Mental Health and Marijuana

If you look on any of the marijuana websites they will tell you that marijuana is now beneficial for treatment of all sorts of ailments and diseases which is just ridiculous and sad. Sad because these potheads are talking to people looking for help with real problems and giving them false hope that getting high will help with their very real diseases. Which it will not. 

Some of the diseases and aliments the pot smokers are now saying marijuana will help with are cancer, migraines, PTSD and mental illness. 

Today I want to talk about about the last one on that list, Mental Illness. 

A little more than ten years ago I was diagnosed with Schizotypal Personality Disorder. Now if you don't know what that is, you can find out by clicking the link below to the article I wrote on the subject. 

What is Schizotypal Personality Disorder

If more people with Mental Illness talked about and explained what it's like to live with their particular Mental Illness, maybe "normal" people would be so afraid of the words, "Mental Illness". Maybe the stigma attached to those words wouldn't effect so many suffering that they choose not to seek help in the fear they will be labeled with those words and others would look at them differently. I have Schizotypal Personality Disorder, that's just a fact of life for me.

But to tell people with Mental Illness that smoking pot will cure them of the problems they are having is in fact doing a disservice to them because not only does it NOT help them, it can make their symptoms worst!

Just read this article, by The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) that spells out the facts about Mental Illness and Marijuana. 

One paragraph from that article that I found particularly helpful states, "Marijuana causes a person to feel “high,” which can involve peaceful feelings such as being happy, silly, hungry or tired. People with mental illness are more likely to also experience negative emotions such as depressed mood, anxiety—including physical symptoms of shortness of breath and heart palpitations—or even paranoia. These reactions are most likely related to marijuana’s interactions with certain chemicals in the brain, including the neurotransmitter dopamine."

I think anyone with a Mental Illness thinking of smoking pot in the hopes that it will help with symptoms should read the whole article at the link above. It spells out exactly why you shouldn't use marijuana to self treat your illness.