hpgirl, have you found therapy helpful for the anxiety? I have anxiety issues (not the same as yours, but similar enough), but I'm still looking for someone who can get through to me, who won't regurgitate the same stuff I already know. My psychiatrist insists that benzodiazepines aren't a long term solution, but she's keeping me on them indefinitely.

If you have to taper off of clonazepam, you might want to substitute that with something that isn't renowned for causing physical dependence and an extended withdrawal syndrome that can be fatal.

About your original question, I found that MMJ increased anxiety once. I think it depends on context. It triggered a dissociative episode--losing sense of my surroundings, drifting out of consciousness--and a panic attack, but that happened once, with high grade weed, while I was trying to find my way around a new city around sunset. That was my own poor judgment. If I smoke with friends who I'm comfortable with, the anxiety is muted. I can relax. That so-called relaxation used to be my baseline "normal" personality style until I developed an anxiety disorder. Sometimes you don't really realize that you're living in a constant state of high anxiety until everything quiets down.

As for what people think, argh, screw it. People were all over the opium trend until the moral entrepreneurs decided to make that illegal. I have to quote MrEden on this:

Quote Originally Posted by MrEden
Our problems are merely semantics, thats all. The laws (and consequent norms) are confusing, but the solution is found in your head, where you just got to grab your "balls" with one hand, and flip the middle finger with the other, and rest assured that you were not put to life to endure pain "just because".