I would stop immediately with your plan to go on meds until you begin talk therapy.
If you truly cant be talked off of starting SSRIs, then at least it will be infinitely more helpful for you if you can combine the two modalities.
Stopping with any cannabis use would be a good place to start in order to get back to baseline and see if those feelings are still present. Sometimes it is necessary
Middle age does some weird things to your brain. Meditation, mindfulness, stress and anxiety reducing activities are key. You have to actively focus on inactivity and relaxation. I always thought it was hippie nonsense… but it is important to avoid medical anxiety. Spending money on fake hobbies won’t help. Talking to pros will help. SSRIs should be last ditch effort. The 3-3-3 trick(google it) helped me through acute anxiety attacks.
As for cannabis, current school of thought is that small quantities (<20mg) will reduce anxiety but larger doses will amplify anxiety. As others mentioned, strain matters. Avoid thc-v strains.
If you’re interested in trying microdosing I am currently assisting someone with it, we’re are about 7 days out from finding the results of the biomass potency via Flourish Labs. Then it can be accurately dosed out. I’d be happy to send you a week or two worth for free
@GroovyOctopusLabs I would second this. Microdosing mushrooms helped me immensely concerning anxiety and stress loads.
I get grumpy if I can’t commute on my ebike for any extended amount of time. I love exploring all the trails and paths. I’ve got my favorite trees I check in on every season. I’ve also found plenty of fishing spots, disc golf courses, and an archery range.
Edibles always made me satiated in a way that made me feel like I didn’t need to smoke.
I found CBG to have some pretty good antidepressant action. It always gives me energy, makes me feel clear headed. Maybe a cbg/thc edible might work for you, reducing the thc as you taper off high doses.
But like other people suggested, you need an outlet for your time and energy if you want to reduce feelings of escapism. Try to get creative and active. Best of luck to you.
I quit smoking in my early 20s because of constant anxiety. Im sure being stoned non stop from 14 on didnt help.
Interesting comment!
Used to dab constantly but these days I only occasionally smoke with friends. I know exactly what you mean, when I was a teenager smoking weed was the funnest shit ever but I found as I got older it just makes me overthink and sometimes get super anxious. If I’m at a show or a bar getting drunk I’ll smoke a joint with the homies but that’s about it these days
Same, i completely quit from age 21-26 because of that.
I also found that terps can increase anxiety. The least anxiety inducing stuff was moderately dosed D8 and HHC.
I’ve been in a very similar situation recently, over the past few months. My issue was that I never really felt high or able to experience the joys of smoking, basically just smoking to keep on the level. Tolerance had built up to the point that I really only felt kinda high on the first smoke of the day. Not a big deal really, as it was still enjoyable to smoke/dab for the flavor, the ritual, and the social aspect. But a few months ago, I started experiencing anxiety, thought looping, and heavy breathing, similar to the come up to a bad trip on psychedelics. Definitely not enjoyable.
Over the course of the last few months, I just naturally cut back on frequency and quantity, as the anxiety/panic attacks were not enjoyable, and there was very little benefit to consumption. Recently, I have only been smoking a few times a week, and when I do, I try to keep it to three hits max. Even then, I find myself wishing I’d stopped at one or two. My tolerance has dropped significantly, but I’m still only able to get slightly high before crossing over to the anxiety inducing threshold. I’m hoping that after a considerable break from constant smoking that I will be able to once again smoke and enjoy the experience.
My thoughts are that it is due to an overload of the endocannabinoid system over time, causing mass deregulation, as well as something similar to reverse tolerance. Probably should be expected when consuming large amounts daily for years without a day off. I haven’t experienced anything similar to CHS during this time, which is a bonus I suppose.
Overall, I don’t really mind not smoking all the time, and it wasn’t difficult at all to cut back to where I hardly smoke at all. The biggest sense of loss comes from not being able to keep up with socially consuming with friends and loved ones, but they are all quite understanding and accepting. Honestly, my biggest concern is being viewed as a poser or something like that at events or meetings with peers from the industry, as a huge part of my personality has been based on being a super stoner, but I’m not too worried about that either.
I haven’t noticed any negative side effects from cutting back with appetite, mood, dreams, or general function. I can’t say I’ve really noticed any improvements other than not having weed induce anxiety. My focus or overall mood hasn’t changed for the better or worse, my sleep is still the same, and I haven’t noticed any health changes. I can say that I don’t miss the panic attacks, but at the same time, I also don’t mind not being under the influence all the time. I don’t plan on stopping all the way, but if I wanted to, I think it would be pretty easy at this time. I do hope to be able to re-regulate my endocannabinoid system to the point where I can consume more regularly again and enjoy the experience.
A note on prescription meds: I have been prescribed quite a few through the years to try and battle depression, and all have failed miserably. Not only were the side effects completely unacceptable, none of the antidepressants actually helped. Most of them actually made things worse all around. The only thing that actually helped with my depression was adderall, but I quit that years ago once I realized that my addictive personality did not combine well with amphetamines. I’m no doctor, but I would highly suggest trying the previously mentioned advice from others before resorting to pharmaceuticals. Of course, there may be cases in which chemicals may help, but I feel they are very rare. In reality, doctors prescribe medications to mess with neurotransmitters without ever actually measuring the levels in our bodies, and more often than not, they don’t even fully understand how the drugs produce the end results in the first place. Being a guinea pig for big pharma is not an ideal solution.
Sunshine, exercise, reading, time with friends and loved ones, caring for pets, and time in nature all seem to be the best for me at helping with mental issues. Accepting that it’s ok to be not ok also helps a lot. Embracing the lows also helps to feel the highs better, while trying to just pretend the lows don’t suck also conditions one to feel the joys less. Embrace who you are, find people that can not only accept how you are, but can identify with you. Identify the things you use for avoidance that provide no real help, and cut them out. Identify the thing you do to feel better that actually help, and focus on them.
Anyone going through this type of stuff is always free to reach out and chat. I’m nobody special, but I’m here for you all!
I’m apparently a sadist and like the anxiety. Keeps me in check and on top of work. I got grays but at least it’s not receding.
That’s what I’m experiencing. … But then again I wake up and without fail before I even smoke I automatically think about everything wrong about my life and then my tmj flares, yawning fits kick in, the I feel exhausted after 20 mins of being awake and those 20 mins is yawning fits and pain until I either can’t take it anymore because my eyes are watering and nose feels like its stuffed and I pass out or I take a muscle relaxer and Ibuprofen and feel like I’m slow in movement.
I think I honestly need to change my life and make my life better and I started the SSRI yesterday.
I keep making ideas on how to make money but realized they’re all get rich quick schemes and that I just need to do something realistic with myself.
I shake and sweat a lot and I’m becoming slightly more and more bitter about other people being more successful than me.
my thoughts exactly 100%, I assume it’s also an overload of the endocannabinoid system.
same. I hardly have a tolerance.
me too man 
Methylphenidate helped but the agitation was hell
I gotta get into that (=
started to identify last week and started to make the changes this week
Go for a run. Give yourself some physical stress.
Brutalize the body, make quiet the mind.
a morning run does the same as popping .25mg Xanax for me
murican “culture” in a nutshell 
how can you even expect to have any time at all for actually being and feeling relaxed and at peace, when you’re living in a shithole country where you’re constantly reminded by society that you’re expendable and worthless if you’re not making more money than your peers.
I’m wondering if you always have to be an asshole to try to make yourself feel better?
I don’t even try to be.
At least I’ve come to realize that it’s all projection and I’ve been trying hardest to curb it because I’m not trying to be bitter in my elder years.
I’m usually not an asshole about things like other people’s success but sometimes it slips and the times they slip are the times that it makes me look bitter.
I tend to forget the rest of the world is not like the US. It took a long time to say, “The US” and not, “The World,” when referring to The US because The US is not the whole world .
