Smoking (both) and DID *trigger warning*

*trigger warning - drugs*
Hi everybody
For all the people here who smoke cigarettes and/or weed; do you think that it helps you to cope with DID?
I'm afraid that some of the alters -especially Judit, Christine and me, and perhaps Margaret- won't be able to stay quit although today is our 8th day smoke-free. So, in the case some of the alters started smoking again, would it benefit us? If smoking cigarettes/weed has any benefits for DID, would those benefits be only experienced by the alter who smoked, or for all the system?
HuGsSs!
Alexander Sky

Hi Alexander,

CC and Verumi smoked weed for maybe six or seven years. It helped us relax, sleep better, enhanced meditation, and helped us look at memories and situations without the emotional attachment. It also helped keep us even and less anxious. (Better than any pharmaceutical drug I've ever been prescribed).

We stopped using about a month ago because we are looking for work. I've been high anxiety, emotional, and my mind won't slow down or quiet down. It's been rough. I wish we had medical dispensaries here.

Since cannabis/marijuana can have some severe side effects, especially when being emotionally vulnurable, I would higly recommend staying away from it. Those side effects are things like apathy, paranoia, memory problems, problems with perception and in some cases even acute pshycosis. Beeing severely traumatized and suffering from amnesia surely can be difficult enough without adding further problems to the list.

People who regularly (mis)use cannabis/marijuana often claimes that there aren't any side effects, but for those of us that have actually seen those side effects in people around us (both people we care about and people we have met profesionally), there are no doubt at all that they exist and that they can create severe problems.

One person I know of, with DID, started self medicating with cannabis, and ended up locked up with severe psycosis. She also struggled with paranoia for years after that. I'm pretty sure she didn't feel her life became easier because of it...

I strongly advice you to deal with your problems in healtier ways.

Everyone reacts differently to drugs and herbs. For example, I nearly died from an allergic reaction to an antipsychotic. I also had a six month refractory depression from withdrawing from lexapro. Cannabis abuse is different than use, and since it is both short acting and non-physiologically addicting, the choice to abuse is at fault here, not the naturally growing plant.

The example you use is rather extreme. I've known two people who have paranoid reactions. They both were smart enough not to smoke it again. When I felt I was depending on it a bit too much, I cut back. I also used to take drug holidays, like kids do with ritalin. It's not a big deal if you don't have an addictive personality or compulsive behavior. As for that, there are far more people who cannot control themselves with pain killers and benzos. So I stress that this is a human factor, and not the drug or herbs fault. Some people are able to take prescriptions or cannabis without a problem. Some people cannot.

So, use with caution as with any drug or herb.

We found smoking cigarettes grounds us and can have a calming effect and weed tends to enhance our communication with each other. It can make us a bit spacy/switchy, but we expect that. It's not all a bad thing because we found it also decreases the stress on our mind and body from switching.

Cigarettes are stress-relieving at first but the after-effects suck. So we have enforced a system-wide smoking ban. Cigarettes are very stressful to the body, way more than the temporary sensation of "relief" from stress that they give initially. Especially the little alters feel the "fall-out", including rapid heartbeat and nausea, and maybe a "crash" feeling.

But we all seem to like cannabis. Vaporizing minimizes the "negative"/"disruptive" stimulation that can come from smoking/combusting it with a joint or a pipe, so we prefer to vaporize whenever possible. Vaporizing also minimizes burn-out sensations

Whether cannabis helps or hinders really depends on several variable factors. The strain, the time of day, the people who are around, the goals and expectations you have for yourself for the next few hours... for example, if we are on a heavily sedating strain, but we have to be alert/sociable, then it feels suboptimal to be high. But most of the time it is relaxing and relieves social/emotional pain (it is an analgesic). And if we take an uplifting/energizing strain, and have completed solid prep for what we are going to be doing while high, it can turn into a really positive, productive experience!

People with DID often have chronic negative emotions from living with the condition and everything that goes a long with it. I know I do. cannabis acts like a salve on the chronic emotional bruises that people with DID seem to carry, as per its anti-pain properties. When our pain is relieved, we get a sensation of being able to "sit fully upright", instead of bent over and straining like a plant with a bruised stem Furthermore, for our system, DID has developed co-morbidly with disordered eating, and cannabis also helps to bring some calm, acceptance and appetite at meal times.

But too much of anything isn't good... if we are TOO relaxed, then learning is disrupted... and if you're just relaxed and not learning anything for too long, you're gonna get depressed and may feel lost.

(-Asc, -whelan)

D: And if any of us are feeling unsteady/overstimulated, it's generally a good idea not to smoke/vape cannabis at all. A nap or a bout of exercise is good instead.

It affects everybody differently, for us, this includes our alters. It IS a dissociative drug, bear in mind.

For ninchen it can be helpful in making the flashbacks less real (though not always), but prazosin is more effective. We smoked it every day for 10 years to stop nightmares (again, prazosin is better - much more affordable)

Sonja doesn't care for it - she's too young anyways.

niva likes it. It calms her down. With cigarettes though, she was destructive - she'd hurt the body/alters and was trying to kill us.

The depressive... It takes the edge off, is like a break, but definitely doesn't help in the big picture. She was wanting the cigarettes to kill her; she'd visualize lung cancer every time.

It helps Aidan calm down his mind and not burn himself out. It can help him focus sometimes, but usually not.

It helped us survive for those 10 years, and I am grateful for that, but the meds I'm currently on enable me to thrive/learn/grow. I've noticed that chronic tokers tend to stagnate in emotional maturity. It seems to work the best for high/over-achievers, though many under-achievers continue to fuel the stereotype .

For us it's in general stress reliever.

And if I don't have a smoke in the morning I'm usually a monster for a day and poor Barry and everyone else around me get's an earful.
(Quitting has been hard for the baby)