While anecdotal evidence about the effectiveness of CBD therapies for mental health abounds, the only FDA-approved use for CBD is as a seizure therapy. That being said, if you struggle with anxiety, insomnia, depression, or OCD, you may find that CBD helps.
Managing Anxiety
If you’re interested in trying CBD to help you manage anxiety, find a full spectrum of full spectrum cbd oil for sale that you can use sublingually or between the cheek and gum. For those currently on medication for anxiety, make sure you discuss your plans with your physician to reduce the risk of interaction.
When experimenting with CBD, be ready to document what works best for you. For example, many people use CBD to sleep after a full dose or 25 milligrams. If you want to track your reaction, consider micro-dosing for general anxiety disorder.
Take just 5 mg and track your reaction. If you were in an anxious cycle and it stopped, how long did it take? How did you feel in an hour? Microdosing is effective for many CBD users, either via drop or via vaping pen.
Getting Control of PTSD
The destructive power of PTSD is incredibly frustrating and can be dangerous to your overall health. If you know that you’re facing a trigger, such as a holiday, season, or anniversary of trauma, consider using CBD in the weeks leading up to your trigger.
If you find that you have a PTSD episode
- how severe was it?
- what were your physical reactions?
- how long did the episode last?
- how long before you were able to function again?
Using CBD is a very personal choice. If you gain relief from the product, you may be able to use a full dose before bed of edible oil, a gummy to help you stay asleep, or a vaping pen to microdose so you can function during the day.
Addressing Depression
Depression is a crippling illness that can prove fatal if not treated. The isolation inherent in depression is often made worse by the idea that depression is simply a state of severe sadness.
In fact, many people who suffer from depression actually struggle to find a path to hope. This feeling of numbness or despair can be alleviated by the use of CBD because CBD activates the 5-HT1A receptor which is often found on neural pathways that have an elevated level of dopamine traffic.
Dopamine is the feel-good hormone. It helps us to take pleasure in the everyday, but if your brain receptors aren’t receiving, pleasurable experiences have no impact. CBD has been shown to prepare your brain to take more satisfaction and joy from ordinary activities, such as eating or making love.
CBD for OCD
OCD is a time-consuming, joy-destroying illness that often leaves us feeling like a hamster on a wheel. It starts with an untrue thought, such as “everything in the world is dirty.”
To address this, you get in the habit of washing your hands on a timer. The thought continues to play in your mind, so you bump up the hand-washing frequency and start to glove up and shower three times a day. Soon this thought loop makes it impossible to
- hold a job or go to school because you can’t stay at your desk
- go to a restaurant or stay in a hotel because you can’t control the cleanliness of the space
- function outside a very narrow environment
Obsessive behaviors can destroy relationships and leave people housebound. Adding a microdose of CBD in the midst of an OCD episode can give your brain the space to stop the thinking loop that’s feeding the obsessive behavior. Once the OCD sufferer understands that there is a space between “thought” and “action” for just a small dose of “maybe, or maybe not?” they can put down the soap, step away from the sink, stop tapping their desk, or biting their nails, or whatever behavior it is they’re engaging in.
In addition to helping your brain stop the running loop and making space for simple pleasures, many find that CBD can make it possible to sleep more deeply. Because deep sleep is when the brain is cleansed of toxins, so if you’re fighting to maintain or build better mental health, start with a dose before bed to help you rest.
