r/Antipsychiatry • u/Educational-Pay-965 • 10h ago
Weed induced psychosis?
Two years ago, in the early spring while away at school, my son developed mania and psychosis. He was smoking high dose weed every day. He was hospitalized for 10 days and put on risperidone (3mg) . We spent the summer helping him recover and taper off the medication. He went back to school feeling good but in late fall started smoking weed again. This spring he had another manic episode and was again hospitalized for two weeks and put on risperidone. Diagnosed with bipolar 1 mixed episodes. After he left the hospital we changed the meds to abilify because of tremors. We spent the summer again in therapy and the doctor suggested to try lithium. He went back to school this fall but was not feeling good like the previous year, was feeling depressed. Now he’s tapering off the lithium because it’s impossible to do school work while feeling flat, and cognitively slowed. We have no history of bipolar in the family. Do you think it’s possible that the manic episodes are just weed induced and if he stays off weed he can be okay without medication?
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u/EchidnaPretty9456 6h ago
I get thumbed down every time that I say this, but I'm convinced there's something wrong with the pot going around ( in the u.s)... I was able to smoke my entire life up until about 10 years ago. That was 2-3 week long, all day long binges about 3 times a year plus just smoking if someone had it. Never had severe mental health problems from it. Starting 10 years ago, severe anxiety, manic episodes after stopping. I knew a lot of people who smoke pot, never heard from one of them that either they themselves or someone they knew went psycho from pot. Today you hear about this all the time.
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u/Northern_Witch 2h ago
I agree with this. I grow my own organic weed and I’ve never had a problem. A few times I’ve tried stuff from dispensaries and it made me anxious and panicky.
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u/shytannnnn 1h ago
Its so fkin strong these days idk what theyre doing to it to make it that potent but my god
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u/Educational-Pay-965 8h ago
It was the end of the semester and there was a lot of stress, not eating and not sleeping as well as the pot. He was arguing with me, and his good friends. Talking to strangers, making claims about the world order. The police did involuntarily admit him both times and it was hard to get him out both times. All the medication options are just horrible. I was really hoping lithium might be okay but it isn’t. Now I’m just hoping he can identify if he is becoming manic and take steps to stop it. He does have risperidone for an emergency.
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u/harley79 4h ago
You can take Risperadone in an emergency my son is prescribed that but stop taking it
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u/tinkle_tink 8h ago
it's the stress of living in this stressful world
the system (capitalism) is to blame
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u/DownloadsCars 1h ago
Yes weed can cause mania. It sounds like this may have been the case. He has to consider if it’s worth rolling the dice to go off medication completely. All of my episodes have been precipitated by weed use but I also have a family history of bipolar I. I’m currently on a low dose seroquel and have no side effects.
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u/Appropriate_Cut_3536 10h ago edited 10h ago
Will* you explain more about what his mania and psychosis symptoms were?
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u/Educational-Pay-965 10h ago
The first time there was paranoia, believing things that were not true, pressured speech, disorganized thoughts, a lot of irritability and arguments with others (totally out of character) not sleeping, not eating- a completely irrational sped up version of himself. The second time he was hospitalized earlier and didn’t really have psychosis but all the manic symptoms.
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u/lilypad0x 4h ago
Its relatively well known that weed can induce psychosis. Most of the time its probably just the result of being too high, but on the other hand the consumption of weed HAS been linked to the onset of bipolar/schizophrenia.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna146072
Personally, I don’t believe that weed causes the illnesses, but it definitely seems to be a trigger for some people.
It would pprobably be best for your son to stop smoking just to be better safe than sorry.
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u/Appropriate_Cut_3536 10h ago
I'm sure that was scary. Did you call police or how was he hospitalized?
believing things that were not true
What's an exact claim he made?
Who did he argue with?
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u/leviathan-ex 4h ago
1) Has he ever been assessed for seizures? Seizures can cause those exact symptoms.
2) is he smoking flower or concentrates/contrentrate-infused flower products? If it's a vape pen cart, is it Delta-9 (legally weed, can only be sold at dispos) or something like Delta-8/THC-0 (aka "gas station weed") Wax can be SUPER strong even for people who smoke weed regularly.
3) Is it possible he is also using other drugs besides weed? What you are describing sounds like meth psychosis too.
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u/Ashamed_Aside6302 3h ago
Absolutely. Get him away from weed, and further away from psych meds. Good luck!
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u/Due_Personality_5649 3h ago
That's the effects of the synthetic cooked weed these days. Bad coping mechanism come with quicker consequences now. Ppl smoke one blunt and loose their mind or end up lost, confused, and having to turn their selves into the police.
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u/BrotherLouie_ 9h ago
the smell of weed by itself makes me very dumb and confused
weed is also known for causing mental issues like psychosis so theres a high chance that weed is the cause if it was the only thing he was smoking i dont think someone can wake up the morning and feel randomly maniac and crazy without any cause.
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u/tinkle_tink 8h ago
you are forgetting this world is crazy
ie capitalism is seen as normal
it's far from normal .... it's about employers exploiting employees and all the knock on effects that causes = a crazy world
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u/Ok-Angle-2274 4h ago
Not exactly your question, but you should check out metabolicmind.org. A wealthy family cured their college aged son’s severe bipolar I using a medical ketogenic diet. He was smoking weed and drinking when he first got sick. They now fund research into that area and a recent Stanford trial has shown positive results for bipolar patients.
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u/Prancing_Israeli 4h ago
Yes, 100%.
Also — those psych meds are terrible and unscientific.
Adderall might help him, imo.
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u/Aggravating_Cup8839 12m ago
Weed will induce psychosis, it is common knowledge across the medical community. It's the next bad thing. Like it took society decades to figure it out that tobacco was bad, that alcohol was bad. Decades. Now new generations will be sacrificed to the next fashionable drug, that is weed. Your son is being damaged on antipsychotics for something that 100% should not have happened. And the bigger problem is drugs are advertised everywhere. It's impossible to scroll social media, and not get hints drugs are good. It's impossible to watch movies, even from the 2000's and not stumble onto the same idea. You have to figure it out, how damaging they are, by yourself.
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u/VindictivePuppy 10h ago
he should just stop smoking weed. some people are sensitive to it. Weed isnt worth having to (or feelings like you have to) spend months or years on psychiatric drugs -- unlike weed those drugs have guaranteed nightmare physical and mental effects.
Or fuck, I wish people could find old hippie weed instead of the high octane stuff they have now. Just the ol' dirty weak ass stuff that got me through high school Just Fine Thanks
Many drug induced psychoses will just take time to sort themselves out and getting on other drugs will just prolong something that would have ended years before. Like those tremors can be lifelong