Cannabis use and effects on Mental Health

Cannabis (also known as marijuana, weed, pot, dope or grass) is the most widely used illegal drug in the UK.

The effects of cannabis can vary a lot from person to person. It can also vary depending on how much or how often it’s taken and what it contains.

Some examples include:

feeling chilled out, relaxed and happy
laughing more or become more talkative
feeling hunger pangs (“the munchies”)
feeling drowsy, tired or lethargic
feeling faint or sick
having problems with memory or concentrating
experiencing mild hallucinations
feeling confused, anxious or paranoid
Can you get addicted to cannabis?
It’s possible to get addicted to cannabis, especially people who are considered regular or heavy users.

If regular users stop taking cannabis, they may get withdrawal symptoms, such as feeling moody and irritable, feeling sick, difficulty sleeping, difficulty eating, sweating, shaking and diarrhoea.

Regularly smoking cannabis with tobacco also increases the risk of becoming addicted to nicotine and experiencing withdrawal symptoms from nicotine as well as cannabis if you cut down or give up.Regular cannabis use increases the risk of developing a psychotic illness, such as schizophrenia.

A psychotic illness is one where you have hallucinations (seeing things that are not really there) and delusions (believing things that are not really true).

The risk of developing a psychotic illness is higher in people who:

start using cannabis at a young age
smoke stronger types, such as skunk
smoke it regularly
use it for a long time
smoke cannabis and also have other risk factors for schizophrenia, such as a family history of the illness
Cannabis also increases the risk of a relapse in people who already have schizophrenia, and it can make psychotic symptoms worse.

Other risks of cannabis
Other risks of regularly using cannabis can include:

feeling wheezy or out of breath
developing an uncomfortable or painful cough
making symptoms of asthma worse in people with asthma
reduced ability to drive or operate machinery safely
If you drive while under the influence of cannabis, you’re more likely to be involved in an accident. This is one reason why drug driving, like drink driving, is illegal.

Cannabis and pregnancy
Cannabis use may affect fertility. Regular or heavy cannabis use has been linked to changes in the female menstrual cycle and lower sperm count, or lower sperm quality in men.

Using cannabis while pregnant may harm the unborn baby. Cannabis smoke contains many of the same harmful chemicals found in cigarette smoke.

Regularly smoking cannabis with tobacco increases the risk of a baby being born small or premature.

Cannabis has not been linked to birth defects, but research suggests that using cannabis regularly during pregnancy could affect a baby’s brain development as they get older.
Cannabis use can have a massive impact on memory resulting in forgetfulness to losing memory ability altogether.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help you stop using weed as it is just like any other addiction your mind is telling you to smoke weed as it feels good and takes you away from the real world.

All this drug does is increase your heart rate, and dopamine levels sometimes to levels that are dangerous, we create dopamine ourselves when we do something good, exercise or get rewarded and the brain produces just the right amount, weed over produces dopamine creating hallucinations.

Hypnotherapy changes thought processes in order to stop addictions, habits etc.