Quote Originally Posted by panicsux
Here is my story. A little lengthy but hopefully others can find it useful.

Been smoking weed for about 8 years, weekly. Ive smoked all kinds of bud, from high grade to low grade to shake to stems (i was desperate) last month however, I picked up some weed from a new dealer, the bud was covered in crystals and looked to be super high grade. Upon leaving his house, he told me not to smoke it when I drove. So I got home, rolled a 1 paper, at my age a 1 paper is all i really need. I smoked only 4 hits and put it down cuz i had to go to the washroom. when i came back from the washroom, I sat down on my chair and all of a sudden my heart beat when real fast then within 2 mins my chest became tight and I hard a hard time breathing. Within 5 minutes I was gasping for air. Then the sweaty pallms and then the fear of death because I thought I was having a heart attack OR that the weed was laced. The sounds of my dealer telling me to not smoke it while I drove made me think that it was laced. I had to carefully concentrate on my breathing, I felt like dyson from terminator 2 before he detonated the bomb, I was gasping just like him. The feeling lasted like that for 5 minutes, went away for 2 then came back stronger, it went on like this for a good hour until finally, I gave in and for the first time, I called the ambulance to come get me. I specifically told the 911 operator to not send police or fire truck, and what does she do? the first ones to arrive are police and fire truck, followed a min later by ambulance. I told the cop and fire people that they could leave and i quickly got into the back of the ambulance. They asked me what was wrong and I told them i cant breath and my heart was racing fast, they hooked me up to a blood pressure machine and my heart beat was at 150. They asked me what i was doing and what I took. I didnt want to tell them it was from weed the cop car was still behind the ambulance and i had left the bag of weed on my bed, i was scared if i told them that yes i smoked weed they would search my house or charge me. So i told them i just worked out, which is true I did work out before i smoked. so then they asked me if i was on steroids, i said no, they asked me if im suicidal or if im on anti depressants, I said no to everything. then one of the paramedic guys started cracking "inside type jokes" to his buddy, all of which i caught him on and asked him what he meant to only hear him give me a super long explination about other shit to throw me off. This guy thought i was on sum kind of pcp or steroid and was being rather uinprofessional. after about 20 mins i was good enough to go back home and they told me that i should go to hospital i refused signed a form and went home. That night i was convinced the weed was laced. I planned on seeking revenge. the next day I went to the doctor office, and told her about the weed and she made me do chest xray , urine test and blood test, everything came back fine. so the next day i callled my dealer and asked himwhat kind of weed it was or if it was laced with anything, he said no it wasnt, but in my head i thought of course he would say that he wouldnt admit to me if it was laced, the tone in his voice was one of worry and fear that I was going to do something, which in fact i really wanted to because i was convinced he laced it, thats why he said "dont smoke it while i drive" ..

I laid low for a couple of weeks and did nothing. no smoke, no calls back to dealer, nothing.

Which brings me to now, 2 days ago another buddy called me up and asked me if i wanted to buy some weed, i wanted to and i missed getting high, so i said sure but i told him i wanted to smoke some first before i bought it, so he gave me a bit and i rolled a 1 paper and took 3 hits to test it out. and then, within 2 mins, the SAME thing happened. rapid heart beat and difficulty breathing. Fortunately tho, it was milder and not as intense becuase i think the weed was must lesser quality and potency and had like no crystals,. after about 5 mins i got scared and got in my car to drive to hospital on the drive there , the symptoms went away and i went home.

I then got home and researched online about weed and panic attacks and found many other people posting threads about the same thing that happened to me. I now know i get anxiety/panic attacks from weed. It sucks , I hate it and I have no choice but to not smoke any weed again. I mean even 3 hits makes me have a attack. this sucks and i hate it. it really is bad that it had to end this way. I just wish i could smoke the weed without this crap happening to me. the only solution I have heard that works is taking clonazepam 15 mins before you smoke up more info can be found here

Erowid Experience Vaults: Clonazepam & Cannabis - Conquered My Anxiety - 35836

but even doing that makes me nervous because im scared it might not work and the panic attack might come back severe as ever, I HATE the rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath its so scary and uncomfortable and i wouldnt wish it upon anyone! whats even scarier is i talked to a doctor and she told me that it is possible and there have been many cases where people have died from anxiety/ panic attacks. I wish she never told me that because if I have another one, In my head i will be thinking that oh shit i might die here.

anyways thats my story.
Try to use paragraphs next time because that was hell to read.

That story, however was very scary. I've had my heart rate go up to 100 but NEVER 150. I can't imagine what that would feel like. What I think your problem was is that you took 2 too many hits. Just take 1 hit at a time and that's it and take relatively small hits. That way if you do have a panic attack it won''t be as severe and you can use that panic attack as experience to find out how to better deal with future panic attacks.

Also, learn as much about panic attacks as you can. I did and it helps me tremendously. Like I said, ever since I learned that the increased heart rate can't kill me It's stopped bothering me. I also learned that this happens to a lot of people and those people are still smoking which means they were able to get through it and you can too. Also panic attacks can only last for I think 15 minutes at a time so remember that and you can kind of count down when the panic attack will end. And also you will not die from weed. Just use all of this as reassurance. I do this all the time and it helped me on 4/20 when I actually smoked $20 worth of weed with no problems at all. Really, you'll get through this.

And are you having any problems at all unrelated to weed? Because if you're stressed while smoking then you're gonna get more panic attacks. Try to resolve whatever it is that's bothering you

I hope this helps. Seeing someone in the same position as me makes me sad because I don't think anyone deserves to go through this. Having a panic attack is one of the worst feelings ever so I hope this helps you out.
SnoopDoggyDog Reviewed by SnoopDoggyDog on . Marijuana and Anxiety Ive been smoking non stop for about 2 years because of daily stress in my life and marijuan WAS helping but a few months back it caused me to have an anxiety attack, i was just sitting, relaxing and smoking and whamm! I started to get real scared, shake, sweat and couldnt calm down. I sat like that for about 6 hours and when it didnt go away I dragged myself to the ER. My blood pressure was very high and I was trembling an my palms were sweating like crazy, I couldnt focus on anything and Rating: 5