Can CBD Help Treat Anxiety?
What level of constructive utility and effectiveness will be enough to encourage the government to sidestep its laws and open its arms to a compound from the marijuana or hemp plant? Quite a lot!
Cannabidiol (CBD) has taken a front row seat in medical discussions in the last few decades. The increasingly prominent compound is becoming even more useful with each new report discovering a new use for this goldmine of medical pedigree. Along with its already discovered usefulness in pain relief (chronic or mild), epileptic attack sedation, remedying skin diseases like acne, retarding critical diseases like type-1 diabetes and Alzheimer’s, CBD oil has also been discovered to be helpful for people living with anxiety disorders and depression, while a host of other possibilities are yet to be explored.
With the “loud” nature of pain, it is easy to understand the potency of CBD in aiding pain relief is more popular than its work with silent dangers like anxiety and depression. Nevertheless, that takes nothing away from the astonishingly positive influence that CBD oils have on people battling anxiety.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes that depression is the foremost root of disability worldwide, and 7.7% of the world’s population suffers from anxiety. These reports note that anxiety disorders are the most widespread mental health challenges on the worldwide scale, with specific phobia, social phobia and major depressive disorder being the most common anxiety disorders.
The National Institute of Mental Health also mentions that Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) occurs as much in women as in men and begins as early as the age of 13. Additionally, a reported 36 out of 100 of people going through these illnesses refuse to seek professional assistance for up to a decade, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).
Tortured by 24 hours of sweaty palms, racing thoughts flying through their minds without filters, and correspondingly heavily-pounding heartbeats, people suffering from anxiety are already on wheels of fire as far as their mental health is concerned. It’s easy to see how cannabis usage by such people, which will further enhance psycho-activity, is just begging for trouble. Fortunately, however, CBD is not like that.
While it also works with the endocannabinoid system of the body, CBD does not affect the level of psycho-activity of the body. This is due to the absence of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the component of cannabis responsible for higher psycho-activity or the euphoric feeling of being “high.” (The endocannabinoid system is a usually dormant system that is in direct connection with both the brain and the nerves and has the ability to significantly influence both upon receiving signals from cannabis extracts taken into the body.)
Instead, using CBD for anxiety provides a similar effect to transcendent exercises like yoga and meditation through relief from stress and mental health disorders like anxiety. The beauty of using CBD oil to deal with mental health issues like these lies in the fact that it does not coerce the users into dependence on it, unlike other medications for these illnesses. Xanax, Klonopin, Valium and some other medications used for instantaneous relief from anxiety are terribly addictive, and there’s little sense in using substances that will potentially cause more anxiety, to deal with anxiety. Other drugs, like Prozac, are efficient with less side effects, although they take a while to take effect, are not available for everybody’s use, and are advised to be used only on prescription from a specialist.
Interestingly, WHO gathered that three-fourths of people with mental disorders don’t ever get any treatment in developing countries, and up to one million lives are lost yearly to suicide as a result. CBD comes as a stitch in time to such situations. It has none of all the baggage that other anti-anxiety medications bring along since it is not addictive, has little to no side effects and there are different ingenious ways CBD can be taken into the body. There are CBD gummies, CBD gels and oils and so many other ways to consume CBD.
The use of CBD for anxiety shows great promise for those suffering from the condition, and hopefully, more will be discovered to propagate its widespread use as a treatment for mental illness.
REFERENCES
Anxiety and Depression Facts and Statistics. Retrieved from Anxiety and Depression Association of America: https://adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics
Blessing, E. M., Steenkamp, M. M., Manzanares, J., & Marmar, C. R. (2015, October ). Cannabidiol as a Potential Treatment for Anxiety Disorders. Neurotherapeuthics, 12(4), 825–836.
Health, N. I. Mental Health Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/index.shtml
Masataka, N. (2019, November 08). Anxiolytic Effects of Repeated Cannabidiol Treatment in Teenagers With Social Anxiety Disorders. Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02466/full
Mental Health - Fact sheets. Retrieved from World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/mental_health/advocacy/en/#Factsheets
