Have you ever felt sad before? Well, sure. We all get sad from time to time. In fact, sadness is probably one of the more normal feelings that we can experience as human beings. There is a great difference, however, between normal sadness and depression. While sadness is a normal emotion, depression is sometimes considered a mental disorder if it goes on for too long. The reason that depression can be considered a mental disorder is because we do not really understand a whole lot about what causes someone to be depressed when all else is normal. Many people in the United States admittedly struggle with mental illness in the form of depression, and it seems that things are only getting worse for us. It is also true that there are not a lot of great medications available for people that are struggling with depression.
Therapy combined with medication is currently the best that we can do for people that have depression, and sometimes that does not even work. Could medical marijuana be used as an effective way to treat depression symptoms? Afterall, we use medical marijuana for all sorts of treatments that are not necessarily physical. Stress and anxiety are both commonly placed on state medical marijuana programs as a qualifying condition for people to get their medical marijuana card. It is estimated that there are over 16 million Americans that currently struggle with depression, and there really should be something done about that. So is it possible that medical marijuana can be used to treat depression? What does the research say? Well, that’s the tough thing about it. Since cannabis has been an illegal substance for so long, there is not a ton of research that is readily available that we can actually trust as a credible and scientifically accurate source. However, the information we do have points to promising results for using medical marijuana to treat depression.
One of the main problems for treating depression with medication is that there are not a lot of great options out there right now. If you or someone you know has struggled with depression, then you know that medications can be really hit or miss. Some of them help, many of them don’t. In some cases, prescription medication to treat depression can actually make things worse. With all of that being said, medical marijuana is generally considered a much safer and more risk free drug. That is why people use it for all sorts of health conditions like cancer, PTSD, arthritis, anxiety, and so many others. Honestly, there really is not a whole lot that cannabis can’t do. If you are wanting to try using medical marijuana for yourself, you can’t go wrong starting off with some CBD supplements or tinctures.
The reason I say this is because CBD is the part of the cannabis plant that has great healing and medicinal properties without intoxicating the patient with that “high” we all associate with smoking weed. This is probably the safest option if you are trying to get into medical marijuana, especially when it comes to treating a condition like depression. The last thing you need is for your medication to actually make your depression worse. Right now, the verdict is still out on if cannabis can actually be used to treat depression, but the most important thing to keep in mind is that it adds to your list of other medical options that you can use out there. I hope that this article was helpful for you and that you have learned more about marijuana and its uses, capabilities, and options.
