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In college, my friends and I had several friends whom we would consider to be "conspiracy theorists". These friends of ours would constantly be warning us of impending government lock down, black helicopters, how Masons controlled the white house, and so on. Some of us had a long-standing joke about these conspiracy theorists, that they all seemed to be heavy marijuana smokers. Along these same lines, there have been several times in my life when I was at a party or social gathering, and suddenly somebody "freaks out", having a severe panic attack, after smoking marijuana.
So what exactly is the link between marijuana, anxiety, and paranoia? Surprisingly, there is not a lot of hard evidence associating marijuana use with anxiety or panic attacks. Some researchers believe that marijuana can produce paranoia because of its inherent ability to change the perception of the user. This is especially true for first-time users, as they most likely have never "stepped outside of the box" of their own perception of reality, and the experience can be quite jolting.
Others believe that marijuana acts as an antagonist for those that are already predisposed to having anxiety and panic attacks. Specifically, the intoxicating effects of marijuana have shown to be influenced by psychological expectations and social environment. What does this mean in plain English? It means that a person's own expectations will color the type of intoxication felt by the drug. Two people can have drastically different reactions to smoking the same strain of marijuana, simply due to their expectations of what the drug will do to them.
Going back to predisposition, even though cannabis has not been found to cause paranoia or schizophrenia, it does seem to precipitate psychotic episodes in vulnerable people. So if you are predisposed to psychotic episodes or schizophrenia you will definitely want to stay away from marijuana as it can lead to intense paranoia!
From a neurological standpoint, it is believed that marijuana relaxes the system that controls brain signal paths. So this means that your brain and thoughts will quite literally stray off of their normal paths, and your train of thought will advance into new territory along a string of associations that would normally never occur. Since marijuana effects the part of the brain which receives auditory and visual comprehension, and since this area is also linked with schizophrenia episodes, the pathway to this schizophrenic area is "strengthened", to put it simply, long after the effects of marijuana have worn off.
However, subscribers to this theory also believe that, through conscious intervention, it is possible to "de-condition" the pathway through meditation and logical reasoning. There are also special resources developed for those with panic disorder which claim to either reverse the physiological changes that cause panic attacks (the function of the Amygdala organ in the brain) or use psychological methods for breaking the cycle of fear. More about these products can be found in our reviews.
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