Why do you say to be very cautious?

Well....out of caution?
You may be a 100 lbs woman, or a 350lbs man?
With taking ANY type of supplement, start slow and gradually work your way up...

Ah ok. Just wondering since I head and read nothing online about it being dangerous. I definitely agree though

Would it be worth it for me to spend money and stay in Denver for a week just to pick up a high cbd strain and smoke it for a week? Will it make a difference?

I am very close to fully recovering but small things happen that exacerbate my symptoms. Suddenly 2 weeks ago I started getting sound sensitivity, after 4 months of never having it.

If you think you are close to a recovery, I suggest you stay away from marijuana, even high CBD. The smoking will have lots of negative chemicals. The THC will be of very questionable value.

Plus, CBD is not a healing agent. It is a continuing treatment. Over a long period of lowered symptoms, improvement may happen.

I think you need to continue learning how to work with your condition. Stay away from alcohol. It sounds like you are sensitive. Learn to protect yourself from problem sounds and volumes like in the car. Learn how to settle from a startle response. It sounds like you get upset at being upset by the startle. Accepting that it was a startle and that you need to settle will be a good skill.

So, stay the course. Learn how to move forward as you continue to improve and you will be fine.

I don't understand your comments regarding marijuana? There is nothing dangerous about it.

I was at a point where I literally couldn't leave my house because my anxiety and depression, I had a fear of dying. I was in a very bad state, I suffered from ice pick like migraines, my brain felt like it was sitting on a hot frying pan being pricked my 1 million hot needles

My doctor advised me to stay away from marijuana, he told me to rest and drink water so I did what he said and for months it just wouldn't get better. I didn't leave my room for about 3 months. (January 2015 to about April 2015)

I finally said screw this, I need to feel different, things can't get any worse than they are now, I had read a lot about the benefits of marijuana and sure I had read some dangers that can come with it as well but there are ups and downs to everything, the internet has hundreds of sources on the subject and they all will tell you something different. The only way to know is to actually try it.

I got a joint off one of my close buddies, he gets his off of your common drug dealer so I doubt it was medical grade but I live in British Columbia and it's easy to access and it's almost always high grade stuff, people around here know what they are doing when it comes to Marijauna, high THC levels but I made sure to smoke only a little bit at a time (a few small puffs). I had smoked weed throughout my teens years and I knew what I was getting in to.

WITHIN DAYS I started feeling better, finally some relief, I was able to leave my house and I was feeling happy again. I began walking for exercise, visiting friends and just experiencing the outside world again. I began using marijuana and I began to improve day by day, unfortunately I recieved a set back about a week ago but I am feeling better already which leaves me to believe it was nothing to major but I will leave that story for another day.

I have been following this site for a long time, Mark. You are a very humble and knowledgeable man. You help a lot of people but sometimes you seem way to caught up in the science part of things. I feel like you read one bad article about something and you shut it down. I really want you to try this magical plant, it may very well help you. I understand you are at peace but you should take a serious look in to marijuana and just give it a shot, I think you would wish you had done it a lot sooner.

Cheers, sorry for the long read I hope I wrote it well enough for you to read, my grammar and punctuation aren't the greatest.

Tyson,

I would love to have access to CBD. It has great value. But, I would never smoke it. Too many other things in the smoke. I spent half an hour last Thursday talking with a Mom and her daughter who has had significant benefit from CBD oil. The daughter got her life back. They have to get the CBD oil illegally.

There is no real meaning to medical grade unless there is a regulation that requires a registered grow house. At best it means that grower has had his various strains tested to determine percents and ratios of CBD, THC and such. There may be an attempt to show no herbicides or pesticides but the testing and growing is basically unregulated or minimally regulated, even for the approved grow houses. It is usually more of a tracking of product to make sure no product makes it onto the black/street market.

Statistically, some of your depression and anxiety issues may be due to your teen use of marijuana. Research shows that the teen brain is far more at risk of long term changes due to regular use than an adult brain. Yes, that is science but science is what is used to find the best way to treat a condition.

It is well documented that THC can be anxiety reducing in low amounts but have an opposite effect in higher doses.

It sounds like your few puffs at a time over a longer period may have helped reduce your anxiety. That alone can lead to a massive improvement. It is not the marijuana that necessarily caused the improvement. Often, it is the reduction in anxiety that causes the improvement. Anxiety is often the major problem with PCS. Anxiety magnifies the smallest PCS symptom, sometimes to nightmarish proportions.

I know people in Colorado who use low dose to just take the edge off. They know that more is counter to what they are trying to achieve. No high. Just enough to almost get a high. It reduces their hyper-vigilence to their symptoms.

When we can stop focusing on our symptoms, they don't impact our lives as much.

So, yes, I see value in CBD and low dose THC. But, TyDurden is improving so well that smoking some may disrupt his progress. His symptoms do not appear to be severe enough to risk the toxins from smoking. Maybe a bit of oil or edible. The PCS brain is usually very sensitive to toxins of every variety.

I just dont understand why anxiety affects it that much? Why?

I can understand something external, like actually hitting your head, but anxiety?


Also thanks for your input guys

Quite simply, anxiety causes a strong cascade of toxic residue in the brain. Think of it as the stinky smoke from a tire burnout. There is a catch-22 with concussion and anxiety. The concussion causes a change in perception or processing that confuses the concussed person so they become anxious trying to understand. The more they struggle to understand, the more anxious they become. With the anxiety comes the bad chemistry.

The physical effects of a concussion can also cause a cascade of bad chemistry as the brain deals with injured tissue. Some of the tissue dies and breaks down causing even more bad chemistry. There is a system in the brain called the glymph system. It is a lymph system for the brain that drains the glial cells. It is the brains sewer system. It is necessary to carry off the toxins. It is a very sensitive and small system that is damaged by the trauma of a concussion similar to what happens in a diffuse axonal injury. If was only discovered a few years ago and is changing how researchers look at the brain.

There is an entire sub-specialty of psychiatry call ortho-molecular psychiatry that studies this cascade of bad chemistry and tries to correct it.

So, anxiety, whether thought based or physiology based, is a big issue that is hard to overcome and is made worse by toxins.

since the day i went to the emergency room after my injury until this day 2 1/2 years later

i have told every single health care provider i have seen...i have primary care doc and see 16 different specialists...

i have been on over 250 appointments with highly paid, highly educated, and as we know highly arrogant docs...

i see the varsity. 7 of the clinics i see the head of the clinic.

i make it a point to let all my docs know that on my med list is listed as 'as needed'.

NOT ONE health care provider, at any pay scale you can think of, told me i should stop my use.

not one.

i find that astonishing.

but, then again, i love i n Colorado...

here is what i think:

it is a tool. period.

i have lot in my tool box: valium...percocet...tramadol...lidocain patches...and MM...

i use it in only 2 circumstances and every doc knows what i do:

1) i get ready for bed completely, then i go outside and i smoke. everyone in the house knows what i am doing. all i need is 2-3 hits of indica. i go straight to bed and turn off the light. it helps my sleep. A LOT.

2) after an episode of rage. i need something to alter my state of mind to combat the onslaught of chemical changes at that moment. it helps me EVERY TIME. just ask my wife...she can't get me outside fast enough and i usually come back in with a sigh of relief and ask her just happened because it is so bad i cannot remember...some of you know what i mean...absolutely every filthy word you can think of comes pouring out at full volume. yikes. that is when i need help. and it helps me.

the chemicals released into the brain during a fit of rage are as powerful as anything i have encountered in my life. it is impossible to calm down to anything that resembles something related to a human being.

MMJ helps me in those 2 situations.

i am not a recreational user, although it sure is nice to feel good when i go to bed...

my 82 year old mother knows. our 7 kids know. our dog knows. my priest knows. i do not keep it a secret.

what works for me will never work for everyone.

it is just a tool in my tool box.

your tool box is different than mine.

it is not a miracle for me or anything like that.

when i need a patch, i use a patch...when i need tramadol, i take it...

our bodies all react differently to different meds. gabapentin ain't for everyone, neither is this.

it works for me and i know my body well and i am careful with all my meds.

i hope this helps to hear my story.

God Bless and Merry Christmas!

Brainstemmed

Brainstemmed,

If you read the rest of my posts, I am not saying M is bad. Ty said he is doing good and it appeared he was looking for a quick fix for his residual symptoms. As I said, I know people who benefit from low dose M, especially for symptoms like yours. But, M is known to cause anxiety if too much it used. Ty already appears to have anxiety issues. A week trip to Denver for some M is not going to change his condition except maybe give him some short term relief. He mentioned that he used it regularly as a teen.

I wanted him to be cautious so he does not trigger a relapse.

Bnstmd,

Have you seen the post about Atlas instability posted a few weeks ago ? Here is the thread.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...97#post1187597