CBD And Panic Attacks
Anyone who experiences anxiety knows about the incessant background noise that seeks to undo their very being. If that wasn’t enough, sometimes it goes a step further when a tidal wave of anxiety suddenly hits at once.
Coming out of the blue, this rogue wave takes hold and unfolds into a full-blown panic – unpleasant to say the least. Thankfully, CBD has a helping hand to play in riding this wave out.
Moderated once again through the activation of the 5-HT1A receptor, CBD impairs escape like behavior, which suggests that it packs an anti-panic punch. This was found by a study conducted on rats subjected to electrical stimulation whilst housed in a circular arena. Panic was defined as the threshold which prompted the rats to run around the arena in an attempt to escape.When injected with CBD, the rats showed reduced defensive responses (associated with anxiety and panic) when electrical stimulation was administered.
A similar study also showed inhibition of anxiety and panic in mice, whose fear was induced by the presence of a wild snake!
These animal studies are encouraging, and can likely be supported by the anecdotal evidence of human CBD users who experience panic attacks.
Taking This Into Consideration
These studies may have a certain degree of internal validity, but when using CBD oil for yourself, doses and effects may vary. In addition, many studies showing a potentially efficacious effect of CBD are on animals, and may vary for humans.
Due to your highly personalised genetic make – up and biochemical individuality, an effective dose for you may be different from others. In addition, the tone of your endocannabinoid system may vary, which could affect your response to CBD (and cannabinoids in general).
A good starting point is to try low doses of CBD and work your way up. Anywhere from 10mg allows you space to experiment. Doses used in studies (400 & 600mg) are considered fairly high, so before you dive into the unknown or potentially waste your CBD oil (isolated CBD may have a bell shaped curve effect compared to full spectrum extract), dip your toe in.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 18 percent of Americans experienced the symptoms of an anxiety disorder at some point over the past 12 months, making it the most common form of mental illness in the United States. Even for the rest of us, our chaotic world can still often leave us feeling overwhelmed.Regular users of psychoactive cannabis, also commonly known as marijuana, frequently report using the substance to relax after a hard day. For many people, hemp-based CBD oil can offer similar benefits, but with few side effects and without making them feel “high”.
Just as with our recent article on using CBD for pain relief, we’ve examined both the scientific evidence and anecdotal reports from regular CBD consumers online. Though there is still a lot of research to be done into CBD and anxiety, the preliminary results looks extremely promising.