With marijuana legalization in Maryland, you might be asking yourself how its use can impact your mental health. Or even if it can help with depression and anxiety. Check out our Baltimore therapist’s thoughts on the weed and mental health combo.
Y’all, I spent most of my career working in a university setting and my first 3 years were specifically as a substance abuse specialist who exclusively did motivational interviewing sessions — what a former colleague and I call the “Whoops, you got caught” group for college students with alcohol and THC infractions. Now, before you clutch your hemp necklace and close off this article, let me clarify a few things.
I am a clinician, relatively knowledgeable on the topic, that views recreational use of many (but not all) substances from a generally supportive lens. I’m also aware of the long and devastating history of white society fabricating a “War on Drugs”, marijuana in particular, as a proxy to overpolice, murder, incarcerate, and devastate communities of color in the United States. I am uncomfortable with the role substance abuse counseling has played in this system at times. Jim Crow in another form. If you’ve ever wondered why the reasons and rationale for making marijuana illegal never seem to be applied to alcohol…but I digress.
My goal, just as with the “Whoops!” group, is not for people to stop using substances, but for those who choose to use them to have the most and best information available. This feels particularly relevant given the recent weed legalization in Maryland.
Weed Use and Mental Health: A Baltimore Therapist’s Perspective
Let’s focus on THC, whether you’re vaping, smoking, or eating it. You’ll see me default to “smoke” in this blog for ease of writing, but I know there are a lot of ways to engage with THC. This topic is huge, so I’ll stick with a couple of areas to help you make more informed choices and address the elephant in the room.
Your why is just as crucial as your volume
That’s right. Generally speaking, I don’t worry too much about folks who smoke recreationally because it’s fun. Seriously. Periodic and moderate use for recreation is not a clinical issue, at least not to me. This is always the core of my assessment around substances, long before we talk about volume and frequency.
Clinically speaking I think there are “whys” that are inherently more risky than others. The riskiest I’ve seen for weed is mood management. If someone can’t get through a stressful event like work, writing a paper, or an evening alone without using THC then I begin to worry.
Nothing will reliably change the way we feel as a substance can, but there’s a danger in relying on a substance to help us manage our emotional reality.
Can you self-soothe without marijuana (or any substance)? Is it just one of many tools in your arsenal for mood management, or is it the primary? The only? When it becomes the latter two, then I begin to worry.
Consider what your “why” is in your own use. This a poor analogy, but one I ask you to consider, given that many of us have a better understanding of drinking: generalize THC to your use of alcohol. If someone were to drink for the same reasons, at the same frequency, or spend the same number of hours buzzed or drunk, would you think it was acceptable?
Now for the elephant in the room.
Isn’t marijuana good for depression and anxiety?
Maybe.
The clients I dreaded the most when working for university counseling centers were those who self-prescribed and dosed marijuana as their treatment for anxiety, insomnia, or depression. This is not a commentary on the effectiveness of targeted THC use for medical and mental health conditions. I’ll leave that to wiser minds. Though I will say that much of the research I’ve seen, outside of use for severe eating disorders or palliative care for folks in the latter stages of AIDS or various cancers, is that the therapeutic benefits always come with a significant “but”.
Rather, what I want to bring to your attention is this:
There is always a therapeutic window for any treatment. There is no medicine you can take at any dose and frequency that will remain therapeutic. Something that possesses medicinal value can still be abused.
I dreaded seeing these college students because frequently we could not address the challenges that brought them in. They were unwilling to consider how their daily/multiple times a day use of THC might contribute to (or even create) some of their symptoms.
The nature of substance abuse or dependence is that it will always find ways to justify itself. “This is medicine” was an insidious form of denial and justification. It’s impossible to assess the source of someone’s insomnia when their sleep architecture is altered each night from THC use. I’ve also seen folks in a vicious cycle of “treating” their anxiety and depression when these are both, at least in part, expressions of the withdrawal process.
So, if you want to explore THC use in your mental health treatment, I would strongly recommend you work with both a doctor and therapist who are well-versed in this area.
Weed Abuse and Mental Health Support in Baltimore, MD
Have you been wondering how weed use affects your mental health? Do you feel it helps you unwind and leave stress behind? Or is it something that gets you in the right mood to face the day?
If you feel you’re weed use is getting out of hand or you find yourself needing it to cope with what is going on in your life, you might want to talk with a professional. Our therapists at New Connections can help you explore how substance use is affecting you and discover new ways to deal with the challenges ahead.
It doesn’t have to be about giving up weed, but rather focusing on how you can overcome whatever is troubling you and work on ways to feel better.
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