Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad to watch. She has lost weight. She told me she feels a lot of stress when thinking about food. She is scared she is gonna vomit. Even going to restaurants takes planning because she has to smoke first.

I don’t get why she won’t stop. I would like to help her but I don’t think I can. I am actually getting mad at her thinking about it.

Because our culture has a very "it's just weed" attitude about cannabis, she may not know that it's actually the weed making her sick. Of course, if/when she realizes it is, she's got the long road of recovery ahead. It took me about 2 months just to pee clean after quitting a daily use habit, and the gut pain, nausea and night sweats in the beginning were worse than withdrawing from oxy (chronic pain patient here; was prescribed cannabis because it's "not as bad as opiates" which is a scam and half!).

Since she's still in the "I'll feel better if I smoke" phase, zofran will likely help with the nausea. Capsaicin cream and supplements will help with the other withdrawal symptoms, as can hot showers and heating packs. The worse of it will likely be gone in 2 weeks; it may be a rough two weeks.

Get her around other addicts so she can listen to what we've been through. She may have an easier time realize what's going on when she learns she's not alone in it. The medical community is WAY behind when it comes to what this is and what it takes to get through it, and they tend to have a very condescending "you shouldn't have used drugs" attitude about it, which isn't helpful. Fellow recovering addicts will be much better support: https://marijuana-anonymous.org/find-a-meeting/ (meetings are online almost round-the-clock; join any meeting at any time)

Thank you. I will share the link with her. This is helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad to watch. She has lost weight. She told me she feels a lot of stress when thinking about food. She is scared she is gonna vomit. Even going to restaurants takes planning because she has to smoke first.

I don’t get why she won’t stop. I would like to help her but I don’t think I can. I am actually getting mad at her thinking about it.

Because our culture has a very "it's just weed" attitude about cannabis, she may not know that it's actually the weed making her sick. Of course, if/when she realizes it is, she's got the long road of recovery ahead. It took me about 2 months just to pee clean after quitting a daily use habit, and the gut pain, nausea and night sweats in the beginning were worse than withdrawing from oxy (chronic pain patient here; was prescribed cannabis because it's "not as bad as opiates" which is a scam and half!).

Since she's still in the "I'll feel better if I smoke" phase, zofran will likely help with the nausea. Capsaicin cream and supplements will help with the other withdrawal symptoms, as can hot showers and heating packs. The worse of it will likely be gone in 2 weeks; it may be a rough two weeks.

Get her around other addicts so she can listen to what we've been through. She may have an easier time realize what's going on when she learns she's not alone in it. The medical community is WAY behind when it comes to what this is and what it takes to get through it, and they tend to have a very condescending "you shouldn't have used drugs" attitude about it, which isn't helpful. Fellow recovering addicts will be much better support: https://marijuana-anonymous.org/find-a-meeting/ (meetings are online almost round-the-clock; join any meeting at any time)

Thank you. I will share the link with her. This is helpful.

You're welcome. I wish your friend the best. She's lucky to have a friend who is willing to try to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend told me she suffers from this condition. Basically she has to smoke weed before she can eat. Otherwise she vomits and has these awful stomach cramps.
She is unable to stop. She has been a daily weed smoker since her teens. She is married, kids, SAHM. How to help her? What can she do?

Your friend is obviously addicted to weed and at this point cannot get through a single day without it. She needs a rehab facility with doctors on staff that can handle serious withdrawals like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MD. Yes her friend is “BSing” her, but a more useful way of looking at it is that addicts will justify their use any way they need to.

Here is a graph of THC potency in samples seized by the DEA from the 90’s through the 2020’s:

https://nida.nih.gov/sites/default/files/images/cannabis-potency-chart.jpg

It’s gone up by 400%. Today’s weed is a pharmaceutical grade hallucinogen. Linked to early onset Alzheimer’s, colon cancer, and early death. Not to mention it basically turns you into an uninteresting lump, often in middle age, when you still have kids to launch and bills to pay. The poster from “my BF smokes weed everyday” is advised to pay attention.

Like I tell my patient, I’m not anti-weed. I’m anti “check out of life”. That’s what today’s weed does.

Once someone who uses has gotten to the point of CHS, what is the role of counselling or therapy in addition to medical treatment? Is this like pediatric ADHD, where there is a preponderance of evidence to support both used in conjunction?