Texas And Marijuana. Should It Be Legal? Should Cannabis Use Be Part Of Your Mental Health Care Routine?
Texas And Marijuana. Should It Be Legal?
For me, as a doctor, marijuana is more of a practical “how-to” issue for a very important problem. That problem is a person is coming to me for asking for help. Consider a made-up conversation I’m having with Dave for the treatment of anxiety.
“Hi, Dave. I’m going to prescribe a medication that might help, but first I need to let you know about some side effects. It will lower your ability to make new memories, make you twice as likely to get in a car wreck, and we’re not sure but it may effect size/function of certain areas of your brain, it’s probably temporary. Now don’t worry, those problems might depend on how much active medication is in the prescription, but the pharmacy won’t tell me how much they’re putting in.”

Should you self medicate when it comes to mental health?
Wow! That sounds like a hard thing for me to convince patients would be a good treatment plan. I certainly wouldn’t go for that. Sure, marijuana isn’t used for a sober, straightforward problem your working on in your doctor’s office. It’s a recreational drug whose primary appeal may be more about getting the “stoned” feeling in social settings. That said it’s staggering how many people use marijuana for anxiety…to find a way to self-medicate a horrible feeling they might not know any other way to find relief. As much as I can see the reasons, when someone reaches my doorstep the question becomes how can I take over with talk therapy and medication to create a solution where you’re not so alone with the problem. Yes being alone with a problem is often much of what gives anxiety its teeth.
Self-medicating with marijuana puts you in place that might not help with self-care.
Unfortunately, marijuana (as with all abusable drugs including the legal ones) gets in the way of me getting “in there” with you. Thats even besides the quesitons of legalization in Texas. Should It Be Legal? Should Cannabis Be Part Of Your Mental Health Care? Self-medicating with marijuana puts you in place that doesn’t work well; it makes you the doctor deciding how much to take when to take it, what it means to be taking it. Trying to figure out these answers alone and on your own usually only worsens the problem in the long run. It also doesn’t allow me in to help to offer hope for some immediate relief and a resiliency plan that leads you to more independence from anxiety.
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