Stress can be a major contributing factor to deteriorating mental health and unproductiveness in people. It isn’t that you conjure up stress out of nowhere, it manifests during emotional and/or physical upheaval. This change in an equilibrium of all sorts brings about feelings of frustration, nervousness, and anxiety even. Stress is your body’s reaction to a certain situation that is tormenting you, but the thing is it can be mostly negative and only a handful of times deliver a positive outlook. Medical marijuana has been catching the news off late and has been the talk of the town for various reasons that help people medicinally.
According to a 2017 survey done nationwide of more than 9000 Americans hinted that more than 80% believed that marijuana has more than just one medical benefit. And more than 45% of the same responded that anxiety, stress, and depression were three of the major medical issues that marijuana could potentially help with. These mental and emotional responses we have to both external and internal stimuli can be physically reflective.
Also Read: How To Deal With Anxiety Using Cannabis
Stress and anxiety almost go hand in hand, stress is a response to an external stimulus causing anxiety. Anxiety is an internal feeling of dread and apprehension that can translate to stress. Getting a weed card to have access to medical marijuana can have significant improvements in stress and anxiety. Let’s see how that happens.
Medical Marijuana and Stress Reduction
Medical marijuana is not always the first option that people keep in mind as they look out for potential in managing or lowering stress. Here are some age-old methods that people have been doing to keep them from harm’s way –
- Listening to music you like
- Any form of physical activity
- Meditation and yoga
- Reading
Unfortunately, many people resort to unhealthy coping strategies when they are stressed out. Overeating, avoiding social outings, and self-medicating are all ways people try to alleviate their symptoms. Attempting to manage mental health in this way frequently worsens the situation, and daily life can become overwhelming. Cannabis can be an effective stress reliever and supplement to your health regimen. However, as previously stated, self-medicating is a dangerous path to take when dealing with mental health issues.
Also Read: Use Marijuana to Fight These Mental Illnesses
Both recreational and medical cannabis users can agree on the fact that marijuana can be used as an excellent sleeping aid. There are a lot of young and older adults alike that reported using marijuana to get better sleep. If we talk about people who have been using marijuana for a long time period, more than half of them use the plant to get better sleep.
As many as 85 percent of people who use cannabis for medical purposes, such as pain relief, say it improves their sleep. Cannabis research as a sleep aid is still in its early stages. Medical cannabis can also be helpful in relieving insomnia when consumed in moderation. However, there’s not enough data to conclude if long-term use will prove to be beneficial or not to improve sleep quality. Cannabis may be an option for you if you have a sleep disorder or are having difficulty sleeping after a stressful day. Marijuana’s analgesic properties may provide some relief for those suffering from chronic pain, while its anti-anxiety properties may help to calm a stressed-out mind and body.
Helps With Relaxation
With family, financial, and work concerns, environmental concerns, tension from a contentious political culture, and now fears surrounding Covid-19, it’s easy to become caught up in distressed and anxious feelings these days. Few solutions have raised as many eyebrows as smoking or vaping cannabis among the many coping mechanisms for this stress – from therapy to prescription medication, to cracking open a beer at the end of a long day. CBD causes changes in blood flow to areas of the brain associated with anxiety.
This clearly indicates that CBD can aid in the treatment of anxiety. It also explains how CBD interacts with the brain to achieve this. As per a review analyzing former research on cannabidiol (CBD) oil, CBD oil could possibly be the key to reducing many anxiety disorders.
Helps Cope With Pain
Pain is probably one of the calling cards of any discomfort that our bodies encounter. Be it because of an accident, illness, or intentional damage, pain is one of the highlighted reasons people sought the emergency room. The thing with pain is that it can have many reasons behind it, be it chronic pain or acute pain. Treating pain successfully is something that has vexed us for a long time, because of how misunderstood it is. Cannabinoids, chemical compounds naturally found in the cannabis plant, have been studied and researched to significant promise as a pain reliever. The peripheral nervous system has many receptors from the endocannabinoid system. These receptors interact with cannabinoids like CBD and THC and help the Endocannabinoid System maintain a state of homeostasis of our bodily functions.
Pain sensations are picked up by the nerves on the periphery of the central nervous system. These areas contain an abundance of cannabinoid receptors from the Endocannabinoid System. When cannabinoids like CBD interact with these peripheral receptors, the cannabinoids seemingly blocked nerve pain (peripheral) in experimented animals.
Helps in Stabilizing Mood
It cannot be possible that you have not felt bad or at least tried to shake it off by all means and standards. Depression is a real problem, a state of mental contortion that affects more than 350 million people worldwide. This mood disorder is one of the leading causes of crippling mental and emotional disability worldwide. Even after being in such prevalent themes, there is a large chunk of people who have depression but do not receive the help that they need and deserve. There have been multiple research and studies that are being conducted to see how well can medical marijuana be used for tackling the condition as an added treatment option. Not just that, the scientists at the University of Buffalo have started to consider medical marijuana as a likely treatment for depression by chronic stress.
As mentioned earlier, the endocannabinoid system plays a significant role in maintaining regular bodily functions and keeping them in check. Cannabinoids interact with receptors on the Endocannabinoid System and help in maintaining the equilibrium our body strives for, for better and smooth functioning.
