If you are currently experiencing feelings of paranoia from a weed high, scroll down to the “tips” section! Otherwise, this blog post will be very informative for anyone seeking to learn more about the negative effects of marijuana. Weed paranoia or anxiety is one of the many possible adverse effects you might experience from consuming weed. Keep reading below if you want to learn how to stop weed paranoia or anxiety.
What Causes Paranoid Thoughts From Weed?
One of the most common causes of weed paranoid thoughts or extreme anxiety is when you consume too much THC. Consuming too much THC can cause an overwhelming and uncontrollable mental experience. This can also be caused by trying a new brand or strain of weed that your body is not familiar with.
Therefore, the best way to avoid paranoia and anxiety from weed is to dose small and stick with brands/strains you are familiar with.
The Endocannabinoid System and Effects of Weed
The endocannabinoid system is filled with endocannabinoid receptors throughout the human body. There are two types of receptors (CB1 and CB2), and most of them are located near the brain, stomach region, and along the spine. CB1 receptors affect brain functions such as thinking, short-term memory, and much more. CB2 receptors affect functions throughout the rest of the body, such as the gut and cardiovascular system.
Paranoia and anxiety might be caused by either or both of these systems. Feelings of anxiety is most likely to stem from altered brain function. However, activation of the gut can also lead to changes in mood, anxiety, and thoughts. Other bodily functions, such as increased heart rate might also occur to increase the negative effects of paranoia.
5 Tips to Stop Weed Paranoia and Anxiety
Above is some background information about why these negative feelings occur, but what do you do if you need to know how to stop weed paranoia right now?
1) Take Deep Breaths For Negative Emotions
Deep breathing and breathing strategies are one of the most effective methods of reducing anxiety and other negative emotions. In general, the best thing you can do is ensure you are avoiding shallow, quick breaths. By keeping your focus on slowing down your breathing, you minimize the number of thoughts you can have.
Slowing down your breathing can also have calming physiological effects that will lead to a reduce in negative feelings. Heart rate and blood pressure are two measures that are likely to rise significantly during a bad weed experience. Getting your heart rate and blood pressure down through deep breathing even a little can help to ease paranoia and anxiety. Overall, remember to take a deep breath.
2) Do Something You Enjoy For Anxiety Relief
Although it might be difficult to perform normal tasks with paranoia, consider a few activities that you normally find calming or enjoyable. Examples of this might be playing video games, chilling with a pet, or listening to music.
By focusing your attention on something potentially enjoyable, you decrease your chances of negative feelings. Your cannabis paranoia may or may not decrease depending on which activity you pick. If one activity, such as playing a video game, causes more anxiety and paranoia, it might be a good idea to swap to another activity like listening to calming music.
3) Remember Cannabis-Related Paranoia is Temporary
Although the paranoia and anxiety during a bad weed high can be very challenging, they are also very temporary. Remember that any short-term side effects experienced from any kind of marijuana will eventually subside. This also means that the feelings of weed paranoia will gradually become weaker as the dose of THC leaves your body.
In the moment, the high levels of THC in your body might make you feel like it will last forever. However, marijuana-induced paranoia is something that is only temporary and will not last forever.
Follow the tips below to figure out how to stop weed paranoia and anxiety.
4) Consider Your Mental Health Condition Prior to Use
Although this tip is one you must apply before drug use, it is very important. If you have anxiety disorders or anxious thoughts when sober, using weed might not be the best choice. Although certain strains of weed might make you temporarily feel less anxious, you are only suppressing anxiety that is likely to eventually come back even stronger. This tip also applies to other anxiety-related disorder such as PTSD and panic attacks.
Since paranoia and anxiety are potential side effects of marijuana self-medication, avoiding or cutting down on use is an effective strategy to reduce feelings of anxiety. Even if you don’t experience paranoia after taking weed, the risks of worsening future anxiety or depression are increased.
Talk to a medical professional about your mental health condition and drug use prior to making any dramatic changes.
5) Use Medical Marijuana at Lower Doses
If you feel that quitting weed is not currently a viable option for you, consider cutting your usage back to a lower dosage. The chances of you experiencing severe side effects from weed decrease as you lower the dosage. From consuming lower doses, you will also realize you do not need massive doses to have positive effects or a very enjoyable experience.
This also ties into sticking with similar strains and brands, so you reduce your odds of experiencing negative effects by as much as possible.
Below are some final areas that we see as being critical for how to stop weed paranoia and prevent bad highs.
Try CBD Strains or CBD Products
Marijuana is often considered much more potent and euphoric than CBD, which is partially true. CBD has no psychoactive effects like cannabis but does have some other potentially remarkable effects. CBD can be used effectively as a tool to ween one off of weed while also helping to manage anxiety and other negative symptoms caused by weed use. CBD has been shown to help with anxiety, as long as you find a solid brand that you can trust.
CBD is not as strong as THC, but it might affect you in a more positive way than you initially expect. Additionally, CBD has little to no risk of worsening paranoia or anxiety in the short or long-term when used appropriately. Ultimately, CBD may or may not be the answer you have been looking for depending on a few different factors.
Stop Frequent Recreational Use of Weed
Discovering a powerful and euphoric strain or brand of weed will often lead to repeated use. Repeated use might range from a couple times a week to multiple times every day. If you are experiencing negative effects from repeated weed use, slowly cutting your usage down might be ideal. Rather than quitting marijuana cold turkey, reducing your normal dose to 75% of what you normally take for the first week is a great start.
The ultimate ideal goal is to reach a point where one can occasionally enjoy weed without having repeated use in the following days. For example, using weed once a month or every other month is a great example of healthy use. Your healthy use frequency might be slightly shorter or longer than this time range. However, remember that it can be very easy to slip back into old patterns and cause weed paranoia.
Stopping frequent weed use ultimately leads you to learn how to stop weed paranoia and anxiety!
Avoid Social Situations
Many people will have their weed paranoia or anxiety worsened through social interaction. Paranoid thoughts and a fear response are more likely to occur for many reasons in an environment filled with people. Although different people or long-term cannabis users might not experience social anxiety during a high, many people might.
If you are going to consume a higher dose of weed, it might be a good idea to pick a less crowded environment. Going to a party or concert could be fun, but also is much riskier if you are prone to weed paranoia and anxiety. Planning fun activities with close friends or family that you trust will maximize comfort and minimize anxiety.
Conclusion
Learning how to stop weed paranoia and prevent a bad high can be a difficult and even scary process. However, this guide outlined five incredibly useful tips to help you prevent cannabis paranoia in the future. There is also a variety of information on marijuana and its psychoactive effects (such as paranoia and anxiety) and why they occur. The best way to prevent weed paranoia in the long term is to use lower doses and to stick with strains or brands that you know react well with your body. Individuals that consume too much cannabis for recreational use might experience the opposite effect with many side effects.
If this blog post was helpful in any way, please leave a comment and recommend this post to a friend that also struggles with weed paranoia!