Wide-O, Thank you so very much for sharing. Reading about PN and the prognosis on the internet does not mean as much as real life experiences. I am a bit more encouraged and will hang in. Again, my sincere thanks.

Wishing all my Christian friends here a wonderful Christmas.
You all are a joy to me and I am grateful for all the support and insight you have so graciously offered. May we all have a healthy and happy 2018.

I wish all here (regardless of religion) alcohol-free cheer over the holiday season and for 2018.

Yeah, can a poor condemned-to-hell atheist like me not have a good day?

Just kidding, no offense taken at all.

Just a quick note that for various reasons I needed to bring out some low THC/high CBD weed again for someone else's nerves. I tried it myself too, again, to see if maybe it would... but nah. Even after one and a half joints: nope.*

This question comes up a lot, and legalities aside (it's legal-ish here): don't expect it to work for everyone. For some people it's a blessing, for some, like me, it does nothing at all to change the PN feelings. I'd get high long before I would feel any less discomfort - which is not what an addict like me wants to pursue - and I never liked getting high (or too drunk) anyway.

I was glad I could put it out and just grab my trusty old vape again.

Anyway, happy holidays to all of you, and thanks for the support, as always!

* in case someone wonders "but was it good stuff?", I can confirm that the other person was high as a kite, nerves duly calmed. So: yeah.

When stressed my PN is always worse so in this regards the weed helps. Funny that a drunk like me does not like the feeling of being high, never did, and yet with my first drink/buzz I felt normal for the first time in my life. Go figure.

Right, good point. But probably related, as it does not calm me down - I'm one of the people that start to feel slightly paranoid/antsy. Something to do with certain brain receptors (I know our brains have a specific receptor or THC (or was it CBD? no, THC I think), and mine doesn't work properly heheh.

BTW, met many many people in rehab that had gone bonkers from weed. Not sure if because it is super-strong these days (like 20 times stronger than before). They had a serious hard time getting off it, so as always, some things are are mostly non-addictive to most can sometimes be very addictive to others.

Still (half off topic) I am for legalizing it, as when you buy the stuff in Holland for example, you have the legal shops with much choice, advice, and they get tested/have a reputation to protect. Less chance of buying someone's lawn mixed with a bit of hay like when you buy on a street corner. ) But that does not mean it's always harmless - that I have seen first hand. Pretty shocking even, those folks were just as washed out as us alcoholics, heroin addicts, etc. (it was a multi-addiction facility)

Smoking cannabis is associated with schizophrenia though the cause:effect relationships are not clear.

Maybe people with a predisposition to schizophrenia are more likely to smoke cannabis than people without a predisposition. Maybe smoking cannabis can trigger schizophrenia in some people and maybe both of these can happen in some people.

Exactly. The going theory in rehab from the psych was that in most cases, the cannabis brought out the underlying dysfunction, but most probably didn't cause it. FWIW, I haven't really done any research, but he is/was a highly respected professional (and president of the Psych society in my country).

Thinking/remembering further... it also brought out paranoia in people who were already very anxious. When I went in there was one guy, Jewish, very intelligent, one big huge gigantic bundle of nerves. He had been in the circle of nervous-smoke joint to calm down-bad effect-another joint to try-bad effect and even crisis.

He didn't stay. His addiction to cannabis at that point (something you rarely read) was so strong that he managed to make an arrangement with his uncle in Tel Aviv to come over; his family here (in Belgium) had said: 'If you leave rehab you are no longer welcome here.' Well, he uprooted his life, left rehab, left all his belongings (car even) and went to Israel. (not sure if he could find weed there coming to think of it, but I guess he will have)

So when people tell me "cannabis is not addictive" I say, "uhuh, sure, most of the time, but not everyone is like everyone else". I think if there's anything we learn here at NT is that no 2 people are alike, that stats are nice, but not always useful when it comes to the individual. A famous Dutch writer once wrote: "A statistician had carefully calculated, after years of research, that the little river in his town was 20cm deep on average. He waded in. He drowned."

My thoughts are that pot should be legal or at least decriminalized for the casual user. I believe there could be addictive properties since many who partake use it to self medicate and unless the underlying issues are addressed the propensity exists. Heck, even sex, sugar and food in general can be addictive to a certain subset.
I have a child that struggled with opiods. He is on drug therapy for the long haul and yet still drinks and smokes weed. My understanding is that these should be avoided yet his addiction specialist doctor claims that opiods are unlike other drugs and so abstaining from all other drugs does not apply, as long as they are used in moderation. I don't understand that logic.