What the Hell Happened to My Friend When He Smoked a Joint?

Question by Dave S: What the hell happened to my friend when he smoked a joint?
My friend said he wanted to smoke some MJ for the first time so I gave him some for his first try. He called me early the next morning and told me that he had one of the worst experiences hed had in a long time. He said that after taking making 3 puffs from a joint that he started to feel lightheaded and suffered at first a mild anxiety attack. He said that after a while, the paranoia and anxiety had gotten so extreme that he had trouble sleeping and his heart was racing faster than it had ever been before. He said it took around 3-4 hours for the effects to wear off and he wasn’t the least bit “high”. Although i find this story hard to believe myself, he has never lied to me. I want to give him some advice but I don’t know if this was caused from some kind of an allergic reaction or what? I’m pretty concerned about his health as I have never even experienced slight paranoia from smoking.. and wondering why he had such an extreme panic attack… as he is usually laid back

Best answer:

Answer by Momzilla
I experience mild paranoia now when I smoke pot – which is rarely – but I remember when I was younger – one or two hits and I would be sitting on the floor in my room in the dark listening for the littlest sounds, thinking my parents were going to come in, or the police – very very irrational and paranoid! I learned actually when I smoked more, it happened less, but instead of paranoia, I would just anxious and nervous to the point I would throw up.

I know in my experience normally I have a temper, but am all in all laid back… I had to wait until I was about 23 or so until I could take a hit and just feel relaxed.

In my experience, marijuana is not a bad drug, if used in moderation – and it is important to have the right mindset before using the drug. If you are worked up before using it – you are likely to be a little edgy – and you have to remember it is a drug that effects the way the brain is thinking – it’s bound to work a little different on different people.

However I am not an expert and I can only state my OWN experience – but I found this article also, and I thought it was helpful 🙂

Keep your friend away from the hash 😉

Question(s):

Written by: Martin Winkler
First version: 25 Nov 2006. Latest revision: 27 Feb 2007.
What are the bad effects of marijuana? can it cause paranoia?
Answer:
Working in a psychiatric ward you will very often see patients with a first onset of paranoia or other psychotic symptoms after a chronic use of cannabis. A recent research paper discussed the following hypotheses for a possible relationship:

* There is a causal relationship between cannabis use and schizophrenia (psychotic disorders).
* The cannabis use precipitates schizophrenia in vulnerable persons.
* Cannabis use exacerbates schizophrenia -> symptoms are more severe.
* Patients with psychotic disorders are more liable to abuse cannabis

This Australian study found a rise in the prevalence of cannabis use and a decrease of the age at the beginning of regular cannabis consumption over the last 30 years. They found no clear increase of the prevalence of schizophrenia in Australia in this time span. We know that cannabis abuse is rather common among patients with schizophrenia, maybe sometimes a rather bad attempt to cope with psychotic symptoms or irritability or hallucinations.

So the authors of this study think that cannabis use is not the main causal factor for the incidence of schizophrenia, but seems to precipitate the onset of psychotic symptoms / paranoia for vulnerable persons. So if you have a high vulnerability for schizophrenia the abuse of cannabis will most likely lead to severe paranoia and a worse outcome!

The co-occurrence of substance abuse and schizophrenia is one of the worst problems in psychiatry! It is very difficult to offer a good treatment approach for this group of patients. Special treatment programs are available for schizophrenic patients with cannabis dependence or other types of substance abuse.

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I would bet there are occurances though and similarities with those with depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders – using canabis as a way to self medicate –

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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