One in three people who have experienced some kind of traumatic event suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Karen Julia, now 34 years old, was diagnosed with delayed onset PTSD in 2012 as a result of a challenging childhood.
Karen, a wedding photographer, says, “I’d been left homeless at 15 and successfully divorced my parents after a lifetime of neglect and violence.”
“At the time, I concentrated on finishing school and found comfort in photography. The prior trauma I suffered didn’t really start to affect my life till years later.
Karen’s worst symptom was significant sleep difficulties, which are a common problem for PTSD patients. Flashbacks and panic episodes are two additional frequent incapacitating symptoms.
According to Karen, 44, “I was like a bundle of adrenaline and would be wide awake at the slightest sound at night.” “The lack of sleep was dreadful. Both my personal and professional lives were significantly impacted by it. I was worn out and finding it difficult to work.
Karen believed that the typical antidepressant prescriptions were only concealing some of her symptoms rather than addressing the problem, as is typical among many PTSD patients.
She now claims that medical cannabis has “given her life back,” and new study indicates that she is not alone in this.
Numerous PTSD patients now have newfound hope because to the medication.
At the International Cannabinoid Research Society Conference last month, the UK Medical Cannabis Registry presented 20 brand-new research papers on a variety of ailments, including PTSD.
Data from 162 PTSD patients who received a daily dose of 5 mg of cannabidiol (the same active ingredient in CBD oil) and 145 mg of the psychoactive cannabinoid THC, the compound principally responsible for the effects of marijuana, were examined in one of the articles. At one, three, and six months after starting treatment, all patients reported a significant improvement in their PTSD, anxiety, and sleep.
Karen’s experiences definitely corroborate the outcomes. She had investigated a variety of treatment alternatives since receiving a formal diagnosis of PTSD in 2013, including an eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy that improved her symptoms but did not address her sleep issues.
She was starting to lose hope after almost ten years, but after some respite from high-dose CBD oil, she chose to try medical cannabis oil.
In the UK, the oil can be lawfully purchased with a prescription from private clinics, but only after a variety of NHS first-line medications and treatments have been tried and failed.
Glasgow resident Karen claims that after three months of nightly use, the advantages were considerable. She claims, “I feel like a different person. I feel better than I ever have.
Karen was shocked by the relief that the medicinal marijuana provided as well as the absence of adverse effects.
I anticipated that using medical marijuana would make me feel high and interfere with my ability to function, but instead, she claims, she feels peaceful.
Participants in the study also mentioned only minor or moderate side effects, such as weariness, but no significant problems.
According to Karen, “the first six weeks of taking the oil was a restorative, healing time.” “I don’t get headaches or feel drowsy any more, and my sleep is so much better than it has been in ten years. My skin and focus also became better.
In April of this year, a research in the US that was comparable to the UK trial was released. The findings showed that throughout a 12-month period, all 150 participants reported a reduction in the intensity of their PTSD symptoms and were 2.57 times more likely to recover than individuals who did not use cannabis.
In another study, 14 PTSD-afflicted veterans received cannabis products at individual prescribed doses over a 90-day period. The results were striking, with a 47 percent decrease in overall PTSD symptoms. Amazingly, 71% of subjects were PTSD-free by the end of the research.
So how does it function?
According to Sapphire Clinics’ head psychiatrist, Dr. James Rucker, “it really all comes down to the fact that one part of the brain that governs our fight or flight response, called the amygdala, is activated virtually constantly and highly sensitive in persons with PTSD.”
“Emerging research on cannabis indicates that it dulls this portion of the brain. That leads to a decrease in the main PTSD symptoms like fear and anxiety, which makes it possible for you to stop needing to avoid the things you were previously avoiding because they trigger you. Then you can start confronting the things that were upsetting you and start approaching them from a new perspective.
As so many patients turn to cannabis illegally when they are unable to find treatment from any other recommended therapy or prescription, Dr. Rucker believes that offering medical legitimacy is a therapy in and of itself. These individuals despise having to conduct a crime, he claims. “It seems sense that they are concerned about the safety and quality of the cannabis they purchase on the black market.
“The psychological impact of such on someone who has previously experienced trauma cannot be emphasized enough.
