MY JOURNEY OUT OF POT-PARANOIA

Like most of you guys, I started blending weed with stretching and spiritual practice long before I knew that yogis had been doing the same thing for thousands of years.

I was a late-bloomer to cannabis, but an early-bloomer for meditation and yoga, which I got into when I was fifteen, in rural Ontario, 1995. I didn’t start puffing until a whole twelve years later.

As I write about in my (best selling!, - hehe, - just sayin’..), book, Ganja Yoga, -  I got super paranoid every time I tried cannabis.

I feared that others were judging me, that people would know I’m high, that people thought I was stupid, that the police would come, that people would know I’m high, that I looked stupid, that others were judging me.

Ever Get Into A Paranoid Thought-Loop Like This?

It doesn’t happen to all of us, but, when the dose is high, the person is new to cannabis, and the setting and internal state aren’t flowing well, anxiety and paranoia can definitely happen.

THC speeds up our heart-rate, so a high person’s brain will scan the environment to make sense of why this is happening. If the person is feeling off already, or has unprocessed trauma (or the trauma of Regan-era anti-cannabis propaganda), their brain will interpret neutral cues as negative.

Cannabis is a magnifier, it can show us where we need to do deeper inner work and heal parts of ourselves, so for that reason, I am grateful even to those scary paranoid moments, because they showed me where I still needed to heal.

Forever Grateful.

And, it’s a scary place down there, and if I can prevent it for you and your students, I’d love to.

Here’s A Few Ideas Around How We Can Reduce Paranoia From Cannabis:

1. Create a relaxing, safe, contained set and setting where people feel connected to the other people in the space, maybe with time for tea or passing joints built into the schedule, or ensuring the door is locked, the vibe is conducive, and you’re in a good headspace. 

2.  Encourage small doses, and only share organic cannabis, since chemical pesticides sprayed on our medicine might be partially responsible for the negative mental states that can arise from its use. 

My story has a happy ending.

Despite the paranoia, I could feel cannabis’ gooey, mystical, yummy potential, and it called me like a beacon, and I worked to overcome the paranoia. (I did this by literally asking my friends “are you guys psychically making fun of me?” and having them say “No, Dee, it’s just the pot!”- over and over again, … until finally the thought stopped happening. True story). 

I Overcame Pot-Paranoia, And Now I’m In Love With It, And I Love Inspiring Other People To Be In Love With It.

With her. 

I’m hopeful as we educate each other on the various factors that impact the high, there’ll be fewer of these types of adverse reactions like mine and more of our loved ones and students can benefit from her relaxing, anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving, mood-boosting, fun, trippy, spiritual properties.

In the Ganja Yoga Training we discuss how to pretty much guarantee this, - with set and setting, creating safe, trauma-informed space, setting physical and emotional boundaries, and using the plant with mindfulness and reverence.

My blissful experiences with cannabis and yoga propelled me into a fuller experience of yoga and of life, and I’m subsequently a more compassionate, joyful, connected, appreciative, trippy human being because of it, and want this for every person who is interested in benefiting from the medicine, as I’m sure you do too. 

APPRECIATE YOU!
XO D. 

And, as always, happy blazed bending, 

XO Dee Dussault