Background
For those of you who may be new to my blog, I suffer from anxiety and depression. I have tried multiple other things including therapy, medication, dietary changes and more to help with the symptoms. The reason I say cope with the symptoms is because in my opinion a lot of mental illnesses have no permanent cure. I know that it is possible with some but when it comes to depression and anxiety many of us are forced to live with it. The only way we can go back to functioning normally is learning how to cope with the symptoms or attempting to decrease them. That’s what medication generally does- it gets rid of the symptoms.
However, medication did not work for me so I started looking for other alternatives. About two years ago I began using CBD oil in an attempt to decrease or manage my symptoms better. At that point, I had been suffering from depression and anxiety for a few years so I had gotten to a point where I was ignoring the symptoms and just doing my best to live a normal life.
When I first began using CBD oil, I noticed an instant change. I had been using it for a day or two and already I was feeling better. My depression and anxiety had decreased significantly, my insomnia had gone away completely, I could concentrate better, I had more energy and I just felt a lot better in general both mentally and physically.
I shared my experience and then wrote another post with an update a little while after that. Since, I’ve been using it for about two years now I thought I would write another update especially since I mentioned it on a post last week and many people seemed to be interested in CBD oil and a couple of people asked about it or said they would be interested in learning more about it.
Dose/Amount
I usually get asked about this so I thought I would start out talking about how much I take. When I first began using CBD oil I took about three drops every night about half an hour before I went to bed. After using it daily for a while, my brain seemed to be producing more serotonin (this is my guess since it helped me feel happier, more stable, digest food better and concentrate better which is what serotonin does) on its own so I stopped using it every day.
I began using it for two days and skipping the third day. After a few weeks of this, I began taking it every other day. At the moment I take it once every two or three days depending on how I’m feeling.
My body has not become resilient to its effects at all and if anything I need it less often the longer I take it which is great.
Anxiety
The CBD oil really helped with my anxiety and just calming down my brain in general. I have one of those brains that never shut up so I used to be constantly overwhelmed which began effecting my sleep and I began suffering from insomnia due to this. However, CBD oil didn’t exactly slow down my brain but it helped me organise my thoughts better if that makes any sense. Like before, I was going from 0 to 100 in like 10 seconds but with CBD oil I’m a lot calmer.
I have social anxiety so interacting with humans isn’t something I’m great at naturally but CBD oil helped me feel more relaxed which meant it was easier for me to socialise and not be so quiet around people. I actually started interacting with others more, having fun and just enjoyed socialising in general.
I once read someone describing having anxiety as that feeling you get when you’re rocking you’re chair and are about to fall but having that feeling all the time and that was pretty accurate for me. With CBD oil that feeling kind of went away which was nice.
Of course, CBD oil is not some magic cure so I’m still a more anxious person that someone without an anxiety disorder but my anxiety has decreased significantly and the symptoms are manageable enough that they don’t interfere with my life. I still get anxious sometimes but it’s never so much that it stops me from doing what I want to.
Depression
I’ve mentioned this before but I’ll mention this again. With depression, I didn’t really realise I was depressed until I started taking CBD oil and the symptoms of depression began to go away. I began to actually enjoy things, had the energy to get out of bed, felt excitement and enthusiasm again and this was a big one- I actually began genuinely laughing again. It was like this cloud over my head had suddenly disappeared. I know it sounds cliché but that’s really how it was.
I began enjoying the small thing again like rainbows and nature. I wanted to create art again, write again and so much more. It was nice to feel enthusiastic again.
Again, CBD oil isn’t a magic cure- I still feel sad or depressed sometimes. I still cry over dumb things. I still don’t want to get out of bed once in a while. And that’s okay. CBD oil has just significantly decreased the symptoms and I can deal with occasionally feeling sad every few months rather than feeling that way every day.
Side Effects
Since, CBD oil isn’t technically a medication I don’t know if you can call these side effects but I just wanted to mention them because obviously nothing is perfect and some people may experience certain things due to using CBD oil.
I got really great sleep but for the first few months of using CBD oil I did have really vivid dreams. I found them very enjoyable because I love taking notes about all my dreams and trying to analyse them and stuff but I know not everyone would enjoy vivid dreams so this is something I would look out for.
For the first few months, my mouth and eyes were kind of dry which is pretty normal for most cannabis products but if you’re someone who doesn’t drink a lot of fluids you may want to drink more water than you normally do if you start using CBD oil.
Final Thoughts
As I always say on my mental health posts, if you think you or a loved one is suffering from a mental illness or mental health problems please speak to someone and preferably seek professional help. At least get a proper diagnosis first so you can deal with it accordingly.
If you are taking other medications or don’t know how much CBD oil would be the right amount for you make sure to talk to a healthcare professional about it and they will help you figure out what would work best for you.
I know a lot of people talk about CBD oil in order to promote something and I feel like CBD oil has kind of been ruined by annoying influencers trying to push it as some sort of magic cure for everything. That’s why I was so skeptical about it myself. And that’s why I always refrain from mentioning any companies in these posts because I don’t want my posts to be bias. I have been approached by a number of CBD oil brands but I haven’t worked with any of them because I know that if I do the results may be tainted. Even if I consciously try to be unbias I’ll probably subconsciously still be a little bias. I don’t know if that makes any sense because I’m a bit distracted today.
Finally, I would recommend giving CBD oil a try if you are looking for alternatives to medication because I know that not everyone finds medications beneficial and different things work for different people. I can’t guarantee that CBD oil will change your life but it did change mine so I would definitely recommend trying it out. If it works for you that’s great and if not you can try out other things.
Is there something you would like me to discuss about mental health? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll keep it in mind for next week.
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