Marijuana Use Worsens Depression?

Should we believe that ? (click that)
Plus, my teach said marijuana caused schizophrenia.
Im not stating any facts here, I just want to know what everyone thinks about this.
I find it weird that i didnt find any thread about weed and its effect on the mind. I guess no one cares about this side of MJ
Its a shame though, considering the fact that these days Prozac is the new replacement for Pez candy and the US is one of the biggest popping pills country. Depression is spreading, and i think we all agree that MJ alters the state of our mind to some point, making it either stronger to fight depression or more vulnerable. Some even says MJ may be the actual cause to some depressions.
I just keep thinking about this. Where i live, we have commercials on the tele about the new antidepressants, and some about how to handle depression along with a list of all the Hotlines available for support...

Most cannabis users tend to agree that using marijuana to "treat" feelings of "Sadness/Melancholy" brought on by traumatic life experiences is not a good decision. For one, they understand that being "high" is nothing more than escaping from the reality that must be dealt with, using it tends to keep them from being resourceful in terms of 'moving on' in Life, and once the high wears off in 45 minutes or so then the ''Sadness" is still there. So, most experienced users of marijuana tend to understand that using marijuana to treat feelings of 'sadness' amounts to essentially a waste of good weed.
Now, on the other hand when you say depression---to my understanding "Depression" is a Clinical condition---and VERY different from just being sad/melancholy about somthing. It is important to make the distinction betw being ''sad' vs. being "clinically depressed". Whether marijuana can be used to treat Clinical Depression is something I am not qualified to forum about--as I have never had Clinically Medically Diagnosed Depression. But I would venture to say that MJ would not provide a long-term solution for Clinical Depression. In fact, it's usage could contribute to Clinical Depression b/c by Possessing and using an Illegal Drug you would expose yourself to persecution from law enforceent that will result in costly legal fines, loss of drivers' licence, probations,, a random urine test could cause you to lose your job/income, criminal records, and other stressors that will only increase Depression.
But , maybe ppl who have been diagnosed as having Clinical Depression can respond?

Marijuana is a mood elevator, not an antidepressant. It'll make you feel better for a little while and then it wears off. Trying to be high all of the time is not something most people want to do. Also, it doesn't work. Tolerance effects make the weed less and less useful as time goes buy. You end up in a situation where you just feel "burnt out", something much akin to depression.

Check out this before you deicide if weed is good or bad.


http://www.marijuana.com/medicinal-...-experiment-anxiety-pleasure.html#post1094976

what im trying to figure out is:
does weed causes or accentuate any mental illness on the long run?

The clip didn't say anything (correct me if I'm wrong), the main idea was that weed is better than pure THC. plus, i don't believe that experiment. Seriously, they checked if her brain works properly (any anxiety or whatever) after one injection? that's like asking for lung cancer after one cigarette...

Buzzby, I know that weed is not an antidepressant, but does it affect ur recovery if your taking any? Im not talking about how the patient feels (if he is satisfied with abusing weed and pills at the same time or something) im asking about how does it affect ur brain.

I should do some more research about that, but according to something i read in a brochure at some doctors clinic is that depression (& i guess all feelings), are translated physicly into electric pulse and moving hormones in our brain. (something about the nervous systeme as well). This also was proven to me by a study my teacher gave me about schizophrenia, the parkinson's disease and how medications would cure the illness.
what i want to know its how does THC and CBN affect this?
and if by any chance, weed or these substances do aggravate any mental illness or cause any, what are they? and how are they affected by weed?

There's not reallymuch to add on this post save for reviewing the comments that have been already posted. Any statements on how MJ affectes Parkinson's disease, schizzophreania, and anything else would at best be conjecture. Pls try to google the relevant search terms for more info.

I believe it can be used as an anti-depressant but not to the point we're it makes you burn-out just take 3 hits of some mids and bike work do something productive and then yes but I believe it can worsen depression if you become a burnout and give up on school relationships and work life to the point you have to bum and steal and all that which sub-consiously you want to kick your own ass for

I've been diagnosed with clinical depression. I find marijuana helps for the short-term, but makes it harder to deal with demons in the long run. It is impossible to use marijuana to fully escape from your problems, something that took me a long time to figure out.

I wouldn't say it makes it 'worse', I'd say it puts off the feelings your supposed to be experiencing at that time. Then it comes back harder later on.

NOTE: im not saying it as fact, just what I've come to find about it.

Re: cannabis causing schizophrenia, quantitative studies have shown that schizophrenics are four times as likely to be heavy marijuana users than control groups. Though, as the old saying goes, correlation does not imply causation; and those who've conducted the studies concede that far more research is needed to establish a link. As things stand, the fact that schizophrenics are four times as likely to self-medicate by using marijuana heavily is just as plausible an explanation as their use being responsible for the condition.

The other research often cited by the alarmist press involved MRI scans of the brains of heavy marijuana users. The researchers found abnormalities comparable with the scans taken from schizophrenic patients, but conceded that a range of other factors including alcohol and other drug abuse were present in the personal histories of both groups and thus that no conclusive answers could be drawn as to whether or not marijuana use has a causal relationship with the development of schizophrenia.

In other words, nobody has a fucking clue but that hasn't stopped thousands of inches of alarmism and scare-mongering rolling off the presses since the link was first proposed.

I can answer this one; though in truth I have not been clinically diagnosed, I know the signs/feel. I can even sense these things over the internet with just a few short sentences much of the time, as unlikely as that will appear to many of you. What I say is not 100% confirmed, but rather an educated opinion.

I have been 'diagnosed' with torrettes in my early teens, Asperger's in my late, and depression happens to be a common ailment of both. Mainly because of pot have I been able to wrap my mind around it, but that was after an extensive amount of mj abuse and acumen. One would even argue Bipolar if they would have met me eight years ago. I have been using it for many years now, and only when in the company of others have I found the use of such drug in any way depressing, but only because of interpersonal, mis-guided stress between peers and 'friends'

Many of those that use marijuana are already depressed to begin with, and quite often also have mental disorders. Those that ail from Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder that use marijuana after diagnosis will echo the same thing as those diagnosed beforehand: it calms them down, helps alleviate their mood levels; and if you're depressed half the year, it's like going to an oxygen bar. They feel they can breath and enjoy themselves (from a mental standpoint)...mind you, never tried one before lol. Just like any object that elevates your mood, you'll come back again and again if that's what does the trick. You develop a dependency not on the THC content, but from the release of cortisol from the body's system through obvious depository tracks...you have officially trained yourself to be dependent on an external remedy. Much like someone who practices yoga (apologies) and gets stressed out, they must find their serenity again before they get so stressed out they become agitated at others. The body's natural elements adjust, and you're back at square one. We all know what happens when you train your eye on the negative.

Another note: I think I've found a system that works for me, but unfortunately in involves some common sense and just a great dealt of effort. See my sig, as I have put it quite emphatically; marijuana is ONLY a supplement; not a cure, not a necessity, not a miracle drug; but a psychoactive supplement that elevates your mood levels, as Buzzby has already stated. Only after you experience the full force of your anxiety as it comes will you be able to use cannabis without risk of becoming dependent on it...in small or reasonable doses.
The only drug type I can think of that causes Schizophrenia are some methamphetamine, more so MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as Ecstasy) by directly increasing your serotonin levels...I'm quite certain that pot does not do any such thing, which is one of the main chemical factors involved in Schitzophrenia.

And yes, I do know people whom are bipolar/schizophrenic and smoke pot.

*edit*
And just like any problem/situational emotion you forget about, it does come back to you much stronger, as your subconscious has had a chance to mull over it for a longer period of time.

*edit two*
lol at the comic, he must be wrong!

legal marijuana

I think they need to just legalize marijuana. The govt is just punishing people to make money off it and they'd do a better job just taxing it. This is a democracy, or it use to be.
I don't know if I'll start using again. I have clinical depression. I'm just tired of buying off the street. I still read on pages like this. All the criminals in jail are drug addicts and everybody knows it and the few left are rapist and child molesters except for a few serial killers. Just toke up

I think you're confusing dopamine's role in schizophrenia with that of serotonin. Typical antipsychotics such as thorazine have antidopaminergic effects. Amphetamines and cocaine have dopaminergic effects, with MDMA having serotinergic effects as well.

...screw typing:

MDMA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mechanism of action For more details on this topic, see Effects of MDMA on the human body.
The mechanism of MDMA's unusual effects has yet to be fully understood, although it is generally thought that the primary relevant pharmacological characteristic of the drug is its affinity for SERTs. SERTs are the part of the serotonergic neuron which remove serotonin from the synapse to be recycled or stored for later use. Not only does MDMA inhibit the reuptake of serotonin into this pump, but it reverses the action of the transporter so that it begins pumping serotonin into the synapse from inside the cell.[27] In addition, MDMA induces the release of norepinephrine and dopamine.[28]
MDMA's unusual empathic/entactogenic effects have been hypothesized to be at least partly the result of the release of oxytocin,[29] a hormone usually released following such events as orgasm and childbirth, which is thought to facilitate bonding and the establishment of trust. MDMA is thought to cause this release by indirectly stimulating 5-HT1A receptors. However, the evidence that oxytocin is involved in the effects of MDMA is derived from studies conducted on rats where the emotional effects can only be indirectly measured, in this case by the time animals spend in close proximity to one another. Controlled human studies have not yet been carried out, and it is not known conclusively if MDMA has oxytocinergic action in humans. The question of why other serotonergic drugs do not produce a similarly profound emotional state like MDMA does also remains unanswered.

I have been "severely" depressed in the past...in fact, even though it has been almost 10 years since the onset, I am still somewhat depressed, and I don't think I will truly be over it for another 8 years or so (until I can see my son again). Marijuana did not cure my depression, but it certainly helps me to reflect upon my life, my decisions, and how they have no doubt made me a better person, and helped a couple to truly have a family. It helped me when I was so sad, so far down...that I couldn't see the light...it helped me to be a little bit happy for a few moments.

So no, I don't think it physically cures depression, but it can really make a difference to someone who is not using it to self medicate, but to self meditate.

shit i dont know where they get off saying things like that but when im down and out and feeling a little depressed i just sit back and have a nice long conversation with MJ and all is well, not to mention weed helps with my generalized anxiety disorder whenever i feel an anxiety attack coming i do the same and i feel grrrrrrrreeeeat afterwards

Really?
"Most" you say. That certainly hasn't been my experience with the many folks I've interacted with over the years.
Perhaps you are referencing a 'study' of some kind?

Again, I would disagree. Not that there aren't many who use marihuana as an escape mechanism (which, of course, is perfectly fine). But there are vast numbers of people who use cannabis for it's ability to shift our consciousnesses into another gear, one which is incredibly useful to gain insight and perspectives not readily available in our "normal" state.

That has always been, for me anyway, one of the reasons I believe it to be such a blessing to mankind...

I may be a tad obstinate, but I would think that it would be a good idea to fully observe and experience these 'attacks' (I suspect that I would have these too, but it rolls with Asperger's tendency to over-think) until they start to, for lack of a better word, deplete. I understand that these attacks can sometimes be extended to a period of hours/days, depending on the situation. However, I feel that if you can observe the initial wave, not in a panic, rather in expectation when you do have weed and resist the urge of a bowl till it gets to be too much, it may be easier to not be dependent on weed on the days you have one. I do have trouble conveying messages, so don't be afraid ask question. Not saying for certain I can help improve your life, just offering insight.

I think it depends upon the individual.
When the psychiatric community basically said "It's a Serotonin imbalance. This case is now open and shut!", they really screwed up.
They've tried virtually everything on me. SSRI's just don't work in my case. They can do miracles with other people, but there are a lot of us who are left in the lurch here.
Is there such a thing as an Anandamide deficiency? It would explain why pot works as an anti-depressant on some and exacerbates it in others.

I have found that vaporizing weed does not cause any depressive symptoms for me whatsoever, so I would guess that it's not a THC thing. However, I have personally found that smoking in itself (weed, cigarettes, etc.) can have a depressive effect on my mind. I don't know if it affects anyone else that way.

Can you by any chance find that study? I'm not doubting you, I'm simply interested in reading about it.

On a side note, I believe I read in Time magazine that cannabis use can trigger schizophrenia in individuals who were already predisposed to it.