Marijuana Anxiety

Hey whats up, my name is mike and i got a few questions and im looking for anyone with similar problems.

I started smoking weed pretty young, around 13. Yeah i know its #######5 but it just happened.
I absolutely loved it, id smoke with my friends and meet new people and smoke with random people all the time and feel completely comfortable with it.
from like 8th grade to 11th grade i smoked and had a great time.

But like after awhile I started to just get paranoid when i would smoke. I would smoke with best freinds and get nervous, and like not know what to say or talk about.
its weird i would just feel uncomfortable. i would keep thinking like.. should i say this.. should i say that. and it was totally stupid because ive known these people forever.
i felt like a weirdo. so i would keep smoking, and occasionally id feel fine, but after awhile everytime i would smoke would be horrible. exactly like that.
just completely uncomfortable with my surroundings, thoughts and everyone around me.

So i stopped. i would take breaks alot then smoke again and more then likely feel the same #######5 way.
right now im on a good 3 month break.



But after all this i began to realize that stuff like this would happen to me without being high. Sometimes when im with even my bestfreinds ill get uncomfortable occasionally.
But it wasent like weed. When i was high it was permanent, i could not redeem myself. When im sober it would happen occasionally but i could redeem myself.

It happens alot with aquintances(excuse my spelling). i wont even by high and ill be hanging out with people that ive been around alot but not much, and ill just feel like nervous, or i wont know what to talk about.

it will happen chilling 1 on 1 with better freinds too.
with really close freinds, sometimes ill feel weird at pointless times and it sucks

i can always tell because ill do nervous habits like ask completely useless questions or ill start to Yawk. or maybe even fake cough.

what im trying to find out is

is this just straight up Social anxiety?
Is that what its labeled as for some of you?
does this type of thing happen?

Whatever it is, is their anyway to get rid of the feeling?

Are their any medications i can take without taking over my body to get this to go away..?

Thats what im afraid of sometimes, my sister was clinically depressed and she took meds and she just doesent seem the same as she did before still.


Like i want this weirdness to go away, but i want to be the same person.

Long term pot use can lead to altered brain states. You'd really need to be sober for about six months or so before your brain returns to whatever it was before hand.

Pot causes paranoia in most people.

Honestly though --and I'm not a doctor-- it sounds like you're fairly normal. Social phobias are generally always there. People occasionally feel uncomfortable round others for any number of reasons. Even good friends.

Unless this is happening on a consistent basis, I'd say you're pretty normal.

I like smoking alone better, for that reason. I get too self-conscious and "getting it right" seems too important.

WOW I just made an account to say exactly what Mike said. At least I know now I'm not the only one. I used to have a lot of friends back in middleschool, back when I wasn't smoking bud, but even then I was shy. Then highschool came and I smoked with friends and had fun for awhile. I rarely went to parties, but when I did I kinda had a good time, at least when I was drunk and could talk about stuff. Highschool years rolled on and starting about junior year I started to have the mentality of "Why smoke-out other people when I can just smoke it all myself and do what I want? "(Love to play videogames and watch television). That started to become my routine. I felt bad every time buying a sack from a friend and then just leaving. Went to my house or my parents house and smoke, parents never knew and still don't. Junior year and senior year rolled on and my time there was just getting more and more miserable. There was really cool people there too that probably and wanted to be my friend because I used to be a funny guy, but I didn't want to commit to anymore friendships because I wouldn't know how to relate to them. I had real hard trouble talking to girls also, (extremely shy). I know that sounds lame but if you were me you'd know why. It seems now I can barely get myself to go to my friends house because it would require social interaction. I actually have to think of questions to ask before I go over so I'm not all silent or look or sound like a psycho. I WISH TO GOD I COULD. I wish to god I could just easily strike up a conversation with some hot girl or some friend, but it requires constant effort on my part to say anything. I wish I could be closer to my family and my sister, (who suffered from bulemia). (It's very emotional for me to talk about this because I never have before, never been to rehab). Its hard for me to reach out to anyone, I feel so alone. Even when I'm sober I feel paranoia like everyone's looking at me or judging me where I stand. It's.....just good to know that mike knows what I'm going through to.

I'm with you too Silent Bob.

I didn't start smoking that early, but I used to be generally shy, but outgoing once I got to know people, but now it's more difficult to even be outgoing with good friends

We all know that Pot use leads to amotivational syndrome and general loss of interest. They say you need to be a heavy user, but the fact is, some of us are just more sensitive than others.

It's important to realize that we can't just flip a switch some day and stop, because we WILL have to stop someday. I recomend for you, and I'm going to try myself, to stop.

Some say it leads to spiritual/religious experiences, so in this sense, it's the Tree of Good and Evil. It doesnt make sense why you shouldn't use it's fruit, JUST DONT DO IT! lol

Weed has had the same effect on me as well. Sometimes I wonder if how I am today is caused by smoking marijuana or not. Before I smoked, I had so many friends and I never thought about things like what I'm going to say if I see a certain someone, or anyone. During summer after 9th grade, I started to smoke pot, and it was good fun. Then by the time I finished my 1st semester or 10th grade, I started to get paranoid, anxiety, and have trouble speaking to people. I isolated myself from a lot of people, just wanting to smoke and play video games, which is fun and I still enjoy doing, but now I've completely screwed myself. I'm 22 now, still smoke, almost 23, and have no friends. I haven't had a girlfriend or sex in 5 years. I find it really really hard to keep up conversation with anybody, even family like my two older brother's and my mom. The thing about conversation with people is I'm trying to make conversation, and when I try, I can't. I should be able to just go with the flow. But I have nothing to talk about, even though there probably is something. The only people I find I can get along with are people who talk a lot. And as much as I do like having people who talk a lot around me, it does get annoying sometimes, really annoying. I wonder if it's the weed that caused me to be this way. I've always been shy with girls, but not to the point where I'm having panic attacks. I feel very uncomfortable with my surroundings depending on how it is. When it comes to people around my age, or older teenagers, I get bad anxiety. I just want to be able to go up to a girl and be able to talk, without feeling insane anxiety or having nothing to say. But to be honest, there's something I noticed. There have been times where I've literally tried my best to keep conversation with people, and it seems like they aren't trying either. It's like I'm forced to keep convo going, and not the other person. But now, even if I didn't have anxiety, what am I to say to people? Hi I'm Kevin I have no friends and never party or go out. I play video games and smoke weed, the end. What will they think when they find out I'm such a boring loser with no friends. No one likes having a downer around, hell, not even I like that. Is it the weed? is it not the weed? I don't know, I've felt depression even before I started smoking, but today, my depression hits me every god damn day.

I've had the same problem also...mj does cause anxiety and panic/paranoia. I was always jealous of those who could get high and talk and talk and talk like it was nothing when I was the one sitting there lost in my own world. However, I liked to get high by myself and just think about things...I never had any anxiety then.

Basically, I think we all need some sort of treatment. This is anxiety that we're all experiencing and it is common. If you look at the statistics for the most common psychological disorders social anxiety is #3 i believe. For me, my anxiety occurs not just when I smoked weed but when I am sober. It doesn't make sense to try to cope with this problem b/c it will only get worse. Yeah, I don't have a girlfriend, or many friends...don't go out much and when I do I'm just part of the wallpaper- rarely say anything and its a painful and miserable experience for me. I'm quite comfortable by myself...it's just around others that I cannot hang and that's when I get depressed and miserable.

So it seems really dumb to accept this as a way of life when there are options and methods of treatment. We're not living in the 1800's when there wasn't any treatment so everyone just sort of lived with it...and there were many loners.

sorry for the rant and vent but I'm just suggesting that you can try to cure yourself either with cognitive behavioral therapy or medicine. I've lived this sheltered existence for too long and I want you all to know that it's not a fun way to go through life. Please take care of yourselves. In my honest opinion those of us who live a sheltered life b/c of our fears have so much more potential for success with work, relationships, etc than so many of the social beings out there.

Our fears are what keep us from achieving all that we are capable of.

I can relate to almost everything people are saying here..

I was very sheltered by my parents and was bullied when i was young. So around junior year of high school i was pretty depressed. I was on some antidepressant and started smoking weed beginning of Senior year. I fell into this whole craze of Marijuana. I had a jimmy Hendrix poster and would play purple haze all the time and all this corny $#%^, basically just used it as an escape. Then i would star thinking about problems when i smoked. I would have vivid memories of being bullied and an extremely low self image. I stopped taking anti depressants and when i would smoke I would seriously bug out, it would be terrifying, everything seemed scary as $#%^.. It got worse and worse but i kept smoking , then it got to a point when every time i smoked i had such a bad time I would have an anxiety attack and get extremely depressed and it would take me a while to come out of it ..

So then I stopped for about 4 or 5 months, so I got together with a few friends from high school at this girls house (about a year ago) . And we smoked a lot, I had like a full out panic attack while high, i totally freaked out but didn't mention it to anyone. This happened again a month or so later, and I was so anxious I left right after I smoked, and i tried to avoid the things that i did/saw when i had those experiences like even riding the subway underground seemed stressful .

So at 19 i worked in clothing store in a very social environment and moved out of my house .. I still struggled with social anxiety and it would be a pain every time I was going into work , i was so nervous every time i was walking up the stairs to my floor. Then I met a girl who smoked marijuana heavily. We got together sometime in August. I never mentioned that i had a social phobia because i thought she would just leave .. I smoked with her a few times around her friends or just us , and I would get these terrifying experiences.. emotionally it felt like i was sucked into a hole and the world was coming down on me. I didn't know what to say and anything i did seemed stupid and weird. So the last time i smoked it really ###$ me up, i got extremely depressed and stopped talking to her , she thought i was loosing interest in her and broke up with me, week later i got fired from my job, i moved back home and just started staying home all the time. Ill play video games till like 6 am , and sleep till 4pm, its been like this for 2-3 weeks now, i'm like falling into this depressive cycle.

sorry this is so long!!!!!!

mikefed wrote:But like after awhile I started to just get paranoid when i would smoke. I would smoke with best freinds and get nervous, and like not know what to say or talk about.
its weird i would just feel uncomfortable. i would keep thinking like.. should i say this.. should i say that. and it was totally stupid because ive known these people forever.
i felt like a weirdo. so i would keep smoking, and occasionally id feel fine, but after awhile everytime i would smoke would be horrible. exactly like that.
just completely uncomfortable with my surroundings, thoughts and everyone around me.


But after all this i began to realize that stuff like this would happen to me without being high. Sometimes when im with even my bestfreinds ill get uncomfortable occasionally.
But it wasent like weed. When i was high it was permanent, i could not redeem myself. When im sober it would happen occasionally but i could redeem myself.

I feel EXACTLY the same way...I thought I was the only one. I cant enjoy it anymore or be around people when I am high...or drunk too. I just spiral down into a depression.

Once in awhile I will have a great time if I am on a good day or havent smoked in a week or so.

When I started smoking, I was doing it alone but was able to be around some people with it no problem in the first year. Lately its just gotten worse. I get anxiety and freak out, even if I am alone or just with my boyfriend. I wish I could enjoy this...what can be done?? 5-HTP helps, I am not sure if its a partial placebo effect...

Of the thousands of mainly young people who contact me about their anxiety disorders and panic attacks, a large proportion tell me that they have first experienced anxiety or panic attacks after smoking cannabis.It doesn't matter what you call the drug, cannabis, hashish, marijuana, pot, blow, weed, dope, it is still a powerful drug!
Perhaps the purported expertise that supports both sides of the issue has contributed to this situation. Whatever the case, there is documented evidence that prescribing medical marijuana for certain disorders, including anxiety, has diminished the severity and regularity of the symptoms associated with the disorder. Increased appetite, more rewarding sleep patterns, and decreased fear and panic have been cited as beneficial results.