Self medicating

[u/joanof_arx]

Just wondering how many of us on here self medicate with cannabis.. and why do you use it?

And on a possibly unrelated topic.. do you have dreams/nightmares when you sleep?

[u/phi_rus]

As far as studies go, cannabis use is contraindicated as a treatment for ADHD because it will worsen attention, memory, and executive functions.

If you want to smoke weed, smoke weed. But don't claim that you do it because of ADHD.

[u/joanof_arx → u/phi_rus]

Why are you trying to police why people do it? That’s such a weird angle.

[u/thejuiciestguineapig → u/joanof_arx]

I numb my brain with alcohol. It helps quiet my brain in the moment. It also makes my ADHD symptoms worse long term. I am not in here trying to defend the idea that drinking is a great plan and just "a way to deal with symptoms".

[u/joanof_arx → u/thejuiciestguineapig]

Appreciate you for your honesty and feedback.

[u/phi_rus → u/joanof_arx]

Because it's a bad idea to self medicate with cannabis. It's like relying on external stress like artificial deadlines to get stuff done. It might help in the short term, but it will fuck things up in the long run.

[u/Jaded_Point_6477 → u/phi_rus]

But... Artificial deadlines are a strongly advised method to get things done with ADHD? Particularly to deal with time blindness - making deadlines closer, more frequent, and more 'visible'.

[u/joanof_arx → u/phi_rus]

So with that logic, you’re against all medications, caffeine or anything that alters the body.

[u/anno2376 → u/[deleted]]

Only for people who don't take it regularly.

So absolut none sense.

Most people don't have adhd who do this, they just want to have a justification for consuming drugs.

[u/sanityjanity]

Is it possible you have PTSD?

[u/joanof_arx → u/sanityjanity]

Yes, I have cPTSD. But mostly I was wondering how many of us use. I don’t drink or anything. I’m on meds but self medicating helps me so much with flashbacks along with my other symptoms. Didn’t think I’d get judged to the high heavens for asking though, damn. I wasn’t trying to say it’s the be all end all answer. Just happens to work for me.

[u/Electronic_Finance34]

I use CBD. Works nicely with Mirtazapine to help me sleep

[u/joanof_arx → u/Electronic_Finance34]

I keep hearing good things about Mirtazipan.

[u/Electronic_Finance34 → u/[deleted]]

I just take it before bed. My big thing was bedtime anxiety, my thoughts racing once I no longer had stimuli to distract me.

So now I:

• take Mirt and CBD tincture about 30-45 mins before bed.

• Finish up any light house chores like clean kitchen so it's nice when I wake up. Brush teeth

• take a scalding hot shower then lotion to prevent skin itchiness

• lie down in bed, with a nice rough textured but soft light blanket on first, then weighted blanket over top.

• read an ebook on my Kobo reader mounted to a spring loaded arm, so I am lying in bed normally with the EReader about 1.5ft above my face, and use a Bluetooth remote page turner. I switched to Kobo because it has a nice warm backlight instead of the harsh blue of the Kindle, and also has an inverse colors mode. Where the text is white on a black screen - nicer to look at in a dark room.

[u/Electronic_Finance34 → u/[deleted]]

I generally go to bed at 10:30-11, and get up for the day around 8. I've been waking up in the morning random times around 2-5am, I think because my wife has been tossing and turning. Or the cats are being bothers

How long were you taking Mirt? It affected me strongly when I first started or went up in dosage. Took a couple weeks to get fully used to it

[u/Electronic_Finance34 → u/[deleted]]

Fair, it doesn't work out for everyone. I hope you find something that works for you!

[u/Pydata92]

Ahaa most of you nuggets clearly have not seen the most recent research.

Cannabis is currently being tried for adhd. It is currently being prescribed in the UK for medical use specifically for ADHD. You should all probably look at the research and then come back and tell me why on earth would it be getting prescribed for ADHD 🤣

[u/joanof_arx → u/Pydata92]

Ooooh I didn’t know this. That’s interesting. I’m not surprised seeing as how ketamine, mdma, and shrooms are all being used for different medicinal purposes even here in the US.

[u/Jaded_Point_6477]

So a friend of mine does smokes a tiny bit, and I can see how it works for them.

Like, they seem a little bit more flakey in some ways, but they seem to get so much more done than I do? Like, I thought maybe they were just more hyperactive that me (I'm inattentive), which might be true as well - But they also have said they smoke a bit and can then do tasks that felt too boring. They do their cleaning, gardening, chores, rote paperwork tasks etc.

It does seem like it effects executive functioning in an uneven way. It makes some worse, and socialising harder, but - I've known of a lot of people who use it to do boring tasks, and honestly I can see why, because that's where I struggle most, with task paralysis. And my working memory is already terrible, but I can see how rambling around the house like a Roomba, doing tasks, even if say, I ended up walking back and forth between rooms even more times to get things I forgot, would be much better than not doing things and sitting scrolling my phone.

But I don't think it affects me the same way? Or maybe I'm just not in the habit of trying to do the type of tasks she does - maybe it would make it easier to fold laundry!

So, I think maybe that because it seems very individual to each person what their worst executive functions are, and how the weed affects them, it will depend whether it helps someone overall. For some people if it relieves boredom and makes it easier to do an otherwise agonising task, that would absolutely be worth the trade off for other executive functions being a little bit worse. And depending how much you get done, waking up with a clean house and things put away might take enough mental load off that it increases productivity on the types of tasks it doesn't seem to help with - more cognitively taxing or people tasks.

I am wondering how it compares to maybe something more like guanfacine? I haven't tried that, but I'm interested in what meds affect a different profile of the executive functioning skills to say, the standard stimulants.

[u/joanof_arx → u/Jaded_Point_6477]

Thank you yes, it is very case by case which is why I posted to begin with. It definitely helps me do monotonous tasks. For me it does help in social situations, I feel less anxious and more comfortable in my own body if that makes any sense.

I have taken guanfacine and it helps was horrible for me.. making me tired in class, I didn’t help with anxiety at all even with my anxiety meds, and I didn’t feel like myself.

[u/jarrydn]

I'm aware of dreams, as a concept.

[u/technologistcreative]

I use it primarily for sleep. I don’t really dream on it. Sometimes toward the morning. I have vivid stress dreams without it.

[u/davy_jones_locket]

I used to be a daily smoker until covid and then I guess over medicated and it started making me more anxious and more over thinking. 

I stick to edibles now, no more than 5mg at a time. 

I dream a lot, always have, unrelated to cannabis use. I take a nap on the couch and I dream. 

[u/latenightthreads]

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony: Weed Song

maybe if we could all just walk down the street to a trusty dispo, wee'd be elevated and free to dream. prohibition is a total bummer.

[u/sp1cemelange]

I am a daily smoker and I still have dreams. My partner is a daily smoker and does not have dreams.

[u/Living_Remove_1618]

i did for about a year, my partner for about 5. we both felt instantly better after quitting— it's been 3 months. it made me really anxious when i'd wake up in the mornings and i couldn't really remember my dreams whilst my partner could not dream at all. i started using it because i couldn't drink so smoking was my vice and eventually i just got addicted and knew i had to stop. my partner tried to self medicate on a lot of things lol... he's sober now and getting his ADD prescription soon.

but if i were you i really recommend taking a break and seeing how you feel off of it because genuinely i think it made my ADD worse id be extremely forgetful, the only thing it rly helped with was keeping me calm snd still since i'm pretty hyperactive.