Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment. Are you or have you been feeling nervous, restless or tense, sense of impending panic or doom, increased heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating and trembling, poor concentration, insomnia, stomach upset or feeling weak and tired? These are some of the symptoms of anxiety, a condition that plagues millions of people every day. The trouble with anxiety is that the sufferer looks perfectly normal but the sense of dread and tension is eating them up-actually quite literally! (The stress hormones are toxic to many organs including the brain, heart and muscles-to name a few!)
As a Board Certified Family Practice Physician for the past 30 years, we only a few poorly tolerated, half effective drugs to treat anxiety! Until recently you prescribed some medication and hoped for good news at the 4 week check. I say “until recently” because that was before Medical Marijuana was legal. Now the tides have really turned and for the better! Medical Marijuana has been a God send for my patients and especially my anxiety patients! One middle aged gentleman could not even leave his house he was so anxious and stressed out. He tried Medical Marijuana and it was miraculous for him! He was able to leave the house without any anxiety! He is working full time and able to enjoy his life and the anxiety is all gone. Even better, is that he is having no side effects from the Medical Marijuana! It is very simple and easy to use.
Medical Marijuana just stops the anxiety and the majority of my patients are able to wean completely off antidepressants and anxiety medicines like Valium and Xanax. Patients start the Medical Marijuana slowly and they are able to take less and less of their meds until they are completely off the anxiety medicines. Medical Marijuana is very easy to use and I instruct my patient to start off slowly and see how it affects them. If you start with a little, you can always add more. The beauty is that while it is very good at calming anxiety, it has literally no major side effects for 99.9% of individuals! This does not mean that I would suggest that my patients be cavalier or irresponsible because it is still considered to be a medicine. As with any medicine, cautious use is always advised until you know how it affects the Medical Marijuana patient.
I have been so very pleased at the benefits of Medical Marijuana with my anxiety patients but also for many other patients with Chronic Pain, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Neurological Disorders and much more. The future holds great promise for many people and we are just beginning to see the benefits. I have been seeing Medical Marijuana patients for the past two years and have over 300 patients on the Medical Marijuana Registry. There are more Medical Marijuana patients that I am seeing every day because they personally see the benefits or have close friends that have advised them. Word of mouth is very impressive advertising!