From The Floor To The Ceiling
In many of my appointments, I tell patients, “Imagine the room you are currently in, represents ‘how you are feeling’. The floor represents the most depressed moments of your life and the ceiling represents the highest and most out of control state you can imagine. Would you agree we are all somewhere approximately 1/3 of the way up the wall?”
When they see my point of view, ALL want to increase where they are on the wall by 25% or so. So often, everything patients do in their lives is to get this bump in how they feel. When they are feeling a bit better, they are aware of the change and often do not know even why they are doing better.
I go on to explain to my patients that many Sativa strains of Cannabis are very helpful with anxiety and depression. I caution, however, that there are many instances where Cannabis alone is inadequate to control psychosis, but this is to be decided between the patient and physician. Regardless, Sativa strains make most people feel more awake, alert and happy while remaining focused – all characteristics that patients report ‘moves them up the wall that extra amount’.
Once I have educated patients that their symptoms will be addressed using cannabis, I explain that it is the THC and Sativa Cannabinoids working on our Cannabinoid receptors in addition to increasing the production and decreasing the destruction of Serotonin that makes us feel so much better. So, are we all a little depressed? Does the Endo Cannabinoids Deficiency Syndrome really exist and we are medicating to normalize our internally low levels of Cannabinoids? Perhaps the mood changing effects of Cannabinoids to varying degrees function in a combined state as both direct and indirect neurotransmitters? This is what I believe is the most likely scenerio.
