Has anyone withdrawn from cannabis after benzo withdrawal?

Hey guys,

 

I've been smoking weed the entire taper and since I've been off and it seems to have helped tremendously with just about everything, only occasionally making me feel weird when having certain symptoms of anxiety and dp/dr that cannabis increases or I get an odd strain.

 

What I'm wondering is if anyone has done the same and then stopped smoking weed once they felt healed? Clearly I will get an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, irritability etc etc as you do when you stop smoking, but has it caused any re-emergence of other benzo withdrawal symptoms for anyone and was the withdrawal the usual 1-4 weeks or did it cause prolonged issues unlike typical cannabis withdrawal?

 

Basically I'm trying to gauge whether cannabis has been continuing the benzo dependence on some level. Either way it's probably not going to matter much in my case as it's needed for pain and I'll probably smoke forever. But I would prefer to stop for the sake of my motivation and wallet.

 

Thanks

I always give myself a break from it, for the reason you're getting at, to make sure that I am healing from benzo injury and not just benefitting from a stoned fog. I need to know that I am healing underneath it all. The good news is that I always found that in fact I am healing. Taking a break can be difficult. If you're only recently benzo free, you're probably going to unmask some symptoms. I think it's worth it to give yourself a break, good for healing and good for you to know where you're at. I believe that weed helps a lot and promotes healing but it's not a miracle cure and you've probably still got some issues, but hopefully they are not too bad.

 

By the way, I would recommend a dry herb vaporizer. I believe the evidence shows that it is a good deal healthier than smoking and it's also more efficient and therefore cheaper. Not as immediate as smoking and may take longer for you to get to where you wanna be. Also a bit of a learning curve.

I continue to use cannabis most nights as it helps me sleep faster/longer.  However, about 9 months after my withdrawal, I had an opportunity to travel (for free) to China for 2+ weeks.  I wasn't completely healed, but was doing pretty well.  Cannabis was clearly not an option, so I simply stopped using it for about a month and popped benadryl or Unisom instead for sleep.  I slept worse, but suffered no major withdrawal or reactivation of any benzo withdrawal symptoms. 

Thanks for the response guys, very glad to hear it doesn't seem to impact healing. I've been considering giving my dry herb vape a try, just haven't been too bothered because it always gave me a somewhat anxious high before, I'm guessing the cbd doesn't counter the effects of THC properly with this method. Will see how it goes while in this altered state.

It's hard to prove something like this but I believe there are good reasons to think that cannabis promotes healing in those who tolerate it well. I was a daily user for large chunks of my taper and I still use it quite regularly post taper. I am doing a lot better these days, with or without cannabis. I don't know how many hours of "excess" sleep a racked up with my cannabis use but I do know that it is a lot. I'd get in the region of 3-4 hours additional sleep compared to if I didn't use cannabis (or another sleep aid that would be less healthy). If I conservatively put that at 100 hours per month and estimate my solid cannabis use at something like 10 months (also a conservative estimate, not continuous and with breaks). I understand that cannabis alters sleep architecture somewhat but there's just no way that 1000 hours of sleep that I wouldn't have got otherwise is anything other than good for healing, given that I can come of the cannabis with no issues (apart from the mental challenge!).

 

Furthermore, cannabis promotes the rest/digest state and brings you out of fight/flight. Chronic inflammation is a big part of the benzo withdrawal syndrome pathology. Bringing that down not only makes you feel a lot better short term but if your body is not attacking itself as much, it can actually heal. There are other ways to promote rest/digest (largely through stimulating the vagus nerve) but benzo withdrawal presents a challenge. There are breathing exercises you can do, but to get anything like the response you get with cannabis would require quite a vigorous workout which will be too much to the point of being potentially dangerous for some people in a state of withdrawal. Fasting helps but again, not suitable for everybody and you may feel a lot worse in order to feel better. It's not practical.

 

The argument against would be that taking a lot of weed undoubtedly shapes your personality/character in a different way. My attitude to that is somewhere between "so what?" and "maybe that's a good thing". In any case, it sounds like you're already there  .

 

You can take your cannabis and feel good about it, I reckon. Try to keep a lid on it, don't let doses get out of hand. And I can't help making the nudge again, your lungs will thank you if you use a dry herb vaporizer. Dynavap is popular with people who switch from smoking, it uses combustion so you get a pseudo-smoking type experience. The other advice I'd give is that most (maybe all?) vaporizers can be used with a bong. I've never done this myself - I've never smoked on the regular before and I like the vaporizers effects just fine - but I gather that it gives a stronger hit. You'll see that this advice here can be applied to all cannabis smokers equally and that's the point. If it works for you, keep going. It's healthy not harmful, if you use it right.

 

Hope this helps. I have no axe to grind, just don't like to see people worrying excessively.