Hi Everyone

I suffer with PTSD and have done since being diagnosed in 98. I was first prescribed melleril, after a year or so I was prescribed Prozac, that just made me worse and I felt like driving my car into the nearest wall, I was then prescribed seroxat and believed it would eventually start to help me, it didn't. I started to give up thinking the drugs that were being plied to me would never be able to make me feel better, so that I could feel like the real me again. After not having taken any seroxat for many months, towards the end of 2008 I was prescribed escitlopram and I felt like jacking it all in, thats how it made me feel and I very nearly did. As a result of taking escitlopram (which I no longer take) I have a lasting legacy which I was never informed about as a side affect, the side affect being tinitus. Thank you very much Mr big drug company.

In 2006 I started to look on the net for other ways to treat ptsd and time after time Cannabis kept coming up. Up until Sep 2006 I had never in my entire life tried Cannabis, I am now in my early forties. I wanted to find out for myself, so I researched about Amsterdam and where to go etc & went to Amsterdam on my own and stayed for 5 days, these were the best 5 days I have ever had since being diagnosed, I felt truly human again. I am now a firm believer in the medicinal qualities of Cannabis and for me it is the treatment of choice, as and when I can get hold of it. Like the rest of us on here I am sick and tired of being dictated to about what treatment is best for me. The patient knows best. I choose Cannabis with pride.

I am due to see my doctor this afternoon and she will probably try and presribe some other fantastically boxed drug. I am not going to accept this, I am not going to be a guinea pig anymore. I am going to tell her in no uncertain terms that I am no longer prepared to be fobbed off with inferior drugs or suffer any more grotesque side affects, when I have found something which I know helps me to live my life and to remind her it is my life to live. I hope she does the right thing and writes this in my notes, in fact I will insist upon it.

I would like to know if anyone else on the forum has ptsd and if so what strain or strains have been found to be most beneficial. I am very interested in knowing more about CBD and CBN and their effects. Can anyone enlighten me?

Love & Peace

Mo

Ps I was very dissapointed with the low turnout at the recent London protest, organised by a now good friend of mine Jim Pinky Starr. If we all stood up to be counted like many do in other countries, then we will be listened to and not treated with contempt. Enough said.

Hi,
I do know that some therapies, such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, can be very effective for some people with PTSD. Any way your doc can refer you to a competant psychologist (rather than a psychiatrist, who are basically pill pushers)??

I can't offer you much about the differences between CBD and CBN i'm afraid, but do know that you could find that indica strains are helpful in cases such as yours, as they can relax the body as well as the mind. I certainly find they aid me with the physical symptoms of stress I experience. More sativa dominant strains can at times exaggerate any feelings of anxiety you may have.

Meds on their own are not very helpful for many people, but combined with CBT they can really help.

Good luck!

EO.

Maybe if it was organised by anyone with a few facts it would be more successful

Pinkys already been here and made himself look foolish with all his drivel and scrounging, so no wonder there were few there

Protests need folk at the helm with understanding, not a bloke who for some unknown reason always wants to be seen with a spliff in his gob, and has a pink (sorry Brown now) beard dressed in orange overalls

Welcome to Uk420 though

Owd

Hi Mrs Nice

First, sorry to hear about the PTSD

I think EO has expressed things well and I'd second what she says Did any particular strains help in Amsterdam ? As EO says, 'indica' strains tend to be relaxing, though ime some 'sativa' dominant strains lift me above my own health issues, it's all very individual - we're so complex

I sympathize re psyche drugs, they're so often unhelpful - used to work as a psyche nurse for years and I can see exactly what you're saying about SSRIs like prozac, seroxat and ecitalopram

Again, as EO says, many people find Cognitive Behavioural Therapy helpful in conjuntion with meds (in this instance I guess the 'meds' would be cannabis)

All the best and I hope you find a lasting solution

A

CBD is a chemical created by the cannabis plant which along with blocking some of the psychoactive effects of THC has medicinal properties such as anti-anxiety as well as others, its a totally seperate chemical than CBN. CBN is just a degraded product of THC with something like 10% of the psychoactivity of THC, it doesnt have any medicinal qualities that have been proven. I believe it just degrades with time and air and light, and makes you feel a bit messed up. Iv done lots of reading about how to find an anti-anxiety strain, and i would say from the reading iv done that you want a high CBD strain of cannabis, which (so iv heard) are quite hard to find in the specially bred seeds as the amsterdam breeders have pretty much bred out CBD from their strains in favour of high THC strains and because of the blocking effect that CBD has on THC. But apparently the landrace seeds are the ones with the highest amount of CBD in them as they havent had it bred out of them, and im currently growing Pure Afghan from DNA seeds, as its straight from afghanistan and is a landrace and so should have lots of CBD in it. I dont know if it makes a difference weather the strain is sativa or indica when choosing a high CBD strain for anxiety though, the pure Afghan is a pure Indica, and iv heard from various places that the indica is the best, but then again iv also heard people say that Indica causes them more anxiety, so its probably depending on the person.
As i say though, this is all from reading iv done and this is the conclusion iv made, but it might be wrong so dont take it for gospel

E2A: I dont know much about PTSD but assume it causes lots of anxiety?

fair play to you and congrats on finding the herb an not being put off by the media bull shit!

you did it in style going to the dam for your trip! the place for the best medicine selection. that is where i went to discover blueberry as my best pain reliever that also had the best effects for mental wellbeing an mood enhacer included(noon cafe try it ur next trip). but if you dont mind just getting monged to pieces then white widow killed the most pain for me.

cant comment on cbd etc tho you shouldnt completely rule out legal drugs as some really do help people, especially be prepared to try new ones u not tried before that come out as they might help you, just like youve tried the herb, you gotta try them too.

but if ur like me having dropped over five thousand legal prescriptions pills and had nothing beneficial but had all the side effects they can list in one medical encyclopedia, herb is the way forward, and an amsterdam trip means you dont have to spend three months plus waiting to see if the strain/seeds youve purchased are gonna grow to a medically valuable harvest or not, you go in buy one gram an know within half an hour wether you wanna be growin that strain or not to help you... so try an remember the strains from amsterdam that helped you or get back there mate. otherwise if you ask us lot we can only tell you what helps us... and were not all medically using for the same reason to start with... an when ive asked for help i get reccomendations of every other strain so with other peoples medical strains in mind you could be growing sativas, indicas or hybrids an still not have the right strain for you, so try to get back to amsterdam and find your individual type or strain thats beneficial to you ...

good luck hope you get a good grow on soon

HI, sorry to hear about the ptsd and more so with your unpleasant experiences with various prescriptions from your GP.

Theres people better qualified than me to advise you on strains, but if my own experience of some of the prescription meds you mention is of any use to you, then I'll gladly share...

A few years ago I was diagnosed with chronic depression, although the diagnosis is wooly beyond that except for knowing that I'm not bipolar or manic-depressive. Anyway, doctors had tried for years to presribe something useful and I think my experience was similar to yours. Prozac types tended to make my brain feel as if it was made of wood, after years of the media nonsense horror stories of LSD or weed making u think u can fly or being so stoned u walk under a bus, it was in fact a prescription med that nearly made me wander into traffic

Citalopram and cipralex made me suicidal for the first time and I think if i hadn't stopped it when i did I certainly wouldnt be alive today i reckon it should be up there with seroxat, I mean what kind of anti depressant/anxiety drug is it if potential side effects include increased feelings of suicide and self harm

Im not sure what your symptoms are, but for me there was a quite a spell of debilitating anxiety and my GP tried lots of different stuff, varying doses of diazepam and some anti-psychotics on top of the anti depressant. It was an interesting time in my life oh I forgot to mention that during all this experimentation that smoking too much weed or having a drink would usually send me into a total mong out/send me nuts.

To cut a long story short I ended up with an anti depressant called Lofepramine, which seem to work really well for me at least and with no 'druggy' side effects, altho who knows in the long term (dont want tinnitus ) and the anxiety was sorted by use of beta blockers (propranolol). Personally the positives of this combo far outweighed any obvious side effects, and the meds werent turning me into a zombie. I could even have a smoke and a pint with no ill effects other than the usual hangover

Might it be worth asking ur GP about lofepramine? failing that maybe someone here can point u towards the perfect strain and u can have nothing more to do with crappy meds

Good luck in your search, let me know if u find something good, i'll try it

SS

Hi, I've also heard good things also about blueberry and flo with regards to ptsd. Your doctor should know it's impossible to effectively treat ptsd with drugs alone. The most important part of treatment is therapy, talking it out. May take a long time on the nhs and private talk therapy can get expensive. I'm currently looking into NLP maybe with hypnosis for the simple reason it's very quick, one or two sessions, and is generally successful compared to other types of therapy.

Good luck with it anyway and enjoy your growing

propranolol coupled with a nice indica dominant strain works for myself with the anxiety...i still smoke sativa and am ok off some,but others just send my mind spiralling, so tend to stick with indica`s...

tis abit trail and error..
sounds like ya need to book another trip to dam or even eindhoven...
hope ya manage to find the right cocktail for yourself...

just a thought aswell if your going to tell your GP that you use canna and you find it helps make sure its off the record just in case you need to release your medical notes for insurance purposes...

I too have suffered chronic depression for many years - and been on prozac, seroxat, etc etc. I actually weaned myself off - thinking it is too easy for doctors to just prescribe - and not knowing side effects or even if they are addictive.

So now I just smoke a nice Joint (or 2) - daily - still get depressed - but as has been said before, without the druggy side effects.

I recently gave up smoking fags - but as I am still buying dealers weed I have to resort to half a fag in each J to bulk it up hoping it will change if and when I crop.

Your comment about the tinnitus is what prompted me to write also - I suddenly developed this about 2 years ago - never putting it down to medication - even went for hospital testing recently to be told I had lost certain part of my hearing, bla bla nerves bla bla + tinnitus - result - nothing can be done - it happens as we get older. At least I now know what may have caused it.

Good luck

SL

I would say that CBD rich skunks like White rhino contain more of the anti-psychotic/anti-anxiety part (CBD).
This can have an immediate effect although i find it is never good to smoke whilst in the middle of emotional turmoil as it doesnt really wipe the emotions clean and the high becomes a confused one where I know I should be feeling shit but cant remember why. Although smoking can provide a some respite sometimes from traumatic memories I think that relying on drug in particular can promote repressed memories which surface when your emotions aren't dulled so much by cannabis.
Having said that, sometimes smoking a sativa on a quiet day is too much because of all the psychoactivity of the THC.
I think that there is a level of cannabis which you can consume to keep you relaxed, but when harsh feelings surface you cant smoke a spliff to forget them you have to re-evaluate how these feelings are making you feel in context and then just remember that you are still alive and praise ja for being able to experience at least some of the pleasures of this world.

We hope to get it legalized in Pennsylvania

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-7002-Pi...House-Bill-1393