Should i stop smoking weed ?

[schuylaar]

i am an avid marijuana user...i love mary jane and her effects and over the past 3 years...i've grown accustomed to smoking at least 3 blunts DAILY. I use white owl cigars and not much has changed over the years with the way i smoke (blunts) and what i smoke (local reggie). Now my issue is...just 1 month ago...after returning from my lunch break... i experienced what my doctor told me to be a panic attack...classic symptoms...shortness of breath...chest tightening and that intense fear that i was having a heart attack...in fact because i had not had this experience before...i DID CONVINCE myself i was having a heart attack throughout this episode which led to me to feel dizzy...depersonalized and momentarily black out. Now...my job can be described as a stressful, competitive environment which i've been working with happily for 2 years and for at least the past year i regularly smoke before coming into work and smoke half a blunt on my lunch break, returning to work everyday happy, refreshed and ready to conquer the remainder of my day, but this day did not go as usual and my question and discussion would be could this possibly be a reaction from the marijuana and if anyone would know why ? My post reactions with weed are apprehensive...since that day...i havent smoked or partaken in a session where a entire blunt is consumed...i hit it once or twice...i feel a faint tightening in my chest and I AM DONE...i kno this could be from anxiety of another panic attack but it has been a month and each time i try the same things happens...and when i try to go past my limit...i feel as if it's happening all over again but THIS time...i am not in fear that i'm dying from a heart attack! i just feel a scary tightening, grasping feeling at whats feel like my heart but radiating from the center of my chest...i have never had any anxiety issues...but i think JUST telling someone they may have anxiety issues...causes anxiety, but i do feel like within the past year and turning 26 and still trying 2 figure out life has taken some effect on my and my mental health and i have begun prozac as prescribed by my doctor...but i miss my weed...i miss that floating care free feeling and i would figure THAT would help with my anxiety...i have not tried any other form of smoking but i did just bake brownies and for one i didnt get as high and when i did feel slightly high...i felt just a few moments of that telltale chest tightening...PLEASE help...everytime i hit the blunt, i say i'm done but i want 2 keep trying 2 see if the problem is there, but i think as of today...i am done and sick of these effects and if that means giving up on weed altogether, then so be it...the problem is JUST THAT scary and i hate that feeling almost more than i love being high at this point...so with the info given are there any solutions or is it best to just stop smoking altogether ??

Whoa!...lots to address:

1. Panic Attacks can occur anytime in your life..literally from out of nowhere..dump the prozac and get lexapro..it's a newer generation SSRI which will eliminate those pesky panic attacks..prozac did NOT help my panic attacks actually made them worse for whatever reason.

2. What type of work do you do?

3. What are you smoking? sats? indies? and WHEN?..this plays an important part and i've recently helped another member here by changing his smoke around..

4. My daughter was going through senior year finals at UCF..so i gave her "cotton candy" (sat dom)..she couldn't take it..did something to her and she got panic attacks from it..she doesn't take any meds other than her asthma stuff (which incidentally, could be the interaction of those meds)..i grew her and had no issues with..she's a speedy bitch though!

5. There is a site LEAFLY..which gives descriptions of what you can expect from your strain AND you can run a filter specifically to take out weed that's known for PA's.

You don't need to STOP smoking weed..just need to find what's right for you NOW.

EDIT: BTW my panic attacks are slightly different; overwhelming sense doom (fight is flight is kicking in knows i'm in trouble)..my heart starts to beat out of control and by the 20th beat, i'm sure that will be the one which makes my head explode from aneurysm..and then is doesn't..and i turn the car back around from going to the hospital on my way to the next client..the real bitch is having one of these in front of a client you are presenting services to.

 

[kyloru]

Ok...I stopped taking prozac...wasnt doing much 4 me...I work n a competitve call center environment...and I work 10 hour days mon-thurs...id rather not say exactly what it is lol and I generally smoke in the morning, around 5 ish and about 10 at night...I live n a little country town and the only strains any of us kno about r reggie or loud lol...doesnt get real fancy around here lol! Thank u 4 responding and ur input! oh and ive recebtly changed 2 papers and smoking blunts is the only thing that makes me feel this way...I might smoke one once to twice a week nowadays...and each time...same thing

 

[kyloru]

*I meant I smoke once n the morning once at 5 and once at 10 lol

 

[Johnny1120]

First of all, I know very about weed, as I personally have smoked very little recently. On the other hand, I do know a bit about anxiety.

The information in your posts was a bit spread out, and I'm reading this on a phone, so forgive me if I'm getting your details wrong, but I believe you mentioned increased stress at work and a significant change in your home environment (family moving away, although you may not have been talking about relatives). By any chance did you discuss and vent about work with some of the people who moved? This sounds like perhaps your normal support system for dealing with stress has become unavailable, which under the right circumstances can lead to anxiety attacks.

if I'm guessing correctly, you will need to replace your means of dealing with stress. Even recognizing the problem will help, and pharmacology might help as a temporary measure, but in the end finding a new support system will be required.

 

[Doer]

Johnny, you know very little and should just leave it at that.

Venting is not a release for stress. Venting simple causes stress in others. And you get off the hook that you should not have been on in the first place. Angst is not stress, it is a reaction to stress and the reaction need to be controlled. Not the stress. Stress is Money. Business tension makes the world go round.

I know all about this. Besides being a partaker of gnaja, for 40 years now, I am also a Sr Manager, Software Development. And I will you this. No Ganja, No Computer Business. Many of the early coder lived on pot and Altoids Breath Mints. (many still do)

(It is the same as No Porn, no Internet. Both are very true.)

 

[Johnny1120]

Before starting my current career in technology (oddly, I also work as a senior software engineer) I worked as a milieu therapist for four years. I've joked that it was working in inpatient psychiatry that prepared me to work in IT later. Everyone has a support system that they use to deal with stress. For you its ganja, I personally use meditation, and whether you want to believe it or not, others use talking things over with people they trust. Taking that support system away can have dramatic effects on a persons ability to deal with life's challenges I'm not recommending that he start venting as a way to relieve stress, only that he think about whether there was more than just smoking weed with the group that might have contributed to his ability to deal with his anxiety previously.

 

[schuylaar]

Ok...I stopped taking prozac...wasnt doing much 4 me...I work n a competitve call center environment...and I work 10 hour days mon-thurs...id rather not say exactly what it is lol and I generally smoke in the morning, around 5 ish and about 10 at night...I live n a little country town and the only strains any of us kno about r reggie or loud lol...doesnt get real fancy around here lol! Thank u 4 responding and ur input! oh and ive recebtly changed 2 papers and smoking blunts is the only thing that makes me feel this way...I might smoke one once to twice a week nowadays...and each time...same thing

one more thing i've made a connect with recently is pulling sats early..early sativa will bring out anxiety in those smokers prone.

you cannot control a panic attack or anxiety, only the meds you take..it's a fight/flight hardwire from our cavemen days.

lexapro is a miracle for me..i'll never stop taking this.

i challenge you to try it for 30 days and see if it doesn't make a difference in your life..

nothing ventured is nothing gained..and if you try it; like it? i'm guessing, you're gonna be glad you did.

 

[Pauly420]

You could be used to/prefer more of and indica buzz, and be getting more of a sativa flower. When I smoke super high sativas I get parinoia and anxiety as well.