My experience with medical cannabis has been very positive and I’m very glad that I was introduced to it when I was. Although it was a struggle because the legalization of cannabis for medical use has had a tumultuous rise to acceptance, I also had to share in this struggle because my mother and myself were both skeptical about the benefits of medical cannabis.
I was first introduced to this treatment by a doctor who specialized in its use, who, at the time was located an underground, hole-in-the-wall practice that not many people knew about. She was recommended to my mom and me by someone in the autism community. I was experiencing terrible anxiety, depression, and seizures; up to 40 percent of people with autism also have seizure disorders. At the time, it seemed like all the pills I was taking weren’t enough for me; they just wouldn’t work.
When Mom and I went to this doctor, I was all shaken up with anxiety, feeling exhausted from the overwhelming feelings I kept inside. Nobody understood what I was going through, and if I tried to open up, they said that my sad feelings were just a phase, that I would just get over them. This was far from the truth. I had no idea that there were so many benefits from medical cannabis. I didn’t know what kind I would need to take, or how much I would need to take. It was all foreign to me.
My only experience with cannabis was in high school, and it was a cursory knowledge at best. I knew that kids smoked weed like Indica and Sativa to look cool and get high, but in this new world I entered, the medical aspect of cannabis was no joke. I saw older veterans who were using it to relieve pain, people with PTSD using it to help with anxiety, and this medical cannabis even helped with epilepsy. This was also a reason why I found CBD to be very helpful.
This doctor specialized in it so closely that she was able to figure out how much I would need to take, and what kind of CBD I would need to take for epilepsy. I even learned about what I was taking before I was given it. For example, the CBD oil I take for my symptoms doesn’t use “THC” at all, so there is no getting high involved. I was so glad to learn all of this before trying something new, and I loved the results that came with CBD oil, which were very positive. After taking it, I felt a lot calmer, had less anxiety, and felt my depression easing up. I also am happy to say that I have been seizure free for over a year now!
My advice is, before judging something you don’t understand, learn about it first! You never know if something could work well for you, even if it looks different to you.
