Marijuana and PTSD

When it comes to PTSD, many of us know that there are not a whole lot of treatment options for those who struggle with it. While PTSD has quite possibly been around for centuries, it wasn’t until that last 50 years or so that it was finally diagnosed and treated like it really is. It is true that a lot of United States military veterans struggle with PTSD after coming home from their deployments overseas. People with PTSD generally experience trauma related anxiety attacks that are caused by them not being able to process the events that they have experienced in the past. Some people with PTSD also experience trouble sleeping at night or dealing with nightmares.

Some feel very closed off from other people, angry, emotionally distant, and even numb. So what are some of the treatment options for people dealing with PTSD? Well, they include different types of psychotherapy and medication, most commonly using the drugs that are normally used for different types of anxiety and depression in other mental health patients. However, like I mentioned earlier in this article, there are not a lot of great treatment options out there for medical patients that are dealing with severe PTSD. That is why there has been a recent interest in using medical marijuana to treat patients that have PTSD. Many state programs that have legalized medical marijuana have included PTSD, among other mental health disorders like depression and anxiety, as qualifying conditions in order to obtain a medical marijuana card. 

However, are there any scientific or clinical studies done about people using medical marijuana to treat their PTSD? Not really. Part of the reason for this is that any medical research done about medical marijuana is somewhat sparse, due to the fact that it has been an illegal substance for so long. I mean, who’s going to fund the money for scientists to do medical research on an illegal drug? Thankfully, our society is starting to head in a better direction when it comes to using and prescribing medical marijuana, but we still have a long way to go. Regardless, there have been a handful of studies done about medical marijuana being used to treat PTSD.

Of those studies done, there were mixed results. Part of the problem with these studies is that many of the participants were already regularly using cannabis, so that didn’t really create a very controlled environment. I can say from personal experience that a lot of marijuana strains can sometimes fight the line between feeling calm and feeling anxious.

For military veterans to use medical marijuana by themselves, and suddenly find themselves having flashbacks to their traumatic experiences while also high on cannabis - yeah, that sounds terrifying. Either way, there is something to be said about medical marijuana’s ability to help people sleep at night, especially people with PTSD who may be trying to fight off bad dreams and other demons while the sleep.

So here are some of the best strains out there that are listed for people with PTSD. Remember guys, not everyone will experience every strain in the same way as the person next to them, so take that into consideration before completely trusting how one strain is explained. One of the more popular strains on the market right now is called Blue Dream is a sativa dominant hybrid strain known for inducing feelings of relaxation and calm, doubled with a euphoric and uplifting high.

The nice thing about this strain is that it’s a hybrid, meaning that there is both a component of sativa and indica within it. The sativa will help you to feel a bit more energy and euphoria when smoking it, and the indica will help bring you back from the edge of getting anxious or overwhelmed.