Why are some people paranoid after smoking weed?
A person who consumes weed may or may not experience paranoia, but it is a common adverse effect. Specific individuals, in contrast, are more susceptible to paranoia than others. You can be empowered rather than frightened if you understand why paranoid thoughts occur and how to avoid or manage them when consuming cannabis.
Confidence that someone is after you is one of the worst feelings imaginable. Cannabis can cause various unpleasant consequences, one of which is paranoia. In addition to THC, the main intoxicating compound in cannabis, specific individuals experience paranoid thoughts after smoking marijuana.
Not everyone who uses marijuana develops paranoia; paranoia is a frequent side result. In addition, some people are more vulnerable to paranoia than others. Therefore, when you consume cannabis, you may learn why paranoid thoughts occur and how to avoid or manage them rather than feeling fearful.
What are the symptoms of paranoia?
An individual with paranoid personality disorder (PDD) experiences paranoia, believing others want to hurt them. A paranoid personality disorder is characterized by paranoia, a conviction that others are out to hurt them. Paranoia is also a common symptom of psychosis and psychotic illness, such as schizophrenia, but it is not always a sign of mental illness.
Someone suffering from paranoia may experience these symptoms:
It’s common to share occasional paranoid thoughts from time to time. Certain groups are more likely to experience paranoid thoughts than others, namely individuals who live in poverty, isolation, exploitation, low self-esteem, poor physical health, or experienced trauma.
Certain substances can also cause paranoia, and cannabis is one of the best-known examples. Cannabis-induced paranoia can manifest in many ways, including feeling afraid or self-conscious about what other people think or feel someone or something is out to get you.
Those who have experienced paranoia after consuming weed may well concur that when one is seized by paranoia, one desires to be solitary, unsociable, hidden in a dark room, or even catatonic.
Is paranoia a result of using weed?
A landmark study in 2014 confirmed what had long been suspected: THC can cause paranoia. One hundred twenty-one volunteers were given intravenous THC (a substantial joint equivalent) or a placebo.
Individuals prone to paranoid thinking are more likely to experience paranoia after being given THC: 50% of the volunteers given THC experienced paranoia, compared to 30% of those given a placebo.
Other interesting findings about how THC affects paranoid thinking were unveiled in the
study.
Brain function is disrupted.
THC appears to hinder the brain's capacity to deal with random occurrences, a condition known as abnormal salience. Abnormal salience refers to the tendency of individuals to overvalue unexpected events after consuming cannabis. The notion of salience, or importance, is further enhanced when the individual is exposed to negative feelings such as fear and anger.
Smoking weed makes someone more likely to react to an angry face by misinterpreting its significance than someone who has not consumed cannabis. However, abnormal salience processing appears to be temporary, dissipating when the individual is intoxicated.
Long-term cannabis use has not been shown to impair salience processing permanently.
Having an oversensitive brain
The endocannabinoid system, including the amygdala, can be activated throughout the brain to induce paranoid thinking. For example, anxiety, stress, and paranoia are all regulated by the amygdala. THC can activate the amygdala in this manner.
Large doses of THC can overstimulate the amygdala, leading to an onslaught of fear or anxiety-based responses. This over-activation of negative emotions can kick off paranoia.
Research suggests that CBD may help reduce paranoia.
According to additional data, THC appears to boost fear responses and paranoid thinking. Individuals were given 10 milligrams of THC and then shown fearful faces. The amygdala activation of those given CBD was lower than those given THC, while the opposite occurred in the amygdala of those with CBD.
There is intriguing and amusing information about how two distinct substances found in the same plant can enhance and reduce paranoia.
Researchers recently investigated the effects of CBD and THC-dominant strains on users' emotions, finding that the CBD-dominant cultivars reduced nervousness and anxiety instantly. Conversely, THC-dominant strains made users feel instantly anxious after consuming them, with the effects only dissipating after one hour.
These findings are far from conclusive, but they strongly suggest that THC can trigger paranoia, while CBD can help quell it.
Are certain people more prone to paranoia after smoking marijuana?
According to research, paranoia is pretty common among cannabis consumers, with as many as 51.4% reporting having experienced paranoid thoughts while high. It appears, however, that specific individuals are more susceptible to paranoia than others.
It doesn’t help to know that THC causes paranoia.
Researchers provided participants with a strong warning about the paranoia-inducing effects of THC in the most extensive study to date on paranoia and cannabis use. By informing participants that THC might trigger paranoid thoughts, the researchers hoped they would be less likely to misinterpret chance events as deliberate.
The truth, the researchers claim, appears to have the opposite effect, heightening the paranoia in those who have been informed. In other words, an expectation that cannabis use can result in paranoia seems to produce a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In addition to the above evidence, there is further evidence that when people are led to associate cannabis with paranoia, they are more likely to associate it with it. People are significantly more likely to report paranoia when prompted to define it in a specific way. On the other hand, when people are asked open-ended questions about cannabis, as few as 6% report experiencing paranoia.
Genetic makeups.
A recent study indicates that cannabis use may trigger paranoia partly because of genetic factors. The study involved 109,308 subjects and found that those with a genetic predisposition for psychotic disorders were more likely to experience paranoia after using cannabis.
However, it is important to remember that paranoia is not always a sign of mental illness—many people experience mild paranoia at some point in their lives.
Having sex can cause problems.
In addition to the fact that sex plays a role, a 2019 research on human subjects discovered that THC produced a more substantial impact on women than on men at a lower dose. Although the research did not examine whether women are more prone to experiencing paranoia, it did suggest that women are more prone to experiencing adverse consequences after consuming THC, an example of which is paranoia.
Furthermore, women are significantly more likely to experience anxiety-inducing effects from cannabis and, therefore, should start with lower doses than men.
How to stop smoking marijuana and maintain your sanity.
You can use various tools to reduce the probability of paranoid thoughts occurring.
Begin by taking small steps and proceed cautiously.
Always begin with a small dose when using cannabis for the first time. If you’re new to cannabis, wait for the effects to kick in before consuming more.
Once you become familiar with how the plant interacts with your body, you can increase your dosage slowly until you find your sweet spot. The sweet spot is the dose that delivers the desired outcome without resulting in unwanted side effects, such as paranoia.
Create a positive environment.
Setting and setting are two things that can help reduce the risk of paranoia. Recent research has emphasized the importance of cultivating a positive mindset and a secure setting to consume substances like cannabis.
According to the last passage, paranoia arises when an excessive amount of negative emotion is present. For example, anxiety may lead to feeling endangered or hurt quickly. Therefore, consuming weed in a safe, comfortable environment where you feel at ease and maintain an open, relaxed mindset may help reduce the risk of paranoia.
Stay the course
All the same, you can still succeed if you perform all the right things and still experience paranoid, stoned feelings. These techniques may help to alleviate the intensity of the experience, helping you to endure it. Paranoia is usually brief-lived, ending after an hour or two.
Some cannabis consumers swear by simple fixes such as deep breathing, relaxing activities like yin yoga, becoming wrapped up in a blanket and waiting for the paranoia to dissipate, or getting horizontal and relaxing in bed.
Herbs and CBD strains are used to make CBD products.
It is also said that inhaling or consuming freshly ground black pepper or lemon juice can produce the same grounding or relaxing effects as aromatherapy. Aromatic terpenes present in these plants are thought to play a role.
Furthermore, try CBD. Smoking a CBD strain or chewing CBD gummies can help fight weed paranoia by inducing a feeling of calmness, resulting in relief from anxiety or negative emotions.