I'm a young, healthy man of 22 years of age. I'm extremely physically fit and exercise daily. I run 3 miles every day and regularly lift weights. I'm a confident person and have a large number of friends. At the age of 15 I started smoking cannabis on a daily basis with friends. It was something new and 'cool' thing to do at the time and it didn't seem like I was doing anything wrong. I then moved onto to taking ecstasy most weekends from the age of 17 to 20 while out night-clubbing with friends. I stopped taking ecstasy and stayed away from the clubbing scene and it started to make me feel very depressed and started giving me various other horrible side effects i.e. low self esteem, paranoia etc. These died down after I stopped taking ecstasy.
Following a promotion at work I recently (4 weeks ago) decided it was time to go for a clean break and kick the habit of using cannabis after 7 years of pretty heavy use. I decided that there other things that I wanted to do with my life and that drug abuse had claimed enough of my time. So I just stopped smoking it about 4 weeks ago... period. My new job is extremely stressful and I'm in a position of authority and very well paid for someone of my age. It's hard work but I enjoy it and enjoy working with my work-mates. Anyway, the first 7 days of quitting were easy although sleeping was difficult and I felt quite low and very stressed at work. Then one Thursday night as I was dropping off to sleep I had a sudden, sharp intense dream (I can't even remember what it was about) and when I awoke I was terrified, I didn't know what to do with myself and thought I was going to die. This feeling of terror seemed to grow and grow inside the pit of my stomach and I could hear my own heart beating!!! It seemed to reach a peak and then I almost fainted and collapsed on my bed. I didn't know what had happened and lay there on my bed feeling exhausted. I felt shaky and still very frightened. The following day in work I felt very nervous for no reason at all and had constant butterflies in my stomach. This nervousness would grow and grow and it would feel like I was about to have another episode like the previous nights. This made work almost impossible. I decided to tell my mother (who is very supportive and understanding) what was happening to me. She said I was suffering from anxiety and it was due to the fact that I had been smoking cannabis for 7 years and I had suddenly stopped and the anxiety was a result of this. The anxiety continued, sometimes a low level and sometimes quite high... almost like a see-saw effect. This had made my working life a living hell which I believe added to the anxiety. The strange dreams and sudden awakenings continued, but none as intense as the first one experienced. After two weeks of living in HELL I decided to see my doctor who prescribed me a 2 week course of 2mg Diazepam tablets, 1 every evening to relax me before I went to sleep. Which has helped a lot and has made the dreams not so intense, but they are still there. My doctor has told me that the anxiety should fade. Infact it does feel as though it is fading, slightly day by day. BUT, I'll have say 2 good days and then 1 bad day that makes me wonder whether it will ever go! Exercise seems to help a lot as well. A good hard run leaves me feeling a lot better. I do feel a bit better day by day but was wondering if anyone has had similar experiences? How long did it take to recover completely? I find that an extremely stressful couple of hours in work can set it off and still even today leave me feel mentally paralysed for a good 20 minutes and very shaky. I sometimes feel like just getting up and walking out of work. I do know that there are some excellent techniques for dealing with anxiety, breathing through the nose and accepting the anxiety and not fighting it. But sometimes it can hit you so hard and so fast it takes you by surprise, especially when you had believed you were nearly over it. Do I need to be more patient and just keep going and try not to dwell on it? I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER FOR JUST
Reply With Quote
