Does CBD oil help you with your depression and/or anxiety?

Posted by lalyfa @lalyfa, Feb 24, 2018

I am curious to know if anyone has had success with CBD or Hemp oil helping with depression/anxiety? I’ve been reading a lot about it and am curious.
I've been reading about this and am very interested but would like thoughts/opinions from anyone who has actually tried it or knows someone who has. TIA

Thank you,
Laura

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Depression & Anxiety Support Group.

i'm hypomanic on the bipolar spectrum with anxiety and have been on low doses of benzos for years; i live in az where marijuana is legal and for me, any cbd product with thc is activating. i take cbd oil during the day for anxiety (or cbd gummies) . at bedtime along with other rx to sleep and stop the anxiety and ruminating thoughts, i've found the brand: healing resources cbd/cbg/cbn to be most effective and this product can be bought online. the 3 cbd combo puts me to sleep and keeps me asleep. i'm also a 3-yr. post covid long hauler which increased my anxiety and every other emotion and created relentless insomnia the 1st year of becoming a long hauler.

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@asdmommy

Hi Stephanie. I have a 16 year old with ASD On poly pharmacy including risperidone and abilify seroquel and epival. The only thing that is helping with his current aggression is ativan which of course is terrible. Anyway we are just starting Cbd without guidance although I am going to work on his pyschiatrist. So I am very happy to read your posts. I hope it is going well

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Did he have to get off the Benzo first I’m reading you can’t take cbd w a Benzo and that it causes med side effects to worsen I’ve been looking up other ways for anxiety I and having being on colonopin and they won’t take me off of it it’s been year half now and trying to add straterra for anxiety and I just want off all this stuff I am scared of psych meds due to so many reactions I’m scared of changing things around w my anxiety and ocd

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@caysie31

Did he have to get off the Benzo first I’m reading you can’t take cbd w a Benzo and that it causes med side effects to worsen I’ve been looking up other ways for anxiety I and having being on colonopin and they won’t take me off of it it’s been year half now and trying to add straterra for anxiety and I just want off all this stuff I am scared of psych meds due to so many reactions I’m scared of changing things around w my anxiety and ocd

Jump to this post

I’m on klonopin, seroquel, and Wellbutrin at different times during the day.
Benzodiazepines are almost impossible to get off. I need my klonpin or I get uncontrollable. 1/2 mg in the morning and 1 mg at 4:00 .pm.
In my long month in the hospital they gave me Ativan, the worst med except klonopin . Both are benzodiazepines.
Yativan was to help me off my klonopin. Not good. I don’t like Atavan and went back on klonopin with better results.

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I tried CBD for several months to treat an arthritic hip that was on its way to replacement (I've since had this done). On the pain side it had limited impact, but it did seem to moderate it a bit. However, this was during an extended period of very deep depression that I've discussed elsewhere on this forum, and I do not recall any abatement there. But however again, I was not thinking about it as a treatment for the depression, so I wasn't paying attention to it on that level either.

Another caveat. It has since been determined by myself as well as my psychiatrist that the extreme depression I experienced was driven by Effexor, which had been prescribed by my general practitioner and it has been shown that roughly 1-1.5% of antidepressant users descend into intense and potentially suicidal depressions far worse than the depression they were prescribed to treat. And in one study, Effexor tops the list of antidepressants that are problematic in this manner. But I have had lifelong depression issues, and there was a prescription antidepressant and a non-opioid pain medication mixed with the supplement. So it's hard to say if the prescription drugs overrode any possible benefits of CBD.

So there are a lot of variables in my answer. But I will say that watching what you mix with any medications you're taking is always important. As is letting your provider know what supplements you are taking since your provider will usually - but not always - know of any potential interactions you should be on the lookout for. I was taking CBD prior to the Effexor-driven depression landing me into treatment that led me to a psychiatrist. My family doc, who was prescribing the antidepressant, knew I was using CBD for pain and felt it might help there, but he's not a psychiatrist, and the studies that have shown potential reverse depressive effects of antidepressants aren't widely known outside of psychiatry. That's a situation in need of being rectified since MDs frequently prescribe them.

Sorry for the convoluted response, but I thought I'd weigh in with my experience.

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