weight loss, toxicity and psychosis

Hi all,


This is a very long post but I would appreciate any input you may have


seasoned toker here (female, age 24, 5ft 10 and 185lbs) have been smoking pretty much daily for over five years now.


My question goes out to those who know anything about THC, medicine and mental health.


could a heavy user experience temporary but extreme psychosis due to a) extreme weight loss and b) withdrawal or abstinence?


Last year I experienced a mental breakdown centred around a bad breakup, as well as issues with my family. I was smoking too much, stressed out by a lot of hatred between my mother and my boyfriend (ironically mostly about the drug usage). I lost about 35/40 lbs over the course of a month and a bit, due to the stress, and not eating properly ( I was also experimenting with excluding dairy soy and gluten from my diet..) (at my lowest i dropped to 126 and stayed there for months). I Should also mention that these things resulted in extreme constipation during the following weeks.


it all began with a very stressful anxiety attack my boyfriend experienced, which lasted for a couple days. after he recovered it became apparent that i had not.



The symptoms of the mental breakdown intensified as i cut down on my marijuana usage, and stopped smoking with sitch. I experienced auditory (never visual) hallucinations, extreme paranoia, elevated heart rate for hours at a time, constant dissociation, and absolute insomnia. I also had delusions of persecution during this time. I had come to believe that i was suffering psychologically because I had done something i was repressing, like murder or rape. I was convinced that the only way to restore my sanity was to discover WHAT I had done.


following these developments, a few emergency room visits later, i was prescribed clonazepam and quetiapine to reduce the psychosis, Which only made my dissociation worse, but did not seem to help my other symptoms. I remained on quetiapine and clonazepam for a few months before switching to a different antipsychotic (risperidone).


Its now been over 9 months since i went through the most terrifying time of my life. and I STILL don't have an explanation. after about 4 months of my symptoms lessening and subsiding alltogether, I feel completely myself again. I have even begun to smoke marijuana again (2 months now with absolutely no symptoms, despite higher than normal life stress).


So my questions are really about marijuana and psychosis. The medical community and my mother are convinced that i now suffer from schizophrenia as a result of my previous or current usage, but I think there may have been more going on during my mental collapse.


Did I have toxic amounts of THC stored in my body fat, that when lost rapidly, caused temporary symptoms? IF THIS WAS CAUSED BY THC CONSUMPTION WHY HAD I NEVER EXPERIENCED ANY SYMPTOMS OF PSYCHOSIS OR SCHIZOPHRENIA BEFORE?




added note: there is a history or bipolar disorder and alcoholism in my extended family.