Weed Smokers: Problems with marijuana cessation? Did your amygdala shrink?

[AnxiouSteve]

I've stopped smoking weed for a few days at a time before due to unavailability.  I didn't like it, but it was no biggie.

As recently as June I went without for two weeks.  Again, I survived with minimal problems.  I just 'kinda missed it'.  When I got back, I smoked and I got high like I hadn't in years.  It was great.  Nearly a religious experience.  I had all kinds of insights and whatnot.

It seems that all bets are off now.  Being high when my Anxiety started to set in (manifested as 99.999% completely irrational Health Anxiety), seemed to aggravate the problem.  I have 0 urge to smoke, mostly because it would make me paranoid and as a direct result more anxious.

I've heard marijuana cessation can cause anxiety in and of itself.  Then there is this study:


http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0227147420080602

Heavy marijuana use shrinks brain parts: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Long-term heavy use of marijuana may cause two important brain structures to shrink, Australian researchers said on Monday.

Brain scans showed the hippocampus and amygdala were smaller in men who were heavy marijuana users compared to nonusers, the researchers said. The men had smoked at least five marijuana cigarettes daily for on average 20 years.

The hippocampus regulates memory and emotion, while the amygdala plays a critical role in fear and aggression.

The study, published in the American Medical Association's journal Archives of General Psychiatry, also found the heavy cannabis users earned lower scores than the nonusers in a verbal learning task -- trying to recall a list of 15 words.

The marijuana users were more likely to exhibit mild signs of psychotic disorders, but not enough to be formally diagnosed with any such disorder, the researchers said.


Now, I've always been a huge advocate for weed, now I wonder if it was either a bad coping mechanism for latent anxiety which stopped working, or if it changed my brain in some more fundamental ways. 

There has always been a correlation vs causation debate with weed, and I believed weed could aggravate, but not cause, psychological problems.

I probably averaged 3-4 joints per day (.5g/day) of good (but not great) weed or less for 10 years, unlike the guys in the study who smoked five of unknown quantity and potency for 20 years...

Still, it's food for thought...

[ocdengineer]

Lay off the weed...  It can lead to obsessive thoughts and overthinking...  LOL.  I smoked for many years and it caused me a lot of anxiety later in life, so my advice is to take it real easy with the pot.

Later,
OE

[palapenio]

I found myself (before I got pregnant) to smoke weed everytime I got scared  nervous anxious and what not it would relax me to the point I'd sometimes pass out.

I became dependant on it becasue my anxiety caused me to not be hungry and i began getting sick so it helped me get an appetite. so it appeared to help me but once I quit (about a few weeks after) I will still want it REALY  but cause of my anxiety. I would then start forgetting random things and get anxious and then I would start smoking again and then lose more of my memory I still forget what happened those days and bits and peices of my life . Once I got pregnant i started seeing little bits from the past but I'm still not over it.

Now I depend on cigarettes for my anxiety attacks ... as much as I cut down when I NEED it for my anxiety there is NO option. What the hell man!!??