Do you think Marijuana could help people with Anorexia?
Marijuana helps increase appetite in people without the illness. But would the illness override the feeling of wanting to eat caused by marijuana.
Also would marijuana relax or alter the mind, making the person more likely to eat? Perhaps you know someone who has anorexia, who has taken medical marijuana to fight the illness
Find out whether you have may have an anorexia problem, people who may have anorexia, reveal their thoughts.
week caused my anorexia. I was a normal teenager with normal eating habits, but when i became a heavy marijuana smoker I only wanted to smoke and do nothing else not even eat. It would make me feel less sick until my next hit. I used to be 145 lbs and I barely tip the scale at 118 right now. I would just caution you to not smoke heavily. my husband and his friends sell marijuana so i have got to see hundreds of marijuana customers over the last 6 years and i will tell you that most heavy smokers have no appetite and dream of the days when they had hunger pains instead of weed cravings. Because of my physical pain from smoking marijuana I am choosing not to smoke any longer. I will however let this blog know how I do because I used to feel a lot like your guys did that it helps me, but now I can look in the mirrior and see that i am wasting away on drugs.
Touchy subject, I've battled all my life with an eating disorder, not exactly anorexia, just I am NEVER hungry and when I eat I have this impulse to puke even though I know I'm not over weight. I can sadly say I am 26, a mother of 3 and I weigh 96 lbs and I am 5'6" tall. When I started smoking marijuana I was as some said paranoid because I was brought up very anti-drugs of any kind therefore it made it worse. Once I realized it calmed my nerves (Rather than some man made, lab engineered drug with more side effects than anything else) I found it easier to snack. Is it a cure all? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I am diagnosed with S.A.D & G.A.D (Social and general anxiety disorder) depression and an eating disorder and I've found that marijuana helps better than Prozac, Zanax you name it, I've tried it and weed is the lesser of the evils, in my mind
I smoke weed everyday to cope with my eating disorder. It does not help me with weight gain the disorder overrides it for me. But i helps make life managable, and livable. and sleep. I was on strong sleeping pills before i found weed.
I came across this doing a search for marijuana being the cause of anorexia.
If you are thinking about using pot as a cure please read my story! I have had a large life for my 23yrs Including abuse that I will not talk about as it is to foggy and unclear. But I will talk about some events that I can remember clearly and are all turning points in my obsessions with food, appearance, and depression.
Up until 1998 I was a relatively happy child although I have had always had some sort of bulling since pre-school.
It was my first year of high school and Bullies would have a huge affect on my life. The boys in my class would bully everyone and I was normally one who would gain alot of thier attention.
I was never clean as a kid my Dad is non-abusive Alcoholic, who despite that has always had a job. He would finish work at about 2:00pm get drunk and pass out for the rest of the night. Mum worked Night shifts in an aged care facility, my brother is 2yrs older than me and has Autistic behaviors.
My earliest clear memories are from in grade 1 (6yrs old 1991) coming home And having to cook mine and my brothers dinner in the microwave every night after school. This was exactly the same until around 1996 and Mum changed to day shifts.
From the bullying I became shy, reclusive, and depressed. I knew they enjoyed teasing me because they always got a fantastic reaction. At first i would stand up crying running out of the class room telling every teacher I could find.
That continued everyday for months eventuality I started comfort eating my weight went from a healthy weight of 80lbs to 151lbs and this gave the boys more ammo. So the teasing I can remember clearly was about how fat I was. This led to me becoming completely cut off from all my friends as I isolated myself into a depression and I would push people away with violence and angry out burst.
The out burst were always against my friends and innocent school peers as I could never confront my bullies I soon got a reputation for fighting and myself being a bad girl and a bully and no one wanted to no me.
I grew more and more depressed over the next 2 years as the boys continued to bully me I Stopped eating for days on end and I did not speak a word or make eye contact with anybody outside of my family and my parents adult friends for about a year.
I would tell my parents what was happening at school and that I was depressed and my Mum would always just say “You’re to young to be depressed” or “just ignore the boys and they will stop”.
By Mid 2000 I had anorexia and I finally changed schools after years of begging!
I liked to keep my weight just slightly above emancipated so my Mum would stay in denial of my problems. When I started at my new school I found it very difficult to make friends. There was 1 girl who made a huge effort to be my friend. She was a much larger girl 5″9 and 264lbs we were both born on the same day February 9th 1985. We were able to talk about everything together except my secret. Another new girl came to the school Skinny blonde and really out going and befriended Amanda and I She was in the year below us but seemed so much older than us and cooler she had a boyfriend who was 21 and had a car, she would talk about what she had taken drugs, the one time she injected speed and how she always smoked dope. Her Mum was pretty wild, and Rachel’s house became the hangout were we were allowed to drink and pretty much do what every wanted. Rachel was already an every day bong smoker. Soon after meeting Rachel Amanda also started smoking bongs and I grew increasingly apart from the
girls as they both got more and more into weed.
I soon became completely depressed again and lost all control over myself and again started to comfort eat now 17 and in our last yr of high school I weighed a Massive 172.8lbs but Amanda now weighed 132lbs and was 5″9 she was gorgeous and became extremely confidant and seemed to be happy for the first time in her life. I was amazed and as gossip goes around everyone put it down to smoking weed.
I would soon find for myself that it was and is a way to manipulate your mind and gain control over your body. For the next few years I suffered sever depression I would self mutilate, chew and spit, abuse laxatives, and binge eat. My weight drop and raise rapidly over that time and I abused myself mentally as I continued to convince myself more and more that those boys were right.
As I could not gain back the control I had previously had. I remembered Amanda and her weight loss I started smoking weed by myself in my bedroom just before I would go to bed when I was soon after I turned 19yrs old. I did not want an addiction.
Soon I met a new friend who was gay and very active in the gay community. He would come over everyday and we would both find comfort in hanging out with each other. Ashley was another huge pot smoker so it didn’t take me long to pick up the habit I was hooked it numbed alot of pain. I was in control of my body again I lead myself to believe that I did not need food to survive just water, multivitamins, chocolate and diet coke I would live on that diet days at a time never really feeling overly hungry and sometimes I would purposely have a huge pig out in front of my Mum.
I rapidly started to lose weight and before I could believe it I was at my lowest weight in years a mere 88lbs. but I liked to have it stabilized at exactly 99lbs nothing more nothing less. I did not try to hide anything this time. I would blatantly skip meals just saying “I’m not hungry” and My Mum would never really think much of it and just say “you have to eat” and would never push the issue. Mum being in the medical profession has alot of people around her one day Mum came home and was like one of the counselors asked me if you had anorexia then she laughed and said “I said she’s getting there.”
My confidence started to grow and I started to make myself some really nice friends who did not take any drugs and were all going to college and had planned and thought about their futures. They would invite me places, just to have a coffee and hang out we would go to the clubs and flirt with guys, I have never spoken to any of them about anything real I never quite felt comfortable around them as I had no dreams and no future. (I had alot of sick days suspensions, and waged alot of early high school to avoid being bullied.I was eventually expelled in my last year of high school because my grades and participation could not pass me.)I was still depressed and they could see this and blame it purely on me smoking weed which would make me really angry so I eventually stopped returning phone calls and going out.
After that I cried non stop for a week and I still to this day don’t know quite why I hit an all time low and in a fit of pain I slit both of my wrist. I panicked and ran straight to my Dad who took me to the hospital. The doctor put me on the anti depressant zoloft which i took for 1 month only which is apparently a big no no. Nothing else happened.
Up until I turned 21 I was serverly depressed and hardly left the house for 2year except to get weed and beauty procedures which I have always been OCD about the MAC counter my other major OCD. One day about 6 months before my 22nd birthday I started looking through the paper for a job I applied and got my first job as waitress in a strip club.
My confidence was low and would not let me aspire to much. I was the highest tipped waitress the club had ever had. My confidence raised I made friends with everybody the waitress, strippers all the glassies and security wanted to know me and I would even sneak off with one of the security gaurds that would get close to no one and me and him would go and smoke weed on our breaks which we co-ordinated I finally felt like I belonged somewhere for the first time in my life I would get put on all of the vip shifts were the highest tippers where. I was there for 5 months before we got a new manager Ben.
At first Ben and I got along then one night a guy grabbed me between my legs and I ended up crying unstop ably. The guy was taken out the back but I was never told anything else. The dance manager told me to go down stairs have a cigarette to calm down and all off the staff there had made it quite clear that I did not have to tolerate anything like that at all as it was not my job. After about 20 minutes Ben came down stairs and told me that he hated criers and no matter what he would not have any staff crying in front of high profile customers.
A few nights later some of the girls and I were out in town for the opening of a new strip club owned by our club. Due to not being complete the opening night was canceled. So everyone decided to go to the club were we worked. Ben told all the girls we were out with to go up to the vip area, as we all started to walk off Ben called me back and asked where I was going I replied cheerfully “up to the vip” and he simply replied no your not. I instantly started to cry as I had already had a bottle of champaign and ran straight up to the vip and told the girls what had happened they told me to stay up there so I did and eventually Ben came up there stairs to the vip and asked me what i was doing there and he had one of my security guard friends walk me down the stairs though I was not kicked out.
I was left alone drunk in a packed strip club crying all by myself the girls came down and we all went to reception the receptionist gave me a vip stamp and I left the club to go and have a cigarette on the street. Minutes later Ben came down and asked me were I got my stamp from (I now look back and realise how petty this man was and clearly remember one night before he started taking me off vip shift he counted my tips and sarcastically said “maybe i should be a waitress”)
I lied and said I paid for the vip stamp he knew I was lying and said out on the street I was fired I flew into a hysteria and ran straight into the pizza restaurant next door they took me out the back and gave me a couple of pipes to calm me down by this point i was still hurting real bad I was in alot of debt over $20,000 when I started at the club and in 5 months I had got it down to $9,000 I was planning on moving in with a friend and 1 person had shattered all the progress I had made in that small amount of time.
The pizza guys offered me extasy I have had it a few times before and knew it would cheer me up! And it did i was feeling great and confident and then something I had always been interested in while working in the strip club was coke everyone would rave about it. I had been offered it once before in the club but I said no. But this night i was low so I had a line i don’t remember much after that but i remember him trying to have sex with me and me getting out running down the street then nothing then one of the dancers putting me in a taxi was the last thing I remembered of the night.
For the next 3 weeks I cried and was depressed but this time I was angry and I was determined not to let him beat me. For the first time since I was 19 i stopped cold turkey and smoked no weed at all I had gone from smoking weed from the moment I woke up in the morning to having no bongs at all over night. I was so proud my Mum was also proud and said if I can prove I could keep it up and stay clean for 6 months she would give me $500. During that 6 months I got a job at another strip club right across the street doing promo out the front it was great at first and everyone from across the street would come over to say hello and give me a hug I very quickly worked my way into the club as a hostess which is like a pimp for strippers. After I proved to be extremely motivational to the girls (I would tell them the things I was desperate for someone to tell me) and had extremely high sales I was promoted to manageress.
I had put on weight and Eventually I started to Slack off and drink heavily within one month of being manager I was drinking every night but not your standard drinks the only ones that could give me a strong enough kick like bacardi 151 , green chartreuse, and french absinthe.
I had lost all control of my life once again, I felt like everyone hated me even though I now don;t think they did, I gained alot of weight again and got up to 149.6lbs. I quite my job this year in June I am currently 23 yrs old I have become dissociated with everyone again, I have stopped cutting myself, I have started to smoke weed again and have been since September and I am currently 128lbs. I did have a nervous break down and I finally asked if I could talk to someone. my Mum arranged some counseling and I go once every 2 weeks I have not yet felt comfortable opening up and talking about the way I feel I am on the mental health watch list for depression only.
I am also on a program called the personal support program with welfare.
The psychologist is only currently treating me with depression and helping me improve my self esteem, acceptance of myself I often feel he is more interested in talking about himself.
I also have perfectionist tendencies and anxiety.
I am on my fourth month of 200mgs of zoloft and I do believe they are helping me with my depression I am also smoking weed again and feeling more in control I have lost 22lbs in the last 2 months and I will not be happy until I am at my favorite weight of 99lbs. I rarely smile or call anybody my relationships with boyfriends last exactly two months. I often think that everyone in my life would be better of if I did not exist. I am constantly sad, alone and depressed. My doctor has also told me I have something wrong with my kidney but i never went back for a check up, I pee pure cannabis. There a very few things that make me smile. I hate my life. If I could change anything at all I would change nothing because it could be worse. I wish that no one chooses to take the paths I have. Talk to somebody instead be Assertive about your problems.
im 24 yrs old and weight only 105-110, it sorta changes week to week. I try to eat a good diet, I dont have anorexia or belimia, but sometimes the most nauseating feeling just hits me when i try to eat, sometimes i can eat through it without throughing up, but about 65% of the time i cant, i have been smoking weed since i was 11, mainly in blunts but sometime i use a bong if i have too, and it use to work on the nausea, but now it seems more frequent and weed helps less and less, the feeling use to come on 2 to4 times a year now almost every couple of days any ideas before i go get cracked at a doctors office with my no health ins havin ass.
umm this is a really good blog ive been readin it n ive been smoking pot for 5 years now since i was 12, and i never had an eating disorder before that but now when i wake up in the morning i can’t eat anything at all until i smoke some weed is that an eating disorder or a dependency? I really need to know.
My opinion is quite different from what I have read in the article. Marijuana can end up with an addiction treatment and anorexia can be treated in other ways that are simpler and more efficient. One way to treat anorexia is to visit psychological therapist that is specialized in this specific field. A few sessions can provide the anorexic person with a miracle cure.
You have no idea how powerful of a tool cannabis is when it comes to eating disorders.
It is not an instant solution. I can smoke cannabis and still find myself falling into eating disordered habits. It does, however, open a door to let you deal with your problems. I suffered from anorexia pretty severely from age 12 onward. During this time, I was constantly ill, could never think properly, and did untold amounts damage to my heart, my internal organs, my body. I wanted desperately to stop, but I couldn’t break myself of the behaviors… it felt like the only thing in my life that I could really rely on. I fell deeper and deeper into depression, and eventually decided that I would kill myself slowly by starvation. I started smoking cannabis recreationally at 19. I had no idea how drastically it was going to change my life. It changed my way of thinking about food. It suddenly made more sense to view it as an energy source, rather than this source of good or evil… It is very difficult to describe to someone who has not experienced these behaviors. Having the munchies led me to rediscover foods that I loved long ago, and let me really enjoy them without the eating disordered thinking of “OH MY GOD CALORIES CALORIES CALORIES.” More of a mindset of “MMMMM…”!
I started to wake up into a different person, one with an unbridled passion for life, living, and treating my body with respect.
I think it’s an AMAZING tool for someone who is ready to get rid of their disorder, but it’s not a “magic” fix. This journey took a few hard years, and there are still times when it would be too easy to go back, but I really don’t think I ever could. Once you know how incredible it is to be healthy, sickness no longer seems so romantic, and really more crazy than anything.
no!! this illness overrides the feeling of “hunger” your body synthesizes. at least for me. It’s an even greater achievement for an anorexic to NOT EAT under the influence of eating- inducing- chemicals.
I found a great blog article about how starving yourself can be counter-productive in an effort to lose weight. http://weightcontrolinfo.com/2008/06/06/fat-loss-tip-stop-starving-yourself/
I also suffered from anorexia a few years ago. I got down to 93lbs.I still restrict my intake of food. Mostly I am on the ‘Ghandi’diet where I only drink water, coffee,and ice tea. When i started smoking pot I eventually started gaining weight and I no longer got nauseas when I see people stuffing fast food into their mouths.
Marijuana also has helped me handled my severe chronic depression. When I get highly stressed and suicidal pot relaxes me far beyond the medicatons i take. The only problem is I have no contact for purchase.
Marijuana also helped one of my dogs in a big way,it probably added 8 yrs to his life. He had incredibe allergies to everything and would scratch all his hair out until he made his skin bleed. I took him to an allergist but the allergy shots he coldn’t handle. I put shirts and sweaters on him but he continued scratching and would become frantic. So I finally decided to shotgun some pot smoke into hid mouth and nose.(2-3 hits)It would immediately calm him down and he would try to lick my mouth for more.Within 30 minutes he would be asleep and no longer in pain
I am interested in how to get involved in making marijuana legal or at least medical marijuana legalized in Texas. Is there anyone who can give advice on this or point me in the right direction. I have seen several very good reasons for medical marijuana.My email is zanne1008@sbcglobal.net
Well I have had an eating disorder for 8 years and smoking definantly does not help me.
If anything it makes the starvation worse when you finally overcome the pain.
Hard pain killers change my body image in the ways that i feel fatter and more bloated.
Even marijuana can’t help some people..
Smoking marijuana is not for everyone but for me it has done wonders. When I smoke the anxiety goes away and I actually enjoy the food I am eating. With so many failed drug prescriptions and nothing comes close to the way I am at ease with myself. I am no longer nervous to go to family functions or even out with friends. I think they even enjoy me more……
I’ve had issues with bulimia since I was about 14. My parents hospitalized me and had me see a bunch of different therapists and nutritionists but none of it helped. I’d go through times when I didn’t eat, and I’d be happy then. But the second that I did eat it turned into a binge and I hated myself. It even got so bad at one point that I tried to kill myself for eating a bagel. After eating I’d always vomit or take laxatives or exercise. Literally all of my thoughts were controlled by my eating disorder… they pretty much ranged from ‘i’m fat’ to ‘how can i get skinny?’ That was all that I saw in life: calories, fat, and bones. I was completely withdrawn from others because all I cared about was my weight. I felt unlovable, so I wouldn’t let anyone get too close to me emotionally. It was seriously like hell.
This past summer around my 18th birthday I started to smoke marijuana. It really opened my eyes and mind. I started seeing more in life than just fat and skinny. I learned SO MUCH about myself! I realized I actually had a personality that I LOVED, and that there are so many great things in this world that I’d rather focus on than my weight. I began to really love myself and open up to others. I realized how happy I was and how happy I made everyone around me! I didn’t have to think about eating anymore, it just happened haha. I’d eat when I was hungry or had the munchies, and that was that. I didn’t worry if I gained a pound. There are more serious issues on this planet. My eating disorder was out of the picture and I was happy, optimistic, confident, genuine, loving, and so many other great things.
For the past three months though I haven’t smoked, and I’ve noticed that my old eating disorder tendencies are creeping back on me again. I haven’t smoked because I wanted to see whether the change I had experienced in my life really was because of cannabis. It definitely was, and I find that amazing. I’m a big supporter of medical marijuana and know that someday it will be legal. After all, “pot is proof that mother nature wants us to be happy”.
PEACE&&LOVE TO ALL
<3 Heidi
I’m a 19 year old male who suffered from anorexia. I’m sorry, but this just does not apply in my case. I think the marijuana made my eating disorder WORSE because I got hungrier, yet I was still so terrified to eat. But at the same time, I couldn’t be happy without the marijuana, so I felt the need to be high ALL the time. I was spending about 100 dollars, on average, a week on weed. Sometimes more.
When I went inpatient for my eating disorder, obviously access to weed was cut off, and I got off the stuff, and I was doing much better. When I got home, I was hesitant at first, but I started smoking weed again, and it has become something that I feel like I need all the time again. And, my eating disorder is starting to come back.
So far, I’ve been sober for two days, and I’d like to say I’m happier, but really, I’m not. I’m more motivated, and eating disorder wise, I’m doing much better about eating and feeling okay about it. But my mood is just horrible, and I’m so irritable.