Sister Ray

Hey, I was reading about this guy who smoked marijuana occasionally (once a month) and one time he felt weird on it, but he thought it was just a strange high. The next day the high was gone but he still felt weird.

He was diagnosed with Derealisation .

He said it stayed with him for thirty days and now he gets it every so often.

I was under the impression that only really heavy use could lead to some mentall illness later in life (depression and schizophrenia - though I know this is only speculation). Can this happen?

I've only smoked once. I had a bad trip but it left and I really enjoyed it.

Buzzby

What leads you to think that smoking marijuana was the cause of his mental illness? Just because one thing follows another does not infer causation.

That is a logical fallacy called post hoc, ergo propter hoc ("after this therefore because of this"). For example: I begin to wash my car and it starts to rain. Does this infer that it rained because I washed my car?

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Sister Ray

I asked him whether he had a history of mental illness and he said no. It was pretty obviously brought on by the marijuana. He smoked. He got high. He felt weird. He continued to feel weird afterwards.

Sure, he may have had a pre-existing imbalance. Is there any proof that marijuana can cause mental illness as a result of smoking once?

Buzzby

If you're on the edge, getting stuck in traffic can "cause" mental illness (road rage), so I suppose marijuana could "cause" it the same way. When you're at the tipping point just about any stimulus could push you over the edge.

I wouldn't call it a cause in either case, though. I'd call it a trigger. The "last straw" could be anything, like getting high or having a bad day at work.

Sister Ray

Yeh ok thanks.

I read somewhere about a study and there was no higher incidence of mental illness in smokers/non-smokers. Do you know of any other studies done? By on the edge do you mean stressed? Or having a chemical susceptibility?

Buzzby

There has been a lot of noise about marijuana triggering the onset of schizophrenia in a percentage of the people with a genetic predisposition. These claims have been countered by the fact that while the rate of marijuana usage has gone up the rate of new schizophrenia diagnoses has remained flat.

By "on the edge" I mean that you've got 99.9% of what it takes to have a psychotic break. That last 0.1% could be anything. This is not a scientific observation, just my opinion.

Higher Logic

Try giving this thread a read:

http://www.marijuana.com/420/showthr...=schizophrenia

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