Would like to hear your thoughts
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 14
Would like to hear your thoughts
I'm 62 yrs old and I'm an addict. I've been addicted to alcohol (sober 29 yrs) I've been addicted to prescription opioids ( clean since 2018) I've been addicted to Kratom (clean for 40 days today) I've been and still am addicted to sugar ( has been a lifelong struggle that I am making a more concentrated effort on recently) AND I smoke marijuana several times a day for therapeutic reasons. I will list them here: For body wide arthritis pain, for myofascial pain syndrome of the connective tissue, insomnia and to help ease my depression. I am a marijuana microdoser which means I smoke about as much as is equal to the size of an adult 81 mg low dose aspirin, several times a day as needed. To give you an idea of how much that is collectively, I bought a 1/4 oz at my local shop and it is three months later and I still have about half left. So when I say microdose I really mean it.
I have serious mobility issues at this time that will unlikely get better as I get older. Most likely get a little better if I lose some weight. I am not wheelchair bound but I have a great deal of difficulty just walking around in my home. The only prescription medication I'm on is 600 and 800 mg ibuprofen twice a day. Taking the micro doses of mj really helps my pain and energy levels during the day and helps me to sleep at night. Altho I didn't abuse Xanax, I had taken it for sleep every nite for 5 or more years until several years ago when I tapered off of them. Unable to sleep I turned to Benadryl and from there got off that and decided to try marijuana. I do not have apnea. I've been tested.
Since I have an addictive personality I am having a difficult time reconciling my marijuana use even tho it is taken in tiny doses for purely therapeutic reasons. I have no desire to smoke larger and larger amounts. I don't smoke it to escape from reality. I don't drive while under the influence and it doesn't interfere with anything I'm doing or want to achieve. When I weigh the prescription meds I've been on in the past, which I got from my own physician, against micro dosing marijuana, the mj wins hands down as the best choice I could make for dealing with the issues I deal with.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this whether good, bad, or ugly. Thanks so much.
I have serious mobility issues at this time that will unlikely get better as I get older. Most likely get a little better if I lose some weight. I am not wheelchair bound but I have a great deal of difficulty just walking around in my home. The only prescription medication I'm on is 600 and 800 mg ibuprofen twice a day. Taking the micro doses of mj really helps my pain and energy levels during the day and helps me to sleep at night. Altho I didn't abuse Xanax, I had taken it for sleep every nite for 5 or more years until several years ago when I tapered off of them. Unable to sleep I turned to Benadryl and from there got off that and decided to try marijuana. I do not have apnea. I've been tested.
Since I have an addictive personality I am having a difficult time reconciling my marijuana use even tho it is taken in tiny doses for purely therapeutic reasons. I have no desire to smoke larger and larger amounts. I don't smoke it to escape from reality. I don't drive while under the influence and it doesn't interfere with anything I'm doing or want to achieve. When I weigh the prescription meds I've been on in the past, which I got from my own physician, against micro dosing marijuana, the mj wins hands down as the best choice I could make for dealing with the issues I deal with.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this whether good, bad, or ugly. Thanks so much.
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,442
Hi CrystalBlue
medicinal marijuana is kinda beyond the scope of this forum.
We (the SR staff) made it that way because it's easy to get bogged down in that area.
I wanted to create a space where it was ok to speak about the downsides of MJ use.
The folks here have been taken to hell and back by their addiction, so please on't be offended if we all seem a little 'one-eyed' in our approach.
I'll reserve the right now to close this thread if things get triggering for others or too heated.
I hope they won't
so...
I have chronic pain too.
I can only tell you my story which is that marijuana came to rule my life.
Any pain relief I got wasn't really worth selling my soul for.
I'm nearly 13 years free of pot and booze and I wouldn't swap my position now for anything.
I put up with a little pain now and again but exercise and diet have done good things for me.
I'm dead set against ever using MJ again for myself and I'm dead set against self medicating with anything.
Legal does not always equal good. I drive my doctor crazy with questions about *everything* I take.
But sounds to me like you've weighed it all up and you have a solid evidential based argument for continuing. that you believe in.
I'm not going to argue with you - you are not me and I am not you
I will say tho although the current position seems to be that MJ is benign I have definite lung damage from all the smoking I did.
If you want to continue self medicating I'd definitely look into other ways beyond smoking.
D
medicinal marijuana is kinda beyond the scope of this forum.
We (the SR staff) made it that way because it's easy to get bogged down in that area.
I wanted to create a space where it was ok to speak about the downsides of MJ use.
The folks here have been taken to hell and back by their addiction, so please on't be offended if we all seem a little 'one-eyed' in our approach.
I'll reserve the right now to close this thread if things get triggering for others or too heated.
I hope they won't
so...
I have chronic pain too.
I can only tell you my story which is that marijuana came to rule my life.
Any pain relief I got wasn't really worth selling my soul for.
I'm nearly 13 years free of pot and booze and I wouldn't swap my position now for anything.
I put up with a little pain now and again but exercise and diet have done good things for me.
I'm dead set against ever using MJ again for myself and I'm dead set against self medicating with anything.
Legal does not always equal good. I drive my doctor crazy with questions about *everything* I take.
But sounds to me like you've weighed it all up and you have a solid evidential based argument for continuing. that you believe in.
I'm not going to argue with you - you are not me and I am not you
I will say tho although the current position seems to be that MJ is benign I have definite lung damage from all the smoking I did.
If you want to continue self medicating I'd definitely look into other ways beyond smoking.
D
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 360
I personally could not take it medicinally. I used to bake edibles with half a gram or more at a time and spend hours in outer space. If I went back to it, I'd be back at that again in no time.
I think the risk would be tolerance. If you start to require higher doses for relief, I think it's possible that eventually you'll reach the threshold where you start experiencing side effects. The withdrawal from marijuana can be bad, it was for me. Depression, anxiety, paranoia, mood swings, irritability, insomnia. I felt like I was going insane.
I think the risk would be tolerance. If you start to require higher doses for relief, I think it's possible that eventually you'll reach the threshold where you start experiencing side effects. The withdrawal from marijuana can be bad, it was for me. Depression, anxiety, paranoia, mood swings, irritability, insomnia. I felt like I was going insane.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 2,909
I look at it as a highly personal decision to be made by the individual. Some questions I would ask myself would be...is it causing me problems...is it making my life unmanageable...is it hurting my loved ones...does it run my life. Honest reflection and listening to my soul as opposed to my head, should reveal the answer for me, not necessarily the answer for anyone else.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 466
It's pretty clear to me that cannabis can help manage the symptoms of a lot of medical maladies. Who am I to judge? I personally wouldn't ever be able to consider using mmj myself, but that's just me.
I will say to you that there are two things in your post that stand out to me. The first is that you use weed to help with a couple of psychiatric issues; with those being insomnia and depression. I'm not a medical professional, but what I've heard from one is that THC affects the brain in a myriad of ways, whereas most pharmaceuticals affect it in very specific ways (not saying that one is better than the other, but they seem different in this regard). Because of this, he told me that it's harder to detect what's doing what when cannabis enters the picture as a psychiatric medical agent. This makes sense to me personally, as I was someone who decided that weed really helped my insomnia and depression, when it really just made them worse in the long run. Not trying to diagnose your situation. I'm just offering some food for thought based on my own experiences.
The second thing that strikes me are your claims regarding all the other substances you're eliminating from your life. Weed still hits your dopamine receptors in the ways that alcohol and opiates do, so I question whether or not your brain's recovery will be hindered by continued consumption. I'd also remain vigilant regarding any emerging addictive behaviors surrounding your weed usage. You might be surprised by the ways in which an addict's brain tries to feed its urge once its drug(s) of choice are removed. When I got clean, I initially found myself dabbling in other addictive behaviors I hadn't ever engaged in before.
Otherwise, welcome to the forum!
I will say to you that there are two things in your post that stand out to me. The first is that you use weed to help with a couple of psychiatric issues; with those being insomnia and depression. I'm not a medical professional, but what I've heard from one is that THC affects the brain in a myriad of ways, whereas most pharmaceuticals affect it in very specific ways (not saying that one is better than the other, but they seem different in this regard). Because of this, he told me that it's harder to detect what's doing what when cannabis enters the picture as a psychiatric medical agent. This makes sense to me personally, as I was someone who decided that weed really helped my insomnia and depression, when it really just made them worse in the long run. Not trying to diagnose your situation. I'm just offering some food for thought based on my own experiences.
The second thing that strikes me are your claims regarding all the other substances you're eliminating from your life. Weed still hits your dopamine receptors in the ways that alcohol and opiates do, so I question whether or not your brain's recovery will be hindered by continued consumption. I'd also remain vigilant regarding any emerging addictive behaviors surrounding your weed usage. You might be surprised by the ways in which an addict's brain tries to feed its urge once its drug(s) of choice are removed. When I got clean, I initially found myself dabbling in other addictive behaviors I hadn't ever engaged in before.
Otherwise, welcome to the forum!
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 14
Originally Posted by racingthoughts 
It's pretty clear to me that cannabis can help manage the symptoms of a lot of medical maladies. Who am I to judge? I personally wouldn't ever be able to consider using mmj myself, but that's just me.
I will say to you that there are two things in your post that stand out to me. The first is that you use weed to help with a couple of psychiatric issues; with those being insomnia and depression. I'm not a medical professional, but what I've heard from one is that THC affects the brain in a myriad of ways, whereas most pharmaceuticals affect it in very specific ways (not saying that one is better than the other, but they seem different in this regard). Because of this, he told me that it's harder to detect what's doing what when cannabis enters the picture as a psychiatric medical agent. This makes sense to me personally, as I was someone who decided that weed really helped my insomnia and depression, when it really just made them worse in the long run. Not trying to diagnose your situation. I'm just offering some food for thought based on my own experiences.
The second thing that strikes me are your claims regarding all the other substances you're eliminating from your life. Weed still hits your dopamine receptors in the ways that alcohol and opiates do, so I question whether or not your brain's recovery will be hindered by continued consumption. I'd also remain vigilant regarding any emerging addictive behaviors surrounding your weed usage. You might be surprised by the ways in which an addict's brain tries to feed its urge once its drug(s) of choice are removed. When I got clean, I initially found myself dabbling in other addictive behaviors I hadn't ever engaged in before.
Otherwise, welcome to the forum!
I will say to you that there are two things in your post that stand out to me. The first is that you use weed to help with a couple of psychiatric issues; with those being insomnia and depression. I'm not a medical professional, but what I've heard from one is that THC affects the brain in a myriad of ways, whereas most pharmaceuticals affect it in very specific ways (not saying that one is better than the other, but they seem different in this regard). Because of this, he told me that it's harder to detect what's doing what when cannabis enters the picture as a psychiatric medical agent. This makes sense to me personally, as I was someone who decided that weed really helped my insomnia and depression, when it really just made them worse in the long run. Not trying to diagnose your situation. I'm just offering some food for thought based on my own experiences.
The second thing that strikes me are your claims regarding all the other substances you're eliminating from your life. Weed still hits your dopamine receptors in the ways that alcohol and opiates do, so I question whether or not your brain's recovery will be hindered by continued consumption. I'd also remain vigilant regarding any emerging addictive behaviors surrounding your weed usage. You might be surprised by the ways in which an addict's brain tries to feed its urge once its drug(s) of choice are removed. When I got clean, I initially found myself dabbling in other addictive behaviors I hadn't ever engaged in before.
Otherwise, welcome to the forum!
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