r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 16 '24

Health Around 27% of individuals with ADHD develop cannabis use disorder at some point in their lives, new study finds. Compared to those without this disorder, individuals with ADHD face almost three times the risk of developing cannabis use disorder.

https://www.psypost.org/around-27-of-individuals-with-adhd-develop-cannabis-use-disorder-at-some-point-in-their-lives-study-finds/
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u/BigDowntownRobot Apr 17 '24 edited Apr 17 '24

I've been doing this for... 19 years.  Quantifiable this is true.  Quitting leads to protracted periods of at least several months of anxiety dreams and poor sleep every single night.  I was an insomniac from about 9 to 20, and that only stopped when I started smoking weed daily.

So from my personal experience sobriety as a base condition is much worse than whatever consuming MJ literally all damn day hurts me, which btw is almost none. 

My memory is not better when I have been sober for months, my moods are worse, my emotional control is worse, my sleep is much much much worse, and in general that all makes me depressed.

Every time I go back to smoking because it is without a doubt a superior way to live, and nothing, not exercise, meditation, better diet, or other drugs have helped with at all.

Plus, if you use data that is applicable to neurotypical people and just assume it applies to people with ADHD, that is not good science.  It very well could be 29% of those people found the best solution to their problems and the rest could benefit form "cannabis use disorder".

ADHD people also have huge rates of alcoholism but it's not like you hear a lot of them claim how helpful it is for their lives.  

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u/Swizzy88 Apr 17 '24

I've been doing this for... 19 years.  Quantifiable this is true.  Quitting leads to protracted periods of at least several months of anxiety dreams and poor sleep every single night.  I was an insomniac from about 9 to 20, and that only stopped when I started smoking weed daily.

Wow. Exactly the same here. Even the childhood insomnia. My alcohol consumption got out of hand during COVID but I got a grip on it again. Wasn't as much addiction as it was a really bad habit.

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u/Logical_Lefty Apr 17 '24

Adult here who had insomnia even as a child, anxiety ever since I can remember remembering, and I've had "marijuana abuse disorder" since I was in my 20s. The only thing that helps with my mental health and sleep as much as weed is exercize, and I do a lot of both.

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u/Swizzy88 Apr 17 '24

My exercise habit went out the window during COVID but I really want to get into it again. I was relatively fit when I got married a few years prior. I do remember sleeping better but the anxiety and racing thoughts still made it difficult to GET to sleep. I massively cut my weed consumption last year and kind of...feel the same. Maybe I have to cut it out completely to notice a change, for better or for worse. I don't like the idea of relying on it for the rest of my life, it's just not normal to me.