Used weed for only one week and 6 weeks later...

[BullFrog]

Hello,

I am new to this forum. I wasn't for sure if this was the place to post this as it is under "Addictions" and I was never actually addicted to marijuana. But after browsing the topics, I did see many posts about residual effects from marijuana withdrawal and I feel like that is something I have been experiencing.

I have only had two time frames where I had marijuana (I am 34 years old FYI). Late September of last year I made cannabis oil (with coconut oil). I got the cannabis from a friend who grows it legally and its not laced and everything is perfectly legit. I made the oil and put a drop in my tea. Worked great! Totally relaxed and even slept better! I did that 4-5 times a week for three weeks. Then at the end of the third week I decided to "triple up" on the dosage to just see what happens. After all, my only experience was relaxation. Well that was a mistake! I paced my apartment for 5.5 hours with anxiety and incoherent thought. For the next 10 days I had a slight dizziness at the top of my head and it went away. I decided to just give up cannabis as that was a horrible experience. Then about 4.5 months later I decided to try again but just NOT take a high dosage. So I got a new batch from my friend in later January of this year and made some oil. I tried it and it gave me a tad of anxiety. I thought perhaps I was anxious more out of fear of what I felt months ago. So I waited 48 hours and tried again. Same thing. So I figured I wouldn't abandon oil and just "lightly vape". So the next day I did a very light vaping. A tad relaxing and it helped me sleep. I did the same thing the next night. Now that is it. 4 times in one week. Then 48 hours later I felt this rush to my face, a tingling over my body, a sense of anxiety and it reminded me a bit about when I overdosed months ago so I knew it had to be the cannabis.

The first 3 weeks were the hardest with the third being the worse in terms of severe anxiety. I experienced lots of pressure in my head, dizziness, fatigue where I needed to go to bed at 7pm or 7:30pm, a heaviness on my face that made me feel like it was hard to raise my eye brows. I lost my appetite (due to anxiety) and it was the hardest thing I ever went through. Thankfully, that overall anxiety has left and my appetite returned. I seem able to stay up longer into the evening (8:30pm) but still experience occassional fatigue. Every once in a while I'll try to recall something and it feels like a wall falls down and I literally can't remember it. It freaks me out because it feels like a real mental block (something I didn't experience prior to cannabis). It passes quickly and I remember. But sometimes when that happens I can a headache afterwards.

The pressure in my head and the overall "weight" on my face with some dizziness still persists (and a little tingling numbness in the face) and it is now 6 weeks since I last consumed. Being active and playing outside with my kids, driving around and just getting my mind focused on other things seems to help as I don't focus on my head too much. Now I definitely won't take cannabis again as it is clearly not for me, but for peace of mind, I just wanted to see if you all think that I will recover? Now having read from others on this forum who were clearly addicted and consumed lots of cannabis, I notice they all have recovered over time. My only thing is that I find it so odd that i consumed so little and I am experiencing this. Granted, I have seen improvement in terms of anxiety, I can be present a lot as I play with my children, I can even read to them without feeling too dizzy, but it's so annoying to fill this pressure and slight dizziness in my head. Ironically, it is more acute when I sit down. It is much less when I move or even exercise.

Thoughts and encouragement???

[cleanofgreen]

It sounds like you had a cannabis induced panic attack and are now suffering from a form of anxiety from that episode. I'd say you should still go get a check up from your doctor just to rule out high/low blood pressure etc. as you only consumed it for such a small amount of time and the panic symptoms should have only lasted a short while.

[BullFrog]

I actually did 3 weeks in. He said everything looked fine and my blood pressure was just a tad high due to anxiety but since my anxiety has dramatically induced since then, my blood pressure is a lot better. I apologize if I wasn't clear in my description above, but my anxiety is largely gone now. Overall, I don't feel a residing type of anxiety that I had the first 3 weeks. 90% of my anxiety now, if it occurs at all, is more of "I can't believe I still have all these symptoms, this is scary! when will it end!". So if I struggle with anxiety now, it's probably not from cannabis anymore but more of just a reaction. What resides predominantly is the pressure in my head, dizziness (albeit not too severe), weight on my face, occassional headache (rarely) and occassional memory block on a specific thought. Again, when I move about and get active, my mind is off of these symptoms more and I generally feel them a lot less when I'm active. Sitting is usually the worse. I have to lie down and it has some relief.

[dannyap12]

Sounds like a mild case of induced panic/anxiety disorder.. Go get checked. You WILL get better. But Id advice to stay away. I myself had an induced psychosis twice for the same reason and it took me years to recover in full. Weed's not for everyone. take care

[BullFrog]

Thanks, Danny! I appreciate the encouragement. Weed is definitely not for me.

[Cthompson21]

Saw your post in success stories bullfrog. Glad to see you're doing better! The same thing happen to me and I only used it once. I've been working out a lot and meditating and it's been improving a little but not by much, my main issues are sleep and anxiety. I went thru something similar withdrawing from a pharmaceutical drug called strattera and it took 2.5 years to recover. I'm wondering if my brain is sensitive because of that experience. I will never try weed again now... I was wondering how is your sleep doing now? Do you still have any anxiety?

[BullFrog]

Hi, Thompson! (my name is Jeremiah by the way). So GLAD to know that I am not the only soul that had a bad one time experience from cannabis (although technically I did it four times in 1 week but that was it). Not to say that I'm glad you went through this all. I wish you never had, but it's just good to know I'm not the only odd one in that specific regards.

I definitely am doing a lot better, except as I mentioned in the post previous to my very last one, that this month my "dizziness" and pressure escalated again. I'm just grateful that's ALL that returned!

To answer your question: my sleep is still rather poor which I'm sure hasn't helped throughout my recovery. I suppose most of us would have recovered quicker if our sleep didn't get so messed up! I wake up like 5 times a night. Granted, I fall back asleep pretty fast, but uninterrupted sleep is hard to come by. In fact, this upcoming Tuesday I am going to my doctor to see what he recommends or if I can do a sleep study to rule out other potential problems.

As for anxiety, I can say that my anxiety went away around 8 weeks. As of right now despite my dizziness and pressure relapse at month 6, I don't get anxiety so much as "the jitters", or that feeling you have when you have a little too much caffeine. One can say its a type of anxiety, but I wouldn't personally classify it as such. The anxiety I experienced in the first few weeks after my cannabis consumption was catastrophic, at least in terms of how scary and debilitating it was.

How is your anxiety doing? I just reviewed some of your posts and saw you are only a month into this? Isn't crazy that some people can literally have to go through this for so long after one encounter? A part of me wonders how this hasn't been recognized yet as a potential risk for cannabis use. Before I even tried cannabis, I actually paid and watched a 90 minute seminar where 15 topics were discussed about cannabis consumption by a physician who got his answers purely based on medical journals. It was legit and nothing like us or even the severity of symptoms as described in this forum were ever alluded too in all the medical journals that were cited (and the physicians team scoured all medical journals published in the english language concerning cannabis so it was comprehensive). All I can think of is the dumbass schhedule 1 status of marijuana has kept comprehensive studies to be done and thus has hindered issues like ours from surfacing.

Anyway, please keep in touch. If you want, I can also hand out my e-mail (I have several so I don't mind) if that helps.

Hear from you soon!

[BullFrog]

Oh and to clarify, the "jitters" is something that has surfaced since my slight relapse of dizziness and pressure. So after 8 weeks I really experienced very little of even that. However, I have become more sensitive to caffeine since this all started. Even during June and July where I was having the best months since before it all started, I brought coffee back into my diet but realized having a second cup could be risky. Not to say that is such a bad thing, but that is my experience.

[Cthompson21]

Yes it's crazy... I had a very small amount because I was wondering if it was going to affect me negatively and I thought two puffs wouldn't hurt. Boy was I wrong! Can't go back in time though. I went through PAWS before from abusing Strattera and mixing it with cigarettes and energy drinks! It was a hard time in the beginning, panic every day for a month or two, then insomnia and fatigue and anxiety and dry mouth for two years! Also i can't have caffeine thanks to my bout with PAWS, even now, or else I get so anxious I can't function...so I wonder if that also means I'm sensitive to THC. Even alcohol makes me feel cruddy the next day. I plan on being sober for the rest of my life because these experiences have been so horrible.

Anxiety is still bad, I want to say it's a little better than in the beginning, don't wanna jinx it improvement seems to be the trend. Last time I dealt with PAWS I kinda just waited it out and now I am taking drastic action, as I mentioned in previous posts. I'm hopeful it will get better but sometimes I feel so angry and bitter at myself for allowing this to happen. It sucks and I'm trying my best to stay positive, im a bank teller and music director at church and it's awful feeling anxious when I play the service or talk to customers, but I know with effort I can improve. It looks like your anxiety did and that makes me feel good I'm trying this meditation routine and it takes 8 weeks about to physically change your brain, shrinking your amygdala (part that gives you anxiety) so I will be updating with that. Hopefully it helps me sleep better too. I sleep 3-4 hours and wake up and fall back asleep. Usually once or twice per night. Then I wake up feeling anxious, though not as badly as in the beginning. Hope we can keep in touch too. It won't let me send private messages yet since I'm new. But maybe once it lets me do that I can send you something or if you have a way of getting me yours that'd be great. Thanks so much for your awesome response! Together I know we can get through this.

[BullFrog]

Yes let's definitely stay in touch. I can't send PM's yet (I assume we need to have like 20-30 posts or something before we can have that option). So allow me to pass on an e-mail I created just for this forum: bullf40g and that is followed by google's e-mail (I couldn't use the name for google's e-mail after bullf40g because it wouldn't let me submit this message without doing it - perhaps due to it sounding like spam). I hope you can discern what the e-mail should look like. lol

Please send me an e-mail sometime and we can keep in touch that way. I notice you are a music director at your Church? I am a Christian so perhaps we have some more overlap there. Here from you soon!

[Cthompson21]

I will definitely email you! Yes I love church and God, carrying on with responsibilities is a struggle but it is also helpful to be providing music to the glory of God. I haven't been particularly religious (I like Buddhism too, I think meditation is a wonderful tool and philosophy and it's helping me now) but this experience is also getting me closer to God. I grew up in church and always felt close to that part of me...I'm looking at music as an outlet to my struggles. It is my first love and has always gotten me thru hard times in the past. We can chat more on this topic via email, Im about to head to a therapist appointment. But when I get time later you can expect one from me

[BullFrog]

Please do! And let me know how the appointment went.

Also, after posting my e-mail, I got a response form a gentlemen who said he took cannabis for only 1 week and has taken 14.5 months for recovery!! I asked him if he is fully recovered or not and if not, what percentage he would say he is at. I haven't heard back yet but this just comes to show that there are definitely risks to cannabis use that just are not known yet. While I think there are great medicinal benefits to cannabis and many people do have no issues with recreational use, I am beginning to be convinced that it's important to state the potential risks. I mean, everyone knows cannabis can be addictive (although not as much as alcohol), but the fact that people can take months/years to recover even from 1 time usage is a HUGE deal. If I came across this forum now in my research long ago before I tried cannabis, these threads and examples of 1 time usage would have been enough to make me not want to have tried it. Again....crazy! lol

[Cthompson21]

Great I sent an email to you. Therapy went well, i recommend therapy to anyone going through this to manage thoughts. Hm another one? I hope you hear back from him. Sometimes it just takes a while. Everyone is different too, so comparing recoveries sometimes can be helpful but everyone's journey is ultimately their own. I wish there was a set 6 months that we can say oh, just wait 6 months and it'll be gone. But that's not the case. The best thing is to keep being healthy and making good choices to speed up recovery. Funny I used to be super pro weed! Obviously there are benefits, and money to be made by companies that sell it. But its like any other drug. It can mess up your life, and I can easily say I will never do it again and discourage my friends and family after this...it's just not worth the pain I'm feeling right now.

[BullFrog]

Exactly. I used to be so pro cannabis as well, thinking that any potential side effects were very small and not much to talk about. Now, if anyone asks, I will warn them that there are serious risks. Sure, they may be rare compared to how many people use cannabis and don't get bad reactions, but there are DEFINITELY enough of us that do have bad reactions that I will give adequate warning to those wanting to try it.

[foreveryoung]

i started occasionally smoking when i was 23. one day i had a panic attack. for 6 months i didn't feel right! thankfully i had a job where i was alone a lot so no one really knew what was going on as my anxiety was through the roof (constantly felt i was having a heart attack).

I didn't smoke for a long while after that and even then i had small panic attacks even after a couple pulls.

I eventually started up again a couple years later. I had panic attacks often but i could let them pass.

However when i stopped 5 weeks ago... age 38... this was the worst its been. I feel like i am in limbo, even if a lot of the issues have thankfully passed (insomnia, constant panic attacks, not eating etc) however this was more on health anxiety but it triggered after i stopped.