smoking induced panic attacks/anxiety

okay. so my current situation is slightly different then others on here, but please help me out. first things first, I have been smoking for 4 years, almost every day, usually multiple times a day. I've been used to smoking pot carrying very low THC content for the past month or so. then, I smoked very potent marijuana with a high THC content and experienced what I believe was a panic attack. heart beat was faster, dizziness, chest pains, feeling of unreality, etc. this occurred after taking a single hit from a bong. curious as to why this would happen, especially only from a single toke, I decided to take a single hit off a one hitter the following morning. I did not experience a panic attack, but I did experience significant anxiety. this all made no sense to me. pot used to lower my anxiety, now its doing the opposite? I thought the best idea was to put down the pipe for a while until I figure out why this happened. please let me know what you think. thanks.

Funny you should mention this, I had a nasty anxiety attack today. Felt like the most severe heartburn x 1000. I was floored and needed to crawl to my bed. I experienced a strange feeling of other-worldliness along with a mild anxious feeling.

I do think smoking weed can contribute to this ... 6 months ago I kinda quit smoking but a few days ago re-started. The weed has been making me real high, which is not a bad thing but kinda made me feel unsettled after.

I believe life stress + smoking neat joints yesterday triggered my attack today. As soon as I realized it was an anxiety attack I lay down and told myself to calm down, 15 minutes later I was OK again and the chest pain had dissipated. For me, the moral of the tale was, face up to the life stress and don't attempt to cover it up by smoking strong herb which is what I suspect I was doing.

some strain's do that to me just try a different strain ...

Heisenberg420187 said:

some strain's do that to me just try a different strain ...

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I think ur on to something

huffwellington said:

I think ur on to something

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Can get mild ones when I have dried out, then toke good Kush. Have heard eating a candy bar or a spoon of sugar will ward them off. any exp./ideas on this?

Did you grow the strain that gave you this panic attack? In my experience, strains that are harvested too early will almost always induce anxiety for me and I am an all day everyday smoker most of the time. Unmature plants will be high in THC but not have CBN, CBD, etc. developed. You need the mix of all the chemicals to make it good. When you consume pure THC that has everything else removed (done in a lab) you don't have a pleasant experience at all. You need the mix to have a pleasant high.

That said, you can get a shitty feeling from overdosing on otherwise good weed as well. It seems strange you would get to this level from one hit but it is possible if your tolerance is very low.

Anxiety from weed is known as "throwing a whitey" although this term may need updating as it might not be so politically correct these days

skunkd0c said:

Anxiety from weed is known as "throwing a whitey" although this term may need updating as it might not be so politically correct these days

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Been tokin for 45+ years, first time iv'e ever heard of a whitey.

like someone else mentioned earlier, it could be strain dependent.. from the reading i've down, it seems that sativa, sativa dominant strains will tend to induce more anxiety than indica / indica dominant strains..
idk if you know what strain it was that you smoked, but if you do, maybe try switching it up for a more indica dom strain.. some strain in general are more well known to induce anxiety..

overgrowem said:

Been tokin for 45+ years, first time iv'e ever heard of a whitey.

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Now its called having a Bobby.

overgrowem said:

Been tokin for 45+ years, first time iv'e ever heard of a whitey.

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hellmutt bones said:

Now its called having a Bobby.

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i've never heard the term white out or whitey before i got here either fwiw..

overgrowem said:

Been tokin for 45+ years, first time iv'e ever heard of a whitey.

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For 45+ years ignorance got the better of you

you can thank me now for your enlightenment lol

I've read that chewing on a couple black peppercorns will stop or alleviate the anxiety/panic attack symptoms. Neil Young reportedly has used this method when smoking too much. I wonder if it has to do with terpenes?

bellcore said:

I've read that chewing on a couple black peppercorns will stop or alleviate the anxiety/panic attack symptoms. Neil Young reportedly has used this method when smoking too much. I wonder if it has to do with terpenes?

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i've never heard that before, but i don't usually suffer from anxiety..
i have heard that if you press your tongue against the roof of your mouth when you have an ice cream head ache / brain freeze, it'll go away..

skunkd0c said:

For 45+ years ignorance got the better of you

you can thank me now for your enlightenment lol

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Didn't matter much, I never had a mj. caused attack until a few years ago when my supply became pretty much only good Kush.

overgrowem said:

Didn't matter much, I never had a mj. caused attack until a few years ago when my supply became pretty much only good Kush.

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i know one or two long term smokers that say, these kind of attacks were the reason behind them quitting the green for the rest of their lives

throwing a whitey is very similar to derealization, it is a most unpleasant experience imo
i have experienced this while taking LSD and i would have to say it was one of the reasons i quit the acid LOL

peace

skunkd0c said:

i know one or two long term smokers that say, these kind of attacks were the reason behind them quitting the green for the rest of their lives

throwing a whitey is very similar to derealization, it is a most unpleasant experience imo
i have experienced this while taking LSD and i would have to say it was one of the reasons i quit the acid LOL

peace

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Mine tend to be minor, and short lived. Never give them much thought.Being aware that they could pop up seems to be 50% of coping with them.

overgrowem said:

Mine tend to be minor, and short lived. Never give them much thought.Being aware that they could pop up seems to be 50% of coping with them.

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Lucky for me, weed has not given me any strong unpleasant feelings, i gave up all the other shit years ago
each person reacts differently, even though weed is regarded as pretty benign compared to other substances
it can have a strong side effect on some individuals, i know some major pill heads that cant smoke a whole joint without having bloodshot eyes and looking pretty sick

peace

skunkd0c said:

Anxiety from weed is known as "throwing a whitey" although this term may need updating as it might not be so politically correct these days

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I asked my daughter. She says the term du jour is 'greening out'.

I smoked the same strain with no probs every day for a month usually just a half bowl or so then one niht decided to go deep smoked my usual amount waited an hour then smoked 3 heavy hits out of a bubbler I also smoke for anxiety and I had a 30 min panic attack that was the worst ever I don't think it has to do with strain so much as how high u get in a given session thought I was going to day on par with this experience the first time I smoked hash I had trouble aswell but to a lesser degree smoked much less but was much more potent than I was used to controll ur intake too much of a good thing is at some point going to be a bad thing .