Bipolar Disorder Support Group
Bipolar disorder is not just a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders marked by periods of abnormally high energy and euphoria, often accompanied by bouts of clinical depression. This is the place to talk about your experience with bipolar disorder, learn from others' experiences, and find support.
Hi all. Good morning! Hope you've had your coffee. I'm still having mine.
For the sake of discussion, because this seems like such a good place to do it, I was curious as to what the community thought about medical marijuana?
There is research both that it contributes to mental illness (old drug war reasearch, mostly discredited), and new research that cannabis can actually help with Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, PTSD, anxiety and depression, all which I suffer from.
I personally started smoking medical marijuana on the recommendation of my therapist and outpatient dual-diagnosis facility, both for the above mentioned conditions and also as harm reduction to keep me from drinking.
I'm linking here to an essay I wrote for Queer Mental Health about my experience with medical marijuana, if you're interested:
http://queermentalhealth.org/narrative/my-experience-with-medical-marijuana-as-a-psychiatric-medication-and-harm-reduction-strategy/
What are you guy's experiences with medical marijuana?
I know the effects vary widely among different people. for some people like me it is the magic lifesaving medicine and for others it gives them panic attacks or makes them really paranoid. Then there's always the newbie eats an edible stories which can involve psychosis and be quite harrowing.
For the sake of discussion, because this seems like such a good place to do it, I was curious as to what the community thought about medical marijuana?
There is research both that it contributes to mental illness (old drug war reasearch, mostly discredited), and new research that cannabis can actually help with Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, PTSD, anxiety and depression, all which I suffer from.
I personally started smoking medical marijuana on the recommendation of my therapist and outpatient dual-diagnosis facility, both for the above mentioned conditions and also as harm reduction to keep me from drinking.
I'm linking here to an essay I wrote for Queer Mental Health about my experience with medical marijuana, if you're interested:
http://queermentalhealth.org/narrative/my-experience-with-medical-marijuana-as-a-psychiatric-medication-and-harm-reduction-strategy/
What are you guy's experiences with medical marijuana?
I know the effects vary widely among different people. for some people like me it is the magic lifesaving medicine and for others it gives them panic attacks or makes them really paranoid. Then there's always the newbie eats an edible stories which can involve psychosis and be quite harrowing.
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Hey All...I hope that you have a lovely, peaceful beginning of your weekI have a bunch of chores that need doing but may put them off til tomorrow and just hang out with my landlord/roomie todayWhat about you?...Anything special going on?Have a great day and take good care of you!!..Xo
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Once again I've had a fever today. I'm not going to the hospital because that's a huge waste of time but I did schedule a dr appointment for Wednesday afternoon.
I'm glad it works for you.
Hugs.
Research in UK
Cannabis use is linked to an increase in both manic and depressive symptoms in people with bipolar disorder, according to a new study by Lancaster University.
http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/03/15/how-cannabis-affects-bipolar-disorder/82314.html
Research in Spain
Bipolar patients with mania/mixed episodes who quit using cannabis do better than their counterparts who continue using the drug, new research shows.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/838923
There is also a pretty much established view that cannabis can trigger bipolar / schizophrenia type symptoms
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2811144/
Like sunshyne stated, it's very relaxing and it makes me giggle. Not that i smoke it much just once in a while.
I read all of the articles presented but was not convinced that the link between marijauna use and mental illness was conclusive. The first study again falls back on the possibility that people with bipolar disorder smoke so much because they are self-medicating because it helps with bipolar.
This article:http://www.truthonpot.com/2013/05/16/medical-marijuana-for-bipolar-disorder/ supports medical marijuana to treat bipolar and cites some other research.
I know about the thing where teenagers aren't supposed to smoke it because they are too young and it can lead to bad mental health problems in teenagers, but I am a 39 year old woman so do not have that problem.
I also had Schizoaffective Disorder for 20 years before I started smoking pot regularly, so know that it did not contribute to that. If anything, from my empirical evidence, it seems to relieve my symptoms and has helped me a great deal to regain normal function and long-lasting sobriety which allows my psych meds to work.
Please don't get me wrong, by this post I'm not trying to encourage people who don't smoke to smoke, only find out what the community thinks about this as it is a source of interest to me as it has worked so well for me.
Thanks everyone for your responses.
I think the first article is badly expressed. The key bit of the abstract is
"Cannabis use is linked to an increase in both manic and depressive symptoms in people with bipolar disorder"
It then seperately discusses why so many people with bipolar use cannabis given that conclusion.
Of course alcohol is another thing that is commonly used to self medicate with bipolar. But there no one suggests it's because it might help?
I then looked at the studies. Interestingly what I could see actually didn't support what the article states or are somehow incomplete
The article says:
"In 2010, researchers at the University of Oslo in Norway published the results of a study conducted on 133 bipolar patients. What they found was that patients who used cannabis regularly actually performed better than non-users on tests of verbal fluency and learning, although improvements in learning were not statistically significant."
What that doesn't mention is that they also did the same thing with people with schizophrenia and it made them worse.
The article states
"In another study, published in 2012 by researchers at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York, regular marijuana use was linked to higher levels of attention, processing speed and memory among the 200 bipolar patients that the researchers followed over a 9 year span."
While they found that, they also say
"The history of cannebis user disorder is associated with history of psychosis, suggestive of poorer clinical prognosis."
the final study cited does not support the idea of using cannabis to treat bipolar
"study published in 2009 found that bipolar patients who used cannabis exhibited less treatment compliance as well as higher levels of illness severity, mania and psychosis, although data was only collected over a 12 month period."
So they offered evidence of three medical studies and seem to be deliberately misleading people over the ones they claim are pro cannabis.
It's all there. You just have to follow the links and read the study abstracts.
I so wish my dad would have had some to help get him through his cancer and increased his appetite.I have no clue on if it would be detrimental to those of us with BP or beneficial so I can't speak to that. I have read though where 50 to 60 percent of BP people have had addiction problems and I do believe it is bc of not knowing what is wrong with them and they are just trying to self-medicate before they ever get a diagnosis.
Read your article and glad it has helped you stay sober. I believe alcohol is much much greater of the two as far as causing harm.
Alcohol is the No1 killer drug but it makes too much money for big business or government to do anything about it.
education is the key, as it is to most things. we need to be aware of what we are putting into our bodies and why.
Hugs GB