Medical Marijuana And The Psychiatric Patient / My Story

[bill704]

It's odd how the "risks are outweighed by the benefits" for these drugs, even when they may result in death... Yet marijuana's "risks" outweigh the benefits.

Damn FDA.

[PFlynn]

Originally Posted by shthd843

It's odd how the "risks are outweighed by the benefits" for these drugs, even when they may result in death... Yet marijuana's "risks" outweigh the benefits.

Damn FDA.

Amen.

[ZedRules]

Now I don't feel alone after reading all the posts collectively. I'm currently out of work thanks to a manic episode and have six meds prescribed. These drugs require consistency in taking timely doses. I would forget multiple dosing times on meds that require a certain blood serum value for "effectiveness". MMJ covered those lapses and I would ask my wife how I'm doing and she thinks I'm on my regular meds doing great. I'm applying for disability, so I need for the record to demonstrate
compliance with drug regimentation...they don't need to know about my natural medication, MMJ....
Thanks to all those who posted...more ammo for my Activism for MMJ.

[bill704]

I'm applying for disability, so I need for the record to demonstrate
compliance with drug regimentation...

Good luck!

I gave up trying for the time being. They turned down my application due to inefficient information--Information I tried giving to them multiple times but they never answered the phone. I left the required info on their voice mail, twice, yet a week or so later I received the letter saying I was denied because I didn't give it to them.

[Boss]

I was diagnosed 7 years ago, took all those meds for all those years, finally off and better then I can remember. You are not alone Zed, you are not crazy, we just have to get to that balance, and that means adjusting the weight a little bit at a time.

Just FYI for everyone, I am a PM away when you need to vent :-)

[bill704]

Originally Posted by Boss

Just FYI for everyone, I am a PM away when you need to vent :-)

That means a lot, Boss. My girlfriend and I only usually have each other to talk to--both having serious mental disorders. I've heard many friends throughout the years say they're there for me, but when I need to talk about something, they don't want to deal with this issue all of a sudden.

Crazy people understand crazy people... No matter how sympathetic a person is sometimes they just can't get into the mind frame of a person with mental illness.

Thanks man.

[Sallysmaster]

Helps me with the depression and the P.T.S.D., but please don't tell the V.A. that I smoke or I will be sent to re-hab.
I can only hope that no one there knows that I have a dog named Sally.

[FreakNature]

I have a dog named Sally, too. There are three dogs named Sally on my block alone. I visit the VA all of the time. So do the other Sally owners I know. There, now you're just lost in the crowd.

[ZedRules]

There is mounting evidence to demonstrate the tx of symptoms using med. cannabis are ever growing. Boss & I have similar mental ailments and find effective management to those symptoms and remain a contributing member of the 420 family.
As for law enfocement. they should be trusted.

[chronicreform]

This is amazing testimonal...but what about the number of Americans arrested and Jailed every year for posession of a seed bearing plant??? The Christian Bible sez in Leviticus that it's okay to comsume all seed bearing plants.Then goes on to talk about prohibited animals with a splitHoof...and I'll confess that book probably is responsible for certain crazies...but I would point that passage out to any Jury and hope for an ally based upon their religious belief.

[BadBradBlu]

Janie - we have had a smiliar life experience by the sounds of it. However, you are lucky you did'nt wind up in the funny farm like, thanks to my mom, I did. Anyway it taught me more about life and the human mind (not to mention how quaks think). I am not on any meds currently and apart from slight seclusion from family & society I am a happy chappy
Ispirational read and it is great (ok for me) to know that so many others are bearing the same cross so as to speak - it gives me a lot of hope to hear all your stories and to know that a few tokes allows me to live a better than normal life - which the psychs all told me I had no chance of having!
Goes to show how much they really know - squat!

[Scientia]

Wow I can't believe I came across this post. Thanks for the information and insight. I am experiencing similar problems with my HMO. I am a legal MMJ patient of CA. The dumb F's are forcing me to go through a rehab program before I can get any psychiatric help with my depression. I've been dealing with depression since I was 12. Didn't ever smoke anything until I was 23. Took over 2 years off from MJ to try to deal with my depression, insomnia and chronic back and neck pain from a car accident 12 years ago. Even went through surgery for a deviated septum to try to help with the sleep problem. Conventional medicine has failed me. Kaiser Permanente has been bleeding my dry and I even had to sell some of my belongings to make the daily copays that I'm forced to pay each day I go to their BS rehab. "Dual diagnosis" is their term for discrimination against MMJ patients.

I have been trying to find out if I have a case against them. Not to hijack this thread, but here's a link to my story:
HELP! Health care discrimination against medical marijuana patients

I told the doctors I was willing to give up MMJ for good if they could provide another solution. Instead of giving me a chance they labeled me an addict and forced me into rehab. They wont sign off on my medical leave from work until I finish the program that I cant afford. Even when I'm done with the rehab program, I still wont be able to afford to go back to the doctors. Instead of working with a willing patient, they rather bleed me dry of money so that I dont get any help.

Being a doctor doesnt make them a good doctor or a caring doctor. At the end of the day, they can say they "did their job" whether it was a good one or a bad one. They pat themselves on the back for collecting their fat paychecks while good people suffer.

[JackTheGrower]

Well, I too have Medical use for mental issues.. LOL

I sort of have fallen through the cracks on evaluations and eventually was diagnosed as having an "Anxiety disorder."

I too went decades not smoking cannabis and then found it to be helpful in "changing my mood" when i couldn't snap out of the rut I cycle into.

I have learned in the past 10 years as a medical cannabis patient that the "issues" that trigger the cycle are different but the mechanics of guilt , anxiety and depression are the same each time. Stoner reflections help me see that.

So 10 years this year. I find I don't care to be overly medicated. I like a creeper that comes on slow and leaves easy.
I even forget that I have medicated and just live life naturally.

I explained to a Girlfriend that I was a medical person and she looked surprised. She asked if i ever smoked and had been around her and I smiled.. She said she couldn't tell. I said that's because I grow and use Cannabis as a medicine. It's a different thing then "Getting wasted."

So yes.. My recommendation lists Anxiety disorder. It's something I've had an issue with all my life and still have issues with it.
Fear is the trigger. I don't feel so afraid of things in general when i take cannabis regularly.

The side effect of medication for me is creative thinking which I focus on writing C language programs to explore a small focus in number theory.

I guess there is something in there that Cannabis help out because I've written some clever programs.

Best wishes to you all.

Jack

[twexile]

Janie, I am a new member of 420, however I agree with every word you have written! I do not live in California any more, I live in a state where cannabis is decriminalized and tolerated, but if I get caught growing for myself and others that need it to participate in life I will still be sent to prison. I have suffered from illness for the past 25 years as a result of an in-the-line-of-duty head injury I recieved while in the Marine Corps! In the past 2, nearly 3, years things have gotten so bad that I have not been unable to work and I have been in a battle with the state and the federal governments for disability compensation, still pending!

I hear you and understand, but big pharma doesn't want to give up the billions of dollars in psychiatric drug money it will lose if the government allows cannabis as a treatment for mental disorders. The doctors here tell me that cannabis will do the opposite of what I tell them it dose for me. Even though they see that their big pharma drugs do the opposite or only work for a very short time period and then make things worse and don't even get me started on the side effects and the possibility of addiction and organ damage they will and do cause, none of which cannabis will do! But that is not the point, because the only point they see is the financial one, in the loss of their contributions from big pharma! Don't get me wrong for big pharma has it's place, as you mentioned, but not for everyone, as my Grandfather taught me, "Everyone don't strike the same!"

Keep up the good fight!