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I have an uncle this happened to. I was warned from a young age not to try weed lest I become like him. My uncle was institutionalized on and off and died in his 30's. It was heart breaking for the family.
I'll second don't let this happen to you.
Thanks, Ivorytickler. You may be interested to know that NUMEROUS people on this thread have shared their own similar personal experiences within their families. Also, there are several studies (which I've posted links to repeatedly) that show a connection between regular MJ use by teens and an increase in psychosis in those people during adulthood. It's not a common outcome, but the incidence increases with MJ use during the teen years.
I'm not saying that MJ should be illegal (though I do think that, like alcohol, it should not be legal for teens to smoke unless there is a bona fide health reason for it). I'm just saying that, as with alcohol and cigarettes and many prescription drugs, people should be aware of the risks they take when they choose to smoke MJ.
Thanks, Ivorytickler. You may be interested to know that NUMEROUS people on this thread have shared their own similar personal experiences within their families. Also, there are several studies (which I've posted links to repeatedly) that show a connection between regular MJ use by teens and an increase in psychosis in those people during adulthood. It's not a common outcome, but the incidence increases with MJ use during the teen years.
I'm not saying that MJ should be illegal (though I do think that, like alcohol, it should not be legal for teens to smoke unless there is a bona fide health reason for it). I'm just saying that, as with alcohol and cigarettes and many prescription drugs, people should be aware of the risks they take when they choose to smoke MJ.
We were told that we carry/have a gene that predisposes us to psychosis as a result of using weed. My uncle was normal through high school. He started using in his 20's, after going into the service, and by the time he was 30, he was hearing voices and thought he was one of the devil's angels. No high is worth what my uncle went through and put this family through. You never know what will happen when you mess with your brain chemistry and that's what drugs do. I rarely drink alcohol and never have used drugs other than ones my doctor prescribes. It's just not worth it.
Sorry about your brother. This is a difficult thing.
We were told that we carry/have a gene that predisposes us to psychosis as a result of using weed. My uncle was normal through high school. He started using in his 20's, after going into the service, and by the time he was 30, he was hearing voices and thought he was one of the devil's angels. No high is worth what my uncle went through and put this family through. You never know what will happen when you mess with your brain chemistry and that's what drugs do. I rarely drink alcohol and never have used drugs other than ones my doctor prescribes. It's just not worth it.
Sorry about your brother. This is a difficult thing.
Thank you. I'm going to see him Friday. I have very mixed feelings about it.
The psychiatrists told my parents the SAME THING about my brother! See - it's sort of like those people who snort cocaine and suddenly fall dead of a heart attack. Who would know they would have that predisposition, that weakness? It's rare, but you don't KNOW IT till it's TOO LATE.
My forty year old brother lapsed into substance induced psychosis - caused by marijuana - and is now permanently brain damaged.
His life is ruined. Before this happened to him, I had never even HEARD of the possibility of marijuana capitulating someone into a permanent state of psychosis. Here's what I have found out:
Some people are genetically predisposed to developing a permanent state of mental illness (caused by brain damage) from using marijuana and/or alcohol. The damage includes, but is not limited to, a form of psychosis which closely resembles schizophrenia. You know that feeling of paranoia you can get when you smoke weed? That's a very mild form of what can for some people become a permanent state of brain damage and psychosis. Trouble is - you don't know whether or not you're succeptible, till you're already damaged beyond repair. There is not medical test to determine whether or not you have this genetic tendency.
My brother was a handsome, well educated (private prep school and then college and eventually a master's degree), intelligent, and gentle. He was an animal lover and was fascinated by history. He was given the opportunity to take over the family business, which was very successful. He had a beautiful wife and a large, lovely home. In other words, he had it all - strong family, education, intelligence, looks, career, creature comforts, you name it.
But he loved weed, and he loved to drink. Over the years, we watched in frustration as he smoked and drank his life into the toilet. Long story short, his wife left him, he lost the business, and then lost his subsequent job due to increasingly poor performance, and finally had a psychotic "break" which we were desperately hoping was temporary due to possible addictions and stress. He broke into a rent house, ransacked several homes on the family property, assaulted a tenant, threatening repeatedly to kill him and burn all the buildings to the ground, and was finally arrested nearly naked walking down the road, completely delusional.
Just got the news - nope, there's nothing temporary about his state of mind. It's permanent - and he's done it to himself.
Just wanted to give others a warning about this - don't assume that weed is harmless, or that you can smoke or drink regularly with no long term or serious side effects. When my brother held the world in the palm of his hand, he never saw this coming, and neither did we.
He will be institutionalized for the rest of his life. Don't let this happen to you or a loved one.
I'm so very sorry for your brother and his family. It's tragic and I can only hope and pray for a recovery for him.
I am quite sure that weed is far safer than thousands of drugs the doctors are getting people to take every single day. While your brothers case is a rare reaction to the weed there are thousands of Rx drugs that kill, ruin people's health and cause suicides every day. I'm totally convinced that booze is a thousand times more dangerous than weed and yet it is pushed upon us at every social function we ever attend. I personally don't smoke weed nor do I drink alcohol but in my experience I far prefer to be around weed smokers than drunks.
As far as what the Drs. say about your brothers condition; I would take it with a large grain of salt. They always like to paint the worst possible picture in these kind of cases. They then can take all the credit when the patient recovers. I`d bet anything that right now they are feeding the poor guy all kinds of drugs that make weed look like lemonade in comparison.
I'm so very sorry for your brother and his family. It's tragic and I can only hope and pray for a recovery for him.
I am quite sure that weed is far safer than thousands of drugs the doctors are getting people to take every single day. While your brothers case is a rare reaction to the weed there are thousands of Rx drugs that kill, ruin people's health and cause suicides every day. I'm totally convinced that booze is a thousand times more dangerous than weed and yet it is pushed upon us at every social function we ever attend. I personally don't smoke weed nor do I drink alcohol but in my experience I far prefer to be around weed smokers than drunks.
As far as what the Drs. say about your brothers condition; I would take it with a large grain of salt. They always like to paint the worst possible picture in these kind of cases. They then can take all the credit when the patient recovers. I`d bet anything that right now they are feeding the poor guy all kinds of drugs that make weed look like lemonade in comparison.
Thanks for your kind words, and I do share your concerns about RX drugs and alcohol in excess as well.
I think the key word in all of this is "excess."
As for my brother, yes, he is on one medication. He is MUCH improved - so much so that he is being moved to a group home in a few weeks. On the meds, he seems nearly normal. Off the meds - total lunatic.
Thanks for your kind words, and I do share your concerns about RX drugs and alcohol in excess as well.
I think the key word in all of this is "excess."
As for my brother, yes, he is on one medication. He is MUCH improved - so much so that he is being moved to a group home in a few weeks. On the meds, he seems nearly normal. Off the meds - total lunatic.
Those facts sort of point to him being bipolar or another closely related condition. I had a friend back in the 60s who developed severe paranoid and bipolar conditions after taking LSD. The Drs blamed the LSD and we all accepted that as probably the truth. Anyway a few years later his brother who neither took drugs or drank, developed the same illness. I do believe the LSD accelerated the onset but I believe his predisposition to this condition would have shown up sooner or later in any case.
Those facts sort of point to him being bipolar or another closely related condition. I had a friend back in the 60s who developed severe paranoid and bipolar conditions after taking LSD. The Drs blamed the LSD and we all accepted that as probably the truth. Anyway a few years later his brother who neither took drugs or drank, developed the same illness. I do believe the LSD accelerated the onset but I believe his predisposition to this condition would have shown up sooner or later in any case.
Who knows?
I think this - I think that some people may be PREDISPOSED to developing psychosis but if they don't do the drugs, it doesn't necessarily develop.
That's just my opinion, though - but it is also the opinion of some of the professionals involved in some of the studies on MJ and psychosis.
Is this the same brother you mentioned in your other threads? I think you said he started showing signs of psychopathy(you may have used another term) in his early teens?
I say this because I am got the impression you thought there were other factors that contributed to his change and he already displayed antisocial behavior when he worked for your dad and by the time he got married. I didn't get the impression he changed from one day to the next
I don't smoke, never have and probably never will so it's not like I feel I need to defend Marihuana. I just think there is more to this story and marihuana might have contributed but it didn't sound like it was the main factor.
Is this the same brother you mentioned in your other threads? I think you said he started showing signs of psychopathy(you may have used another term) in his early teens?
I say this because I am got the impression you thought there were other factors that contributed to his change and he already displayed antisocial behavior when he worked for your dad and by the time he got married. I didn't get the impression he changed from one day to the next
I don't smoke, never have and probably never will so it's not like I feel I need to defend Marihuana. I just think there is more to this story and marihuana might have contributed but it didn't sound like it was the main factor.
Yes, it's the same brother, and yes, he was exhibiting some possible signs of some paranoia in his twenties (not his early teens). He was not diagnosed with any mental illness till he was 38. And yes, he began to, well, be a JERK and display some oddball personality traits when in his twenties (when he was working for my dad and getting married - late twenties there). But that doesn't negate the MJ theory, since by then he had been smoking MJ regularly, and in large amounts, since his early teens.
His doctors believe, and have stated repeatedly, that his ongoing drug and alcohol usage, since his early teens, have damaged his brain irreversibly. HOWEVER - they have specifically told us that they believe his PARANOIA probably stems directly from his regular use of MJ since his teen years. I have provided links to several studies which lay the progression of this sort of brain damage out in detail.
Like many forms of mental illness involving substance abuse, it's a little hard to tell which came first - the abuse or the illness, from a layperson's perspective. That's why I'm going with what the professionals have told us. After all, he's been evaluated, tested, observed, etc, constantly for the past 9 months, and they've maintained exactly the same professional opinion.
Until this series of events in my brothers' life, and the various medical diagnoses (which all match), I simply had no idea that MJ COULD cause irreversible brain damage that manifests in a form of paranoid schizophrenia. That's the main point of this thread - to get that information out. Apparently, regular usage of MJ by teens can profoundly damage their developing brains, and manifest in later years as a form of mental illness. People need to know this.
I'm confused Kathryn i'm not trying to prove you wrong I'm just trying to understand what you are trying to tell us and what was possibly caused by his marihuana use.
I don't have your earlier post but I what I understood is that your brother had some kind of dark humor(sarcastic) and in a way you felt your parents might have unintentionally encouraged your brother's antisocial behavior by not putting a stop to it. I think an early age like 12 was mentioned in that post. I could be wrong I'm not looking at the post just going by my memory.
Now you mention paranoia but the behaviors I remember listed were the ones on your first post and I remember on your other thread you mentioned something about his dog having a bullseye and you(or your family) finding evidence that he had actually targeted the dog. What are his paranoic behaviors?
I just get the impression that the first post seems to paint a perfect picture of your brother's life up intil he separated his wife and he quit his job but your other post seems to suggest there were signs that things were not going well all the way to his teenage years. I just get the impression that marihuana seem to made the antisocial behavior more erratic but do you think your brother would have good social skills if he had never been a heavy marihuana user?
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