Marijuana Will Make You Sad (If You Are Prone To Be Depressed)?

By on October 12, 2011 in News 52

Sad KeanuVia Science Daily:

Young people who are genetically vulnerable to depression should be extra careful about using cannabis: smoking cannabis leads to an increased risk of developing depressive symptoms. This has emerged from research carried out by Roy Otten at the Behavioural Science Institute of Radboud University Nijmegen that is published in the online version of the scientific journal Addiction Biology. Two-thirds of the population have the gene variant that makes one sensitive to depression.

Many young people in the Netherlands use cannabis. Nearly 30% of 16-year-olds indicate that they have used cannabis on at least one occasion, and 12% that they have used it during the past month. Besides worse performances at school, the use of cannabis also increases the risk of developing schizophrenia and psychosis. Smoking hashish and weed were thought to increase the risk of depression but no conclusive evidence for this was available to date. Otten suspects that this is partly because his predecessors failed to consider the individual genetic vulnerability to depression.

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  • Lupert

    OR it can give you panic disorder for life like it did to me.

    The first time i experienced it from using cannabis I was hospitalized and had a heart rate of 260bpm
    I thought it was just a fluke but a few months later at a party I tried smoking again and was hospitalized for the second time. Much worse this time and I wondered how I didn’t die.

    After those two experiences in my life any type of smoke has caused me to get bad panic attacks.
    I dont think this will ever go away and needless to say other people have had this same experience with panic and cannabis. Don’t take my word for it look it up.  

    If you or someone in your family has a genetic brain disorder then I wouldn’t do any drugs especially marijuana as it seems to worsen that symptom or bring it ahead. Until I tried cannabis I never had any signs or symptoms of panic disorder but it was there dormant. The drug just unlocked it.

    Stay Safe everyone.

  • Monkey See Monkey Do

    I know people who use marijuana to treat their panic disorder, I also know others who use it to treat their depression and schizophrenia. They say it works quite well.

  • Nyanblade

    that’s funny; i find the effect to be the polar opposite.

  • rock

    I helped me with both Anxiety and depression.

  • J Ackley

    I find this a little difficult to believe. Marijuana has had just the opposite effect for me, as well as many of my friends. And is there any evidence that it leads to worse performance at school? In my experience, my grades shot up concurrently with beginning to smoke cannabis. I find that it not only greatly increases my attention, making boring things much easier to get through, but it also makes just about every single thing several times more interesting. It also seems to increase my intuitiveness and creativity, as well as critical thinking skills. Perhaps I am not the most normal person out there, so my case may not be normal either, but the findings in these studies always seem a little fishy to me.

  • Anonymous

    that is very rare, and you have my condolences

  • TestTubeTeacher

    Really?  Cannabis, along with psilocybin mushrooms, cured my depression.  I never tried either in school, and my grades were so-so.  Personally I think these substances are for adults, not children… but I seem to be bucking the cultural flow on that one.

  • DeepCough

    My problem with this study is not that it’s trying to find something wrong with cannabis, but that it’s still relying heavily on the serotonin model for depression. This hypothesis has been debunked (1), and studies have found that conventional SSRIs used to correct the alleged serotonin imbalance in the human brain only make you worse (2). So the only way that weed could make you depressed is if you smoke shitty weed, ‘nough said.

    (1): http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/sep/28/depression-serotonin-neurogenesis

    (2): http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110719121354.htm

  • http://www.datadoctor.biz file recovery

    This is the first time I came to know that cannabis can be have such
    side-effects. so its use should be avoided.

  • http://www.datadoctor.biz file recovery

    This is the first time I came to know that cannabis can be have such
    side-effects. so its use should be avoided.

  • shamanamahs

    No offense, but panic attacks are 100% psychosomatic.  Don’t blame cannabis for your own mind’s weakness.  My best friend recently started having panic attacks, and though he had been smoking cannabis for nearly 10 years without a hitch, at first he tried to blame it on marijuana, even though he still experienced them sober.  He saw 3 specialists and 2 therapists, and the diagnosis was unanimous, the panic attacks were completely created by his own mind, any connection to cannabis was also a creation of his mind.  He started rearranging his life to one of less stress with an emphasis on health, he began exercising and meditating.  Once he got his life in order he found that he could get as high as he wanted without his anxiety taking over.  Weak people stir so much misinformation with their bias conclusions.

  • Word Eater

    Thanks, doc.  I’m glad to know that my diagnosis of clinical depression which sometimes leads to panic attacks is actually complete bullshit.  I can stop taking my medication and “just get over it” like so many well meaning family members said for 20 years before I sought out a medical professional.
    My bad, totally.  I’ll have to apologize to everyone for being such a wet blanket all those years.

  • Andrew

    People without any weaknesses stir so much misinformation with their biasED conclusions.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ELVARQAQTCKOSF4KL736MX4NN4 Joseph

    Most of my friends smoked a lot of weed and they all either flunked out of school or are still attempting to finish, almost ten years later.

    I support the legalization of all drugs, but let’s not get carried away with the “weed is magic!” bullshit.

  • DeepCough

    You should have started smoking weed sooner. You would have been less depressed as a result.

  • Lupert

    shamanamahs I employ you to do your own research on the matter by reading medical journals thenIt is a proven fact that marijuana use reduces blood flow in the brain after long term usehttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/03/000331090541.htmIT is also understood by many that the drug will likely cause you to exhibit panic disorder if you already have it by intensifying all the existing problems. Dont believe me do your own research.Here is an article with 200+ story’s all similar to mine. every person was showing the same symptoms after using marijuana. Coincidence? I think not.You should reply back once you know some facts.

  • Anonymous

    Do it or don’t do it, that is the question…. 
    Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
    The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
    Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
    And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep,
    No more; and by a sleep to say we end
    The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
    That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation
    Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;
    To sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub:
    For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
    When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
    Must give us pause – there’s the respect
    That makes calamity of so long life.
    For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
    The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
    The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
    The insolence of office, and the spurns
    That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
    When he himself might his quietus make
    With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
    To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
    But that the dread of something after death,
    The undiscovered country from whose bourn
    No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
    And makes us rather bear those ills we have
    Than fly to others that we know not of?
    Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
    And thus the native hue of resolution
    Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
    And enterprises of great pith and moment,
    With this regard their currents turn awry,
    And lose the name of action. Soft you now,
    The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
    Be all my sins remembered.

  • Word Eater

    Smoking weed was against my religious upbringing and now it’s just illegal and I’m too old to deal with the consequences of breaking the law now.

  • Word Eater

    Smoking weed was against my religious upbringing and now it’s just illegal and I’m too old to deal with the consequences of breaking the law now.

  • Anonymous

    First they said it made white women run off with black men. Then, when no-one believed them any more, they said it made you kill people. Then, when no-one believed them any more, they said it made you go mad and kill yourself. Then, when no-one believed them any more, they said it made you lazy and apathetic. Now that no-one believes that any more, they’ve gone back to saying it makes you go mad.

    You will always be able to prove that Cannabis smokers are prone to mental illness, because people with mental illnesses / people more prone to mental illnesses are much more likely to drink / take prescription or illegal drugs.

  • Anonymous

    First they said it made white women run off with black men. Then, when no-one believed them any more, they said it made you kill people. Then, when no-one believed them any more, they said it made you go mad and kill yourself. Then, when no-one believed them any more, they said it made you lazy and apathetic. Now that no-one believes that any more, they’ve gone back to saying it makes you go mad.

    You will always be able to prove that Cannabis smokers are prone to mental illness, because people with mental illnesses / people more prone to mental illnesses are much more likely to drink / take prescription or illegal drugs.

  • thesnides

    To be honest pot stopped me from killing myself. it actually saved my life and reversed my depression. maybe its different for others though

  • thesnides

    To be honest pot stopped me from killing myself. it actually saved my life and reversed my depression. maybe its different for others though

  • thesnides

    your friends are weak as fuck then dude. 

  • Anonymous

    For my first semester of college, I thought I’d be good and try to cut down on my weed intake.  I got straight As.  The next semester, I thought I’d go back to smoking it 3+ times a day, and I got straight A+s.

  • THCisNotForEveryone

    “panic attacks are 100% psychosomatic…Don’t blame cannabis for your own mind’s weakness” What an ignorant comment. I have had two panic attacks as a direct result of ingesting marijuana and they were both dreadful experiences that I would not wish upon anyone. And no, in case you are wondering…have never had an attack while sober.

  • Me

    This is not technically true, what marijuana does is bring the subconscious up to the conscious mind.  Therefore, if you already are depressed subconsciously, but suppressing it on a conscious level, then all these thoughts will flood the conscious mind, forcing you to address them.

  • Me

    I would advice that you look at my comment starting with “this is not technically true”.

  • Anonymous

    Well that sucks. Back to smoking Meth then.

  • Johnnyutah

    I agree. Joseph needs friends who aren’t worthless

  • Ricky Jazzercise

    There’s a very simple equation I like to reference. Take all the stupid, dangerous, sexually promiscuous shit I’ve done on all the illegal drugs I’ve ever taken (which is quite a bit over the years). Multiply that number by a thousand. That’s roughly the amount of stupid shit I’ve done while I’ve been drunk. You can say what you want about weed, but you cannot, and I mean absolutely CANNOT in any way insinuate that it is worse than alcohol, tobacco, or fast food – all of which are legal.

  • DeepCough

    Could it be that maybe, just maybe, you smoked bad weed?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ELVARQAQTCKOSF4KL736MX4NN4 Joseph

    Probably.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ELVARQAQTCKOSF4KL736MX4NN4 Joseph

    My wife says the same thing. I think you both have a point. Most of the non-worthless people I know don’t really smoke weed. It’s only a correlation, but still….

  • Merpal

    As expected, plenty of knee jerk reactions from potheads who want to defend their recreational habit on any grounds, claim that it is the cure to all diseases and syndromes known to man, etc. I wish people would fight for the legalization of the drug on the legitimate grounds of personal freedom, instead of laymen with no empirical data trying to justify it scientifically. “Oh, weed intensified feelings of social anxiety or depression? Must have been bad weed. Must have been ‘psychosomatic’.”

    I have no problem with people smoking, but it has had this exact effect on me – and regardless of whether or not it is bringing repressed feelings to the surface, they are feelings I would rather confront willingly and actively, with a positive mentality, than smoking myself into a sensation of hopelessness and social paranoia.

    Once again though, I know it brings a great deal of joy and inspiration to all of my friends and I am happy that it has this effect on them and would never want to deprive them of that…

  • JY7333

    This article is from Science Daily, who puts out a lot of propaganda against cannabis. There studies show that SMOKING cannabis is unhealthy. However SMOKING green tea is also unhealthy, this doesn’t mean green tea is unhealthy. LEGALIZE IT

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    > Marijuana Will Make You Sad

    So will alcohol and it’s legal.
    And many legally prescribed drugs do the same but with more significant side-effects.

  • Monkey See Monkey Do

    Well said.

  • Monkey See Monkey Do

    Your right! Science Daily is a propaganda machine.

  • Monkey See Monkey Do

    I think most long-term pot smokers have had some sort of ‘freak out’. It all depends on how far they went down the rabbit hole. Deep meditation or getting yourself into a trance can facilitate the same freak out. Confronting your repressed subconscious feelings is quite traumatizing for most.
    Smoking marijuana helps alot of people confront this wilingly, actively and with a positive mentality. Marijuana is serious business and it isn’t a recreational drug even though most people use it like one.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve had some panic attacks while using marijuana- I learned breath control and meditative posture to get past them.  I was depressed before I used it- I find that it helps me break psychological barriers to acting to better my life.  Am I saying that other people should use it?  Yes, if they find it helps them.  If they don’t, if they find that they spend their time playing video games and overeating, then they most definitely shouldn’t.

  • Anonymous

    Not to forget Cannabis is not just Cannabis, there are many different varieties which when grown under different conditions will produce different results. Also the social environment in which the intoxicant is used will have a significant impact upon the outcome.
    One of hostility and fear of prosecution and brutal assault will be different from a friendly cafe, with a nice cup of tea and no threat of armed and hostile arrest.

  • http://www.huntervalleyhampers.com.au/ bwendo

    Yeah be careful, and use it during the day, outdoors if you must.  Makes it a totally different experience.

  • Anonymous

    You make it sound as if the Mongols are coming to kill potters everywhere.

  • http://twitter.com/stanchaz stan chaz

    Throw away your crutches……

  • Wanooski

    Just about all of my friends were regular weed smokers, and they all got better grades than I did.

  • Wanooski

    I have pretty bad social anxiety, around strangers anyway, and MJ definitely got me over it.

  • Donut Eater

    Shitty jobs, governments and banks depress me, but I don’t think they will be outlawing any of that boring destructive shit any time soon.

  • Maggie G

    I don’t get it. I smoke weed every day and the bad things people say about it just sound crazy to me. It’s relaxing, causes you to have more critical thinking skills and allows you to see through the BS a lot easier. It’s not that strong either, compared to drinking or prescription drugs. It just tickles your mind a little but still allows you to function normally. You can drive a car, do work, write a story, play games, have a conversation (which is more interesting on weed), do almost everything you normally would. I just don’t get how it can effect you in ANY negative way. I have only seen positive results in all but one of my friends. The one friend that has negative effects from it already has a mental disability, even though he won’t admit it. His mother smoked PCP while pregnant with him and his father did cocaine. So hes all F-ed up, has anxiety issues and his critical thinking skills are on the same level of a child. Weed effects him in a negative way because, well, basically he’s already dumb. When he smoke’s, it just seems to make him slower and more tired. Quite the opposite for me, as I gain energy and focus usually. Unless I smoke a strong strain of Indica which knocks you the fuck out… 

    Marijuana seems to effect each person differently. It seems if you are already an intellectual, marijuana will only heighten your awareness and critical thinking skills. If you are a “dumb dumb head” then marijuana is only going to slow your already slow thought process down even further. It seems to intensify the thing’s that make us unique. I guess for some people there is no room for marijuana in their life, and that’s fine. Just don’t ever, ever try to say marijuana causes these problems in people, that’s simply not true. Marijuana opens your mind and allows you access to thoughts you never thought you had. Some people, I guess, can’t handle those thoughts and problems then ensue. 

    I think the problem lies with society. We filter everything so as not to offend certain people. This creates a fake world around you, a politically correct environment of lies and deceit in the name of equality. If you smoke weed this world becomes more REAL, the filter is removed per se, and I think some people can’t handle that.      

  • Repsol

    I used it to cure lung cancer, works quite well for that also. You just don’t smoke it for that type of treatment.

  • Marc

    fair enough… but where is the news headline about Cannabis reducing cancer risks or the study where jamaican women on Cannabis gave birth to children with higher IQs than the sober group… (both real scientific peer reviewed studies) Selective headlines from the MassMedia have the same effect as full out lies. OneLove!

  • Marc

    To give credit where it’s due, Tim Leary said LSD is a drug that can cause psychosis in those who have never taken it. To be fair, it seems most illegal drugs cause psychosis in many individuals who have never taken them…