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Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

cnn.com

11–20 of 454 posts

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#11

I can only speak from personal experience, which is of course limited. I smoked occasionally in my 20s, but not since (I'm middle-aged now). I've been friends and acquaintances with many people that smoke a lot. I see a trend among these people - not necessarily schizophrenia (I'm not a psychologist and probably wouldn't even notice a mild case) - but instead a consistent arrogance and self-importance. It's peculiar…

> consistent arrogance and self-importance.

Would you rather have people demoralized and hating themselves? I think we have quite enough of that already. God forbid an unaccomplished waggie enjoys life and likes who they are. Somebody put these uppity proles back in their place!

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#12
Obvious I hope, but this doesn’t prove anything other than marijuana use has increased.

If the population, independent of other conditions, has an increase in marijuana use disorder, then that same increase would be present in the subset of the population that are diagnosed with schizophrenia or related disorders.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#13

I can only speak from personal experience, which is of course limited. I smoked occasionally in my 20s, but not since (I'm middle-aged now). I've been friends and acquaintances with many people that smoke a lot. I see a trend among these people - not necessarily schizophrenia (I'm not a psychologist and probably wouldn't even notice a mild case) - but instead a consistent arrogance and self-importance. It's peculiar…

I've had my weed phase between 16 and 19 and I dont know. There is a sort of arrogance that comes with ignorance in general that subsides as you learn the vastness of what you'll never know.

I suppose the intersection of ignorance, criminality and drug consumption may make you think that because they smoke, they exhibit the other traits, but it could be the contrary.

You need a bit of arrogance to think cannabis is on your side and you can dominate it, as I witnessed myself when I started stumbling as a teenager.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#14
I would like to see a study exploring the decline (if any) of problems from alcohol abuse in states where marijuana became legal. I am fairly certain that if I could have smoked marijuana when I was in the military then I wouldn't have developed an alcohol habit that has caused me so many problems over the years up until the time I quit.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#15
post #3

This would not surprise me at all. But I'm curious to know if they got the causation backwards. Maybe people with schizophrenia just have a higher likelihood of smoking marijuana

I'm curious about alcohol and tobacco usage as well. Tobacco usage in mentally ill has generally been higher. It could simply reflect over all trends in substance choices depending on availability. So many variables unaccounted for.

I've heard it on good authority that schizophrenics find nicotine/tobacco significantly ameliorates their symptoms - it can be a lesser evil for some.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#16
As usual, a sensational headline averring a research article's causal hypothesis, of which the PI even calls for reproducibility. Reading such paltry science articles makes me really appreciate papers like Quanta, whose reporters seem to actually have a semblance of domain knowledge.

Indeed, no discussion of the existing link between schizophrenia and tobacco smoking, in conjunction with the increased availability of marijuana?

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#17
post #3

This would not surprise me at all. But I'm curious to know if they got the causation backwards. Maybe people with schizophrenia just have a higher likelihood of smoking marijuana

I have long thought this for not just mental disorders...but also the long standing view that Marijuana use causes laziness or "makes you stupid". Perhaps these people have other issues they are self medicating for or have a higher probability of using illicit substances...for whatever reason they may be using it makes it easy to skew numbers to make it seem like the substance use is the cause, but to the user it may feel like the solution.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#18
post #5

I can only speak from personal experience, which is of course limited. I smoked occasionally in my 20s, but not since (I'm middle-aged now). I've been friends and acquaintances with many people that smoke a lot. I see a trend among these people - not necessarily schizophrenia (I'm not a psychologist and probably wouldn't even notice a mild case) - but instead a consistent arrogance and self-importance. It's peculiar…

That just sounds like people in their 20s in general, even without weed. Marijuana might make it seem worse because stupid ideas sound much more profound when we're high

I agree with this. I hang out at this one bar and this 22 year old I talk to really thinks he "gets it." Incredibly cocky and arrogant a lot of times. He's fun to talk to but when he get's on a major BS kick I gotta tune him out. I'm only 5 years older than him but the contrast in experiences is stark to say the least. It really makes me wonder if I was ever that arrogant too.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#19
post #3

This would not surprise me at all. But I'm curious to know if they got the causation backwards. Maybe people with schizophrenia just have a higher likelihood of smoking marijuana

Like cigarettes. It seems like it could be both self medication, but also have negative side effects too. Benzodiazepines are my favorite analogy.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#20

I think it's too common a sentiment that psychoactive substances like cannabis and psilocybin are harmless and in fact are good for mental health. I've had adverse mental reactions to both and I would caution people with family history of anxiety.

A lot of marijuana smokers like to pretend weed smoke is somehow less harmful than any other smoke. It's still CO whether it comes from the tobacco or hemp plant. It's still bad and creates a tar residue in your lungs. Any time I bring that up, somehow I become anti-pot even though it's a genuine concern.

Edit: Carbon Monoxide, not Carbon Dioxide. And some additions since this is a tad controversial.

Here is one source - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3340105/

Marijuana inhaled is bad for your body. End of story. Let's not pretend like it's some panacea that the government doesn't want us to know about. It shouldn't be illegal, but a lot of people on here lie to themselves that somehow the harmful effects of CO aren't bad just because it's marijuana. I feel like there is some major cognitive dissonance among pot smokers equivalent to religious people that get upset when you say there is no god.

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