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Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged.
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I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on.
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Hello everybody, I'm Gemma Spike and welcome back to The Psychology of Your 20s, the podcast where we talk through the biggest changes, moments and transitions of our 20s and what they mean for our psychology.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the show.
Welcome back to the podcast.
It is so great to have you here back for another episode, as we, of course, break down the psychology of our 20s.
Back as well for an episode I know a lot of you have been waiting for.
Thank you for your patience, but I just felt like I felt like we had to wait for episode 420 to do this topic for aesthetic purposes, of course,
Today we are talking about the psychology of weed.
I know a lot of people have thoughts on cannabis usage and As a drug.
You know, it's obviously very easy to villainize, but cultures and societies have been using cannabis for thousands of years.
It is one of the oldest drugs, oldest plants in fact that has it's essentially co-evolved alongside drugs.
And as we are and as society is taking a much more liberal approach to cannabis, I think the psychology behind it is very unexplored and incredibly fascinating.
I think the more liberal approach that we're taking to cannabis usage has been really amazing for so many people.
It's been adopted for chronic pain management, for therapeutic practices.
It's rolled back a lot of unfair criminalization, amongst many other things.
There are still important considerations we do need to know if we want to take part, especially from an emotional, biological and psychological standpoint.
You may have heard this thing that, you know, no one has ever overdosed from weed.
Weed isn't addictive.
We need to kind of debunk these a little bit.
There are two sides to cannabis consumption that mean that it can be as dangerous as it is liberating and enjoyable.
So that's what we're going to talk about today, as well as just the science and what it does to your brain, why it makes you more hungry, why certain people get anxious, other people don't.
There's going to, of course, be some resources in the description if you need them or if this episode brings up any concerns about dependency for you or someone you know.
We are going to take a very scientific approach today.
So as always, this episode isn't an endorsement of doing drugs.
But let's be honest, I'm in my 20s.
I went to a university and marijuana was legal.
So I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say don't do it or pass any judgment for your usage or lack of usage.
I just think the psychology is very fascinating.
It's important purely from a research standpoint.
Weed is... just has this so much cool information about it.
So without further ado, let's get into it.
To begin understanding the psychology of weed, we have to start with knowing what the heck it actually does to our brains and bodies to make us feel the way it does.
Basically, where does the high feeling come from?
A lot of the feeling of being high starts with something called the endocannabinoid system.
This is a natural system in your body, everybody's body and in your brain as well.
And it helps regulate mood stress appetite memory pain reward, even how strongly we react to things around us, basically how we interpret sensations.
In other words, it is involved in many of the exact same functions that people notice shifting when they consume food.
Fun fact, the endocannabinoid system is also the same system responsible for the high feeling that some people get from exercise.
Everybody has an endocannabinoid system, and every body naturally produces its own endocannabinoid molecules themselves.
Whether you smoke weed, whether you don't, whether you've ever seen weed, looked at weed smelt weed, or not, your body already has a system in place.
In particular, your body naturally produces two well-known cannabis-like chemicals anandamide, which is known as the bliss molecule, and 2-AG.
These chemicals naturally bind to cannabinoid receptors in your body to influence mood pain appetite, memory.
Another fun fact a harvard report found that We actually have more cannabinoid receptors in our bodies, specifically CB1 receptors, than nearly any other receptor in our brain and in our system.
That is how important they are to how we function.
Now, cannabis works by interfering with the system and acting on those same receptors, of which we have many, but in ways that is artificial.
Basically, the chemicals that are coming in weren't naturally produced by the body and may occur at like a higher level than what the body is normally used to.
Meaning it disrupts the system, meaning we get the symptoms of being high that we are used to.
The main reason weed can feel euphoric or strange or calming or even disorientating is because of its chemical makeup.
One University of Mississippi study has found that there are over 140 cannabinoids, as well as other chemicals that make up the chemical structure of cannabis.
When those enter our body they kind of flood every single system and they create the reactions that we know.
But when we talk about mainly the psychological sensation that accompanies weed, we are mainly talking about two specific cannabinoids that have the most impact THC and CBD.
They are both active components found in cannabis.
They affect the body and brain very differently and are the most significant of the chemicals that make up cannabis.
So basically, they are responsible for the majority of the feeling that we have in response to smoking weed or consuming weed.
THC is the main psychoactive component.
This is the component most responsible for the classic high that people feel.
So that shift in time awareness, the increase in appetite, the foggy memory and thought patterns, everything
And for some people as well, anxiety and paranoia, it's THC.
CBD is very different.
It does not produce the classic high associated with THC and it does not seem to bind to the brain's CB1 receptors in the same direct, powerful way that THC does.
Instead, CBD has a much broader and more indirect pharmacology.
So what that basically means is that THC is coming in and only really hitting one kind of receptor.
CBD is hitting multiple different kinds all across the body, including CB2 receptors, which actually occur primarily in our immune system.
So it's involved in several systems is basically what we're saying.
And CBD is what you would often see marketed as medical products.
So CBD oil, CBD gummies, CBD drops some people think of it as like a weaker weed, but it's a different cannabis compound or derivative entirely with a completely different profile of feelings or sensations.
It doesn't create that same overhaul in our consciousness.
In research it's often described as actually having a potentially calming antipsychotic anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory kind of effect.
Job or role.
So, whilst THC or typical weed tends to shift our experience psychologically into this altered, intensified state, CBD is better understood as a compound that may influence our body more than our mind, but also our overall ability to regulate.
Okay, turning away from medicinal uses.
One question I got from a lot of you when I said on Instagram that we were doing this episode is Why does it impact me?
Why does smoking weed impact me differently compared to my friends, compared to my boyfriend, my girlfriend?
I don't know my parents, even.
Why do I have such a different response?
Two different people could consume the same product, same amount, same everything and have wildly different psychological experiences, particularly when it comes to feelings of calm versus feelings of anxiety.
Now, one of the main reasons is And one of the main reasons it has such a different effect is simply because we have different brains and therefore different cannabinoid systems, different sensitivities to substances, different psychological profiles that impact how we interpret the physical and emotional sensations of weed.
This is all affected by things like personality genetics stress, even the setting that we are in when we use it currently, when we first used it.
THC changes how the brain filters attention, filters reward and emotion.
But it can also feel very different depending on what is already going on internally or the state of your CB2 or CB1 receptors.
Despite a lot of research suggesting that there is a casual link between cannabis and anxiety, a large 2024 review from researchers based at UCLA said actually suggests that this association can be best explained by the fact that anxiety predisposing individuals tend to use cannabis more as a method of self-medication compared to people who don't have an anxiety disorder.
So this suggests that it's not necessarily cannabis usage overall that makes you anxious.
Makes everybody anxious.
But it's just that when people with a certain anxiety profile or a certain personality do use cannabis, the effect of that on their anxiety is enormous, a lot worse.
But also they may be more likely to try it in the first place or lean on it in order to self-soothe because of this promise initially that it's this calming, chill out, really dopey kind of feeling.
Now, how our anxiety presents beyond cannabis use just in general is also different from person to person.
Some people feel anxious when they feel out of control.
Some people feel anxious when they feel like they have too much control and they're too overstimulated.
They're too alert.
They're too aware.
You can kind of guess which person is going to have a worse reaction.
Two people might both think that they're anxious, but for somebody, weed is really calming.
For others, it's not.
For the person for whom, like their anxiety, really manifests as needing to be alert, wanting to be on top of things.
Consuming weed might not always give them the break from time, memory and place and sensations necessarily, that they want.
It just feels like dissociation.
It feels really overwhelming.
So maybe I'm not explaining that well, but basically you can come to the table like anxiety isn't one type of thing, right?
We think of anxiety as this one condition.
There are actually variants to our anxiety.
And that is why, even if we're not just comparing anxious and not anxious people, but two three, four different anxious people, every single one of them could respond differently to weed based on anxiety.
How we interpret and how we relate to body sensations or bodily sensations, and how in control we want to feel.
Cannabis doesn't just create anxiety out of the blue.
It seems to amplify anxiety, whatever emotion or feeling is already there, such as pre-existing anxiety, especially when the dose of THC is higher.
That also may explain why Again, you may have different reactions across two different days because of your pre-existing emotional state on top of dosage, on top of your environment, on top of what is unconsciously going on for you.
One day you're fine, the next day you're not.
This is also the case for things like creativity as well.
A lot of people feel way more creative when they're high, because our thoughts can feel less filtered and more unusual.
It makes whatever emotional state we're in heightened.
But the research here is actually really interesting.
This was an area I really wanted to look into.
And it suggests that feeling creative is not the same as actually being creative.
And when people smoke, they just feel creative.
They may not actually be more creative tangibly, practically, physically.
One 2023 study found that cannabis use didn't increase actual creativity, but it did make people have biased evaluations of their creativity.
Basically, that means they judge their own ideas, other people's ideas as more creative.
So if you've ever been high with your friends and thought, oh my God, this conversation we're having right now is awful.
This is hilarious.
This is the funniest thing ever.
That was how has nobody ever thought of that joke or that saying or whatever.
We should start a podcast.
If you've ever had some bizarre idea for a movie or a joke that you're like, that is just this is genius.
And you look back the next morning and you're like, that was really actually unfunny.
Like that really was just bizarre.
That's what's happening here.
That effect on perceived creativity has struck you.
An earlier 2015 research paper also found that highly potent cannabis may actually impair divergent thinking in people that smoke regularly.
So weed may make thoughts feel more novel and exciting in the moment, without necessarily making them better and actually making it harder for us to think differently long term.
Essentially, what we're really talking about is the effect that it has on our inner critic.
What weed really does is impact emotional control.
It can't make you more creative, but it can reduce the pressure and the I guess yeah surrounding you on a daily basis, and it just lets your thoughts flow differently.
It just weakens your impulses that are perhaps previously holding back creative or non-creative thoughts that you would usually have.
What else do we have to mention about how weed impacts us differently?
Oh, we have to mention the hunger, the munchies, because weed makes some people absolutely ravenous.
Absolutely ravenous and other people, they don't want to touch even their favorite meal.
Again, this is because the endocannabinoid system helps regulate not just your appetite which it does but also the pleasure and emotional pull of food.
THC appears to increase both wanting and liking food.
Food can seem more appealing and eating it feels more rewarding, based on kind of how THC interacts with your CB1 receptors.
That is why the munchies It's usually not physical hunger, but it's because the sensory experience of eating is so much better.
The flavors feel richer, more satisfying.
That's why food seems so irresistible.
People who feel less reaction to THC, though, may not have that same drive.
And what we're really getting at here is that there are basically dozens of different psychological reaction profiles that you can have from consuming cannabis.
Based on how many CB1 or CB2 receptors you have.
Based on how much weed you're consuming.
Based on how much weed you've consumed in the past.
Based on your emotional state.
Based on your genetics.
Again, you could have a completely different experience from somebody sitting across from you, and a completely different experience every single time you smoke.
The common thread here is that weed doesn't create one fixed effect on people, but that it changes the intensity and meaning of the experience.
Let's talk about the next big cannabis debate.
Any guesses what it could be?
Okay, it's the question of whether weed is addictive.
There is a big myth that I've seen online and heard in person that it's impossible to have a problem with weed because it's not addictive.
Is that true or false?
Let's break it down.
It is true that cannabis is not addictive in exactly the same way as every other drug, or alcohol or nicotine, but it's also absolutely true that it has its own unique pattern of dependency.
A useful way to talk about this is to separate biological dependence from psychological dependence.
Biological dependence is what happens when the brain and body adapt to regular use of a substance over time.
That means that they build up tolerance.
It means that they need more of the substance for the same effect.
And it also means that if they stop, they may experience physical withdrawal symptoms like irritability recklessness, sleep problems, low mood, reduced appetite, anxiety.
The reason people may say that weed isn't as chemically addictive is because most people don't experience physical withdrawal symptoms the way they do with alcohol or harder drugs that typically affect our dopamine and GABA systems.
You know, the next morning you might feel a little bit hazy, but your body isn't going to physically, isn't going to have the same physical withdrawal pattern.
Research does show this changes depending on when you start using cannabis.
So if you start before 16 or if you smoke a lot, you can develop physical dependency and your likelihood of having a chemical or a biological addiction is much higher.
But psychological dependence is a different story.
Weed may not have the same chemical biological pool, but when it becomes a form of emotional and psychological coping, it is just as dangerous.
It is just as dependency driven or dependency risky.
It can start replacing all other coping.
It becomes difficult to stop, especially when it is the only thing sitting between you and the pain, you and the social anxiety, you and the grief, you and the hopelessness.
Its ability to dull or remove things intense emotions is rewarding.
It's called negative reinforcement.
It removes a bad feeling and that is just as motivational as when something gives us a good feeling, and that's why it's so intoxicating.
Research into the drive behind cannabis use has consistently found that using weed to cope with distress, with tension, emotional discomfort, is linked to more problematic use and worse outcomes.
And often because of the way weed makes us feel, which is maybe quite sluggish tired, lethargic.
We rarely then go on to engage in things that might actually help us.
So rather than being something we just use casually for fun.
In this situation.
It becomes emotional management or it becomes escapism from our current situation, without actually allowing us to address the root problem.
One of the emotions or feelings I feel like links most significantly to cannabis usage is loneliness.
This is a great example of how weed can become a way that we avoid the deeper feeling.
The literature on the correlation between loneliness and smoking weed is just that, correlational.
So we can't say that smoking weed directly causes loneliness because that would be inaccurate.
But what a lot of studies, including one in 2016, suggest is that social anxiety, solitary cannabis use and cannabis related problems are often clustered together.
And that using cannabis can actually be one of the routes that takes people social discomfort and mild isolation and turns it into something more problematic, like full-on solitude and full-on a bit of a personal loneliness crisis.
And this makes a lot of sense.
It makes a lot of sense.
We can amplify certain emotions that we can feel very self-conscious of in front of people and In front of other people, but it can also make us feel better about other emotions that we feel individually.
So therefore, it can become something that we only do by ourselves because we want the feeling.
We don't want to see or be around other people while we have the feeling, but the feeling in itself is still there.
Good, and that can mean that the more we really just enjoy that solitary time smoking alone, consuming alone the more of a comforting ritual it becomes, the more of a habit, the more that it can be a replacement for connection.
If someone maybe it's you right now starts to use weed mainly in a solitary manner or to manage a broader sense of loneliness, that is dangerous territory because it becomes harder and harder to come back from and harder and harder to.
You know, feel okay with being around people.
But again, people are different.
Like for some people, it's a purely social activity.
It can actually be a really fun source of memories.
It just depends on your response and it depends on everybody's response.
So I think the thing we can't do when we talk about weed is make broad stroke statements that weed is bad.
Every weed user is lonely and depressed because it's just not true.
It's just something to be aware of, about how there is a deep correlation between solitary usage and extended loneliness.
Meaning that yes, loneliness initially might cause somebody to smoke weed by themselves because they don't have anybody to smoke or consume with, but then it can make it worse and it can be a mediating factor that continues to escalate the pattern.
Okay, that was so intense.
Let's take a break.
I feel like i just lectured everybody.
Let's yeah, let's take a break and then let's talk about the effect that it has on our brain, what it does to our emotions and motivation and also our relationships in the long term.
Stay with us.
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The lincoln cup is back.
Odog, ryan reeves, brian hayes, ernie clement.
New cup, new teams, same chirps, bigger stakes.
Don't miss the golf showdown the lincoln cup, june 7th only on tsa.
The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself.
I'm Renee Stubbs and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garros.
Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay.
I mean, she went down to three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted.
She's an outsider to win the French, right?
And she likes clay.
Listen, Lena Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now.
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Consider this your courtside seat to the French Open.
Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports.
Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged.
It's the enhanced games.
Some call it grotesque.
Others say it's unleashing human potential.
Either way.
The podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.
Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.
I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.
Listen to Superhuman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect.
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When Jacob met LeVon, this went to a billion dollar fraud.
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The largest tax investigation in American history.
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Is somebody coming after me?
Jacob told LeVon, you're ruining my life.
Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Okay, let's talk about the long-term effects of smoking weed on the brain, because I feel like this is something a lot of people want to know about.
When people ask about the long-term effects of smoking weed, one of the most important things to clarify is that the answer is not completely simple.
On one hand, research doesn't support the idea that everybody who smokes cannabis will end up with severe permanent brain damage.
But it also doesn't support the idea that using weed long term is completely harmless. either.
What the evidence suggests is that the effects depend a lot on how often somebody uses it, how much they use, how old they were when they started and whether they have developed more dependent patterns of use.
So using multiple times a week for extended periods of time.
Basically, the younger you start, the more frequently you use, the greater the amount.
The longer the period of usage, the greater the correlation with problems involving attention, learning and working memory especially.
Cannabis affects brain systems immensely, specifically that are heavily involved in learning and memory.
Specifically, this region called the hippocampus, which you guys probably know from episodes in the past, helps us form and organize new memories.
THC in particular, basically interacts with the endocannabinoid receptors in this region and disrupts the process of encoding information, meaning that smoking weed doesn't erase our memories, or consuming weed doesn't erase our memories anymore.
What it does is mean that the information never gets properly stored in the first place.
It just gets held in short-term working memory.
It never gets converted into short and then long-term.
This is why people who are high often lose track of a conversation.
They may struggle to hold on to new information.
They may struggle to problem solve in the moment or get things done because working memory is so so short.
The storage time is very short.
There is not much storage time at all.
So it's hard to cram everything in there when the influence of THC and of weed in general is disrupting the consolidation of memories needed for short term and long term memory.
In the long term, oh my god.
I feel like I've said long term, short term memory, all those things a million times.
But in the long term?
Research from 2025 that looked at a sample of over a thousand adults aged 22 to 36 found that heavy lifetime cannabis use is associated with lower brain activation during working memory tasks.
And this association remains even in individuals who hadn't necessarily smoked recently or heavily recently.
So it suggests that the impact and effects of weed on cognitive function are even after you quit, even after you taper down, can be long lasting.
Despite reducing slowly over time, you may still feel that your brain is different.
Our brain does have an amazing and incredible capacity to rewire and restore itself.
So it's not to say like if the damage is done, you may as well keep going.
Like you're never going to get a certain level of brain functioning back.
But it is just like important to recognize that if you're sitting here being like I, do notice differences.
I don't know if I'm performing at my best to know that like, yeah, that's probably correct.
There is danger to how your brain functions that you should be aware of.
At the same time, there is some evidence to the contrary, for when weed, specifically medical cannabis, is used for medicinal purposes.
One of the largest ever longitudinal observational studies on the effect of medical cannabis on individuals.
Followed participants over a two-year period and it assessed them before they started using and then at three months, six months 12 15, 18 and 24 months.
Even after a few times, even at the three-month mark, patients actually performed better, in particular, cognitive tests, tasks that required executive functioning.
So we're seeing a different pattern.
This is a direct quote from the researcher.
Her name is Stacey Gruber.
She actually runs the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery problem.
That is a mouthful.
And she does heaps of studies around this.
But on this study she said, rather than getting worse, they're actually getting better, because their physical symptoms are alleviated.
That means they can think more clearly and often they rely less on other substances, like opioids, that can disrupt thinking.
This contrasts with poorer cognitive performance seen among heavy recreational marijuana users relative to non-users.
There you go.
So basically what this is saying is that when there's a lesser THC factor, when marijuana is used medicinally, especially for chronic diseases, pain or chronic illnesses that are otherwise clouding cognitive capacity, cognitive functioning does go up.
So again, you can't, it's not all or nothing.
It's not any, any, if you touch cannabis, you're immediately like 20 times dumber.
No, it's a complex interaction with the body, with our emotions, with time, with psychology.
Let's turn our attention to motivation.
Because of the impact... of THC on reward processing and motivation.
People often talk about cannabis as if it is automatically something that will turn you into this lazy zombie like person.
Of course, in the short term, cannabis use does and can reduce motivation, especially in someone who is actively high.
Like things that require planning and sustained focus are a lot less appealing in that state.
Everything that is, you know, the immediate reward is a lot more tantalizing, a lot more naturally attractive during those periods.
But long term, the stereotype of like the lazy, unmotivated weed user seems to be incorrect, especially if you're not using every single day or every single week or all the time.
Right.
You are kind of allowed to have a couple of moments where you aren't heavily motivated, because you can sustain motivation elsewhere and in other times of your life.
In fact, across newer studies, there is little consistent evidence that all cannabis users are generally less motivated than non-users, once you actually look carefully at the data.
Some studies, including a significant paper from 2023 from researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Bath, found absolutely no major differences in self-reported motivation pleasure or willingness to work for reward, especially in non-dependent users.
Now, critical point here is self-reported.
So obviously, you know, obviously there's like there's a level of trust that we have to believe that people know what motivation feels like for them.
But a lot of participants don't. you know, didn't show decline or didn't show differences in their ability to delay pleasure and their ability to work long-term and steadily and consistently for goals.
The other critical thing though is non-dependent users.
It is a different story when somebody is dependent.
This is key.
The more The convincing concern is always and has always been around heavier use and cannabis use disorder.
That is where the issue around motivation most likely comes up.
But the thing is, is that not everybody who uses cannabis is going to go on to become dependent.
In fact it isn't not.
It's not unheard of and it's definitely not rare, but it is not as risky and as common as As most people who are opposed to any kind of cannabis usage in society, including for medicinal purposes, would make it seem.
One more thing to note here as well, just like we talked about how long term cannabis use can impact cognitive health, cognitive skills and memory, but that those things can return and can be rebuilt.
Same goes for motivation.
So basically, it's not over.
Like, it's not like you have...
It's not like you have physically permanently damaged your entire relationship to reward like it can be reversed.
Let's talk about one final impact that requires close examination, which is the impact of weed on relationships, especially when one person is a frequent user and the other is not.
I got a lot of messages about this because it creates a lot of complications, right?
There's a lot of pressure to participate.
There's different mental stages at different moments or at the same moment.
So two people could be in a completely different situation.
Mindset for connecting and for bonding in the same time period, there's concerns about somebody's usage when they do feel like they have a problem.
There's resentment, there's fear.
There's also just plain annoyance that maybe you don't want somebody to be smoking all the time or be high all the time, And they just can't seem to give it up.
And it's frustrating.
There is a lot of potential for weed to shape the way we connect with people.
In the short term, cannabis can make us more social.
And it can make social moments feel easier for some people.
By lowering tension, by lowering those impulse barriers, by making things seem funnier, by creating shared memories and a shared sense of ease.
That is the part of smoking with friends or with partners that can sometimes feel like a bonding opportunity.
Conversations feel a lot looser, laughter comes more easily.
Ordinary moments are more imaginative and enjoyable, but in a long-term relationship sometimes it can feel like well, why would you need that?
Why do you need conversations to be easier?
Shouldn't our conversations already be easy?
Shouldn't I already make you feel safe and relaxed?
Am I not entertaining enough like Like, maybe you need this for other people, but why would you need this for me?
Like I'm your person.
And you can very quickly see how insecurity is valid here and can really spark in those moments, especially if you aren't on the same page and there's not full truthfulness.
And it is a fair concern from the loved one, especially if they've had partners who've previously ignored them because of weed, previously made them feel insecure, previously rejected them, usage or not.
They're coming into this relationship with a different need for openness and a different need to understand your motivations.
Because Being with somebody who smokes a lot of weed, even when they're asked not to, or being with somebody who maybe you as a weed smoker or somebody as a weed smoker, is with somebody who isn't and they don't understand the relationship you have with it.
There's a lot of room for ambiguity.
And when we have ambiguity that is not addressed, we have...
People come up with their own stories and people come up with their own reasons for why somebody is participating, somebody isn't.
That can create a lot of resentment and a lot of fear around the relationship being at risk.
It all comes back to this core concern of presence.
Relationships of any kind friendships, family ties, romantic bonds depend on attention, depend on shared memory, responsiveness and emotional availability.
And because cannabis can affect short-term memory, as we know, but also motivation and attention, it can sometimes interfere with these key aspects.
Somebody may seem checked out forgetful, hard to follow, less reliable, less emotionally engaged, And it's not necessarily because they don't care.
It's because weed is changing how they present in that interaction.
And if that becomes a pattern, other people, especially loved ones, start to feel a kind of distance.
That's actually pretty awkward to bring up.
Another issue is that cannabis can sometimes become part of avoidance in relationships more broadly.
If someone uses weed after stress, after moments of loneliness conflict boredom, emotional discomfort, it may help them feel better quickly, but it can also make them less likely to reach out to repair.
Explain themselves or sit with difficult emotions alongside other people.
And that is the foundation of deep relationships, romantic or not.
The risk is not just that someone smokes and becomes distant, but that cannabis becomes their preferred way of managing feelings that would otherwise lead them to connect with somebody that they loved.
Again, it all comes down to this psychological dependency and psychological emotional management of discomfort.
Listen, we can't not mention the positive side.
Cannabis can improve intimacy, especially for people with chronic pain or a lot of stress and anxiety around sex.
I've heard that from some people.
You know it's the only thing that allows them to really feel in the moment better with somebody.
It can also be bonding just because it's funny.
You know, two of my best friends smoke, weed and play video games together as like a little treat every few months and honestly, it sounds like a blast and it sounds like something that really nurtures their relationship and I
Honestly, like when I hear about it, I'm like, God, you guys, that sounds really, really fun.
But when should we be worried about it?
When does it flip over?
I'd say you should be worried individually or in terms of your relationship with somebody when weed starts to change your behavior in a very clear, observable way. to you not observable to everybody else to you like you can notice it that might mean you keep using more than you planned you find yourself smoking earlier in the day smoking on days you said you wouldn't building your routine around when you can get high next One of the clearest signs is loss of control.
And that's what all of these come down to.
You feel like your life is orientated and centered around control this, this substance, and when you're going to consume it, how much with who.
When is the next available time or period where you can do it and you no longer feel in control of your relationship to it.
You kind of know deep down, like I keep saying I could stop.
I keep saying I don't need this.
But every time I'm given the opportunity, every time I'm not given the opportunity, I just always find myself saying yes.
I always find myself back here.
You should also pay attention to when weed starts affecting you emotionally in a way that is more about reducing negative emotions rather than increasing only positive ones.
Basically, if getting high is no longer mainly about the pleasure aspect and about elevating experiences and making experiences better, and it's more about not wanting to feel a certain thing, not wanting to feel stressed, bored, awkward or overwhelmed, that is a different relationship with the substance.
That is a negative driven or a removal of negative feeling driven, like relationship, where again we're experiencing negative reinforcement.
We want to be experiencing positive reinforcement where we're like oh, this is making things better for me, rather than it's meaning that things aren't getting worse.
At that point, weed is not just something you enjoy.
It's something that you lean on.
And it's something that you specifically rely on to regulate inner well-being, whether you realize it or not.
It is a relief-oriented pattern of use.
Another distinct warning sign is when weed starts affecting how clearly you think and function on a daily or regular basis.
If your memory feels worse, if your concentration is wavering or it's getting harder to stay motivated and follow through on not just ordinary responsibilities but things you really want to do.
That is worth noticing.
A acting on B.
These effects can creep in gradually, of course, which is partly why people miss them.
But over time there will come a point where you will tip into this new mental state where you're like I just am not the same person as I used to be.
And I don't really like that anymore.
That is a clear sign that something needs to change and that you can change as well, since you've noticed.
And finally, a different kind of red flag, one that may not be as common, is when your body starts showing signs of dependency.
If you feel irritable anxious restless, unable to sleep, your appetite is messed around or revolves around weed, that suggests that your system has adapted to regular use and you've developed a new kind of baseline.
And that is indicative of this kind of chemical dependency, alongside of psychological dependency we've kind of been speaking about.
It's really important at this stage that you cut down because physical dependency I know people talk about weed as a gateway drug, especially when you experience a physical dependency where you need to smoke so much, and That is when you can start looking for other ways to get the same feeling.
That is when you can start escalating usage to the point where it is really really psychologically disruptive alongside physically disruptive.
And look, again, I'm not trying to villainize it at all.
I would be a hypocrite if I did.
But we also can't pretend it's harmless either.
I think this is why the conversation around weed is so difficult is because there's either people who want to say it only harms people, or there's people who want to say there are absolutely no issues with it and people just need to chill out.
No, it's somewhere in the middle, which is that individuals are going to react differently to this substance.
People do go on to develop really severe mental health conditions in response to smoking weed.
Psychosis from weed or from cannabis, schizophrenia from the consumption of cannabis is real.
It's not just like something that is used to scare people.
There are certain individuals who have a personality genetic, temperament vulnerability, psychological vulnerability.
That means their schizophrenic psychotic symptoms remain untriggered until they smoke weed.
And that can genuinely happen.
That is life changing for them.
And that is like it's life changing.
So be careful.
Be safe.
Know if your family has a history of that.
Go slow and just like take care of yourself.
Like if again, I think it all comes down to this.
If this experience is elevating life for you and making, if it's elevating already positive experiences elevating time with your friends, elevating your creative practice, elevating your mood on a beautiful sunny day.
Go for it.
But if you are honest with yourself and it's not doing those things, or if you're just doing it to keep up with a partner, with a friendship group, or you're just doing it to avoid other stuff, that's going on, that is not a healthy state of mind to be in, at the very minimum when consuming weed.
And it's not a healthy place to be in, in terms of risk of dependency.
So that's what I'm going to leave it at.
I do think we can be quite a spiritual positive thing, quite psychologically rewarding.
But when it isn't that for you, it requires closer examination.
And I hope that this episode has allowed you to do that.
Or allowed you to do that, in regards to a relationship that you're in or in regards to a friendship or somebody that you know who might also be struggling with whether weed is a good or bad choice for them or their relationship to it.
I'm going to leave a couple of links in the description for you guys to check out further if you like, have concerns or worries, but also if you just want to do some deeper research.
I know we couldn't touch on everything today.
Again, this is meant to be a bonus episode.
It's now like almost an hour long.
So I'm sorry.
But if you want a part two, let me know.
If you've made it this far, leave a little comment down below.
Let me know that you're still here.
A reminder as well you can always watch episodes of the podcast on Netflix if you prefer video content.
You can follow us on Instagram at That Psychology Podcast.
That's where I got a lot of questions for today's episode from.
And it's a great place to connect with me and other members of the podcast listener community.
I don't know what else I need to tell you guys.
Yeah, just hope you enjoyed the episode.
And if there's something I didn't cover, feel free to mention it down below.
But until next time, be safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself.
Definitely be safe.
And we will talk very, very soon.
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