4 minute read
Survivor.
Cannabis has been known to help people in many, many different ways. THC or CBD for either physical or mental pain has been proven helpful by legitimate studies and reputable professionals. Here at Chronic, we like to hear from people who attribute their survival to cannabis.
This month we were lucky to hear from a lovely woman who, for this article, we will call Amy. Amy is a young woman who has lived all her life in Oklahoma. She was raised in a Christian household and was taught young about the many reasons to fear any type of drug, marijuana was one of them. As she grew and was taught to be drug-free in school as well, she abstained from partaking in any type of substance.
Amy even explained that when she was a student at the University of Oklahoma she hardly went to parties and would only drink socially. By the time she graduated, Amy met the man who would become her husband. They lived together for a few years before marrying and now have two beautiful children.
In 2018, when Oklahoma legalized medical cannabis, Amy was heavily pregnant with her first child. The pregnancy was rough and she was unsure if she would ever want another child after it. Like many pregnant women, her feet and back ached, she was having trouble sleeping, and would often find herself with swollen veins. When she gave birth, she had a rough go of it and was in labor for nearly 24 hours. Amy’s child arrived and was healthy and, to quote her, “an angel,” while she was delighted to have a healthy child, she still did not feel like herself. Even after a few months, she felt like something was wrong.
Amy was one of the nearly 20 percent of women in America who are diagnosed with postpartum depression. Postpartum depression is not exactly uncommon, especially considering there are differing levels of it and some women with a lighter case may not be diagnosed professionally.
There is no specific cause of postpartum depression but some symptoms of it include restlessness, anger or irritability, sadness, guilt, fear of hurting your baby or yourself, being overly worried about the baby or not concerned about the baby at all, lack of energy, trouble sleeping, headaches, chest pains, rapid heartbeat, numbness or tingling in the hands or feet, or fast and shallow breathing, and more. (If you’re familiar with using medical cannabis, these symptoms sound mighty familiar!) According to WebMD, postpartum depression has been linked to a drastic drop in hormone levels after birth, nearly tenfold.
Since she was diagnosed and did not breastfeed, she decided to look into getting a medical marijuana card to help combat her pain. Luckily for Amy, she got in early enough to get some of the first cards sent out by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Association. Amy explained,
“If it wasn’t for the legalization of medical marijuana, I’m not sure if I would even be alive today... If I did survive, who knows how my mental state would be or the health of my babies.”
When she began using marijuana she started with microdosing. For Amy, microdosing was around 5mg of THC in the morning and 5 more at night. Sometimes she would mix in some CBD in the middle of the day if she was feeling worse than usual.
The first night she decided to go ahead and begin microdosing, Amy said she felt a change as soon as it kicked in. Her mental state was lightened and her trouble sleeping was basically over (aside from the months-old baby crying in the night). Amy was finally able to feel like herself again; she explained that even though having to microdose every morning is still rather taboo to her, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
This story is important for many reasons. Women that have gotten through postpartum depression do not get the help or recognition that they deserve. Especially when those moms are using marijuana to treat their symptoms. There is still a huge stigma around moms who use cannabis in any way. (Personally, if wine moms can be normalized, so can cannabis moms.)
