Is there a link between marijuana use and depression?

Question

Please explain your answer, or personal experience on this topic.

Answer 1

Most definitely. I was a heavy pot user and it quickly lead to a major depression.

Marijuana is classified as a depressant. So someone who is genetically pre disposed to suffer from depression will quickly fall into a depressive episode. Some will smoke pot for ages and ages and will never fall into depression. I think the genetic pre disposition is necessary.

It's the same with Schizophrenia, Bipolar, etc. Someone who is genetically predisposed to develop schizophrenia will develop it earlier and faster by using pot.

Pot is not the only accelerator. It has been proved that MDMA and amphetamines do the same... and even worse: they destroy the neurotransmitters who carry serotonin.

I was a user of ecstasy and pot.... so I am now on antidepressants, have been for two years now. But I'm doing great: I don't want to die anymore! ;)

Thanks for asking... feels good to talk about it.

Answer 2

Over the last five years I had begun to have increasingly withdraw into a downward spiral of depression..

But now with the method I can fully focus my energy and thoughts into a decisive line on how to make my life better constantly. And it works like magic! I'm beginning to attract people to me once again and things have just been looking up since then.

Helping you eliminate depression?

Answer 3

Marijuana use by adults is not a statistically significant predictor of depression, according to the results of an ongoing longitudinal study to be published in the October issue of the journal Addiction.

Investigators at John Hopkins University in Baltimore and at the Bloomberg School of Public Health in Santa Monica assessed the association between self-reported marijuana use and current depression in 8,759 adults (age range 29-37 years) over a 17-year period. Investigators concluded, "After adjusting carefully for baseline differences between adults who subsequently use marijuana and those who abstain, the significant associations that are initially present between ongoing marijuana use and depression are substantially reduced, if not eliminated."

They added, "The findings reported in this paper suggest that the associations observed between marijuana use and subsequent depression status may be attributable not to continued marijuana use, per se, but to third (common) factors associated with both the decision to use marijuana and to depression."

A separate study co-authored by NORML Advisory Board Member Dr. Mitch Earleywine and published last year in the journal Addictive Behaviors determined that adults who use cannabis report suffering from less severe incidents and/or symptoms of depression than non-users.

"Despite comparable ranges of scores on all depression subscales, those [respondents] who used cannabis once per week or less had less depressed mood, more positive affect, and fewer somatic (physical) complaints than non-users," authors wrote. "These data suggest that adults apparently do not increase their risk for depression by using marijuana."

Commenting on the most recent study, Earleywine said, "This new data is actually markedly stronger than my earlier work because the investigators utilized a large, representative sample and conducted long-term follow up research. If marijuana use caused depression, this design model would have revealed it by showing the development of symptoms in users. There's simply no support for the idea."

Answer 4

Marijuana and hasj may trigger latent depression, i e, in people who are disposed for depression (and also other mental illnesses).

Maybe people might say that : "okai, I am not disposed for mental illnesses, so I may smoke pot every day until I puke". However, one may never know who is disposed for it and not....

Answer 5

For me I was able to perform very complex tasks, as well as artistic endeavors. I feel worse since I stopped.

Answer 6

no. it acts as an anti depressant. seriously. thats why they give it to people that are terminally ill.