Do MAOI inhibitors like Zoloft decrease the effects of cannabis?

ZoBudd

Well-Known Member
Does anyone know if taking Zoloft or other MAOI inhibitors decreases the good effects of pot?
 

Squidbilly

Well-Known Member
My experience and research says yes. Zoloft and other popular antidepressants are SSRIs or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Your brain makes serotonin and fires it from one receptor to another across the synaptic gap. Any the brain doesn't need/use gets recycled, or uptaked- SSRIs work by blocking this uptake and forcing the serotonin to stay in the synaptic gap and be used. This may help people from getting 'depressed' or at least having severe depressive episodes, but what they don't tell you is this regulation also kinda works the other way as well- they also kinda prevent you from experiencing natural surges in serotonin and dopamine. It keeps everything level and even, so they can prevent you from getting suicidal, but they also prevent you from feeling great joy. This is why so many people on this type of medication say, "I'm not sad, but I'm not happy" or the report feeling numb.

Now for my experience...

While I was taking SSRI antidepressants(and I was on almost all of them as my idiot doctor kept telling me people need to try different ones, not that they just aren't an effective treatment for depression) I found that taking any drugs was pretty much useless and unenjoyable. Cannabis lost it's magic and barely made me feel anything(except more depressed over time), drugs like MDMA had almost no effect on me what so ever(and are super dangerous to take while on SSRIs, thanks for telling me that doc!) I would have to take 2-3x what my buddies did just to get an adderall like high. LSD made me feel terrible and sick to my stomache and again, barely had the effect I was hoping for. Everyone is different, but the chemicals SSRIs screw with are the ones responsible for most drugs euphoria. One the flip side, some people report that the effects of these drugs have the complete opposite effect while on SSRIs, they become more powerful-but in a bad way.

Long story short, SSRIs can definitely have an impact on how cannabis effects you. For me it made cannabis unenjoyable.
 
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