It's a me problem. I'm 20 and I want to try it for autism.
Regular marijuana use since childhood has made me both extremely cool and much more severely mentally ill, but from a developmental perspective I think 20 is well out of soft growing brain territory
This is one of those things that's so fucking weird about the USA. At 16 you're allowed to drive a 2500lbs hunk of metal and death at 60mph, at 18 you're allowed to join the military to travel around the world murdering innocent people, but you gotta wait until you're 21 to get legally intoxicated.
What is wrong with you people?
At 16 you’re allowed to drive a 2500lbs hunk of metal and death at 60mph
Would you want people learning to do this at the same life stage they start to get drunk tho
It is a legitimate discussion with weed - studies have shown it effects brain development in teens - for the purposes of someone making an informed choice for themselves (policy-wise is another thing because teens will do harmful shit anyway). But in any case last I checked marijuana use is illegal at any age in all but a handful of European countries so probably a bad comparison to make, one of the few places North America is well ahead of Europe on the whole. With drinking I used to think as you do, that a much younger legal buying age was more enlightened, but then I lived for a time in the UK and the really sad and disgusting condition of the English youth has convinced me it should probably be outlawed alltogether, or at least there should be special locked pens for doing it. That's to say nothing about the many years young alcoholism took off my own life, I probably could've been helped a lot by another 5 years of illegality
Be real careful, take a small dose, and don't make a regular habit of it for at least a few more years.
It's not the end of the world if you do though, plenty of people are stoners in college that have no problems later.
Sure, just know what you're getting how much much you can handle. Start small and try to find out what the strain is and what it does. Sometimes it might induce a panic attack so be careful. This advice is double true for edibles, they can be super powerful. So they may not be the best place to start.
I should really stop drinking coffee because of my anxiety but I love it dearly.
I have like six cups in the morning, I'm for sure an addict. But I'm on so many meds I need it to even just wake up. But I should just switch over to like black tea, with the less caffeine.
Have you ever tried taking l-theanine? It occurs naturally in green tea but I get it as a higher dose in capsules. It's an anxiolytic that synergizes well with caffeine, making you much less jittery and more focused. Caffeine gave me panic attacks, but I couldn't function without it, so l-theanine was my miracle supplement for most of college. I still use it when I'm anxious.
But it might be counterproductive to be on an anxiety med that makes you that sleepy.
Helps me sleep at night though. I'm actually on two different meds atm that both handle anxiety. But yeah 6 is a lot but I've been drinking coffee since I was in my 20s and now I'm 30 something so my tolerance is pretty high.
I'd say medical marijuana probably isn't going to be the first prescription for basically anything, so if it's going to be recommended it should be in a situation where other possibilities are exhausted -- autism is not 'curable', so the effectiveness in marijuana is going to be in symptom management (alongside the usual atypical antipsychotics that work best [risperidone, haloperidol] or developing treatments [oxytocin spray]).
It can be good for anxiety, stress, insomnia, relaxation, anorexia, or inflammation, but it can also cause anxiety, paranoia, and agitation -- start low and go slowly in the amounts (which also applies to any medication).
At 20 you're mostly out of the woods for the neurological impact of THC (albeit separating its impact from existing neurodevelopmental conditions already in place would be impossible), be cautious for signs of psychosis or schizophrenia -- cannabis won't cause either, but can activate such in individuals already genetically disposed (and autism, particularly PDD-NOS, has a significantly higher incidence of this occurring than the general public).
Thanks for mentioning the psychosis stuff. A lot of people who act like marijuana cures everything are not aware of this and it’s really devastating if it happens.
It affected my husband that way and he also became habitually addicted. Those were some dark years.
I’m not saying marijuana is evil and everyone who smokes it is bad, but just want people to be aware that it has the chance to be harmful.
Different strains can also have markedly different effects, so if you do opt for marijuana for symptom management, work to tailor what you're smoking -- some strains will make you focused and stimulated like caffeine, but with the accompanying increase in anxiety, some strains may make you relaxed and sedated if you're struggling with sleep disruption and sensory issues but would make you a block socially
If it's for medical reasons, try CBD oil or something first, it won't get you high but it works on some symptoms and is also much easier to get in some places
Ehh I think it's fine. I don't smoke as much as I used to, been trying to cut back.
