It makes me paranoid.
It can but it doesn’t have to, Willy. If you rarely smoke it, it most likely will make you paranoid. Part of the reason for this is simple: it is illegal, and unless you do it often enough to realize that the chances are slim that you get caught, you will naturally assume that you will get caught each time you smoke it on occasion and become paranoid. This is to say, after you smoke it, say, twenty times, and don’t get caught, your suspicions and worries about getting caught will wane. Also, consider that if it were legal, you might not become paranoid.
The argument comes down to this: is there an inherent effect of the drug which causes paranoia to occur, or, is it the context of its use that causes paranoia. In which case, legal use might not cause paranoia.
I’d like to clarify a little on what Detrop wrote.
Marijuana changes how one processes information. It alters reality.
When you are not use to how marijuana effects the way you perceive the world, you aren’t comfortable with the way your mind is organizing these perceptions.
In sober consciousness we become very habitual with the way we think, with how we file our experiences. We have goals, and we rarely question our (mental) process in moving towards them. We feel comfortable in how we take input an dcreate a specified output.
When someone takes marijuana, and they are not used to the way it alters their input, they basically do not feel secure in how they process the different kind of info.
They experience a noticable decrease in their ability to act (how they do so effortlessly in sober consciousness).
This itself creates cognitive dissonance, as one experiences a conflict between their motive (use this experience constructively… even if the goal is to simply enjoy oneself) and their belief of what is currently happening (the inability to focus towards the goal… instead focused on the details of one’s perceptions; instead of simply searching for and receiving specific, usefull messages from the “outside” world, the user notices several messages, and often HOW those messages are being sent and/or received).
Essentially, the person begins to feel “out of control”, and once this feeling is associated with dread of the current moment or an upcoming moment, it can be called “paranoia”.
I don’t think the feeling of “paranoia” is always associated with one’s worrying that they will be caught, although this is often the case, as one, in the process of worrying about their ability to function “properly”, compares their inability to do with that of a sober comparison (who might approach at any moment and notice how out of it the user is).
I think paranoia in general is any kind of cognitive dissonance, which activates the stimulant-qualities of marijuana, creating a feedback-loop of negative thoughts. Like any “bad trip” really… but marijuana, (usually) being less intense than other “psychedelics”, will usually attack an ego’s ability to maintain a positive image of itself to others, rather than digging deeper into a disintegration of the “self”, or “reality” itself.
Paranoia is mostly self doubt applied to a certain task (which is considered very important to the user). Since we are social animals, “paranoia” usually attaches itself to a social situation.
The trick is to actually be stoned 24/7. That way no one ever says, you seem a little odd or off today. Weed doesn’t make me paranoid at all.
I’ve known plenty of people who were/are long-term cannabis smokers. Some are absolutely fine, no less focussed, rational, methodical, whatever than the people who aren’t long term smokers. Some, probably the minority but a substantial proportion nonetheless, suffer some or other symptoms of depression, fatigue, idleness, apathy, paranoia and all the other well documented effects of the drug. Some have had these effects so badly that they gave up (credit to them for doing so). Others have these effects badly and remain addicted.
Now, I’ve read about clinical trials of cannabis in a legalised, laboratory context where people have suffered from paranoia (and the rest), which would suggest it is something inherent in the drug, but on the other hand, some people never suffer the ill-effects of taking the drug, which suggests it’s a combination of the inherent property of the drug to cause such symptoms in people who are (genetically and/or otherwise) predisposed to be affected in such a way.
But, y’know, you can keep on thinking in oppositions if you feel it suits you. Like a white tux with a black shirt. Sorta.
It definitely depends on the person.
Those with a combination of high creativity and high reactivity, along with a belief that is central to their being (as it is a prime motivator in how they choose to act) that does not stand up well to different forms of inspection (the person cannot curb a dissonance between what he believes is true and his own doubts) leads to those negative symptoms.
These people will likely have these symptoms even without marijuana use, but marijuana can definitely strengthen them, as prolonged use can cause a user to either
train themselves to ignore certain uncomfortable insights (putting them into the unconscious), which can lead to apathy and unproductivity, as ones issues are not being dealt with, or
repeatedly beat themselves up by interpretting their thoughts, and themselves, as bad, sick, etc.
Both cases prolong one’s accomplishing a goal that they fear may be impossible (that fear of failure keeps them from wanting to attempt).
The difference between one’s reality while high from thc, or one’s sober consciousness, is one’s ability to think into the future. THC keeps one’s attention in the present, so a person who is having issues is forced to confront certain anxieties that are normally used to pursue a future goal. It can be beneficial if the user gets high, and confronts these issues, and then, in sober consciousness, works towards self-improvement with a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and humanistic therapy (which can be also be called existential therapy, if one’s beliefs agree with existential ideas).
However, though weed may be a very uncomfortable experience for those with issues, it quickly becomes habitual, and the mind can train itself to use its base nervous energy as a means to entertain itself with pleasurable sensations (as stimulation can be considered good or bad, depending on interpretation). A classic example is the horrifying laugh of a person too high to function. The more one trains themselves to see positively, the farther they move from the issue they are attempting to ignore. When that realization begins forcing itself into consciousness, the desperate call for action can be crippling.
Beer on the other hand I used to really enjoy, but I got sick so many times that I now hate beer.
All drugs make me paranoid… not of being caught doing them, just what I’ve experienced put me in a very paranoid state of mind so I just avoid them altogether.
That’s how I am to his day with vodka, sdwilson. It was the first kind of alcohol I started messing with–the only times I made myself sick from drinking. Just the thought of the nasty stuff makes me naucious.
I have to agree that no drug can create thoughts. If a child were given the drug could they become paranoid? I don’t think so because they wouldn’t have the content of mind to create such ideas.
I don’t know this for certain, but from my experience which was a long time ago, if a person had any kind of hang up about drugs they were more likely to have bad experiences. A guy like me who was never religious and not overly concerned with the law never had one bad experience. That must mean something.
People that have bad experiences and listen to what their inner mind is telling them. Why suffer when you’re trying to have fun?
Well I’ll be. Its Mr. P. How the hell are ya man?
You know, I just recieved an e-mail from a friend who hacks, tracks and cracks computers, among other things that need not be mentioned.
He’s tracked your IP address. Said you were a federal agent.
Next time wait a while after I start talking about murdering people before you show up. And if you and your buddies decide to start stalking me again, wear a vest, because I will shoot every last one of you.
And for God’s sake lose that avatar.
I missed you.
Lately, I feel more like a member of Russian Secret Service that an FBI agent. It’s much more interesting too, I’m sure.
defensetech.org/archives/002086.html
Everyone wants to get their hands on this stuff, and since I’ve been out of the state I couldn’t. Now I have a good motivation.
I’m also looking for a body double. If anyone knows a good match PM me.
weed and some alcohol actually makes me relax and the complete opposite of paranoid. I find it strange that it could make someone paranoid. I think what Detrop and matthatter said might be part of the explanation.
lots of alcohol just makes anyone feel like shit the next morning, but a few glasses of wine, or a hit or two is just good fun times to me.
Now see, here is where you fucked yourself.
Months ago when I announced my attraction to SS, your response was “she’s cute, detrop”.
So why would you say that, knowing I am an adult and she is a minor. Are you a pedophile, or a cop trying to entrap me?
Do you think I need you to tell me she is cute? Why would you encourage me to think that?
Why would Faust tell me in a PM that he “knows they are watching me”?
And finally, wouldn’t a cop who was “found out” not reply to my last post with a “detrop, what the hell are you talking about”, and instead “play along”?
Certainly.
You need only remember this: stalk me, fuck with me, put shit in my drinks, or get caught putting a device on my car…I’ll shoot you.
Are you speaking to me friend?
It’s not hard for me to find out about you if I desire it, but I certainly don’t.
You’re in the arms of a friend with me, buddy. Sleep well tonight and know that you’re safe.
Being paranoid without the fear is one of the best learning tools I’ve encountered so far.
How do you get rid of the fear?
Take out the tampon and take hold of your free will.
He was joking.
Being paranoid…
get it?
,
I don’t know why, but it really does seem to be just about anything that even slightly alters reality for me that induces paranoia. I even forced myself out of a laughing gas “high” while getting my wisdom teeth out.
I’m all stocked up on crazy here, go peddle that somewhere else.
My experience of paranoia, as detrop and others have suggested, has been relative to context. If I’m afraid someone can tell that I’m high (a professor, for example) or if I’m afraid someone can smell the smoke and will call the police, then I might feel paranoid. But, again as detrop suggested, I highly doubt if one was in the desert, a thousand miles from nowhere, one would still feel this.
At bottom, if the question ‘paranoid of what?’ does not have some kind of logical answer, you’re either higher than I’ve ever been, or ‘paranoia’ is a misrepresentation of what you’re actually feeling.