At first, the voices he heard in his head were pleasant. But then, they turned malevolent. Jean Thibodeau, a 19-year-old University of Toronto student and avid pot smoker, became convinced he was possessed by the devil. He could see blood gushing down his chest and feel a deep gash in his neck. “I remember thinking, I’m going to die,” said Thibodeau in an interview.
His roommate became so concerned he took him to the emergency department of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
“They told me I was having a psychotic episode brought on by cannabis,” said Thibodeau, who requested that the Star use his grandmother’s surname as he is still recovering from the breakdown.
“I was shocked. We live in a society where there is such a culture around smoking dope that people think it is cool to be a stoner. Nobody ever talks about the pitfalls.”
Researchers have established a link between cannabis and psychosis among young people, although they cannot predict who will be triggered, or why.
I wonder why I am so tolerant to cannabis, even function better than I do while clean, in terms of mood and irritability. Perhaps I was triggered by cannabis initially due to early use, but is it possible I developed a tolerance to the side effects of cannabis? I have been clean for years in my life and I was still paranoid, slightly delusional, and anxious even while medicated.
Cannabis isn’t causing the current levels of paranoia, slight delusions, and anxiety, as these are always present while clean, too. It does exacerbate them if I’m out in public, but nowhere near the level other members on Forum mention. Maybe it’s my unique brain neurochemistry. Somebody should study me!
I’d go off cannabis completely, just to be on the safe side, except it alleviates some emotional issues from my ptsd, which is more disturbing to me than the non-active sz (I’m stable on meds, but the ptsd thing isn’t managed too well as of late).However, if I’d know this news along with the other risk factors for developing psychosis, I never would have smoked in my adolescence. Too late for me!!!
Its too bad they didn’t have this research in the 90’s. It seems like smoking pot while having “the gene” is almost a sure shot to getting psychosis.
I can’t smoke anymore, I go instantly crazy but I often wonder if the cure is some kind of rare cannabis strain because its the only drug that ever really cleared my mind completely. Maybe CBD is the closest ill get to ever smoking again. hope they develop it into a drug.
I had psychosis many a time after smoking or eating marijuana in my teens and early 20’s.
I just thought that was “normal”. It always gave me bad thoughts and thinking that I was dead.
It scared me way too many times and I was stupid enough to keep smoking/eating it thinking I would get that “nice relaxed high” that everyone was talking about.
I have a friend who says that after the laws changed and legalized pot in his area all his paranoia while smoking it stopped. Has anyone else experienced this, or has any research been done into the dangers to mental health in areas where it is legal verses smoking as a criminal?
That’s interesting. Smoking pot is legal in my country, and it’s true I never had paranoia associated with being caught smoking, but had other paranoias, about other things. Not that severe though, it hit my delusions most of all, erotomania too. But a friend of mine has severe paranoia on pot, she closes all the drapes and goes to bed in a fetal position, she quit smoking.