ANXIETY BY MATT JACKSON, PHD
This article hits close to home. I have an anxiety disorder. I work hard at it, and I’ve been pretty successful coping. But there are still days when I just can’t control it. Sometimes I wake up, and without a conscious thought to it, my nervous system is on fire. My muscles feel permanently constricted. My mind races frantically from one point to the next. What I need most is to relax, but even thinking about trying to relax intensifies my anxiety. I’m not alone—40 million adults in the United States experience an anxiety disorder every year1—and about half of all people use medicinal cannabis to manage anxiety.1,2 Count me in.
It’s normal to worry about things big and small: about work, a presentation, paying the bills, where the world is heading. But when worries interfere with day-to-day functions, anxiety becomes a disorder. Past trauma, specific phobias, or just daily life can trigger panic—the quintessential anxiety disorder is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)3—and what gets triggered is a neurological response centered in fear. For example, people with PTSD have a hyperactive amygdala, an evolutionarily ancient part of our brain that stores fear-related memories and responds to threats with fear, aggression, and defensive behavior.3 The effects aren’t just psychological, though. Anxiety can cause physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and gastrointestinal problems. Treating anxiety disorders is generally a two-part process. The first part is medication, primarily with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for long-term anxiety management and benzodiazepines such as Valium—which can be addictive—for acute attacks. As with any medication, there can be side effects: nausea, drowsiness, headaches, and sexual problems. The second part, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), is just as important. CBT is a type of professional counseling that helps people recognize thought patterns and change behaviors that lead to anxiety. Both medication and CBT are equally effective, and their effects combine for the best chance at long-term anxiety management.4 Millions of people are using cannabis as an alternative medication for anxiety disorders, and in several surveys, most people reported exceptional anxiety relief.2,5,6 But there’s also a bit of a paradox, because 10–20% of users consistently report anxiety as a negative side effect of cannabis.2,6 Honestly, at this point in time, we have more questions than answers. We know our ECS plays a role in anxiety. Patients with PTSD have more type I cannabinoid (CB1) receptors in their nervous systems and lower concentrations of natural endocannabinoids that activate those receptors. We also know that anxiety is a major negative side effect of pure THC, but pure CBD can reduce anxiety by decreasing neural activity in the amygdala, similar to benzodiazepines.2 However, when we look at how people respond to the whole cannabis plant, these trends don’t really hold.
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DIS-LIST
We often focus on THC and CBD as the main components of cannabis, but they alone can’t explain the differences between cannabis cultivars. A cannabis plant
