Hey Boyzngrrlz

[GregS]

What say you to taking bipolar disorder to the new conditions panel? It is painfully apparent that many of us treat for that condition, even if as an "off label" remedy. I am ready to articulate that.

 

Beyond that there are medical diagnoses for anxiety and depression. We could bring it to allow many of them. We have first person testimony.

[thecannabiskid]

I'ts a good idea, I'v known people who we're possibility Bp who have seen big improvements with cannabis use. I also know people who have anxiety and depression who swear their symptoms greatly improve, or disappear altogether with the use of cannabis.

[Celliach]

Great idea Greg!  Why don't you get started on it?  Any citizen can put a new disorder before the panel, and it's always better if done by a sufferer or person very familiar with the problem.

[GregS]

Bipolar Disorder takes on an extensive range of cause and effect. It is regarded, by people who are affected by it and by observers, as a sometimes creative and productive condition. Many great people in history, to include the arts, sciences, and even in governance (think Julius Caesar. Lincoln was another) have been affected. Speaking from experience, the clinical depression that is a factor is absolutely debilitating, but during the experience thoughts not otherwise considered come to mind. By the same token, manic phases play in alternate perspectives of the world around us. They can be exciting insights, sometimes arising from depressive episodes and the ideas that are common there. There is a wide degree of effect between individuals. Many become manic to extremes and depressed to the same degree, but that degree, or for that matter either end of the scale and all points between, is by no means to be confused as common to all who experience it.

We are able in many respects to, I believe, experience things differently from those without the condition, and to come to conclusions that are not readily available when we are at a "normal" baseline (yes, we do spend time there with the masses, but no more than we have to). There are people, some who I know and admire, who live their lives out toward the manic end of the scale, and without depression. They are typically those who hit the floor running and go like machines. The condition in many or most of these individuals is adaptive, and those folks can be very successful. The manic phase can be incredibly great. It can take one to heights not readily attainable under common circumstances. Likewise, the depression is typically deeper and longer lasting. I consider that it can be described as a wave function. Amplitude and frequency are more extreme and variable in all metrics, higher and lower and wider and narrower, whereas at baseline, where the "normal" people live, the wave pattern is much more uniform. It is when the wave spikes beyond what the organism is designed to handle, or diminishes in the same way, that control is lost, psychosis is a risk, and treatment required. There is too the physical correlate in the transmission that is electrochemical neural events. Cannabis acts as a mood stabilizer and unarguably a chemical modulator, and can be used to help manage speed and tempo.

An almost universal attitude by people who have the condition is that they do not want to use common mood stabilizing drugs because while they keep us out of hell, we like the fast, soaring exhilaration. Kurt Cobain was past the fringes and wrote "'Lithium." Without drugs the motors eventually overrev, commonly resulting in extremes of any and all emotion and behavior, to include anxiety, anger, and fear, or slow down to speeds that are not adequate to drive the machine, and control can be lost. There are those of us who use drugs, both pharmaceutical and cannabis, some other more pernicious drugs, in an effort, in my case pretty successfully, to stay closer to the manic end of the scale than the depressive, or even to normal parameters. Once we have been to the zenith, we'll be dammed if we will live life with our feet dragging in the mud. My attitude is that the sense of wellness, control, and confidence is more compelling than any drug, and seeking that state of being becomes our purpose.

I am certain there are others here who understand, and those whose lives are this. Cannabis can help keep us out of the gutter, and while we may not be able to soar, it provides its classic sense of well being while keeping us low enough to the ground that our heads bounce ever so lightly on the ceiling.


After we get this done, we have expertise here to petition the panel to include dumbazzness.

Edited May 9, 2013 by GregS

[GregS]

http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/08/14/bipolar-patients-with-history-of-pot-use-show-better-cognitive-skills/43096.html

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/08/study-pot-may-improve-cognitive-functioning-in-bipolar-disorder/261140/

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15888515?dopt=Abstract

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20218784

Edited May 9, 2013 by GregS

[solabeirtan]

We might as well just legalize it then GregS! Great perspective piece...