect your body’s productivity. It can stop you from remembering things and make you lazy. It also can trigger a lot of anxiety, paranoia and confusion the more of it you smoke. It has also been linked to depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety. It affects your thoughts, perception of time, movement, memory and so on.
When you smoke weed you can either have a really good high that results in you feeling relaxed, giggly and happy. Or you might experience a bad high, which results in paranoia, nervousness, confusion and so on. Everyone is different in their reactions to weed and/or any drug.
My experience
Most people in their life have tried cannabis. I did as a teenager and I loved it. However, when I first started to smoke it, I was having really bad highs. I was so paranoid, my heart was racing and I could feel it in my throat, my mouth was so dry and I always felt like I had to sleep it off and I’ll wake up sober. However, this didn’t stop me from smoking. All my friends did, so I thought why not. But every single time I did, I had that same reaction. I smoked so much I ended up getting used to it, the bad highs had stopped and I was enjoying myself. But it really affected my body and my mind, I was constantly paranoid and I became really lazy. I would smoke just to be lazy and feel relaxed.
I didn’t smoke for long. The bad highs came back and it made me feel like I was going to die. The feeling was so horrible, I dread to think how my mental health would be if I continued. Lucky for me, I wasn’t one of the one’s to have anything bad happen to my health.
In conclusion, I’m very 50/50 as to whether it’s bad or good for your mental health. It has its benefits, and although it can trigger severe mental conditions, it doesn’t happen to everyone. I think people need to be more careful with it though. It can be just as addicting as any other drug, and just because it doesn’t affect everyone badly, doesn’t mean it can’t happen to you.
If you need treatment and/or help with an addiction, see your doctor. They can advise and help you in any way they can.