Marijuana induced anxiety? PLEASE READ!

[JaredC]

I realized I typed alot, but please take the time to read it and give me your input..much appreciated!

Hello all I am 16 years old and about 5'5 in height 135 lbs. Unfortunately on January 21st (just alittle over two weeks ago), I made the wrong choice in smoking marijuana with my friends. It was smoked out of a plastic water bottle (ugh). Anyways, the effects it gave me were far from "relaxing" or "cool" as some other teenagers have described it. I hallucinated pretty severely. Everything seemed to go by verryyy slow and I would blank out alot. I was also apparetly screaming for help and wanting medical attention. I was shaking and was very cold. IT SCARED THE HELL OUT OF ME! the next day i felt like a zombie, i couldnt pay attention, i felt numb eating, i was a mess! I started getting very dizzy, dazed and very numb at the movies and got so nervous I had to call and confess to my mom. She took my to the E.R. They told me to eat and drink. Next day, I couldnt even get up for school. I had noo energy and could barely think straight. I also had slight memory loss. I still felt numb. Next day comes I couldnt get up for school, same symptons very bad short memory loss no energy, etc.. My mom takes me to a neurologist and I have a EEG done, everything comes back perfect. I also get bloodwork and urine analysis, and two days later (today), i get those results back & that comes back fine aswell. No toxins in my blood, so that means it wasnt laced with harmful substances. I mustve flushed it all out of my system if it wasnt on my urine analysis. My problem is im still feeling very dizzy, i cant focus in school, i seem to blank out alot. My neurologist suggests that I must be suffering from anxiety , and Im manifesting these symptons since I have nothing in my system and my EEG came back fine so theres no problems with my brain. I just want to know if anyone disagrees with my doctor and i should seek other medical attention. OR you agree with him and think im having anxiety, if anyone can suggest why maybe you think im still feeling this way, and if you have ANY advice on things i can do that can get my mind of it, things i can take , or if i should see maybe a therapist or somethin? idk i just need help cause if my doctor is right that im ok and i just have anxiety, then why am i still feeling slightlydizzy, etc?
I would also like to note I notice my symptons (dizzy, dazed, blanking out) get alot worse when I get stressed or I think about it or I get into a situation (like school hah) that I dont want to be in. Whereas, I seem to feel better if I relax and watch television or a movie with the lights out. Relaxing situations.
Im also gonna go for some CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), its supposed to replace bad thoughts with good thoughts. Which will be great, cause I believe all my anxiety is coming from thinking about it way too much, but I cant seem to stop thinking about it. And I cant even explain why.

My mom also has a therapist friend who works with adults, and he THINKS my problem sounds like Post Traumatic Stress syndrome??? Idk I guess he sed that night and all the things that happened to me couldve scared me so bad into thinking I still feel like it. Anyone else know what it might be???
It has been a week since I've had short term memory loss, which is great, but I keep constantly finding myself going over in my head what I had just talked about or , for example, when i get home from school i find myself going over in my head what I had done and said in school. And if i try not to think about it like you guys and my doctor suggest I starts irritating me and making me panic if i dont.

Also, i feel at my best when i home alone, as soon as my mom gets home and asks how i feel, i start feelin worse and also feeling slightly depressed.

Also, I noticed I ALWAYS feel dazed and dizzy. ALWAYS. Even when Im not thinking about my anxiety i feel it. It feels like im a bumbling idiot, i cant concentrate, think straight, and sometimes i find myself talking about stupid things lol. And then when I do realize how Im feeling, i FREAK out and feel even worse.

My reiki instructor also told me whenever I feel like I feel panicky, to just try to go over in my head that I;m ok theres nothing wrong, let go of the fear, and not to give into my anxiety. Which Ive been doing, but now I've been relying on it soo much like a crutch, that Ive been going it over in my head constantly,, like an obsession. I find myself putting my head down in class and mentally nailing it into my head that im ok, and snap out of it and realize I wasted all of class doing it. Its crushing , too, cause I feel insane now, to the point where Im becoming obsessively unhealthy with something that I'm supposed to use as a tool to temporarily help my anxiety. It sucks. Some people tell me I have general anxiety, others say OCD, and others say post traumatic stress syndrome....i feel really scared....

I am going to get an hour worth of reiki treattment on monday to help me relax.
if anyone else can suggest anything to help me feel better id appreciate it


P.S. it was my first time doing it, and i had atleast 10 hits.


THANKS FOR READIN!
JARED

[jinky]

Hi There!

I wouldn't advise anyone with an anxiety disorder to smoke dope.  You had a buckety.  I was a bit of a stoner back in the day - not that long ago actually - for a couple of years.  During the time I was smoking regularly I didn't feel normal at all, I always had depersonalization 24/7 even though I never smoked everyday.  It sounded like you had the right reaction to the drug.  It was just unfortunate that it was your first time so you didn't know what to expect, and maybe shouldn't have had so many hits.  A friend of mine said she always felt worst on the third day after being stoned.  So basically it would take a week to get over it fully.  It wasn't necessarily in our systems anymore, but the experience would linger.  Try not to worry about it too much, just don't do it again if you didn't like it.  I have had friends say that they don't like dope because you are not in control, compared to other recreational drugs like ecstasy or speed. 

Just my 2 cents, J

[JaredC]

Hey guys-

Toda ..for some reason, I started thinking to myself "what if i never feel normal again"? or "i dont kno wat its like to feel normal anymore"...i just keeo thinking that because its consumed my daily life and myself so much, that ill ALWAYS be like this....its scary.

Another thing is, i smoked it w/ my two best friends, their great kids, one is a stoner but has never forced me to do it and the other never did it before, but for some reason...i cant stand being around them anymore. whenever im around them i think of that night and i become really irritable and scared around them, and it KILLS me because their my best friends...

[jinky]

Maybe you all need to get together and talk about it or something.  Your friend that hasn't had it before may have freaked out a bit too.  You need to work through it no matter what you do, they are your friends and if they are true friends they should be supportive.  Hope it works out for you, J

[JaredC]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for your replies everyone!

So ya, im starting to feel better...like Im not thinking about it as much, which is resulting in me feeling better..but like at the same time I know I should feel really happy that I am, but for some strange reason it makes me worried. Like, I've had this anxiety taking over my life basically for the past two weeks, and now suddenly, its going away. And its hard to think about being back to normal, I know I am and everything, but its just hard to go back to my normal life. When I feel really anxious I just wanna sleep...so I allways went to bed reallyyyy early, I relied on my computer alot to make myself feel better, and I stopped being social. Now all of a sudden, I have to jump back into my normal life and it just scares me and I HAVE NO FRIGGIN IDEA WHY!!! Its sooo frustrating, cause I should feel happy and ecstatic...but Im not. 

Also, I'm so excited to do CBT and reiki and the thought of feeling better makes me kinda disappointed, because I really was looking forwarding to doing it to make myself feel better?? But if im feeling better without it, why should i be sad?? Idk, im just reallyyyy confused now 

[jamilkman]

hey jared quite ironic since that is my name too. haha. i had the same experience a few weeks ago maybe 3 weeks.  it was my first time ever smoking and i totally freaked out.  i kept thinking that everything was unreal and i couldn't distinguish real from unreal.  i kept saying that everything was in a loop and now that i think about it i must have sounded funny but it was serious while it was happening.  i had a black out and like weird flashbacks and everything made perfectly good sense to be unreal. i thought i was going crazy and was gonna stay in that state of mind forever.  i was real scared.  i think it was a combination of not knowing what to expect and that i have a tendency to be a little bit of a nerotic/nervous person.  well anyways the past few weeks have been really rough and the most crazy thoughts have been racing through my mind.  sometimes talking about it gets me more nervous and gets me alittle light headed.  the past like 2 days i have been starting to feel better just feeling like if its all made up then just enjoy life no matter what "life" really is. if you can understand that.  well now i have this feeling of a lump in my throat and i have been reading on this site that, that could come from stress and anxiety.  just wondering if you had a lump feeling at all and if u still needed to talk feel free to write back. i know this is a lot to write but the experience was probably the most tramatic i've ever experienced.
hopefully ttys!

[JaredC]

Even though I am showing improvement, does anyone suggest I still go for some CBT? Cause thats what I'm hungup on right now,. I was looking forward to it so much cause I knew it was gonna help me, and now that Im feeling a bit better , Im almost disappointed cause I wanted to see the CBT guy. But at the same time, I still wanna go just to make sure I'm ok, and "nip it in the bud", I guess.

[jinky]

I think CBT is still a good idea because it can be applied to other areas of your life.  Everyone feels anxious at one time or another, and you will be armed with some tools to help you deal with it next time.

[Zygmunt42]

This is basically what happened to me, except the symptoms are still continuing and it's been months. Although mine aren't as severe as yours I recognize a lot of my own experience in your post. How did you get referred to a CBT practitioner?

[JaredC]

Hey Zygmunt42,
I actually didnt get referred, I just did a ton of research online, lol.

Alright everyone, big update!
I went to a psychiatrist today, and he said he believes Im a very anxious person who seems like a perspn who wants all the control in my life, so when I lost control after smoking, it sent me into such a bad fright, which is triggering my anxiety. He told me its not in anyway severe enough for meds, so hes sending me to a social worker in his office for weekly CBT sessions. Im pretty pumped.

[JaredC]

Ok everyone, update time:

I went to see my counselor guy last monday. Hes really nice, very calm. I explained to him thoroughly what happened over the course of this past month, he thinks the same thing everyone else has said, "the events that took place scared me so bad into a fear triggered anxiety". He believes it may take a couple months to fully come back to "normal". He also believes im a very anxious person to begin with, which doesnt help. He also taught me some other breathing methods, and over the course of the next few ways, hes gonna teavh me how to deal with certain situations and how to handle my anxiety. i.e. breathing methods, etc. Only thing tht bothers me is, I thought he was gonna do CBT on me, whichI dont think hes gonna. My friend who went to him says hes just a counselor. Should I maybe bring CBT up with him, and see what he thinks?
Also, I noticed sincce Ive seen him, I started going over in my head things Ive done over the course of the day, testing myself in other words, to mak sure I didnt lose ,my memory. I thought I dropped that habit weeks ago! Im guessing maybe Im just mad at myself that I brought myself to the point where I gotta see a counselor, that im ashamed almost. Or maybe Im just thinking about my anxiety more now than before because Im talking about it morre?
Hmm, im confused, what do u guys think?

Thanks!
--Jared

[ocdengineer]

Marijuana is a dangerous drug because it brings up latent anxiety disorders.  I used to smoke a lot and it took quite some time, but I eventually ended up with a full fledged anxuety disorder which I struggle with today.  My case is more severe than most, but you asked about the dope and I would suggest you NEVER smoke again and avoid ALL recreational drugs!!!  This, in my opinion, is the most dangerous aspect of most recreational drugs.

I am glad you are getting good help and are starting to feel better,
OE

[Knightsaber]

Yeah the same thing happened to me, not as severe, but it definitely set off my anxiety.

The tricky part is that it only takes doing it once, even if you never do it again.  It only takes one bad reaction to smoking marijuana one time and you can have anxiety for years.  I've read this in more than one reference :)

[itsmeesindee]

JaredC,

If you like the therapist you should keep going.  As others have said, it could help a lot of different aspects of your life.  When you therapist is talking about  "He also taught me some other breathing methods, and over the course of the next few ways, hes gonna teavh me how to deal with certain situations and how to handle my anxiety. i.e. breathing methods, etc." i believe the is speaking about CBT exercises, he may just not be calling them that.

Keep up the good work, sounds like you are making good progress.

Cin