Anxiety and Derealization

[bhamlaxy]

Sorry if this is a bit long. Just want to get everything out there and start looking for resources.

Here is a basic history of my anxiety.

Spring 08': I have always been fine with flying. Over the course of 3 flights, I had momentary panic, extended discomfort, and on the 3rd- a hellish 2 hour experience of full panic. I maintained appearances but it was absolute hell. I successfully flew back using ativan. A flight a few weeks later I used the ativan (but it was very very early) and could not board the plane. Have not flown since. At the time, I was under a decent amount of stress (graduating college, looking for job, etc.)

Summer 11': Working out of state on a political campaign, away from girlfriend, friends etc. About one month of extremely intense work managing a very large staff. Running a training one day with a few new hires, and feel a rush of anxiety, dizziness, etc. Excuse myself to the bathroom and work to calm myself down, took about 10 minutes. Last week of that job is shaky- I get through but deal with maybe 1-2 more mini-panic attacks or days with constant light anxiety. Was generally worse in the morning, although had one at home in the evening. All relatively short.

2.5 weeks ago: Working on local campaign from home for several months, and election day is nearing. Heavy stress, no days off for months with long hours. Have a very minor panic attack one day. A week later I am home, and decide to smoke some marijuana (I am a long time smoker but have slowly been doing it less and less, and rarely do when stressed out like this). It sets off the worst panic attack I have ever had. I spend 2 hours walking around the block and pacing my house. I try everything to calm down, like a shower, eating tiny bits, and drinking water. I sit, walk around, lay down, sit up, walk around etc. It is 2 hours of hell, telling myself over and over that I do not need to call 911 and I'm simply too high. Even though the amount I smoked was relatively small, my thoughts and perceptions are completely skewed. I slowly return to a point where I can relax, and my girlfriend returns. I fall asleep almost instantly.

The day after I feel far from normal. Everything feels off, perceptions are skewed, feel kind of like I'm in a dream. Nothing feels "real", although I know it is. I muddle through a few days of work somewhat successfully. Take half a day off on a particularly tough day and decide to use some of the leftover ativan from my flight anxiety. Take .5mg and it works wonders. I successfully get through the last few (incredibly stressful days) of the campaign taking half a pill in the morning and half in the evening.

We win the election. I am financially stable, have solid job prospects whenever I choose to go back to work, and have a great opportunity to take a break for a few weeks. I figure the anxiety would go away but I am wrong. Starting the day after I have the same feelings- From the moment I wake up in the morning I feel anxiety bubbling up and nothing feels normal. I get 15 ativan from an urgent care clinic and have an intake appointment at a local mental health service organization (my first appointment should be in a week).

Now: May need to get more ativan (still using .5mg when I feel bad). Things seem to have gotten substantially worse in the past 3 days. It is primarily what I believe is "derealization" and/or "depersonalization". I feel incredibly uncomfortable in my own body. Everything feels weird and off. This in turn causes more anxiety as I wonder why things won't return to normal.

I guess this has also led to slight depression. I wonder will this ever end and if I'll ever feel normal. Somedays I will wake up only to stay in bed for hours, hovering in this half sleep dream state that is the only break I get from dealing with the anxiety and weird feelings. It's been complete hell and I keep thinking I'm going to end up in an institution.

My health insurance covers urgent care and ER visits in the state I live in, but everything when home (5 hour drive). I have an appointment at a recommended therapy service in the area which doesn't cost much. I'm just nervous that won't be enough and I'll either have to return home for a few weeks to seek better treatment or get my parents to help me pay for a better place here.

Really I'm just looking for any feedback, tips, similar experiences, resources, etc. Thanks for listening

[laurandisorder]

I have had a very similar experience with the smoking. I had been panic free for a good few months, except when I smoked - 50% of the time I would be fine and then the other 50% would induce mild anxiety symptoms which occasionally manifested into a full blown panic attack.

Until one Friday afternoon when I smoked a tiny, tiny amount (I used to be so hard core and could keep up with my partner) and the panic attack hit me like a semitrailer. I ended up in the hospital at the ER because I could not stop it, even after 3-4 hours. I got all of vitals done and after being given 5mg Valium settled enough so that I could go home (total attack time about 6 hours).

I will never touch the stuff again. Ever. That was about 3 months ago and I have been struggling ever since. I get some clarity, but this latest attack has also really shaken my sense of self and let a lot of doubt in.

Like you, I deal with a lot of stress on a daily basis and have struggled through my job and life, feeling like I'm stumbling over every hurdle. I'm getting there slowly. It has been a good month or so since my last full blown attack, but I'm constantly on high alert to try and identify when, where and what will trigger the next bout if anxiety.

I'm in treatment and see my therapist regularly. I'm looking forward to starting some CBT to help me with this. I would strongly recommend seeing someone to help you with this and to supervise your medication.

Good luck with everything xx

[wanttoheal]

Hi - sorry for your suffering. I know all to well as I'm suffering as well. Anxiety sucks there is nothing worse. I went to hell and back on Ativan. In the beginning it works wonders. It's like a magic pill. What happens though is that soon you need to take more and it becomes a vicious cycle. Benzos are great for taking the extreme edge off but long term they tend to cause major issues and are extremely hard to get off of.
I'm now on klonopin which is a longer acting benzo and would love to get off of it. I feel like since I fell into the medicine rabbit hole I've lost who I am.
I just had a consultation (phone) with a psychiatrist in Pasadena who specializes in panic disorder and anxiety. He is very knowledgable. If you'd like his info let me know. He can't treat you over the phone but he offers great insight.

[jeremyfresno]

Hi - sorry for your suffering. I know all to well as I'm suffering as well. Anxiety sucks there is nothing worse. I went to hell and back on Ativan. In the beginning it works wonders. It's like a magic pill. What happens though is that soon you need to take more and it becomes a vicious cycle. Benzos are great for taking the extreme edge off but long term they tend to cause major issues and are extremely hard to get off of.
I'm now on klonopin which is a longer acting benzo and would love to get off of it. I feel like since I fell into the medicine rabbit hole I've lost who I am.
I just had a consultation (phone) with a psychiatrist in Pasadena who specializes in panic disorder and anxiety. He is very knowledgable. If you'd like his info let me know. He can't treat you over the phone but he offers great insight.

Hi im originally from the pasadena area.....may I have in information?

[bhamlaxy]

I will never touch the stuff again. Ever. That was about 3 months ago and I have been struggling ever since. I get some clarity, but this latest attack has also really shaken my sense of self and let a lot of doubt in.

It's so weird, but I've found a lot of stuff involving marijuana in my research. For better or worse, growing up I could smoke like a chimney. For almost 6 years it played a major part in my life, luckily not majorly interfering with grades, etc.

But as I've gotten older and had jobs and real responsibility, I've been drawn less and less to it. I wouldn't want to get blasted anymore, just a couple hits would be nice once in awhile. Especially in extremely tense times where stress was high from work, I would smoke little to nothing. Now, like you, I don't think I'll ever smoke again. Can't imagine it, and couldn't feel better saying it.

It was during one of those times a few weeks ago that I decided to smoke. Just two hits, a laughable amount compared to my old days. And it was like I boarded a rocketship. It took every bit of my willpower to not call 911 and say "HOLY F'IN HELL I NEED HELP RIGHT NOW". I kept saying to myself "You are too high, it will go away". Little did I know it would not, and that night seems to have set off this hellish condition I've been dealing with.

Sitting here right now, it absolutely blows my mind. Words like "medication", "mental disorder" and "therapy" haven't played a part in my 23 years of life. Until right now. It's like everything is crashing down, and I'm still in denial that this is even happening. But I know deep down that it is very real. This has been the toughest thing I've ever had to go through. I never imagined I would be losing touch with reality, fighting to simply feel normal. But here I am.


I went to hell and back on Ativan. In the beginning it works wonders. It's like a magic pill. What happens though is that soon you need to take more and it becomes a vicious cycle. Benzos are great for taking the extreme edge off but long term they tend to cause major issues and are extremely hard to get off of.
I know that issues like this vary greatly person to person, but can you compare your experience to mine?

19 days ago I was prescribed 15 1mg ativan pills. Before that I had taken about 3 over the course of a week. I have never taken more than 1 in a day. Generally, I take a half in the morning and half in the evening. Past few days have been very bad, but I have still managed to keep it under 1 a day, even only a half like today. I may be noticing a slightly decreased effect, or it could just be that these past few days have been bad. But this still hasn't changed the fact that I have never taken more than a 1/2mg at a time, no more than twice a day.

Considering the length of time I have taken them, and the small doses I have taken, am I getting close at all to a nasty dependence?

I ask this because while I am trying to conserve the two that I have left, I feel like I need them until I start seeing someone later this week, or spend some time at home (where my insurance works) to meet with a psychiatrist to discuss other pharmaceutical options to accompany therapy. I am tempted to get an appointment at an urgent care clinic and ask for another prescription. I am trying to cut back on them because to some extent just knowing I have them can help stave off a panic attack. I'm just curious if my use is leaning towards dependence.

[wanttoheal]

Hi - Ativan affects each person differently. I started at .05 for anxiety and insomnia. Within 3 wks I was up to .05 3x daily per drs request. I felt that as soon as the Ativan wore off I needed more. I felt that my anxiety worsened during this time. I now know that I am benzo sensitive. Some people do ok with them. You might be able to get by with the Ativan until you can see a psychiatrist. If you do get another Rx I would just be very mindful of how you're using it and how much. It can creep up on you quickly.
The psychiatrist in Pasadena is Stuart Shipko. Go to stuartshipko.com.
Good luck and know that you're not suffering alone.

[wanttoheal]

Hi - its me again. Just wanted to tell you that the reason i like Stuart Shipko is that is doesn't believe in a lot of medication. So many psychiatrist's try to load you up on so many things that at the end of the day you don't even know who you are. If you do consult with him I would be very up front about the weed. He won't judge you. It's just important to give all information.

[MrVolvo]

Hi bhamlaxy.

I hope what I have to say will go a LONG way in comforting you. My experience with marijuana (and the aftereffects of the incident) are nearly identical to yours. The derealization/depersonalization is, as you said, the absolute most distressing thing I have ever experienced and fuels my anxiety. However, right off the bat I want to make it clear that I do not think this "brain fog" is permanent, nor do I think we are going insane or have some mental disorder. I'll go into detail what I think the problem is in detail later in this post.

The following story and information is going to be a bit long winded, but I hope you will read it because I think it will go a long way in reassuring you.

Similar to you, my story starts with a time period where I was dealing with an enormous amount of stress. I was a Sophomore in College at the time, and was sleeping very little and stressing a LOT. I mean a lot. I was a fierce perfectionist and always strived for good grades, but my poor time management skills had finally caught up to me. I was also doubting my major and was unsure of my future, which coupled with my parent's high expectations had me stressing even further. I had trouble sleeping at night (heavily sleep deprived) and my diet was poor. Despite all of these problems, I really had no problem with anxiety. I mean I had experienced some minor anxious feelings when I was much younger, but nothing serious.

At around the same time, I started smoking marijuana occasionally. I would maybe smoke once a month, if that, but I did it casually amongst friends. I definitely enjoyed it when I smoked. At the end of the semester I returned home for the Summer. Because of a job I had lined up I didn't smoke at all during this time. My job was another source of stress. At around the end of Summer, one of my friends (who was a huge pothead) invited me over to hang out at his house. I decided to smoke that night and have regretted it ever since.

My friend had very potent weed due to his habit. That coupled with the fact that we smoked out of a gravity bong and that I hadn't smoked in months and was very inexperienced lead to me getting way too high. And it was miserable, absolutely the worst experience I have ever had. I can succinctly describe it as a feeling of going insane, and an intense fear of death. It was as if I had no control over my thoughts and constantly had this feeling of impending doom. I was debilitated for about 4 or 5 hours.My experience of time was extremely warped so it's hard to say exactly how long it lasted. I didn't black out or anything, I was aware the entire time.

My friends tried to comfort me by saying that I was just too high, and although I reasoned that they were probably right, the feelings, thoughts, and sensations were all too intense to ignore. I sat down in my friend's bed, constantly repeating to myself that it was only temporary and that I did not have to go to the emergency room. For hours and hours on end, I sat there repeating this in my head. Words cannot really express how miserable it was. After the high wore off, I felt slightly better and fell asleep.

The next morning I figured everything would be back to normal. I didn't really notice anything "off" at first, but soon it became apparent. Here is a list of symptoms I started experiencing.

- Dissociation (most distressing, experienced as an altered perception of reality, as if everything is unreal or dreamy, looking through a fog)
- Generalized anxiety (this manifests itself mainly in the form of irrational phobias of germs, of taking anything mind altering such as medicine or alcohol, and other things occasionally. I'm very scared of putting myself in another vulnerable state of mind. For example, I have a phobia of germs because I don't want to get sick and be put in a state that may increase my anxiety)
- OCD (Obsessive thoughts and behaviors)
- Hyperactivity (restlessness)
- Insomnia
- Strange and vivid dreams
- Brain fog (disorganized/irrational thoughts, partially impaired memory, longer apparent brain processing times)
- Sensitivity to light
- General malaise

Now that we've got the negative parts out of the way, lets talk about the positives and what exactly happened and why we're experiencing these symptoms. I don't know if you experience any of these other symptoms, but the dissociation and anxiety you experience are definitely relatable.

What I think we experienced is an acute panic reaction resulting in a generalized anxiety/panic disorder and possibly post traumatic stress disorder. This is curable. I have seen multiple doctors and they've come to this same conclusion and believe that it is not permanent. Anxiety disorders can occur for a number of reasons, but they are effectively treated by cognitive behavioral therapy and through other programs which I'll get to later.

One thing I noticed in all my research of people who have had such reactions to marijuana, is that it usually occurred in inexperienced/occasional smokers or in people that inhaled a higher dose than normal. Another similarity I found was that most people were experiencing a lot of stress around the time of the incident. A final conclusion I've come to, and this may not apply to you, is that the person either had minor anxiety problems previously in their life or were predisposed to having anxiety due to a family history. My mom is a very anxious person sometimes, so this would make sense for me.

Here's a resource citing others who have had similar reactions to marijuana. They have multiple pages worth of information there and this has also reassured me a bit.

(They won't let me post a link on here, so google "Marijuana anxiety hub" and it's the first link. The title of the site is "Anxiety Panic Hub")

I can post a lot of other links to reassure you if you're interested, but my main concern is that you realize that the effects are in all likelihood NOT permanent. The physiological description behind what has happened is fairly simple. There's a part of our brain called the amygdala which controls our fear response. You may have heard of it as the "fight or flight response." When put in a situation of perceived danger, your amygdala reacts by producing chemical changes that alters how the body functions in order to make it faster and stronger. This is to prepare the body to flee or to fight the danger, and is imperative to our survival. You experience a number of sensations during this time, such as dissociation and other classic anxiety symptoms.

Now when you start experiencing chronic stress or are put in a life threatening experience (such as the one we've had), your amygdala becomes "reset" at a higher benchmark level. It eventually becomes accustomed to functioning at such a high level of anxiety all the time that it becomes instinctual and an anxiety disorder develops. When your body functions at this level of anxiety, you start to fear things that normally wouldn't frighten you, and you begin having irrational thoughts and feelings of going insane. You really aren't. You're just in a heightened state of anxiety caused by chemical imbalances and confused nerves, and this produces a wide range of strange symptoms. Dissociation, for example, has been noted in people experiencing anxiety and anxiety disorders. You can treat anxiety through operant conditioning; behaving as if you were not anxious, as if you were normal and the symptoms don't matter.

I could really go on much more about the physiology of anxiety and how to cure it but I think this is enough for now. If you have any questions, PLEASE do not hesitate to contact me. For now post in this thread since I'm not allowed to post my email until 25 posts. I've suffered with this for over a year now, and it won't go away unless you take action. You must take action, and I'm sure a CBT specialist will help you. Here is another resource that will help.

(Again they won't let me post a link until I have 25 posts, so google "marijuana linden method" and it's the first link)

I've purchased the Linden Method and it's helped me immensely understand and resolve some anxiety. The book Power of Panic is supposedly very good as well, and discusses dissociation in detail. I've been meaning to pick it up for awhile now and will soon. The reason I've been struggling with my own anxiety disorder is because I am exceedingly detail oriented and constantly think of "what if" scenarios that really are highly improbable. It's the reason I've come to this forum, to find someone (or multiple people) who's dealing with the exact same problem, to collaborate with them and figure out a solution to it permanently. I think we can help each other and I hope you will be up to it.

Whew! Sorry for that really long post and thank you if you read it all! Be well and don't fret! Meditation and proper diet can help immensely, along with proper breathing, positive thinking, and cognitive behavioral techniques. I will absolutely be willing to give you some pointers if you'd like.

I know we can be in good physical and mental health again, but we must work together towards a solution!

[laurandisorder]

Thanks do much for this information. It has been really helpful.
Thanks again.

I'm do glad to know I'm not alone in this :)

[bhamlaxy]

Thank you for the post MrVolvo. Definitely some great info, and I'm looking into some of the resources now.

Your list of symptoms is pretty spot on. And have been there in varying degrees for about 3 weeks

- Dissociation: Definitely. It's like I feel a major disconnect between my mind, my body, and the external world. It's almost like being high but in a bad way.
- Generalized anxiety: I haven't really gotten a phobia of germs (although I am getting a cold right now. Hope it goes okay...) But definitely heightened anxiety in situations that I'd normally be fine in, mainly places where I can't "escape" quickly.
- OCD: Not really
- Hyperactivity: Definitely happens at certain points. When the anxiety is high I can't sit down or relax, or just watch TV.
- Insomnia: Sometimes. At least once I've had to get out of bed and pace around a bit. Often times I find I am most calm when alone in the wee hours of the morning.
- Strange and vivid dreams: Definitely. One of the things I have done to cope with it is to stay in bed as long as possible (thankfully I'm out of work right now). I wake up and already feel the disassociation and anxiety. It's like I want to take a "break from my body", so I try and go back to sleep. I end up in this half sleep dreamy state where I have odd dreams and slip in and out.
- Brain fog: Tiny bit.
- Sensitivity to light: Not really
- General malaise: Yep.

It's close to a month since the first attack and each day is still a struggle. Some are better than others, but the past few have been rough. I'll be starting a full time job in a few weeks and need to be functional by then.

I've bought some chamomile tea and a magnesium supplement. I worked out for the first time in ages today (although it set off some pretty bad anxiety immediately afterwards). I'll also be reinventing my diet.

I just pray this cold I feel coming on isn't bad. I can see it contributing to some anxiety.

[MrVolvo]

Symptoms can vary greatly from one person to another, depending on personality. Also our interpretations may be different even though we're talking about the same thing. I haven't even gotten into a lot of the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as a racing heart, tingling, muscle tightness, and some others. I don't experience these that much.

Chamomile tea is great for relaxing, as are epsom salt baths, massage, aromatherapy, acupuncture, and other alternative health treatments. But the most important thing to realize is that these will not eliminate the anxiety disorder. What will is behaving as if you were normal, and not letting yourself focus on your sensations. Being introspective and constantly examining yourself to check for symptoms is how many people with anxiety disorders perpetuate their condition. They notice something "off" that normally wouldn't bother them, but think of "what if" scenarios that lead to disaster. Then they start panicking. These are usually just illusions of situations that would never happen.

If you experience any unusual sensations or symptoms, talk it down. Say "Ok, this is a strange sensation/symptom, but it isn't actually a sign of anything wrong with me. It's just a result of confused nerve impulses that will be corrected if I ignore it and stop focusing on it." Then, and this is the most important part, you must find something else to occupy your mind. Do something that completely takes your mind off of the anxiety, such as a hobby. This will restructure neural pathways in your mind and allow you to develop and strengthen the non-anxious pathways that you used your entire life prior to this point.

I'll briefly sum up diet and exercise. I don't recommend vigorous exercise as this raises adrenaline levels a lot, and thus raises anxiety. Light cardio or light resistance training would probably be a better method, and definitely not for more than an hour a day. Yoga and Tai Chi are also good ways of increasing circulation and calming down.

For diet, I recommend eating 4-6 meals paced evenly throughout the day. Drink plenty of water (no soda, no juice, nothing with sugar). No junk food, candy, white bread or potatoes, and limit fruit to 1-2 servings a day. These are all very high in sugar, and will crash your blood sugar. Blood sugar inconsistency will cause you to feel anxious. Your medication may already have some affect on your blood sugar, I would look in the pamphlet that came with it or ask your doctor. Eat a portion of lean protein (turkey, chicken, beans) and a portion of fibrous, vegetables (or whole grain bread, but I recommend vegetables over bread) with every meal to regulate blood sugar. Lastly, I would talk to your doctor about coming off any medication you may be on. Medication cannot correct your anxiety, it will only mask it until your body becomes accustomed to the dose and asks for more. Make sure to talk to your doctor about a withdrawal program before actually doing so. Withdrawal can lead to rebound anxiety and other negative side effects.

By the way, I think it should go without saying that you should consult your therapist or doctor before listening to my advice. Again, good luck and don't fret!

[aquamarinearies]

Hi bhamlaxy.

I hope what I have to say will go a LONG way in comforting you. My experience with marijuana (and the aftereffects of the incident) are nearly identical to yours. The derealization/depersonalization is, as you said, the absolute most distressing thing I have ever experienced and fuels my anxiety. However, right off the bat I want to make it clear that I do not think this "brain fog" is permanent, nor do I think we are going insane or have some mental disorder. I'll go into detail what I think the problem is in detail later in this post.

The following story and information is going to be a bit long winded, but I hope you will read it because I think it will go a long way in reassuring you.

Similar to you, my story starts with a time period where I was dealing with an enormous amount of stress. I was a Sophomore in College at the time, and was sleeping very little and stressing a LOT. I mean a lot. I was a fierce perfectionist and always strived for good grades, but my poor time management skills had finally caught up to me. I was also doubting my major and was unsure of my future, which coupled with my parent's high expectations had me stressing even further. I had trouble sleeping at night (heavily sleep deprived) and my diet was poor. Despite all of these problems, I really had no problem with anxiety. I mean I had experienced some minor anxious feelings when I was much younger, but nothing serious.

At around the same time, I started smoking marijuana occasionally. I would maybe smoke once a month, if that, but I did it casually amongst friends. I definitely enjoyed it when I smoked. At the end of the semester I returned home for the Summer. Because of a job I had lined up I didn't smoke at all during this time. My job was another source of stress. At around the end of Summer, one of my friends (who was a huge pothead) invited me over to hang out at his house. I decided to smoke that night and have regretted it ever since.

My friend had very potent weed due to his habit. That coupled with the fact that we smoked out of a gravity bong and that I hadn't smoked in months and was very inexperienced lead to me getting way too high. And it was miserable, absolutely the worst experience I have ever had. I can succinctly describe it as a feeling of going insane, and an intense fear of death. It was as if I had no control over my thoughts and constantly had this feeling of impending doom. I was debilitated for about 4 or 5 hours.My experience of time was extremely warped so it's hard to say exactly how long it lasted. I didn't black out or anything, I was aware the entire time.

My friends tried to comfort me by saying that I was just too high, and although I reasoned that they were probably right, the feelings, thoughts, and sensations were all too intense to ignore. I sat down in my friend's bed, constantly repeating to myself that it was only temporary and that I did not have to go to the emergency room. For hours and hours on end, I sat there repeating this in my head. Words cannot really express how miserable it was. After the high wore off, I felt slightly better and fell asleep.

The next morning I figured everything would be back to normal. I didn't really notice anything "off" at first, but soon it became apparent. Here is a list of symptoms I started experiencing.

- Dissociation (most distressing, experienced as an altered perception of reality, as if everything is unreal or dreamy, looking through a fog)
- Generalized anxiety (this manifests itself mainly in the form of irrational phobias of germs, of taking anything mind altering such as medicine or alcohol, and other things occasionally. I'm very scared of putting myself in another vulnerable state of mind. For example, I have a phobia of germs because I don't want to get sick and be put in a state that may increase my anxiety)
- OCD (Obsessive thoughts and behaviors)
- Hyperactivity (restlessness)
- Insomnia
- Strange and vivid dreams
- Brain fog (disorganized/irrational thoughts, partially impaired memory, longer apparent brain processing times)
- Sensitivity to light
- General malaise

Now that we've got the negative parts out of the way, lets talk about the positives and what exactly happened and why we're experiencing these symptoms. I don't know if you experience any of these other symptoms, but the dissociation and anxiety you experience are definitely relatable.

What I think we experienced is an acute panic reaction resulting in a generalized anxiety/panic disorder and possibly post traumatic stress disorder. This is curable. I have seen multiple doctors and they've come to this same conclusion and believe that it is not permanent. Anxiety disorders can occur for a number of reasons, but they are effectively treated by cognitive behavioral therapy and through other programs which I'll get to later.

One thing I noticed in all my research of people who have had such reactions to marijuana, is that it usually occurred in inexperienced/occasional smokers or in people that inhaled a higher dose than normal. Another similarity I found was that most people were experiencing a lot of stress around the time of the incident. A final conclusion I've come to, and this may not apply to you, is that the person either had minor anxiety problems previously in their life or were predisposed to having anxiety due to a family history. My mom is a very anxious person sometimes, so this would make sense for me.

Here's a resource citing others who have had similar reactions to marijuana. They have multiple pages worth of information there and this has also reassured me a bit.

(They won't let me post a link on here, so google "Marijuana anxiety hub" and it's the first link. The title of the site is "Anxiety Panic Hub")

I can post a lot of other links to reassure you if you're interested, but my main concern is that you realize that the effects are in all likelihood NOT permanent. The physiological description behind what has happened is fairly simple. There's a part of our brain called the amygdala which controls our fear response. You may have heard of it as the "fight or flight response." When put in a situation of perceived danger, your amygdala reacts by producing chemical changes that alters how the body functions in order to make it faster and stronger. This is to prepare the body to flee or to fight the danger, and is imperative to our survival. You experience a number of sensations during this time, such as dissociation and other classic anxiety symptoms.

Now when you start experiencing chronic stress or are put in a life threatening experience (such as the one we've had), your amygdala becomes "reset" at a higher benchmark level. It eventually becomes accustomed to functioning at such a high level of anxiety all the time that it becomes instinctual and an anxiety disorder develops. When your body functions at this level of anxiety, you start to fear things that normally wouldn't frighten you, and you begin having irrational thoughts and feelings of going insane. You really aren't. You're just in a heightened state of anxiety caused by chemical imbalances and confused nerves, and this produces a wide range of strange symptoms. Dissociation, for example, has been noted in people experiencing anxiety and anxiety disorders. You can treat anxiety through operant conditioning; behaving as if you were not anxious, as if you were normal and the symptoms don't matter.

I could really go on much more about the physiology of anxiety and how to cure it but I think this is enough for now. If you have any questions, PLEASE do not hesitate to contact me. For now post in this thread since I'm not allowed to post my email until 25 posts. I've suffered with this for over a year now, and it won't go away unless you take action. You must take action, and I'm sure a CBT specialist will help you. Here is another resource that will help.

(Again they won't let me post a link until I have 25 posts, so google "marijuana linden method" and it's the first link)

I've purchased the Linden Method and it's helped me immensely understand and resolve some anxiety. The book Power of Panic is supposedly very good as well, and discusses dissociation in detail. I've been meaning to pick it up for awhile now and will soon. The reason I've been struggling with my own anxiety disorder is because I am exceedingly detail oriented and constantly think of "what if" scenarios that really are highly improbable. It's the reason I've come to this forum, to find someone (or multiple people) who's dealing with the exact same problem, to collaborate with them and figure out a solution to it permanently. I think we can help each other and I hope you will be up to it.

Whew! Sorry for that really long post and thank you if you read it all! Be well and don't fret! Meditation and proper diet can help immensely, along with proper breathing, positive thinking, and cognitive behavioral techniques. I will absolutely be willing to give you some pointers if you'd like.

I know we can be in good physical and mental health again, but we must work together towards a solution!

This is a great response. I was just wondering why it happens to people who don't smoke weed... I've never done it but I feel all these symptoms. And yes I do have a lot of stress in my life