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[Mega] Anxiety and Paranoia Help / Discussion Thread

Artificial Emotion said:
I know a lot of people bash antidepressants, but have you ever considered giving them a go? They might not work as well as benzos do initially, but could be a better longer term solution. I personally have had success with mirtazapine, which is an atypical antidepressant that has sedative qualities.
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Thanks a lot for your input. I've tried to avoid going the antidepressant route cause I really don't want to be on something long-term (if I can), but maybe it's just something that I could go on for a while after I finish my benzo taper... then get off that when I'm feeling better?
 
PriestTheyCalledHim said:
How bad is your anxiety or your issues with panic/stress?

I've had issues with anxiety/panic attacks and I've never taken benzos since the doctors I saw would never let me take them. That is probably a good thing since I hear they are highly addictive and not a drug you want to just stop taking or quit cold turkey, and I know I would have drank on them or taken them while drunk which is dangerous.

Taking an anti-depressant did help me but I took the lowest dose, and at the time I was majorly depressed, having lots of anxiety, and having daily panic attacks while completely sober. I had stopped using drugs then since I was in a bad state of mind and I knew that using drugs wouldn't help. All of the issues I had did not come from using drugs at all but happened because of other reasons.

No you don't have to take benzos just because you have anxiety/panic attacks or PTSD if you have it. Do you see a therapist at all, or have you? Does the doctor who prescribed the benzos to you know you're quitting or tapering off of them? What did he/she say about benzos and why you're taking them?
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Definitely a good thing you didn't go with benzos! I mean for the most part, I'm slightly stable now that I'm on Valium, just occasionally raised anxiety. But probably a few times a week, I'll have an absolutely crippling panic attack (on a scale of 10, I'd give it an 11). Just completely disconnected from reality, out-of-body experiences, super dizzy, etc. I don't think "oh I'm having a heart attack" or similar thoughts that some people have during panic attacks, it's more like I feel like I'm going absolutely insane, and there's nothing I can do until it passes or I sedate myself with more benzos. Feels like I'm super high from smoking, but definitely not in a good way. It's so weird...

I was seeing a therapist for a while, started to feel some progress, but had to stop because of money. Although as soon as I can afford it, I will absolutely be going back to him. The thing is he didn't think benzos would help me (if anything make it worse), and I was the one to ask him to refer me to his psychiatrist anyways to get on Xanax. And man do I feel like an idiot now, definitely should have listened to him.

And yeah, the doctor who prescribed benzos knows I'm trying to get off, but really isn't helping too much. I finally got him to switch me to Liquid Valium, so I can make really small cuts. I agree with you that I don't have to take benzos, I feel like once I'm done with my taper I'll be back where I was before I started Xanax, so that's why I'm trying to figure out what I should do before I finish the taper. Thanks!
 
RobotRipping said:
Try to address why you are having anxiety in the first place, aside from being on a benzo taper. I got better but only after I was done the benzo withdrawal. The solution is to wait for your gaba system to get back to normal and to make changes in your life that will reduce your anxiety.

There must be some reason why you started having panic attacks while smoking. Sometimes i end up associating cannabis with anxiety and when i smoke it gets stuck in my head that i'm going to panic, so i had to learn to reassociate cannabis with a calm and relaxed state.

It would definitely help to learn some techniques to deal with anxiety as well as look at everything in your diet and see if anything could be contributing to it. I had to stop drinking anything with caffeine in it and started to deal with the problems in my life that cause anxiety and things seem to be getting better. I've also been off benzos since September and I can smoke like i used to again. So don't worry, i think you will be able to smoke again. When you try it, try to avoid thinking that it will definitely give you a panic attack, take it slow and smoke very little.
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Yeah same here, I just recently quit caffeine altogether, that helped a little too. I don't know why I started having anxiety, it was just one day when smoking that I had a HUGE panic attack, and it's never really been the same since. Maybe I was just super stressed that day or something, I mean I didn't even know what a panic attack was until I had one...

Yeah maybe my gaba system is just so fucked up right now, who knows. I'm sure I'll feel better after my taper, but like you said I'll have to address the main cause. Honestly I don't even care about being able to smoke again, although that would be cool. Maybe waaaay down the road. I guess I just have to wait and see what happens.
 
kelany17 said:
Don't know your background and that plays an important role as to whether you really can or should feel you need to even give up the benzos if via prescription and monitored by a dr. For example, if you have ptsd, chronic depression, triggers that you aren't even aware of that set off panic attacks. I will say from my experience and past that I spent years as the one who said "it's the past and it's b.s, time to move on" well nothing can be further from the truth and well, if you have any kind of PTSD, long term anything, you may just need to accept staying on and stop beating yourself up. I mean there are temp. situations that cause anxiety ie; job loss, change, unwanted move, loved one causing you STRESS to where your life is nuts out of your own control or doing...you get it right? I know IME, I accept that I need to be on my Klonopin and I tried to go down on doseage but for me, I jst can't or I feel it w/in week of lower dose, Anxiety through the roof and not good for me at all or anyone around me. I have high anxiety to where it debilitates me, affects my driving to where i'm afraid to drive(reasons of course fr car accident so not paranoid related),It's just life and benzos don't 'cure" you, they keep you calm. The only time benzos will "make you better" after taking, is if you have a situational issue and are working through it w/a psych or therapist for duration of the med. therapy, and that is a situation where you wld be able to taper down and then off once your dilema is resolved. I hope I was able to clarify the difference. I accept that it is what it is in my case and don't always take the 2mg 2xs day-mostly 1 at night and sometimes 2 but I will prob be on for life, and I'm ok w/that.It doesn't alter my mood to where I'm stupified, it just calms me down to where I'm not shaking or frozen if you understand whtat that's about. weed never agreed w/me as I had more bad exper. than good so I gave that up as a teenager(loooong time ago! lol). You need to assess YOUR own situation and remember, try not to set your expectations too high or unrealistically. It's not a horrible thing to hv to take them and not abuse them. Good luck and hope you got some good advice from the replies here. take care! :)
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Thanks! Honestly I don't want to get off benzos at all, for some reason I just feel like I shouldn't have to be on them. That or I want to avoid the terrible long-term effects if possible. I don't know, maybe staying on Valium at a low dose would be ok? Did you get on Klonopin because of the anxiety from when you smoked weed? I tried to taper first with Klonopin but really didn't like that stuff, then I went with Valium.
 
Benzos will only make anxiety worse in the long run. You are making a great choice by tapering off of them, and with liquid Valium no less, absolutely the best tool for this purpose. Just stay away from weed and psychedelics, and give yourself time after the taper to let your brain normalize again before jumping resorting back to benzos.
 
Benzos will only make anxiety worse in the long run.
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Try this ,
Really limit your caffeine intake, do not have caffeine in you when you get high.
Cut back on sugar. Eat something like toast before you get high.

I used to get anxiety sometimes on weed, but i really love the high so i just kept getting stoned and ignored it. I think it don't help when you are feeling cold, that's why vaporizers are handy. I remember when it was colder i wouldnt enjoy my highs as much now, but since its been warmer I dont notice anxiety at all. (I notice my cupboards go bare fast though!)8o
The only time i take Valium is
a) Dentist Visit
b) after a rave when Ive been on mdma (that only happens every 60 days)

Benzo's are best used as a tool in my opinion, unless the anxiety is that bad that it is ruining the quality of life.

Have you tried smoking less?

Lastly, try Valerian Root?

The fact that people say you should take it daily for a month until it works tells me that it is more of a supplement than effective treatment, Perhaps it raises the concentration of GABA in our brains, im not sure.

Anywho i like to pop couple of them often, but that's much less harmful than valium.
 
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^Good point! Our brains lose their inhibitory mechanisms, the "brakes" that prevent our brains from moving too quickly (resulting in anxiety and attention deficit), when we don't eat or don't sleep.

GABA is an inhibitory mechanism, and benzos and alcohol both slow our brains down through positive allosoteric modulation of GABA, making us feel relaxed, and consequentially dumber, at the same time.

So eat something, get some good sleep, then see how you feel! I personally would stay away from cannabis, a psychedelic, when dealing with anxiety that was brought on by cannabis. I love weed as much as the next person, but let's admit it already, it's not for everyone.
 
ive had an anxiety attack on weed, but instead of giving up i decided, no i have an anxiety problem and i will get to the bottom of this, changed my diet, exercise and take Valerian root, and i don't seem to have anxiety unless i vape too much.
I can obv tell when ive vaped too much anyway, as my eyes are just beyond red and barely open.

A friend who has been a stoner for many many years greened out when doing a similar amount on the vaporizer, haha Respect the vape i guess! its an adult device, not a toy!
 
Definitely not a toy! In my experience, vapes cause more anxiety than smoking. Vaporizers give an extremely heady, sativa-like high that creeps on way too slowly. If you titrate based on effect, 10 minutes after you put the bag/whip down, you'll be almost tripping. It's fun in a trippy, psychedelic way, but sometimes it's nice to have that tiny bit of body stone to just chill. Smoking gives you a better, more relaxed, anxiolytic high, while vapes can be anxiogenic.

The more balanced high you get from smoking is why everyone I know with a vape shelved it once the novelty wore off. There is nothing like the high from a nice, fat bong rip.
 
Darksidesam said:
Try this ,
Really limit your caffeine intake, do not have caffeine in you when you get high.
Cut back on sugar. Eat something like toast before you get high.

Lastly, try Valerian Root?

The fact that people say you should take it daily for a month until it works tells me that it is more of a supplement than effective treatment, Perhaps it raises the concentration of GABA in our brains, im not sure.

Anywho i like to pop couple of them often, but that's much less harmful than valium.
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Thanks!

I have tried several herbal supplements meant to help anxiety (like Kava Kava), but I haven't tried Valerian Root yet. I'll definitely pick some up and see if it helps at all. Would something like that effect my benzo taper at all? Just curious because it sounds like it has similar effects to Valium.

If Valerian Root really helps me, I could see my taper going a LOT more smoothly :D

Also yeah, no more caffeine for me...
Which is kind of crazy because I used to be able to smoke huge amounts of weed and drink an energy drink or coffee no problem.
Now if I did either I'd be feeling terrible lol
 
Darksidesam said:
I can obv tell when ive vaped too much anyway, as my eyes are just beyond red and barely open.

A friend who has been a stoner for many many years greened out when doing a similar amount on the vaporizer, haha Respect the vape i guess! its an adult device, not a toy!
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Haha! Yeah, you gotta respect the Vape. I definitely don't plan on smoking any time soon (or maybe ever again), but it definitely wouldn't be through a Vape. All this anxiety is happening without smoking weed, so I really don't even want to know what would happen if I took a huge bong rip at this point in my life...
 
smoking weed makes my physical anxiety symptoms worse but not my mental ones?

like my mind is really relaxed but my arms keep twiching my chest keeps beating fast. my muscles are tingling but my mind is relaxed. anyoe else. a nice combo of weed and weeed destroys all of that though lol
 
In fact I feel that weed produces a kind of mind-altering effect, which induces complete rest and sleep. It is regarded as a medical herb because of its potential medical benefits. Weed contains at least more than 60 chemicals including cannabinoids. This chemical known as the cannabinoid is use to treat certain kind of medical conditions. When smoked or eaten, the cannabinoid found in weed acts on the receptor cells in our brain especially the areas that control our body movement and memory. Weed use affects co-ordination and balance thus reducing anxiety and depression.
 
yo dog...im gonna blow your mind....your brain controls all your movements.....FUCK
 
I lot of my long term smoking friends tell me that they feel like they are going to die when they are stoned nowadays. Many of them do not use other drugs - I think the problem is due to smoking copious amounts of pot for many years. I used to think it was because I had taken other things. Some of them have quit but the ones who always had the greatest love for pot soldier on.

I often get anxious when I smoke after a tolerance break. For myself, it's physical anxiety, I feel uncomfortable in my body. The high is still incredibly enjoyable to me because it is euphoric and psychedelic. These are some helpful tidbits from a dope fiend:

-only smoke 1 hit if you've been sober for a while
-have a couple beers after you burn! it is THE CURE to this problem
-chill out because the anxiety is in your head. I exercise vigorously in this state of mind, your heart is not about to explode trust me
-I think this means that it is time to smoke less weed
-no caffeine stronger than green tea. Even if I have a small coffee in the morning and burn at night, I notice horrible effects from this combination
-slow deep breathing
 
Smoking weed again after quitting for months and removing negative feelings?

So i had to quit weed for a while because it was causing major anxiety due to mental health reasons. I quit weed for about 3 months and am gonna stay off for another 3 or so so i can completely return back to a normal state before starting again. (there is a definite difference in my mental state since the first month of quitting, so the overuse of weed was obviously the source of the problem)

Im going to just start off with 1 mouth rip, and see how i feel, but i know that if i intake the weed with any feelings of anxiety, or fear of having another panic attack(like the ones that led me to quit in the first place) in the back of my mind, it those feelings will be multiplied.

I used to enjoy the hell out of weed, and enjoyed how it made me feel and i would like to enjoy it again on a more careful basis. (special occasions, treat it more like alcohol than a lifestyle, yaknow?)

So my question finally is: What would be your suggestions on clearing my mind and just letting myself go and just going with it, without any little voice in the back of my mind telling me it will affect me negatively? I know that if i truly enjoy it (like i used to) for the first time starting up again that little piece of me that worries about it will dissolve away with the smooth sensation of weed. if i let myself panic, it will do just the opposite. My plan is to go Uinta camping with some classic oldies on my ipod. Two things i truly enjoy more than anything.

What other suggestions/advice would y'all give? thanks in advance.
 
My advice would be to approach the cannabis in a sacred manner, as though it is a spiritual teacher. This context will resonate with your heart, and put you into the safety of its "spirit". That means you should do it after a period of meditation or reflection, or just a general happy, feel-good day. If you can be in a heart centred space when you smoke it, that will make the journey positive. Weed is benign in of itself. If you feel fear when you do it, then this medicine could be forcing you to confront your own shadow.

Fear is a tough one, but the antidote is love. While you are sober, this could be a good time to go within yourself to find out what the root of this fear is. Weed was showing you the fear, and sobriety can give you a chance to investigate it. Given this, weed has helped you, which means you have nothing to fear from weed itself. Your fear is of fear. So find out what is making you afraid and try to move beyond it. Maybe the weed can help you with this, if you treat it sacredly.
 
I forgot to mention... on a more practical level, when you do eventually smoke again, I would make sure your weed is an even combination of indica/sativa. I find that a strain that is too indica, or too sativa was often the trigger for my own paranoia. The sativa will give you energy and the ability to meditate on various ideas; the indica will help you to come down and chill out.

And yes, only have a small amount. Do go for blazing. One toke and then put it down.
 
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