Unbiased Opinion Needed

[sweetnspunky]

I just need to know the facts about smoking marijuana and anxiety and depression. I feel I only get people's personal opinions when I look online. I started smoking pot since last spring pretty heavily and have continued to do so. I feel I am having more issues now than before I began smoking. I am 27 female and only smoke pot. I take generic Zoloft 200 mg a day and 1 mg of generic Ativan as needed. Could marijuana have any affect on my Zoloft? Maybe cancel it out? I am going to try to quit this week but its hard when you are always around it. My fiance smokes it daily. Also anyone have any tips on how to stop smoking pot more easily I have tried to quit several times.

[insights]

Anxiety disorders and cannabis are not a good mix. Seriously.

I can't do a copy/paste ATM, but you'll find something I wrote on the subject over a decade ago here. I haven't looked at the research on this for a year or two, but I'd be surprised if there have been much change in the understanding of how cannabis interacts with anxiety since then.

I particularly draw your attention to what I wrote about shrinkage of the hippocampus. What wasn't known back then is how crucial hippocampal atrophy is to anxiety and depression, or that antidepressants work because they reverse the cell loss in this area of the brain. Your cannabis use is actually counteracting what Zoloft is doing which may explain why you are at the highest recommended dose.

Ian

[sweetnspunky]

Thank you Ian! I was hoping to get your input. Today was my first day of not smoking pot and it was hard but I want to feel better and breathe better lol. Could marijuana also be the reason my ativan seems to not be as effective at calming me down as it use to be?

[insights]

Could marijuana also be the reason my ativan seems to not be as effective at calming me down as it use to be?

While there are hints that cannabis greatly affects GABAergic neurons, there seems to be some doubt how this plays out in anxiety and depression. However, even without this, a given dose of Ativan can only deal with a certain amount of anxiety. Push anxiety beyond this and you will feel it. To regain the same level of control you need to either reduce anxiety levels or raise the drug dose. Reducing anxiety by giving up cannabis is by far the better option, IMHO.

Ian