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Does CBD oil help you with your depression and/or anxiety?
Depression & Anxiety | Last Active: Aug 12 1:38am | Replies (934)Comment receiving replies
Welcome to Mayo Connect. I am a Volunteer Mentor and not a medical professional. As such I can offer the benefit of my personal experience, as can others on this site, but not medical diagnoses nor medical opinions. We strive to help each other with the understanding that we are all different and what works for me may not work for you. I have gotten so much good from participating in Mayo Connect that I love it.
Yes, I have used CBD tincture and CBD Living Water for anxiety. I haven't used it for depression as I already take an antidepressant. It doesn't seem to interfere with my Citalopram.
I decided to try CBD when I was withdrawing from Tramadol, a synthetic opiate I had been taking for pain (with 2 other medications) for over a year. As I began slowly reducing my use, I experienced a lot of anxiety and muscle tremors in my legs especially. I know that using a marijuana medication meant that my pain doctor would not prescribe for me again, but I was getting off the pain medications one by one anyway, so I don't care.
The CBD Living Water was my favorite as it just was like drinking bottled water and was immediately available in my system. Within a few minutes of drinking one serving, my anxiety began reducing. It was so benign that I thought perhaps it was just my own thoughts that were calming me down--my belief that it would help. So, I bought the CBD tincture as kind of a test to see if I reacted the same. The next time I was having withdrawal anxiety I used the CBD Tincture. I didn't realize at that time that it can take up to 2+ hours to have effect when you take the tincture, but that was actually good for my test purposes. My anxiety continued for another hour until slowly the tincture began taking effect. I decided then that the CBD Living Water worked best for my anxiety.
CBD Living Water is expensive at $5.00 per bottle with 2 servings. It has no flavor (the tincture had a sweet weird flavor I didn't like) and is easy to drink. I only used 4 bottles to help me through my withdrawal. I don't use it now, but I will if I have anxiety in the future. I am impressed with how helpful it was in my withdrawal. I think it would help in withdrawal from cigarettes too. I did that 34 years ago though.
Are you willing to share what you're anxiety is about? I had panic and anxiety attacks for years and used Ativan and later Lorazepam for them, especially when I had to fly in planes. About 6 years ago I started taking Citalopram antidepressant, and all my anxiety/panic attacks went away. I only had it again recently during my withdrawal process. I know my relief from anxiety is from the Citalopram. I even did 7 zip lines in Costa Rica a little over a year ago. My flights there, to Panama and back were anxiety free. That has been so incredible for me! I love traveling now.
Please let me know if you have questions,. I also hope others on Mayo Connect will let you know their experiences with CBD and Marijuana as medical alternative treatments.
Gail B
Volunteer Mentor
Replies to "@lalyfa Welcome to Mayo Connect. I am a Volunteer Mentor and not a medical professional. As..."
@gailb here’s somewhat of what’s been going on with me.
I’ve been on anti-depressants for 11 years since having a stroke and having to stop taking estrogen. I started on Zoloft, then celexa, then Effexor. I’ve been having bad blurry vision for a few years that has my eye dr stumped. Finally my primary doctor thought it could be the Effexor since that is one of the side effects. So we decided that I would wean off the Effexor and try Wellbutrin instead. I lowered the amount of Effexor over 3 weeks till I wasn’t taking it any longer but started the Wellbutrin the last week of taking Effexor. After 3 days of no Effexor the withdrawals seemed to hit me. Headaches, nausea, extremely emotional, and bad dizziness. I had an important event to go to on day 3 of no Effexor so I took a low dose (37.5 mg) hoping to get me through the night. I felt decent for a couple days then boom, the withdrawal symptoms came on fully again. So I decided I would just try to go off both the Effexor and Wellbutrin because I didn’t want to go through this again and really wanted to see if I could handle life without them. Well it’s been a week without any Effexor but the dizziness and emotional outrages are still going on. I’ve been using Bonine (motion sickness) which does seem to help a little. My daughter mentioned the CBD oil which I was totally against at first but after doing a lot of research I am now quite interested in it.
I am not positive if I suffer from depression or anxiety. All I know is that I tend to be extremely emotional and have anger fits easily and often. The anti-depressants did help somewhat.
I know my withdrawal symptoms aren’t that bad compared to what others have gone through but it’s been a hard week and half! My husband will definitely agree!!
I’ll continue to look into the cbd oil but it might not be a fit for me because I read that it interfers with blood thinners which I am taking fur to a stroke and PEs.
I’m also still interested in hearing the experiences that others might have with the CBD!
I live in California where Marijuana is legal. The brand I use is called CBD Living Water. You may need a Marijuana prescription depending on the state you live in. You can Google the brand name and find out about it.
Gail B
Volunteer Mentor
I think you need to let your doctor know what is going on with you first. Then, I don't know how CBD Living Water would react with your other medications because for me it was quite benign.
Gail B
Volunteer Mentor
@gailb I am in SC where it can only be prescribed for last days of cancer pain because they don't care if they get "addicted". I will not get on my soapbox, but I would much prefer being addicted to marijuana as there have never been any scientific studies that prove a physical addiction to marijuana as opposed to opiates. Maybe a psychological dependence, but two very different animals. However, I do believe the CBD oil that does not contain THC is legal federally and in all states.
I have taken both Effexor and Pristiq (modern version of Effexor, supposedly with fewer side effects). Weaning off each of them was horrible. You have to taper very slowly, or get brain shocks (silver electric waves, and feeling your brain is bumping around in your head). The Pristiq is in a time release pill you are not supposed to cut up, so it is basically impossible to taper-- I cut them up anyway to taper because it was the only way to do it. I would never recommend those drugs to anyone because of how hideous the withdrawal is--and I was on less than "full" dose with both. They were both miracle worker drugs for about 3 weeks in terms of relieving depression , then I had to continue to take them to keep side effects away while their good effects wore off--classic addiction. They should be taken off the market IMO.
Gail, I am in search of Living Water! It is not available in the state I reside in, so I’m looking elsewhere. How long can you safely use the water? Is it in any way addictive? I’m excited about hopefully getting some relief from these anxiety attacks of mine!
CBD and even Marijuana are not addictive in any way. You can use CBD in Living Water or any form for as long as you want to. I'm actually preferring the CBD tincture now, as I can take a larger dose and it works better for me. I dont use it very often anymore, just when
I'm having pain. It works better than Tramadol for me. You should be able to order the CBD Living Water online if you can't find it locally. Just Google it. I think CBD is legal nearly everywhere now.
I recommend that you look for the CNN Special called "Weed, Part 4", with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and watch it. You should be able to find it on the MSNBC website. It was shown on cable TV a couple of weeks ago. It was very informative and will give you positive information about how helpful CBD and Marijuana are for anxiety, seizures, withdrawal from opioids, and other things that are being researched currently. I had already figured out that CBD helped me withdraw from Tramadol, and was working for my anxiety during that time. It was great to have that confirmed officially by research.
Good luck with your research.
Gail
Volunteer Mentor
The most important aspect of going off any psych med, or any med, really, is ALWAYS to titration down SLOWLY. When one does not slowly, over the course of 1-2 weeks ( depending on your original dosage) titrare or reduce the dosage one experiences all the original symptoms you were treating fully, but one experiences the withdrawal effects of the meds... which sounds like your experience. CBD is a really incredible way to treat anxiety, and many of the PTSD symptoms. It’s a challenge to find a doc in MN to “certify” you for the purchase of this “medical marijuana” treatment. (I prefer to call it cannabis treatment as the term “marijuana” is loaded with culturally negative connotations, and also when one is treated with medical cannabis it truly is no longer the “marijuana” one buys on the street or we used to smoke in days gone by.)
I have found my cannabis treatment a MIRACLE when treating many types of pain I experience, from ortho pain to anxiety and pain from fibromyalgia, and arthritis.
Find a doc who’ll certify you, then begin trying the different types of treatment.
Blessings, and I hope you find relief!
Don't EVER go off 2 psych meds at the same time. And NEVER just decide to go off yourself. Your symptoms sound like rebound symptoms from going off your meds.
Get a good doc, and don't try "self-treatment". You know they say a defendant who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client. Same goes for trying to be your own doc, or making med decisions on your own. DON'T!
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@gailb, where did you purchase the CBD. I also have been curious about the product, but there are lots of sellers on Amazon, but I hate to purchase a supplement that I don't know anything about the seller. Most of them you can find some pretty good lists of sellers that have good reputations. If you could give a brand name that you used and liked, I would appreciate it. If that is something that needs to be a PM, that will be fine. Thank you, Gary