Posted by jeffrey d roth, md on April 12, 2005, at 23:19:50
In reply to Roth: MJ as self-medication, posted by Susan47 on April 12, 2005, at 9:43:05
> Dear Dr. Roth:
> Thank you for being a guest speaker on our forum.
> I have a question for you. I've spent the majority of my life avoiding marihuana as I worked in a career that wouldn't allow me to do that. However, when I was younger I did it daily and I have to admit I really enjoyed myself ... lately I have been finding I need to do it daily in order to feel really stimulated. And I love feeling stimulated. In a good way, you know? I have a tendency, especially in the last year or more, to become hypomanic, sometimes manic .. you know, the point where people go "okay now she's just being weird". I've struggled with depression my entire life and the hypomania just feels so incredibly good ... MJ seems to exacerbate my hypomania, but I LIKE the hypomania... is this really a bad thing?Dear Susan47,
I take seriously the axiom that if it isn't broken don't fix it. The Twelve Step corollary is that if it is not unmanageable, it is not an addiction. However it sounds like you have internalized the message that this is a really bad thing. You might want to examine where that message comes from (and I doubt that it comes from "society"); you might discover some addiction in your family that you have been responding to in a manner that you have not been aware of.
Warmly,
Jeffrey D. Roth, MD
poster:jeffrey d roth, md
thread:483229
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20050323/msgs/483556.html