Now, we all know that medicinal marijuana is becoming more and more ubiquitous in its use for treating a variety of diseases and syndromes, particularly pain and chronic pain.
I have used pot recreationally and incidentally, found incredible relief from my physical and emotional TMS/PPD symptoms and I've often wondered why this is the case.
I know that marijuana has analgesic properties but I'm not at all convinced that this is the mechanism responsible for reducing my pain; after all, I've taken many other analgesics and pain killers to no avail.
I feel that the reason it works so well in reducing symptoms is that it brings me into the present-moment, and reading Forest's recent replies about what the various TMS/PPD treatments that are successful have in common, it got me thinking about pot. Does it shut down the part of our brains that worries, projects into the past and future, analyzes, emotes, etc.? It does for me. I believe that is why it is so helpful in reducing anxiety and chronic or non-chronic pain, and its use for medicinal reasons is growing. We are a culture that is living in our minds. We need to start coming into our bodies again, and being present, and this is a tool (among many) that has helped me. When you drop the storyline and the fear and pressures and come into the present moment, there is so much peace.
All that to say, I am not pushing medicinal marijuana, nor any other "treatments" of TMS, since that goes back into not treating the problem at its source. However, I do think that it is one way of creating new neuropathways and once you have experienced what it feels like to be at peace, to feel calm, to not be thinking about problems, nor the past, nor the future, the idea is that you can strengthen this neuropathway on your own, without the use of substances.
I recently listened to a podcast or a TedTalk (I can't recall it or I would share it here) that talked about how some people have literally never in their lives felt peace or calm or true happiness or joy. Their brains truly do not know what this is and therefore strengthening this neuropathway is impossible because they can't even access it or know what it would feel like to create it, which is where some scientists, biologists, and even doctors, are saying that drugs can be very helpful. Some drugs can open a person up to feeling things they didn't know possible and the person is later able to recreate these feelings on his or her own.
Anyways, food for thought. I am really interested to hear what others have to say on this topic.
