bad marijuana experience-now permanent anxiety please help!

[KLopaz]

hey im 18 yr old male. for the past 3 months ive been experiencing what seems to be severe anxiety. im pretty sure ive had this for a while as i had a pretty bad panic attack outa nowhere about 1 year ago. after that i went to a cardiologist to see if my heart was ok and got a heart CT scan and EKG and it was perfectly fine. no anxiety no thing after that felt fine.
Then about 3 months ago i did marijuana for like the 4th time in my life. it was MUCH MUCH more potent than any weed ive ever had before it was extremely strong hashish. i smoked TONS of it cause i wanted to get really high. after a few minutes i started to FREAK out like no other. felt i was going to die, i was positive i was going to die. my heart was beating insanely fast i couldnt breath i felt like all my adrenaline was flowing through me and i was just losing it i could not relax. it was the scariest most rediculous experience ever i cant believe i reacted to the hash like that.
I was pretty short of breath the whole time and i was sure all these symptoms would dissapear after a few hours or by the next day. When i woke up the next day I was shocked to still feel all the symptoms i could not get in a breath. Ever since then ive been short of breath i was just always concious of my lungs not getting enough air. and weird symptoms have popped up since then too. like light headedness dizziness, feeling like im going crazy sometimes, chest pain,heart palpitations, sometimes feeling like theres a lump in my throat. i have never felt this way before i had that bad experience with that crazy hashish. i felt really good and not anxious at all before that night i was really physically active. now i feel like im gonna die. I have panic attacks frequently and this constant shortness of breath is driving me crazy i havent breathed normally at all.
i have gotten so many tests: blood tests.urine tests, heart scan.pulminary function test,upper gi xray for GERD, EKG, 24 EKG. all normal except two things which were pretty weird and i still havent figured out, which were a stomach ulcer and high estrogen levels which is very rare in an 18 yr old male
i dont understand first of all how the FUCK did i react to a light drug like marijuana i mean this isnt lsd or pcp or soemthign like that. second of all can it create permanent shortness of breath and permanent physical symptoms like this. I need to figure this out because its ruining my life i went from being VERy happy feeling great to always feeeling like im going to die after just ONE night. Im not even scared that i have a disease. because those can be treated and my dads a doctor he would get the best care for me. im just really worried that this is a very bad physciatric disorder and its going to stick with me forever. Has anyone ever heard of people experiencing this? crazy physical symtpoms after a bad drug experience. or even people freaking out from a drug as harmless as marijuana. i really need some insights as to what people think of this and what would be a good plan of action to go about getting rid of this. some reassurance that this isnt permanent or that this is easily treatable would be GREAT also. sorry this was so long but i really need some advice that ONE night turned my life upside down i cant breathe anymore it seems like. and im scared to exercise cause i have the same symtpoms when i excercise.

[riprock]

Hey man, dont know if my experience is similar to yours but... I used to drink and smoke pot heavily since like 13, i'm 21 now, and then got into harder stuff when i turned 19... ( E / K / coke).

Had my first panic attack after a bad night of E, and my life also got twisted upside down....

Has been a year since then and i'm always randomly dizzy / light headed, get feelings of going crazy, and just like life seems almost impossible to live now. I workout all the time and am fit, but now since the anxiety attack i get so dizzy after strenuous activity and my summer labour job is hard...

i've been to the doc a bunch and they just tell me to take SSRI's but i dont want to due to the side effects so i'm just dealing with this now i guess... So crappy :(

[HM]

Hi,

I experienced the exact same thing as you a few years back. I’d been a heavy pot smoker for a while and never had any problems with it.

Then one day I was leaning out a window smoking a spliff and was suddenly hit with the most intense feelings of panic, I freaked out big time!

Like you, I had an ‘insanely’ fast heart-rate, difficulty breathing and I also felt as though I was going to die.

Obviously I stopped smoking weed immediately. But the feelings of panic didn’t stop with it.

I went to the doctor the next day (I was so bad my brother had to come with me!). The doctor prescribed me some medication and told me I was suffering typical marijuana induced psychosis. He made me aware of the local drug clinics and recommended I accessed therapy.

I started to take the medication, which helped a lot. I also made an effort to sort my life out in general. I started eating healthily, read books on cognitive behavioural therapy, tried relaxations techniques and basically did anything I could to distract myself from how I was feeling. Day by day I did gradually begin to feel better.

The process of getting over this experience took about 6 months. It was one of the hardest times in my life. But you WILL get over it. The active drug in Marijuana (THC) is stored in fat cells in the body and takes a long time to leave your system.

I don’t think the Marijuana has cased you breathlessness, this is a typical symptom of anxiety and it’s not as a result of any damage the weed may have done to your lungs. It’s because you are constantly in a state of worry that you find it difficult to breathe, nothing else.

In fact all of the symptoms you’ve listed can be attributed to anxiety rather than other more sinister conditions.

So my advice to you would be to go to the doctor and explain everything about the marijuana smoking, tell him you believe it’s caused your mental health problems and follow his advice. Have faith in any medication he prescribes you.

Learn to distract yourself from your worry and try to tell yourself that the breathlessness is because you’re anxious, and, like your anxiety, it’s not going to be permanent.

Believe you will get better and you will and what ever happens NEVER smoke it again.

Harry

[KLopaz]

the wierd thing is is that i was not a heavy pot smoker at all that was only the 3rd or 4th time ive done it lol all the anxiety from marijuana experiences i hear is of people having anxiety after being heavy users...so weird. u think it will be easier to get over this since it was CAUSED by a drug and not by my natural mind? will make me feel alot better if thats the case. by the way im pretty overweight and i did smoke ALOT of marijuana that night so do u think it could still be in my system months later?

[bio]

One morning, I asked my colleague(paramedic ) if substance abuse causes mental illness or mental illness that drive a person to abuse the substance. As expected, his answer was substance abuse is dangerous.

[LemmycautioN]

First of all I would advise you to avoid pot. Marijuana isn't a dangerous drug - it's certainly safer than alcohol - but it is by far one of the worst drugs for anxiety. People think that because marijuana generally mellows people out that it may help with anxiety, but 9 times out of 10 it exacerbates it. The marijuana probably didn't cause the anxiety disorder though, it just brought it out. Many people with anxiety disorders have had some kind of experience that caused their first panic attack; severe stress is a common trigger, but a bad drug experience can work just as well.

Does anxiety run in your family?

It sounds to me like you've run the gamut as far as tests go, have you spoken to a psychiatrist? I had my first panic attack when I was 18 - under very similar circumstances - and for months I felt very strange. I was always worried about losing my mind, having a serious and permanent illness, and dying. One thing to remember is if you had a serious psychiatric disorder you wouldn't be worrying about having a psychiatric disorder, you'd be worried about the CIA stealing your dreams. Fear of insanity is a symptom of anxiety, especially among younger people.

I don't know about the shortness of breath thing - I have asthma so I am used to feeling short of breath. You said that you had a pulmonary function test and it came back normal so it is most likely the anxiety that is causing it. You have nerves in your lungs and sometimes they are more sensitive to changes in function. There are other ways that anxiety causes the feeling of shortness of breath, but none of them are actually dangerous. Sometimes anxiety causes you to focus on certain things, like breathing, more than you usually would. Have you gone through the anxiety symptoms checklist? I know it's somewhere on this site; try to find it and see how many of your symptoms could be attributed to anxiety.

[KLopaz]

yes anxiety supposedly runs in my family, not severe anxiety just minor anxiety, and my case seems to be severe. ive had very minor anxiety before that night of marijuana and now its just been out of control since then which was a few months ago.im really afraid that this wont go away even if i dont think about it im still short of breath its like a whole different person entered my body that night and took it over and my old self is gone. if that makes sense its not like a act different i still act the same i just feel like im not here sometimes thats been real recently. new symtpoms keep popping up. although i dont get panic attacks really. havent had one in a while.

[x1angelx]

So I had a terrible experience back in high school with MJ. It was also one of the first times I'd ever smoked and I did way too much. So it is 100% normal to feel a sense of death and anxiety when you smoke too much weed. It keeps coming at you and it gets worse and it can last hours or even longer to get completely out of your system. you probably stressed yourself out and started getting anxiety the next day bc you were groggy and scared.

it has been almost a decade since my HS freakout with weed (and I learned in college it didn't happen to just me...it happens with alot of people). I'm not condoning smoking pot at all, but the thing you have to do with it is learn how much you can handle.

Anywho, I've suffered terrible panic and anxiety for more than a year and was the occasional pot smoker throughout it. I recently moved and was doing GREAT it was so awesome. Until one day I smoked too much and had such a bad panic attack that they come back everyday now. I know it started again b/c of the weed and have many of the same symptoms as you. IT IS YOUR MIND TAKING OVER. I have to continuously tell myself this, but hey its almost 4am and I'm b/c of my anxiety. Let me know how it goes. Good luck!

[Robbed]

It is actually a fairly common thing for drugs to trigger an anxiety disorder. This usually happens when the drug experience is SO strong and makes you feel SO out of the ordinary that it scares the living crap out of you. And strong forms of marijuana, as well as hallucinogens like LSD are the VERY WORST offenders here. I myself had an experience like this almost 15 years ago when I foolishly tried LSD. But from my experience, this will go away with time. In my case, it took over three years to do so completely. But I got better pretty steadily throughout that time. So try to remember this. Because even if it DOES take you as long as three years, you will still get better. Also, since it sounds like you have some underlying anxiety issues, consider this to be a good time to work on those issues as well.

[Spot]

As a sweeping statement...drugs enhance and alcohol repress feelings. So if you already have anxious tendencies, you feel them 10 fold when you do drugs. That's why most ppl enjoy the 'buzz' and those with these anxious feelings do not (as much) because they're feeling way too much in addition to the buzz. In a way...it acts as a deterrent and as a result you don't get hooked as easily. What I don't understand is as a kid we're told 'don't do drugs' or 'drugs are bad' and as we stumble into adulthood, what's the part of life called where it changes and we're all of a sudden told to now do our drugs. Sometimes I look at them as polite pushers in lab coats. They too provide reasons as to do drugs, but don't do them themselves - just like the street dealers. My advice...Try and find a doc with similar struggles to your own - they exist. They can relate to more. And don't be afraid to ask your doc if they've ever 'tried' drugs. :slywink:

[Matt_H]

Sounds to me like you got pretty stoned, mission accomplished! Long before I knew I had anxiety problems, when I would smoke I'd get paranoid and anxious. Sounds to me like you had a panic attack while you were sky high. Very scary experience, but you'll be okay trust me. Stop smoking the buds, and get yourself some help for your anxiety. Good luck :)

Oh and I just need to point out the irony of drugs maybe causing your anxiety. Cause chances are they're gonna use drugs to help it. Only difference is a federal agency has approved these drugs. And we all trust the government right!!!

Drugs, the cause & solution to all of life's problems. So it seems.