MMJ and Depression

Hey man, I went through the same thing as you.... I was put on SSRI's , anxiety meds, ADD meds...


It felt like hell. I advice you to STOP taking all the crap pills, talk to a psychiatrist you can trust and are comfortable with....start going on walks more, anything to just change up your daily life and not sit and think about being depressed....

And if you want to use cannibas, slowly introduce it in your life.... but don't get sad and smoke weed. It won't solve anything.... BUT if you are sad and smoke weed and then actually DO something about it, that's good. It's just really easy to start smoking when you feel bad, and then you will start feeling worse when you feel bad and CAN'T smoke...

From my experience the only thing that helped my depression was getting out my current living situation.. and time. There are times when I've been mad or sad and smoked weed, not gonna lie... It has helped, moments like that you deserve to smoke.. But other times I would feel bad and wouldn't want to smoke... IDK i didn't want it as a crutch ya know?

I hoped this helped in some way.... I think good friends and being active is a better cure then cannibas though. And of course having a positive outlook on life, but that's not a easy thing to do...depending on your situation.

I'm not sure if you can get medical for depression though.... I feel like most people would think you are using it as an escape, and not dealing with the real issues. But if you can find a doctor that supports you then do it!

Uhmm... are you 18? You shouldn't have to ask your parents to get legal...

 

When you say "suicidal thoughts" can you define that? Do you just think about dying? Do you get a gun, load it and then decide not to shoot? Do you walk to a bridge? I've known people who have said they had been thinking about dying and the next day they were dead. So you should really ask someone around you for help, if you think it's serious. Life can suck at time, but never worth giving up on. Hey! At least your state allows you to get legal MJ! Happy thoughts
I think that depending on the strains, surrounding conditions and way you use it, your problems can be made worse in some cases, so the quality of MJ is critical.
As for getting a card, it's actually pretty simple. If you go to a doctor for the same thing 3 times within a year, they should be able to recommend you can use MJ. You then fill out a form and are on your way. I'd advise looking for some dispensaries around your area that you can trust. Maybe try finding reviews or just calling and talking to the staff about your situation. In most cases, purple strains (GDP) is good for depression. Also, Cinderella 99 seems to make people love life. Ultimately, I'd recommend getting small quantities of a few varieties and see what works best for you. It may also be better to use a vape and the same temp settings with each strain to determine the desired results. But as silenceme says, this isn't the solution. It can only help and you don't want it to be your crutch, more of just a sidekick to encourage you. You might want to keep a detailed daily journal of your life starting now. You can then compare notes on days from when you were on the meds, off the meds, what you ate, how you slept, who you met, etc. Once you can analyze your behavior, a lot of things will be able to come out that we often times never notice. Since you have a good circle of friends, I'd advise confiding in them if you can. A support system is going to be key to helping you succeed too.

Hope all goes well for you. Plenty of good people here on GC are always glad to help and answer questions. Again though, if you really feel that bad, you should go hang out with a good friend and maybe talk about why you feel how you feel, or even talk to your parents. I'd sure hate to see another statistic created by these so called "magic" cure pills.

 

Wow. I took meds for less then a year and I honestly think I would be dead if I took it for another year.

I wasn't eating, I wasn't myself at ALL... I was a DRONE.

I'm so sorry you've had to take meds for 15 years....I'm pretty sure that will do some permanent damage. I wish kids weren't put on ADD and anxiety meds so young nowadays..

 

You know, it's interesting someone posted on this, because I was about to post the same exact situation and question almost OP (and other posters on this thread). I started having major bouts of depression about 3 years ago, caused by stress, family health issues, school not going well, etc., and it turned into full blown depression, severe anxiety, and a bit of anorexia...and I'm not talking about "I feel sad today, stressed about some things"...I'm talking depression like I've handed people my shotgun that I usually hunt with and told them to lock it up away from me, on many an occasion..I don't know that I could ever actually go through with it, but I can't lie and say it's never crossed my mind. I also have anxiety to the point where I sometimes have a full-on panic attack while laying in my bed reading, watching TV, doing laundry...it occurs anytime anywhere, and it's really aggravating. I also have an issue, not sure if it's a bit of OCD or anxiety, but I have to buy multiples of things because I fear I will run out of them, they will break, I'll lose them, etc., and I spend unneeded money buying multiples of the same thing; if I buy shoes one week, I'm already looking the next couple weeks for another pair just in case something happens to the first......sounds stupid and bizarre but I have it and it's annoying. The anorexia issue came from me purposefully losing weight since I was overweight at the time, but happened to be around the same time as these other issues were starting to snowball, and I became obsessed with my weight and eating the bare minimum, even after I was at a healthy weight, and that problem still continues today, as do the others.

Now that I stated my background problems, I'll say I've been put on Sertraline (Zoloft) at 50mg, which is an extremely small dose according to 2 psychiatrists I've seen (they expected I was prescribed at least 100mg or more, since that was the norm dosage) for my depression and anxiety. I'm not sure how different Cymbalta is, but at 30mg, that's even more miniscule. However, these circumstances that I've experienced have been exacerbated while on this medication and others prior to Zoloft. They all seem to have the same effect though; they make me not care about things that I want or need to care about, and they give me a false sense of happiness and contentment. It takes away my ability to be angry or frustrated at something, and like someone else mentioned on here, I become like a drone, or whatever you want to call it..where I can chime in to everyone's conversation with a huge grin all day and life is all peachy and nothing is wrong...and ironically enough, I cannot STAND that feeling. I want something to make me honestly and truly happy, and at the same time I want the ability to have a range of emotion, not something synthetic that is going to make me into some happy-go-lucky idiot all day when that is honestly not who I am. I also can't wrap my head around the fact that most of these anxiety/depression medications actually cause suicidal thoughts, and they blatantly warn that...why would you prescribe me something that might cause that, when that's the very thing I desire to be treated for? So let's see the benefits, or lack thereof, of my medication
-Suicidal thoughts (which I've actually had, often, while on the medication, and have worsened after the start of the meds.
-False feelings/sense of emotions and personality.
-Carelessness/indifference towards important things, subjects, or people.
-Not counting the fact that this is a cocktail of synthetic crap made in a lab...

Now, this is why I believe medical cannabis kicks Zoloft's ass, and actually helps me how I need to be helped:
-First, it's natural...a plant, grown like any other plant on this earth.
-It calms me down, allows me to organize my thoughts and prioritize, which in turn reduces my anxiety/panic attacks due to overflow of thoughts or issues that I can't sort out.
-Allows me to have my usual wide range of emotions, but reduces the levels of my stress, anger, and frustrations, so they don't cause me anxiety attacks or unneeded harm to my body (stress is one of the worst things for your health, and the source of my mother's illness that was a contribution to some of the problems I have now).
-I also suffer from childhood Asthma that I've never grown out of, and the relief it provides for this is well-documented as well (via vaporizing/edibles), not to mention would reduce my use of steroidal inhalers, which I'm not too sure what kind of adverse effects they've had on my body so far.
-Helps me eat more...and I don't mean "I get the munchies and I raid the fridge"...I mean instead of eating the bare minimum number of calories and such like I usually do, it motivates me to add more to my meals (healthy foods, not junk food), and keeping my weight up to where I need to be.

I wish more people would be accepting of this, and not look down on people who honestly use it as medicine. I'm not someone that uses it to get high, act stupid and be couchlocked...I use it when I need to, and I purposefully go to the dispensary and ask for strains that will keep me active and motivated. I work out, I hike, bike, and surf, and my job keeps me doing outdoor manual labor all day. I'm halfway through a Bachelor's college degree in Animal Sciences, and I read science related textbooks because I love to constantly learn. Too many people have that "unmotivated stoner low-life" picture of someone who uses marijuana, and I can't stand that. My parents years ago stood against any kind of drugs and things like that, but nowadays are much more accepting of marijuana's benefits and uses, but I still struggle with the fact of how to tell them I use it and it really helps, without them getting upset at me...maybe they wouldn't, but I hate hiding things and being dishonest, but at the same time, I don't know how to approach them about it in a serious manner.

Well I apologize for posting a novel, kinda snowballed into a larger thing than expected, but all of you that posted mentioned something that I have experienced and am currently going through, so I felt it necessary to touch on all those topics. Anyone have suggestions on how to approach sorta straight-edge parents on all this? Should I just lay it all out for them like this, and list the benefits I've personally experienced? Thanks for any input/advice... Haven't posted here in a while, but I plan to be back on here as a regular, and lookin forward to gettin to know you all and contribute to this awesome forum.

 

What triggers your depression?
I never got mine under control until I learned what set it off.
Then it was a matter of learning how to deal with that trigger in a different way.
Also as far as being active, yes that's a good thing but it really needs to be something that keeps your mind active as well as your body. Bottom line there is if your mind is active and you're absorbed in what you are doing, you won't be depressed and that good feeling will continue for a while after you stop the activity.

When you get a handle on it, getting off the meds is easy.

 

Wow, didn't know the dosages were that different for each...My Zoloft at 50mg was thought of as miniscule, so I was told to start taking two to get up to at least 100mg. I can't stand the stuff though...and when I talk to someone about it, or my parents they are like "well what if you tried a different kind?"...they are all the same though, there's no sugarcoating it. I've tried Zoloft (now), Paxil (which was worse), and one other one I can't remember, and all have basically had the same effects on me, more or less. I don't want to feel like a freakin constantly-happy-android or drone, even if I do seem happy and cheerful to others, that's not truly how I feel, it just masks it so people stop worrying about me. I don't have to worry about that with MMJ; yes it makes me happier when I medicate, but I also still possess the normal ability to have my other emotions along with it. Zoloft and others just don't allow me to organize and prioritize my thoughts and even physical things, like when I have errands to run and laundry to do and a whole list of things, and they start to build up and cause an anxiety attack, the only thing I want and need to do is take a quick smoke, eat an edible, etc., and I'm immediately able to stop, mellow out and say "okay, I'll do this first, this second, then the other thing, and still have time for this, etc. etc." I had an anxiety episode tonight similar to this but with my parents home I couldn't smoke or anything, so it was a sucky night. I think I'm just going to talk to them straight out about it, bottom line, MMJ works, this is why, and there's no reason to continue anti-depressants. Plus I've had more weight loss within the last week and I hate to see my mom so worried about it...I want to eat more but I can't really bring myself to in my current state of thought. I've not had anything suicide-related, thoughts or otherwise, occur in a while, but I know all too well how easy it is to slip back in that dark place, which is why I just want to get everyone on the same page concerning using MMJ. I'm sorry you have to go through all of this too, Ratchetman, it's truly the shits..

 

I understand and I sincerely wish I had some better advice for you.
I don't have to tell you what a nut sucker depression is. It's the one disease that unless you've experienced it, you don't really understand the pain it causes.
Good luck my friend and get healthy.

 

I totally get everything you're saying.
I've had depression for as long as I can remember. My parents brought me to the doctor once because I couldn't stop crying over a dead bird I saw in the street (I was 4). Since then, it totally fluctuates. On the surface I seem like a totally normal person, bubbly and funny... But one wrong thing and I implode. It doesn't even have to be something that triggers it. I could wake up from a terrible nightmare (I get those very often) and I'm in tears.
My parents don't "believe" in mental health issues, or at least unprovoked ones. I live an extremely comfortable lifestyle, and besides some issues with my parents things are ok.

 

There are now studies showing that a deficiency in Vitamin D can play a role in all of these mood disorders including depression, bipolar etc....

Take Vitamin D3 1500iu for every 25lbs of body weight for the first 5 days then cut back to 1000iu for every 25lbs of body weight daily.

I don't have the links now, but if anyone is interested, I can post them later.

 

I have social anxiety(pretty bad) and am a little bi polar and I absolutely REFUSED pharms. Never took them, just know that they are fucking terrible. Go to granny storm crows mmj list, gather proof that it helps depression immensely and show your parents. Just please get off the meds brah. Damn I REALLY wish I lived in a mmj state, fuck...

 

[quote name='"ratchetman"']I've shown them that proof multiple times. they still don't want me on it. They both work in medicine.[/quote]

Have they said why?
Are they generally liberal or conservative?

 

Some people are just too ignorant, with too much pride to let them change a view they've just accepted because someone told them... You need to try and get them into a place where they feel safe discussing it with you. Ask them the risks and what concerns them. Get their real feelings and issues with the plant. Then come up with some reputable sources to explain, confirm or dispute their claims. It would also be beneficial if you could ask them what they would recommend for you. You can then show comparisons between the two. You could then do a sort of test... Get a prescription for what they say you need, then ask them to observe your behavior. The whole time using cannabis instead of what they prescribe. Just some thoughts. You may never win people over, but if you can at least open their mind to having a serious conversation, you're onto a good start. Good luck!

 

I think you should disregard the drug cocktail and the medicinal,

1. Exercise, work out daily, make sure your getting outside at least once a day for 30 minutes. things that go along with this are like daily intake of water, 8 cups(2 nalgiens) and regular meals, if you can cook for yourself.
2. Find some way to express yourself. write in a journal, play a musical instrument, strike up an engaging conversation with friends.
3. Stop masturbating, and watching porn. Although if you are able to engage in sexual intercourse that is a plus and will help.
4. Try not to make a habit out of smoking cannabis, unless that is a tradition within your culture to smoke daily.
5. If you use unmentionables, stop.
6. Try to get yourself motivated. volunteer, join norml, get a job if you don't have one.
7. move out of your parents house (although in this economy it'd be better if you could live with them and contribute)

If this doesn't work for you, you could try medical marijuana. They would be more willing to put you on MMJ if they saw an able bodied young person in front of them. Also avoid at all costs drugs like lithium, risperidone, and geodon.

The only cures i know of are mushrooms, and nature.