Does marijuana make you depressed?

I think it exaggerates your mood sometimes so if you are happy you can become manic and if you're sad you can become depressed...

Just because the effects of cannabis seem mild, it can be misunderstood as a hard drug. I love cannabis. But I am aware of the bad effects it's having on me.

As you've pointed out, anxiety attacks. They happen. Will it stop because you've stopped smoking? I don't think so. I'm no doctor/psychologist, but I believe you've got yourself thinking of when will they occur, and you will force them to occur. Through time, it will get better.

The benefits. For one, your lungs and wallet won't be hurting so much. After 2-3 days clean, I notice how much clearer my head feels. You will become less paranoid.

according to my psychiatrist marijuana causes depression, paranoia, anxiety, and a host of other problems. at first marijuana seems like a cure for depression, but soon it becomes a cause of it.

Im very sure that everytime I have used cannabis more heavily I have been suffering from depression. I dont know if smoking is a result of or a side effect from. What I do know though is that when Im depressed I want to feel better but cannbis dosn't alow me to as I am to focused on being negative, its ahrd for me to get into a positive mind frame, either that or I forget everything and the cyle starts tommorrow. Sinse I quit I am now able to deal with my feelings much better and have much more control of my emotions.

Hope this helps

ToZionGoesI wrote:Just because the effects of cannabis seem mild, it can be misunderstood as a hard drug. I love cannabis. But I am aware of the bad effects it's having on me.

As you've pointed out, anxiety attacks. They happen. Will it stop because you've stopped smoking? I don't think so. I'm no doctor/psychologist, but I believe you've got yourself thinking of when will they occur, and you will force them to occur. Through time, it will get better.

The benefits. For one, your lungs and wallet won't be hurting so much. After 2-3 days clean, I notice how much clearer my head feels. You will become less paranoid.

I don't get panic attacks but only when I get really stoned ecp when I am with a bunch of pot-heads who represent it and make it a life-style doing it all day everyday. It's a waste of money and becomes annoying when people think they are the sh** because they know how to roll a blunt. I guess it's not for me. It doesent match up to my true feelings. I guess I smoked only because of my friends. Honestly, marijuana got boring after a year but I kept doing it because my friends were supplying it to me for free and pretty much all who were my friends were pot-heads. I guess I am just a very spiritual guy who doesent need to get high to feel better. I guess it really depends on who you are and for me, I don't need the crap to feel good. I know many who spend 50 a day to get high for 2hrs. That's pathetic. I hate pot-heads. They make me sick. It changes people but never changed me. I guess I hung out with the wrong people. I got family members asking me to do crack with them and **** life. People are depressing here with no lives. I have a destiny and it will happen.

Congratulations on two days clean Dominic!! I remember when I couldn't stay clean for two hours. When I smoked, I always felt like my life sucked. I was too tired to do anything except go to work and come home, and not doing anything but staring at the TV made me depressed. Then I made a bunch of bad choices when I was stoned, like bad boyfriends or annoying friends, and that would make me even more depressed. I felt I was just going in a miserable circle going nowhere. There is a really long thread on the benefits of quitting, but I'll just say that there are a lot of them. I am not always tired anymore and though I get sad sometimes, I don't feel like my life sucks and I am not depressed. I've started to do some of the things I wanted to do but never did when I was stoned all the time. I like having a clear head for a change and not being paranoid. I have a lot more money, and I look and feel a lot better. I smoked every day for decades, so if I can stop (20 months ago), you can certainly stop. Just do it!

Hi there!

I've been smoking for 10+ years and I finally tried to quit for a couple of weeks. It didn't help that I was on clomid - a fertility drug that causes anxiety and depression. I had no idea I was going to have all these withdrawal symptoms. I spiraled down quickly and had 3 panic attacks. The third one lasted for days it seems.

I got really sick with flu like symptoms that turned out to be bronchitis and had to go on antibiotics. It drove me to the edge of no return - it felt. I was and am still in such a dark place... no hope, no motivation, no anything.

So I gave in and smoked for the last week - which I'm totally regretting. I didn't realize all these symptoms could be the weed too - I thought it was just the clomid and the antibiotics. I've been off the clomid for a few weeks now and no antibiotics for a week now. I still feel major anxiety.

So now that I found this forum, I am starting to suspect that my anxiety isn't just from those meds I already stopped using, I think I'm having withdrawals from weed (even though I am smoking again).

Actually, I stopped smoking during the day just 2 days ago and tried smoking last night. I didn't enjoy it as I used to... matter in fact, my heart was still pounding. I could not relax. Then I read on the internet today that weed can cause anxiety and depression as well. I thought all this time I was helping my anxiety, but I think I've been making it worse with smoking.

So I'm ready to quit again - hopefully for good this time. I have a feeling I will have major withdrawal symptoms again but hopefully, I will be able to deal with it - now knowing that I'm not just going crazy or something.

Wow! Well I'm really glad I've found other people with the same problems I am having! I smoke off and on during high school (maybe 2 or 3 times a month) but never really got into it. Then in college my room mate and I decided to give it a try to relieve stress at the end of a hard day.

It was great! We started doing it twice a week, then later 3-4 times a week. Pretty soon it became every night; it was ritualistic. Every night we would head down to the basement for game time. I didn't smoke any other time of the day, just at night before bed because it usually turned me into a vegetable but it just felt super awesome and warm after a long day.

I didn't think anything of side effects or dependency because I thought "oh, well I know guys that do it pretty much all day everyday and they're doing just fine." So this nightly smoking ritual continued for 3-4 months.

Then last Sunday night, I smoked and we just wanted to get wasted off the stuff. At first I was feeling really high, ping pong was pretty tough stuff! But later when I regressed to my room for that amazing stoned sleep I had a terrible panic attack (my first). It was hard to breath, I was continually aware of my heart beat, blood pressure, and a pain through my left chest. It felt like I was going to die of a heart attack and at that time I was almost sure of imminent death. But you know, stoned thinking I also thought this was just paranoia and for some reason I was just tripping out pretty bad on the weed.

Anyway, that really freaked me out and I thought maybe this combination of weed and high stress at school (I'm in aerospace engineering) and rugby. So I decided to smoke it less often. I did it one other time this week (Wednesday night) and had similar symptoms but I smoked much less (Maybe one bowl it was pretty dank stuff though). I didn't panic but I still had pain in my chest. Ever since then I've had a dull chest pain off and on and I'm always anxious and feeling somewhat depressed or empty. I fee like my creativity is out the window and I'm just kind of blah. Pretty descriptive I know but I can't think of a better word at the moment.

After looking around, I found that these are common withdrawal symptoms for chronic marijuana users (I'm pretty amazed that I achieved that kind of dependency in just a couple months when some people smoke for years! What a bummer!).

So I think I've learned my lesson and for sure the trick is "everything in moderation" as they say. I don't plan on smoking anymore for a number of reasons, but I know I will really miss the good times. I think it's a great drug but only if you can be responsible with it.

I do have a question though for anyone who has had a similar experience. How long did your withdrawal symptoms last? According to various websites they can last between 10 and 28 days (This seems to parallel the amount of time it takes to clean out your system after smoking). During these past three days they seem to get better daily, but nightly they seem to catch up with me (last night, I had a mild panic attack). Sitting alone in bed is both depressing and I have a lot of time to think about stressful/uncomfortable things.

It's nice to write all this out; it feels a little better. I hope some people can maybe take this information and use it to better themselves. Be careful! I have never felt like this before and it is miserable! (Usually I'm the pretty laid back kinda guy just chilling and enjoying things as they come. I love to laugh but I feel like I haven't laughed in days) Take a break maybe and evaluate your dependency every once in a while. I can hardly imagine what it would be like for someone like me if they had continued for years...

p.s. sorry for the novel.

If you normally(I guess I mean when sober) suffer from anxiety attacks, I personally don't see how cannabis can be of any help. If I ever do suffer from an attack, I just tell myself to chill the **** out.

And JR, those chest pains you described, I'd go ahead and schedule a doctor's visit. You shouldn't experience chest pains.

Well when I had my second panic attack it had been after a day of really mild chest pain. I decided to go to the ER because I was afraid of maybe a heart complication I didn't know about. But it turns out that chest pain is a pretty common symptom of anxiety and stress. I got all my vitals taken and an EKG; the doctors said I was healthy as an ox (minus the slightly elevated blood pressure). So this anxiety is a pretty uncomfortable thing, but that peace of mind has helped me to drop some of that stress of my chest. I've been feeling a lot better since that night. Can't wait to feel just "normal" again....

When you say "I can't wait to feel normal again..." those are my exact words!

I'm so glad you have decided to quit. I do correlate the anxiety attacks and weed now that I understand the symptoms better.

Smoking weed literally speeds up your heartbeat!

I have quit about 2 weeks ago, and I still feel some withdrawal symptoms but they are allot less now. But I also have every day stress I'm trying to deal with as well.

I hear that it takes anywhere from 30 to 90 days to get all the toxins out of your system. Since you only smoked a few months, maybe it will be a faster journey for you. Since I smoked for years, I think it will take about 90 days for me.

But I feel so much better already, I can't wait to feel normal again.

I gave up caffeine and processed/refined sugar to try to keep mellow. Also, I take lots of multivitamins - Omega 3 Fish Oil really helps me to relax.

Your brain is trying to fight to get back to normal... and you are getting more pure oxygen in your brain, which gives you that FLUSHED feeling - it is so weird cuz you feel high again but you know you're not! So that feeling makes me panic a bit but now that I know that it's not me going crazy, I can deal with them better.

The sweaty/clammy palms are so annoying but it has lessened allot since the first week. I still have vivid dreams but I am able to sleep better now.

Sounds like you still get lots of exercise so that is good. I found that helps allot and drink plenty of water!

Taking Ginko Bibola the first week helped a bit too - helped my brain get more clear and work harder.

Keep us posted!

Marijuana is well known for increasing the risk of depression, anxiety and psychosis.

It affects blood flow and therefore oxygen and glucose to the brain, lowers GABA levels (which govern calmness), it suppresses REM sleep, creating a REM deficit. These are just a few of the effects of marijuana use.

To reduce withdrawal symptoms and aid recovery, ensure a good diet that will keep blood sugar levels are constant, cut out or reduce stimulants and alcohol, drink plenty of water and exercise well and do things that you enjoy doing, that don't involve hanging out with other stoners.

Because of the REM (dream sleep) deficit many people who have freed themselves from marijuana start dreaming a lot more, often vivid dreams; the result of this for a while can be actually feeling more tired in the mornings. This passes.

Yeah im really depressed and so self concious now thanks to marijuana sometimes it gets so bad i think people have put stuff in my food like pills etc and people are talking about me when i walk past and everyones looking at me.

So how's your progress? You've stopped a while ago right? Yea, smoking MJ made me paranoid... I lived too much in my head... not in reality.