What’s up with the wacky weed? Does it help? Does it not help? Clients often believe it helps them. But what should mental health professionals know about the effects of cannabis on mental health?
Research has yielded mixed results regarding the effects of cannabis on mental health. But new compelling research reveals negative impacts on mental health when individuals use cannabis to cope or regulate emotion, in particular. This research finds that using cannabis to cope with physical pain, depression, anxiety, and psychotic symptoms is associated with higher paranoia scores.
On the other hand, those who used cannabis for social reasons, recreation/fun, or curiosity did not show increased paranoia scores. It is difficult to know whether using cannabis for those specific reasons causes paranoia. Ya know, the old “correlation does not equal causation”. For example, this relationship could be due to a tendency to rely on external means for coping to usually lead to more mental health difficulties.
Interestingly, these effects may be accounted for by the amount of cannabis consumed by research participants. Those who showed higher rates of ingesting cannabis for coping actually ingested higher levels of cannabis when they used it. The cannabis floating around these days is pretty freakin’ strong. Therefore, modern dispensary cannabis may make this effect more pronounced
This research addresses the question of whether cannabis actually helps for mental health. Some clients perceive that cannabis helps them cope with challenges or regulate emotion. However, cannabis appears to have downsides that affect their lives in more insidious ways. Paranoia can lead individuals to misinterpret others’ intent and lose out on garnering important sources of social support. Not to mention increased psychosis risk found in other research.
Resistant clients may benefit from Motivational Interviewing (MI) to address resistance around finding alternative methods to cope with mental health difficulties. If they are willing to try alternatives to coping, CBT, exposure for anxiety or trauma, ACT, behavioral activation, DBT, and social skills training help with a range of difficulties. CBT and behavioral activation also help for coping with chronic physical pain.
Some clients believe that cannabis helps with mental health. However, there are ways it makes things worse. Fortunately, many approaches can help clients develop more effective, long-lasting coping strategies. These strategies can be useful whether clients stop using cannabis altogether or continue using it while building other coping skills.
