# Anyone with depression who tried weed



## Ablysmal (Mar 17, 2012)

So I've tried different things to help me with my depression and nothing has worked so far. I've read some stories of people who have tried weed for self-medicating and it actually helped. I'm at the point where I'm just desperate to try anything new, so I'm thinking of going down the self-medicating route as well. If anyone has had any experience with drugs and depression, I would like to know how you've felt both short and long term.


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## AlexeySun (May 11, 2013)

You've tried everything, eh? How about jogging or walking outside as often as possible. If that does not help, nothing will help... including weed, sorry.


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## newbsicle (Sep 14, 2013)

You should focus on building positive habits that will transform the way you feel. I'm not necessarily pro or anti-marijuana, but I do know smoking any type of plant matter is bad for you. You also have an entire indica strain you should stay away from which may be difficult unless you legally grow the marijuana yourself. I think AlexeySun brings up a good point by mentioning an exercise regimen. I would take it step farther and adhere to the old saying 'you are what you eat'. So if you eat foods that give you energy you will feel more energetic, and with some exercise you will release endorphins into your brain which should give you a more positive outlook.

Edit: I can't post links at 10 posts yet, however there's some great information on webmd about depression and the benefits of exercise. Google "exercise and depression" and it should be the first webmd link.

Good luck!


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## Div (Aug 23, 2013)

I dont think you should pursue the weed idea. I had a friend who smoked whilst he was down/depressed - I remember him telling me that he got more sad when smoking alone. Today he is at the point where he can't function without the drug although I don't think he would admit to that.

I however went through 7 months depression in 2012. At the time I was living with my parents. My shrink told me that it was best for me to tell my parents about my situation. It was indeed a relief to get it out but soon after all hell broke lose. 
All i really wanted was time to solve the puzzle, to find a cause and meaning. But after confronting my parents they couldn't leave me alone and i felt as if they constantly had their eyes on me. Thing is, I wanted to isolate myself from the cruel and heartless world I saw and every time my parents came to my room it was as if they wanted to pull me back in to that very world. And I hated them for it - My parents, the people I trusted the most, the people who were supposed to understand me the most, now taking side with the enemy - at least that is how I felt about it at the time. They pushed me to get outside, to confront the things that made me cower in the first place.
Now there are a lot of details I left out - I try to make it as simple as possible.
I will be truly honest with you, some part of me will never forgive my parents for how they handled my situation - I felt betrayed and alone.
I guess you can say that my situation got worse before it got better. And it did get better but slowly - the big step was when I began school again - I guess feeling accepted was the thing that changed my perspective the most. To actually experience a new start.

In short: I don't know your situation - why you are where you are right now. I can only talk out of experience. 
And looking back I did not see the light at the end of the tunnel - but a train (my parents) picked me up and I felt as if it was bringing me deeper in to the darkness - I never saw the light at the end of the tunnel before I was actually out of it.

What I'm trying to say is, try forcing yourself to do things especially when you feel anxious.
I swam alot and it did help on my mood. It was the perfect activity for me because when under water it would be completely silent, which was perfect for sorting out my thoughts. After the exercise I would usually feel pretty motivated.

Side note: My doctor gave me some anti-depressive pills. I think they somehow messed with my cognitive functions, I'm not as good at holding my attention as I was before. But I don't know whether it's the side effects of the pills or my depression.


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## FlightsOfFancy (Dec 30, 2012)

AlexeySun said:


> You've tried everything, eh? How about jogging or walking outside as often as possible. If that does not help, nothing will help... including weed, sorry.


This man has a point. Most antidepressants are bested by exercise. However, it may be too difficult for you if you are severely depressed. Food and exercise should rank high on your list the second you start feeling able.





Ablysmal said:


> So I've tried different things to help me with my depression and nothing has worked so far. I've read some stories of people who have tried weed for self-medicating and it actually helped. I'm at the point where I'm just desperate to try anything new, so I'm thinking of going down the self-medicating route as well. If anyone has had any experience with drugs and depression, I would like to know how you've felt both short and long term.


I do this. I have no shame in it either because it's my brain and I would be worse without it. The key here is moderation. Marijuana is a powerful drug; do not let the innocuous nature of it fool you. It's also very euphoric, which can be very alluring to someone who has depression. Realize that habituation and using this substance beyond medicinal or semi-recreational means can yield unwanted (withdrawal/dependence) results. If you are prone to psychosis, please refrain entirely. 

I use hybrid-Sativas for depression, and they work very well at a dose even below recreational level, even (that is, before you experience full-blown euphoria and some psychedelic effects). One dosing has a long duration in terms of beneficial effects, in my experience.

Please note that this is not an FDA-approved drug for depression (largely due to contenders who want to keep the drug legalized) and this is my anecdotal account.


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## Heyoka (Feb 24, 2013)

Ablysmal said:


> So I've tried different things to help me with my depression and nothing has worked so far. I've read some stories of people who have tried weed for self-medicating and it actually helped. I'm at the point where I'm just desperate to try anything new, so I'm thinking of going down the self-medicating route as well. If anyone has had any experience with drugs and depression, I would like to know how you've felt both short and long term.


I would also do what the first guy posted about and exercise. It helped me WAY more than anti-depressants and marijuana. Though, nothing wrong with a little toke here and there :mellow:


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## BrownSugar (Sep 10, 2013)

Ablysmal said:


> So I've tried different things to help me with my depression and nothing has worked so far.


If you are on a path to try some things, I'd try God, exercise (get outside!), remove negative people from your life and replace it with positive but proactive types, and eat the food that contribute to attacking depression. This stuff always works for me  A


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## ManWithoutHats (Jun 2, 2012)

While I do think cannabis could potentially help someone if used with thought and care (see FlightsOfFancy's post), I think that it is more likely to become a form of escapism and for this reason I wouldn't recommend it much more than I would drinking, video games or binge eating and so on. Especially don't expect it to be a solution in itself (ie smoke it everyday and expect things to get better with no effort). I think it probably has more potential as one more bad habit (the last thing a depressed person needs) than it does therapeutically.

That's speaking apart from my experience. My experience is that it doesn't help at all. It tends to multiply whatever I'm feeling so as far as helping with anxiety or depression it's a big no for me. It also leaves me feeling really dysfunctional and empty after it starts to wear off. This varies with the strain I guess as well as other factors though and obviously is entirely different for different individuals.

Anyway, I'd say there are a lot of things you should try before turning to drugs (even anti-depressants) but I'll leave it to others to offer suggestions.


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## afriskikiwi (Aug 1, 2012)

I smoke weed and I think that using it to help depression could be a good idea only if your just not high all the time and just doing it as a distraction. The only way I know if weed would help is if you just sit down by yourself and think about your life and how you've gotten into a depressive state of mind and what steps you can take to change it and then act on it. Don't just go around smoking weed and just being high because at that point it's just recreational. You have to be willing to objectively think about yourself and if you just use it as a distraction nothing will change and you could actually dig deeper into depression. I've seen both happen to different people and for some it's helped greatly and others have just became an even worse ball of depression. So if you want to do it I'd say do it but just know what your getting into.


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## Indiana Dan (Jun 11, 2013)

I would recommend not smoking it, but rather to make an occasional firecracker (look this up.. it's an edible you can make and it will be ready to eat in 30 minutes or less). By smoking it you are actually hating yourself by damaging your body with tons of tar and carbon monoxide. Not the right way..

Using a sativa strain for depression is an EXCELLENT medication. It is kind of a journey, though. For me, it provides me with a much needed and welcomed shift in perspective about the world and my reality that really can't be obtained anywhere else. No, not even through exercise (although exercise is great!). I have used it for about 6 years now. My usage is becoming more and more limited as time goes on due to these issues:

When you use marijuana, your R.E.M. sleep is essentially traded for the high/experience. R.E.M. sleep is very important to mental (and physical) health, and if you attempt to enslave marijuana as your constant buddy, this will eventually begin to hurt you critically. It took me a long time to figure this out..

Marijuana will lower your testosterone level. As far as I can tell, weed seems to take testosterone (and what would be your R.E.M. sleep) and transfigure it into the psychedelic experience. This, as it turns out, it a big price to pay. But when you are living with horrible depression, you might be ok with it. I was/am. But at the same time, I haven't been with a girl in 2 years. It doesn't _lower_ the level of T, but it transfers it.

Once again, I have found sativa marijuana to be a _great_ thing. I believe if God was on this forum, he would tell you that it was put here for you to use, and that it is a crime against humanity for such a great plant to be made unavailable to people. 

The problems I have listed will only become apparent to you if you use it too frequently. It will be up to you to determine what that frequency is. A lot of it has to do with age. The younger you are, the more you can handle due to its aforementioned effects on R.E.M. sleep. When you get older, you need more sleep.

I consider it to be a safe medication when used responsibly and as long as it is not smoked. Sure, hitting a joint at a party is cool and everything, but when you begin to use it as a medication please do edibles.


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## ManWithoutHats (Jun 2, 2012)

TerminalDancer said:


> everything


Very interesting post. Any chance you could point me towards some information regarding the effects of cannabis on REM sleep and testosterone?


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## Indiana Dan (Jun 11, 2013)

ManWithoutHats said:


> Very interesting post. Any chance you could point me towards some information regarding the effects of cannabis on REM sleep and testosterone?


Everything I stated has been figured out through personal experience and studying. Let me see if I can get you some references..

I found an official study that proved it a while back, but there's plenty of articles floating around. Here's one. A Hidden Effect of Marijuana Use

As far as the testosterone thing, this could very well be due to lack of R.E.M. sleep. As you can imagine, not having this crucial stage of sleep will have profound implications on all aspects of life. I basically have just observed people that use weed and people that don't and come to my conclusions this way (along with supplemented research). Here's a study that was done Effects of marijuana on testosterone in male su... [J Theor Biol. 1983] - PubMed - NCBI

Much of the negativity of marijuana use comes from the fact that it is smoked. It makes your insides filthy, and nobody respects that kind of behavior. The experience of an edible is exactly the same. It comes on slower and lasts longer, but it's the same.

If you want to learn more, I'm sure there is more info out there regarding these topics. Or you could just take my experienced word for it lol. You could also PM me if you have more questions. A lot of the stuff I say tends to cause arguments.. I'll stop while I'm ahead. Good luck and I hope you come to make a healthy decision on your choice to use this powerful tool.


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## whyalice (Sep 9, 2013)

I think a better option would be to try and identify your internal thoughts, or your internal beliefs about yourself and the world. Sometimes our beliefs systems are so dogmatic that we are unable to feel satisfied with ours selves or the world. eg. a person could unconsciously be holding the belief that they must always be liked by everyone, on inspection its obvious that the belief only serves to create discord, for not everyone always likes everyone, a healthier belief to replace it with would be something like, I prefer it when people like me but it doesn't impact how I feel about myself if they don't. it takes time and effort for personal work, but the results are tools for life and not a dependency on a substance which may be inconsistent in properties or availability. I wish you well


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## afriskikiwi (Aug 1, 2012)

TerminalDancer said:


> Everything I stated has been figured out through personal experience and studying. Let me see if I can get you some references..
> 
> I found an official study that proved it a while back, but there's plenty of articles floating around. Here's one. A Hidden Effect of Marijuana Use
> 
> ...


I understand any smoke is bad for you but there is no cancer causing agents in marijuana. I didn't look at the R.E.M. sleep article but from personal experience I was actually getting great sleep. Maybe because I have insomnia and any sleep is better than what's normal for me. I wouldn't recommend eating pot brownies or anything of that nature until you know you can handle smoking the stuff because when processed by the liver it will create another chemical which turns it into more of a psychedelic... It's just a lot bigger monster of a thing when eaten and most people are blown away by it unless you've had mushrooms or something of the sort. Not that edible marijuana could even compare to a shroom trip though... I like that audio of the cop calling 911 because they cooked pot brownies and thought him and his wife were dead. It was hilarious and all I could think was that's tripping for ya bro.


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## Purrfessor (Jul 30, 2013)

I tried it before. It made my depression worse. But you should try it regardless of my experience.


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## Indiana Dan (Jun 11, 2013)

Tar. You really want to know how much of that stuff you are putting into your lungs (and therefore entire system), take a hit of weed and then press a cheap white rag or t-shirt up to your lips and blow the hit into it. This will show you, lol. It's not pretty. Carbon monoxide.. it's like walking in and out of a building that has caught on fire and full of smoke, breathing in concentrated mass amounts of smoke. The CO takes the place of oxygen in your bloodstream and takes a long time to remove. Not good at all.

Yes, it _appears_ that weed gives you great sleep when you first start using it. This is because it _increases_ stage 3 (slow-wave) sleep, which is the stage where the majority of physical repair is done. Like I said.. you can certainly _ get by_ with your sleep cycle ending here when you are young, but as you keep doing it you will become more and more dissatisfied with your life due to not having REM! Not like it's ok when your young either, but you get what I mean. 

Yeah I heard that cop.. he was so scared. Full blown panic attack.. that sort of thing typically happens to people that constantly have caffeine.

Anyways, with the edibles.. do not put a lot of weed on the firecracker!! Get a gram and then put like a quarter of a gram on it! Like a bowl, ya know? You might look at it an be like "That's it?!" But believe me... it will work wonders for your depression and you will still be able to function completely fine.


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## Indiana Dan (Jun 11, 2013)

Basically, the high from weed is created from your reality. Your reality is composed of your experiences. Your experiences are processed in REM, taken from short term memory to long term & freeing up short term for new life experiences. When you stay stoned, you never give yourself a chance to process your short-term input, so it just stays in short term, cycling and swirling around. Your mind does the best it can to function like this, kicking stuff out of the way so it can still function. This is why stoners short term memory are so horrible much of the time. Also, the high is much, much less intense, entertaining, and interesting when you don't have a fresh reality to get high on. Make sense?


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## Konkelvonk (Jul 19, 2013)

Weed will make you lazy, and lazy people are depressed people.


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## Ćerulean (Nov 18, 2008)

Prozac, wellbrutin, at least thirty minutes of moving your legs (and I don't mean moving them while sitting in your same desk chair), weed in moderation (maybe try edibles as a healthier alternative or vaporizing), do something which time and time again has proven to bring you joy, practice good hygiene, drink more smoothies and add protein powder after said moving, watch The Matrix again and feel like Morpheus is talking to you when he says free your mind.

Also, feel free to private message me if you like. I've been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and extreme introversion. I'm a natural confidant as well.


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## koalamort (Dec 21, 2012)

I've had issues with depression and low self-esteem and I smoke weed at times, so I'm speaking from personal experience and maybe science is better, but I've realized that the only way weed improves your mood is if you're in a good, happy situation already. I've smoked it when I was unhappy or nervous and it got me really paranoid, thinking that everyone in the room hated me. I've also had really good experiences, like when food tasted even better than normal and I was really calm in the morning.

I'm not saying don't smoke weed, because that is entirely your decision. I mean, I'm depressed and have plenty of issues on my own and still do more than the average person. Weed isn't physically addictive like cigarettes or cocaine and you don't go through crazy withdrawal symptoms. However, if you're using it as a distraction or depending on it to feel better, you may foster a psychological dependence on it, the same way that some people are addicted to food or alcohol. I have a friend who uses weed as a means to feel less bad about himself. He does it every day, and as a result, his grades aren't that great and he's avoiding solving the problems that have made him feel unhappy in the first place.

There are other ways to feel less unhappy that don't involve doing drugs. First, you should really observe your environment. Are you okay with the kinds of friends you have? Do you live with family who are hurtful or put you down in some way? What are your eating habits and stress levels like? Are you in any toxic situations?

Then, go from there. If you aren't already seeing a therapist, you should definitely see one. Take care of yourself and spend more time alone or spend more time with friends, based on your past behavior. Do things you like and have more fun, but also work. This is all pretty general advice, but what I'm trying to say is figure out the lifestyle that suits you best and go with it.

Depression is very different for everyone. Some people have a genetic predisposition to it. Others have it triggered by an outside event. Sometimes both factors play into it. For me, it was a reaction to eight years of chronic unhappiness and I don't really know how yours was caused, but it's very important to figure out how it was caused and what can make you feel better instead of looking for a one stop solution.


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## Indiana Dan (Jun 11, 2013)

Weed is a teacher. It submerges you into your reality and emotions. When I am feeling bad, weed allows me to see a much greater view and offers a different perspective. It does not change reality nor does it _directly_ alter your mood. It allows you to ponder deeply and reach mental breakthroughs of perception, which will give you fuel to change what is making you feel bad.


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## Emerald Legend (Jul 13, 2010)

I tried it, and I had access to plenty. It helped my depression because I used to think myself to depression..and weed taught me not to think. But as time progressed there was also paranoia and I discovered that I preferred depression over paranoia so I stopped.


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## Velasquez (Jul 3, 2012)

I smoked weed loads when I was depressed, and it didn't cure or change anything about my depression, but it sure as hell distracted me from it better than anything else in my life could have done. It was great, it meant that I still got to enjoy some of my life.


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## Uralian Hamster (May 13, 2011)

Emerald Legend said:


> I tried it, and I had access to plenty. It helped my depression because I used to think myself to depression..and weed taught me not to think. But as time progressed there was also paranoia and I discovered that I preferred depression over paranoia so I stopped.


x2


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## claude (Aug 20, 2009)

I agree with everything terminal dancer said, it doesnt treat depression as in the idea that you simply ingest it and feel happy but it makes you more aware of your thinking and feel your emotions, namely the ones you don't allow yourself to feel otherwise and this can be the sort of emotional constipation we think of as part of being depressed, but learning to feel again involves.... pain.

For me it's been the most helpful thing in the world though I don't use it regularly at the moment. I would also really strongly suggest doing yoga or breathing exercises if you do go ahead and smoke/ingest as it makes them 1000x more beneficial in my experience.


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## gorenzel (Oct 15, 2013)

When I first started smoking weed, it brought me great joy. Eventually, as my anxiety intensified over time the weed made it much worse. It would cause me panic attacks where I would literally forget to breathe, so I would be sitting there one moment and the next I was waking up with all my friends panicking around me. One time I was even standing in a parking lot when it happened and I hit the ground, I was afraid I had been concussed. Even after quitting for a long time, every time I smoke it strongly intensifies my anxiety. When I try to tell people about it they often just say things like "oh, you just got too paranoid" or something. That sort of response often leads me to unfairly resent weed smokers, but I tend to just keep that resentment to myself since I know it is just an irrational reflection of my own insecurities.


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## sly (Oct 8, 2011)

Took a little mountainbiking trip in Morocco, i like being alone with my thoughts. I was a bit down at that time and being with nature kind of cushioned the anxiety. 

I put my mtb down to stroll a bit and visit a forgotten dumpyard I discovered back then, entertaining macabre and depressing thoughts.

The shock of hearing wild dogs growl right in front of me was like a sledgehammer crushing the demons of depression as I lost my sandals and ran barefeet through trash and broken glass bottles towards my bike.

Boy did I feel cured, couldn't say the same about my feet though.


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## Spades (Aug 31, 2011)

Cannabis changed my life for the better in high school, though I was already on the upswing of a multi-year depression. Whatever you do, I wouldn't recommend use more than once a week due to some of the things already mentioned here.

Try regular exercise first.


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