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Talking to a Shrink

Discussion in 'Apprentice Marijuana Consumption' started by BackwardsMaker, Jan 27, 2010.

  1. #1 BackwardsMaker, Jan 27, 2010
    I was thinking about talking to my psychiatrist about the problems I've been having with the herb. I've detailed this in a couple other threads, but since about a few months ago I can't seem to get nearly as high as I used to. My theory is that this has something to do with my medication.

    The advantage of talking to my psychiatrist about this is that, if he isn't a complete closed-minded idiot (which I don't think he is), there's a possibility that he might be willing to change my medication to something that won't have that effect. The possible downside is that he might become worried about me (he doesn't know that I smoke as of yet) and he might try to admit me to some rehab program or some such crap. The other possibility is that, even though there's a confidentiality agreement, my parents might somehow find out about it - and I don't want that to happen for various reasons.

    So what do you think? Should I talk to him about it?
     
  2. #2 sheshomegrown, Jan 27, 2010
    He can't reveal anything you say to anyone. You should talk to him about it. He can't have you dragged away screaming to prison or rehab, even if he wanted to. I would definitely mention it. I talk to my therapist about smoking all the time. Good luck!
     
  3. #3 stoner_lukas, Jan 27, 2010
    There are no psychiatric medicines that interfere with the high you get from weed.

    Your tolerance is going up, or you're not getting herb as good as you were before. Talking to your psychiatrist will be pointless (take this from somebody who works in the field)
     
  4. #4 hellers91, Jan 27, 2010
    I think it really depends on what you're taking the medication for and how much the psychiatrist thinks it seems to be helping you.

    They do have to uphold confidentiality though, so I really doubt he would tell your parents. If he did, there could definitely be legal repercussions.

    In my opinion, if you think your medication really does affect the potency of weed when you smoke then tell him. He might not approve of your smoking but I'm sure he has had all kinds of patients that have done way harder drugs. The worst that could happen, I think, is that he would say he isn't willing to change your medication. Or you could always lie and say you don't think the medication is helping you at all so that he'll be more likely to change it. But again, it really depends on why you're taking medicine and how much it seems to be helping you in the first place.
     
  5. #5 smoke1985, Jan 27, 2010
    I would only be careful if i was under 18 about the confidentiality issue you are worried about. 18+ and you are in the clear for sure.
     
  6. #6 hellers91, Jan 27, 2010
    From experience with psychiatrists under and above the age of 18, they can only break confidentiality if you threaten to harm yourself or someone else. Otherwise, they aren't allowed to tell your parents anything you say.
     
  7. #7 BackwardsMaker, Jan 27, 2010
    hellers91: Well, I'm taking abilify and lamictal for bipolar disorder since I had a manic episode. Since I started taking medication (I started out with something different) I haven't had any manic episodes, so I guess you could say it's working well - but there's no way to know, really.

    stoner_lukas: How do you know that medicine doesn't interfere with weed? It seems to me that there's relatively little information about this subject out there, so how can you be so sure? Also, I don't think it's just tolerance since A. the decline in my ability to get high was abrupt rather than gradual and B. salvia doesn't seem to have a full effect either, even though I'm new to it.
     
  8. #8 stoner_lukas, Jan 27, 2010
    Because i know which receptor sites Abilify acts on, and they aren't the same as the ones weed acts on. That's how.

    And salvia acts on the kappa-opiod receptors...so no, your atypical antipsychotic isn't ruining the high from that, either. Had you done your research on salvia you'd know that it has a reverse tolerance...so the fact that you're new to it, and it's not working, is absolutely normal.

    You really need to do some research. Antipsychotics do not affect the high from weed. Don't believe me? Go look at the pharmacology of any psychiatric medicine and the mechanism of action in the brain, and compare that to the pharmacology of cannabis and its mechanism of action in the brain. Voila.

    I didn't get 2 degrees in this shit for no reason.
     
  9. #9 hellers91, Jan 27, 2010
    Ah well that could make it more complicated then. I take medication for mild depression so it's pretty easy to get my doctor to change it for me if I say it doesn't seem to be working. Since really, if I'm taking the wrong medication I'll just be depressed and mope around for awhile until I go to the doctor again.

    My brother, and much of my family, have bipolar/schizophrenia. I'm not sure how serious your bipolar disorder is or how many milligrams you're taking but it is nearly impossible for my brother to get his meds changed without a lot of tests run by doctors. Because, like you said, with the right medication he has a lot fewer manic episodes.

    However, I'm not your doctor and I don't know the extent of your disorder so I really am just throwing out what I think based on my family history. You should tell your psychiatrist though, the worst thing that would happen is he would tell you he doesn't want to change your medication.
     
  10. #10 BackwardsMaker, Jan 27, 2010
    stoner_lukas: I didn't mean to insult you or anything, I'm just somewhat skeptical about anything related to this subject that I find on the internet since a lot of the things I find seem to conflict with one another. I don't know much about brain chemistry, but it seems to me that it's possible for two drugs to interact with one another even though they don't act on the same receptors. The different parts of your brain are interconnected, so it seems to me that if one part is behaving differently that it usually does, this could affect other parts as well. Even in regards to psychology, if something affects one part of your mind, that could have unintended effects on other parts of your mind as well.
     

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