Cannabis + depression= NO-NO

[Arc_of_Light]

I have just been speaking to a friend who is undergoing treatment for depression and he told me that his doctor found out that he was smoking because of some Electroencefalogram (EEG) results in which some funny waves showed up. He was told to quit smoking, else he would never be cured. My friend feels A-OK at this point and is near the end of the treatment he is currently following. The doctor said that smoking weed was bad for him due to the fact that it alters dopamine levels in the brain, brings them down is what I think he said.

I did a web search and looked at a few books, but I can't find anything on the topic. Can anyone shed some light on the topic?

[JohnHerer]

:google::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[psychocat]

It is very much a personal thing and varies because of that ,,but for some people smoking cannabis can have a negative effect on depression.
I have a couple of friends who suffer and for them it is definately not a good thing, others I know find it helps .

[birdgirl73]

Yep, you can find fairly equal amounts of evidence to support both the ease of depressive symptoms and the aggravation of them. How it actually acts depends on the person and, I'm sure, the strain, too, but it's true that cannabis does indeed tinker with neurotransmitters and, in many people, can worsen depression after the initial euphoric psychoactive period passes.

[Purple Banana]

How could he tell if he smoked pot from EEG results? Is that even possible?

[birdgirl73]

Yeah, cannabis use, especially heavy use, heightens the alpha brain wave activity on an EEG. So a neurologist could see that and then conclude, particularly after asking the patient to confirm it, that the subject of the EEG is a cannabis-user. If he didn't ask, a good neurologist would simply suspect it.

[Nailhead]

Yep, you can find fairly equal amounts of evidence to support both the ease of depressive symptoms and the aggravation of them. How it actually acts depends on the person and, I'm sure, the strain, too, but it's true that cannabis does indeed tinker with neurotransmitters and, in many people, can worsen depression after the initial euphoric psychoactive period passes.

I've always heard that indica's are better for people that are depressed because sativas are usually the ones that activate it because of their higher levels of THC. Can you shed some light on this? I've been trying to avoid sativas because I've been depressed for some time, (never gone to a doc for it though), but recently I read a lot of Crohn's patients find great relief with some of the sativa variations. So far I haven't found the magic strain that works for me, so I'd like to try some of these but don't really want to make my depression/anxiety any worse

[smokin123]

My 'friend' has depression. Weed DEFINITELY helps, not hurts. But, I suspect it varies between people as someone previous wrote.

[robo scat]

Everybody's different, unfortunately.

[birdgirl73]

I was reading this link, which is one I'd had in my files and one Granny Storm Crow has on her list of pro-cannabis links, too. This has some good all-purpose information that says the same "depends on the person" thing we've all heard and read before.
AAMC: Cannabis and Depression (http://www.pacifier.com/~alive/cmu/depression_and_cannabis.htm)

In general, it says, Indica strains are the more sedating ones, which is probably meant to imply that they can also be more depressing ones, whereas Sativas are more of the uppers. The only hitch is that different types of depression can vary with how they respond to the effects of those strains, too. People who have a lot of anxiety and panic with their depression can get aggravation of those symptoms with sativas, I know. Yet people who are the sad, lethargic, couch-locked depressives wouldn't be good candidates for pure Indicas, certainly.

This is why we need this to be medicinally legal in all states and according to federal law, so the information about what works and what doesn't and who can benefit can be studied, in depth. Then people who get benefit from their depression symptoms can use it freely and those who don't can try the other things that work, like exercise and, for many, prescribed medicines.

[Nailhead]

Hmm, that's interesting. I'm not the type to sit around and mope for myself, rather I try to keep my mind moving on other things. So I wonder if indicas are actually a bad choice for me. I do wish it was legal too so more studies could be done, instead they just insist its a dangerous drug and nobody should use it. uhhh!

[Arc_of_Light]

Ok, some say its good, others that it's bad, but what really caught my atention was the way how his doc found out about his using, with the EEG and such. I have never heard of that before... I thought blood/urine tests were the only way to find out what you have been using.

[AlcoholDeficit]

my girlfriend suffers from chronic depression. all medication shes tried has done nothing for her. She even tried (not thought but tried) suicide previously while on them. Pot is the one and only thing that keeps her level and happy most of the time. No other drugs what so ever have ever helped her. she constantly finds herself unhappy for no reason whatsoever. I've never heard it not helping depression but it makes sense. Unfortunately almost every medication for depression can have an opposite effect. Take lexapro for example, one of the listed side effects is you may become suicidal. Even if you weren't suicidal before, only mildly depressed, after taking it you may try to commit suicide. Depression is an odd thing thats very very very hard to cure, unless you believe Tom Cruise of course, then it's just all in your head.

[psychocat]

my girlfriend suffers from chronic depression. all medication shes tried has done nothing for her. She even tried (not thought but tried) suicide previously while on them. Pot is the one and only thing that keeps her level and happy most of the time. No other drugs what so ever have ever helped her. she constantly finds herself unhappy for no reason whatsoever. I've never heard it not helping depression but it makes sense. Unfortunately almost every medication for depression can have an opposite effect. Take lexapro for example, one of the listed side effects is you may become suicidal. Even if you weren't suicidal before, only mildly depressed, after taking it you may try to commit suicide. Depression is an odd thing thats very very very hard to cure, unless you believe Tom Cruise of course, then it's just all in your head.

I speak from the point of view of someone who lives with a partner who suffers and she is better now that she no longer smokes.
Cannabis can and does make depression worse for some people !

[bluntblaze]

when i was depressed i found smoking weed helped me A LOT.

[killerweed420]

Depression is one of the primary reasons I smoke.I've fought depression my entire life and the only times I really feel happy,content and focused is when I've taken a few hits.

[Skanky Spice]

i've never smoked while i was depressed, mainly because i don't know how it's going to affect me. AlcoholDeficit, i can relate to your girlfriend about feeling down for no reason. it happens to me, then i get angry because people want to know why i'm down, and i can't give them a reason, then they think i'm stupid because i don't know what's wrong, then i get so frustrated with myself because i don't know what's wrong, then i just end up feeling even worse. sometimes it's stupid shit that annoys me that sets it off, because it ends up being like a chain reaction....starts off with one annoying thing, which ends up leading to another, maybe some more, then i get upset, then sick and tired of it, and end up feeling down. that's what's happening right now. i though about smoking right now, but like i mentioned before, i'm scared about what will happen. i think i'm gonna try it, though, because my boyfriend is here, and in case i were to just get worse, i know i won't do anything stupid because he'll be here to stop me.

[IanCurtisWishlist]

In any case, it depends on an individual's genetic predisposition to depression, the individual's own state-of-mind (including environmental factors such as grieving a loss, environmental stress), and last (and maybe most importantly), individual brain chemistry (which relates to genetics). While we are all human with the same basic kind of brain, in a sense each of our brains are wired differently.

[Nailhead]

Everybody keeps saying "It depends on the person", however, I'm suspecting it has more to do with the specific strain rather than the individual themself. This is a theory of course, a stoner theory at that, but it is yet another case that shows how important it is to get some really in depth studies on marijuana.

It seems like I'm one of the few that is concerned with the strain of what I use, and I think because of this we get a lot of miss-information because most people either get "good shit" or "bad shit", God only knows what strain they are talking about lol.

It does seem in general weed does a decent job at keeping my mind off depressing thoughts, but just as tobacco seems to relieve stress, the reality is it increases it overall. So just as smokers will say they smoke to relieve stress, I believe it could be possible depressed stoners think weed is helping their depression when it is actually making it worse in the long run.

This is a theory though, I'm not saying it's a theory I subscribe to, I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility. I really have no clue how weed has been effecting my depression, because my depression is stemmed from financial problems which have been getting worse and worse, and coincidentally I have been smoking more and more weed since I'm still a bit of a new medical user. So I can't tell if my depression is getting worse because of the weed or not, but either way I know it would be manageable without my financial problems so that is really my primary concern.

[birdgirl73]

I think it depends very much on both the strain and the character of the depression, too, Nailhead. From dysthymia to major depression to bipolar depression to some sort of adjustment/situational depression or grief, the illness itself can practically have as many varieties as there are strains of cannabis.

This is why we need research. Real, human, large-scale research. Followed by medical legalization and decriminalization. Because there is help to be had for plenty of types of depression if we look at how the different strains affect different types of depressive illness.

[slipknotpsycho]

helps me.... i don't even have to be high for it to work... for the next couple of days i feel great.... and i'm diagnosed bi-polar/manic depressant.... among other things.