marijuana use and schizophrenia?

[wanderer]

hey, i guess i'm not so much looking for answers as much as a place to express my worries to anyone willing to listen. but any advice or words of wisdom would be appreciated.

 

i've always been one to worry about my health. now i'm worried about something i came accross (and have since looked much more into) about the link between marijuana use and the onset of schizophrenia in adolescents/young adults. from what i've read, it seems that people who have a family history of the mental illness are more likely to develop it if they smoke marijuana chonically in their developing years.

 

how do i fit into this? when i was a kid, i was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and for a few years growing up i took ritalin, and later concerta. i haven't taken any meds for ADD since about the 8th grade. i'm currently 21 years old, and i've never smoked weed until this past summer, about june of 2008, when i started smoking consistently (as in several times a week) until about september, after which i cut back to once or twice a week because my classes resumed. after i found the articles relating smoking marijuana to some types of psychosis (which, admittedly, i should have predicted) i have of course quit smoking entirely, as of about two weeks ago.

 

here's the scary part: the link seems to be most prevalent in people with a family history of psychotic mental illnesses. my brother and i were adopted (same birth parents) and we do not know our biological history. thus, i just don't know if these things run in my family (they may or may not) also, i've read that left handed people have an ever so slight genetic predisposition to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, and i am a lefty. there's also the fact that i am not certain of the prenatal factors that may have negatively affected my birthmother (poverty, depression, etc) which can prove to be factors for the onset of mental illnesses for the child. luckily, i've never experienced any psychotic symptoms, and i have grown up in a stable and supportive environment where education and mental stimulation were emphasized. i've never been extremely stressed out, save for when i went to college (my major is pretty demanding and stressful at times but i've also felt that i handled the stress much better than my peers - i am a very determined person with generally a positive outlook on things like that)

 

but that said, i still feel like a real idiot for taking up the habit in the first place. i realize there are many other equally relevant reasons for not smoking marijuana, but it's this one that really got me scared. i wish i never touched the stuff.

 

i guess i just needed to express my feelings in a venue that i feel comfortable, which is here.

[waveseer]

I quit smoking pot 21 years ago because it wasn't helping me finish the growing up process. Other than a few wistful thoughts on sunny days I haven't missed it at all. This past summer I had the opportunity to meet a few men who have been smoking pot since they were teens or young 20's and they are now in their 40's and 50's. Each one has severe problems, some social, some personal identity, some just watching life go by. The main symptom I saw was an inability to carry on a decent conversation with the normal give and take. They became anxious and started to talk faster and it seemed like they were afraid of losing their train of thought before they could get the words out. Almost like brain damage. One man even started talking to himself out loud carrying both halves of the discussion all on his own. It was so sad.

 

I don't know anything about mental illness and it's increased potential from smoking pot, I just thought I'd share my observations.

[Nurseman]

Well, I don't think you're schizophrenic......and neither do I.

 

Do you realize that studies have shown that virtually EVERY person with Schizophrenia has eaten.......carrots?

Not only that, but almost ALL of them have ridden (gasp!) Roller Coasters!!

OMG!!!

 

 

 

 

 

OK, seriously. 3 months of "several times a week" makes you a JUNIOR Pothead, not a raving lunatic. Your post suggests a fair amount of paranoia but not schizophrenia. I think you're going to be ok.

 

 

Let me let you in on a little secret about "studies". People don't publish studies just for the betterment of society. They do it to get "Published" which looks really good on the ole CV. And in order to get published something has to be "readable". In order to be readable, they have to put in something with just a hint of "trashy" to it. (Hey, Peer Reviewers are people too.) So they grab something interesting (Like that left-handed thing for instance) and put it into the press release.

 

 

My friend, DON'T buy into everything you read..........Unless the little voices tell you otherwise.

[Syntax1985]

i would also tend to take some things with a pinch of salt, ive never heard about this "schizophrenia" from cannabis to be honest, and i used to have to monthly "drug awareness" programs with the police and the hospital because i was bar manager.

 

its like, for example steroids. after effects =

 

Cancer

Huge increase in spots

schizophrenia

paranoia

heart attacks

arthritis

extreme hair growth

shrinkage of genitals

 

ok, now turn on the tv, and switch to the sports channel... infact i dont recall seeing one athelete that was found to be taking roids, being a crippled hairy spotty chimp.

Try to find one actual medical refernce to those effects..

 

I dont agree with drug abuse in any shape or form, especially roids, but im just boosting Nurseman's very valid last line

[Batya33]

Sounds like if you are concerned that you need to see a doctor about this - I doubt that an opinion on this forum or on the Internet generally would be relevant. I'm glad you've decided to stop smoking.

[sarey]

Most with schizophrenia are actually in denial about it.

[wanderer]

well, i usually am critical about what i read... it's just in this case, since i don't know what's in my family history to begin with, i figured i'd quit while i was ahead just in case. i mean, it's not like there aren't other very good reasons to avoid the stuff.

[nutbrownhare]

I work on an acute mental health ward, and there are patients with schizophrenia who will smoke cannabis when they're out with family or friends - or sometimes when people bring it onto the ward for them. Often the reason they're out is because they're getting better and it's a way of getting them accustomed to the community before they're totally discharged from hospital.

 

You can tell immediately when they've been smoking - because their psychotic symptoms (responding to unseen stimuli, paranoia, bizarre behaviour) become as serious as they day they were admitted.

 

You say you've smoked cannabis regularly and have never had any psychotic symptoms. Most people who smoke cannabis don't.

 

But for people who are particularly vulnerable in this area, the effects can be devastating.

[coldplay.]

I believe marijuana has negatively affected my mental health and led to my social bereavement anxiety and depression, it only has costed me money and grief and i really think my life will be better without it.

[Raiden]

You say you've smoked cannabis regularly and have never had any psychotic symptoms. Most people who smoke cannabis don't.

 

But for people who are particularly vulnerable in this area, the effects can be devastating.

 

At the risk of generalising, I think this is where my feelings lie on the proverbial pot/mental health issue.

 

I remember smoking a joint when I was feeling particularly low and anxious. The results weren't pleasant. I don't blame any of this on the weed, but it certainly enhanced whatever feelings I was feeling at the time.

[wanderer]

scion, that's an interesting way of describing the paranoia effects!

 

well, most times i would smoke i would feel fine, and just relaxed (and it makes videogames much better) but there have been a few times when it caused me to become "paranoid" but not in a personal sense. what i mean is, there was a couple times when i got high, felt ok for a while, and then i would suddenly get anxious about really big, like global things: climate change, terrorism, even cell phone radiation or john mccain getting elected (back before nov. 4th) mostly the CNN sensationalist typical bad news. i've never once felt as though people were personally plotting against me or anything like that. but the anxiousness i felt about the other stuff was enough to make me regret smoking that particular day.

[Striker17]

I'm a regular smoker, and I'm maintaining A's in all my classes but one (It's a B+. Hey, we're not all perfect). The only negative side-effect of smoking for the large majority of people is the burnout immediately after smoking. There are some studies which seem to indicate that continued use can lead to some of the situations described earlier in the thread where people are slow, etc... but there are other studies which seem to indicate that this is due to a selection bias, and that people with these problems are just more likely to continue using marijuana regularly.

 

As far as the schizophrenia thing, there are many, many conflicting studies on the subject. After reading a few of them, the latest consensus seems to be that marijuana will not cause schizophrenia, but in people who may have the condition laying dormant, it will bring it out. The studies also mention that the people who did have their first psychotic event due to marijuana were very likely to have just had it later in life had they not smoked. If anything, marijuana just allowed them to get diagnosed earlier, but it wasn't the cause for the condition.

 

That being said, I, and almost all of my friends, smoke, and we don't worry about it at all.

[JadedStar]

Sounds like if you are concerned that you need to see a doctor about this - I doubt that an opinion on this forum or on the Internet generally would be relevant. I'm glad you've decided to stop smoking.

 

I agree with this.

 

I seriously doubt marijuana use will cause schizophrenia but a person who is prone to a mental disorder will no doubt be more vulnerable with usage of any drug or alcohol.

[JadedStar]

ABSOLUTELY. i only smoked it two or three times in my youth. the feelings i got from it were exactly what is described in bold above. Even as a teenager i knew hey, this isn't a cool feeling. So i never did it again.