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.
Please also remember that it interacts BADLY with anesthesia, so lay off before you have any scheduled surgeries / be up front if you need emergency surgery, or you could wake up on the table.
(This also applies to vitamins, uh, like… I did not know this bc it wasn’t exactly on the label, but if you’re thinking about taking ginkgo be aware that it causes bleeding bc it’s and anticoagulant. I found that out after I had a nosebleed so bad I had to leave work and almost had to go to the ER)