Pod Insights The Psychology of your 20s 420. The psychology of weed About this episode Weed can be relaxing, funny, creative, and social - until it isn’t. In this episode, we look at what weed is actually doing in the brain, why it can calm one person and overwhelm another, and how it can change from something enjoyable into something we start leaning on for out emotional wellbeing.
We explore:
• What actually happens to our brains when we’re high
• What THC and CBD actually are, and how they differ
• Why weed can make some people anxious, hungry, or more creative
• When weed becomes less about fun and more about coping, avoidance, or escape
• How smoking can shape memory, motivation, and everyday connection
• The signs your relationship with weed might be changing
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Our favourite sources:
https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/cannabis-brain
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nutrition-research-reviews/article/endocannabinoid-system-and-appetite-relevance-for-food-reward/30C65E719848770761B6BEA7D0C1E9CB
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2829657
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/brb3.71102
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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3:09 Jemma Sbeg? Hello, everybody. I'm Jemma Sbeg and welcome back to the Psychology of Your 20s, the podcast where we talk through the biggest changes, moments and transitions of our 20s and what they mean for our psychology.
3:29 Jemma Sbeg? Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast. It is so great to have you here back for another episode as we, of course, break down the psychology of our 20s. Back as well for an episode I know a lot of you have been waiting for. Thank you for your patience, but I just felt like, I felt like we had to wait for episode 420 to do this topic for aesthetic purposes, of course. Today, we are talking about the psychology of weed. I know a lot of people have thoughts on cannabis usage. And as a drug, you know, it's obviously very easy to villainize, but cultures and societies have been using cannabis for thousands of years. It is one of the oldest drugs, oldest plants, in fact, that has, it's essentially co-evolved alongside.
4:16 Jemma Sbeg? Humanity and as we are and as society is taking a much more liberal approach to cannabis, I think the psychology behind it is very unexplored and incredibly fascinating. I think the more liberal approach that we're taking to cannabis usage has been really amazing for so many people. It's been adopted for chronic pain management, for therapeutic practices. It's rolled back a lot of unfair criminalization amongst many other things. There are still important considerations we do need to know if we want to take part, especially from an emotional, biological and psychological standpoint. You may have heard this thing that, you know, no one is ever overdosed from weed. Weed is an addictive.
5:01 Jemma Sbeg? We need to kind of debunk these a little bit. There are two sides to cannabis consumption that mean that it can be as dangerous as it is liberating and enjoyable. So that's what we're going to talk about today, as well as just the science and what it does to your brain, what it, why it makes you more hungry, why certain people get anxious, other people don't. There's going to, of course, be some resources in the description if you need them, or if this episode brings up any concerns about dependency for you or someone you know. We are going to take a very scientific approach today. So as always, this episode isn't an endorsement of doing drugs. But let's be honest, I'm in my twenties. I went to a university in a state was, you know, marijuana was legal.
5:44 Jemma Sbeg? So I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say, don't do it or pass any judgment or for your usage or lack of usage. I just think the psychology is very fascinating. It's important purely from like a research standpoint. Weed is just has this so much cool information about it. So without further ado, let's get into it.
6:08 Jemma Sbeg? To begin understanding the psychology of weed, we have to start with knowing what the heck it actually does to our brains and bodies to make us feel the way it does. Basically, where does the high feeling come from? A lot of the feeling of being high starts with something called the endocannabinoid system. This is a natural system in your body, everybody's body, and in your brain as well, and it helps regulate mood, stress, appetite, memory, pain, reward, even how strongly we react to things around us, basically how we interpret sensations. In other words, it is involved in many of the exact same functions that people notice
6:53 Jemma Sbeg? that notice shifting when they consume weed. Fun fact, the endocannabinoid system is also the same system responsible for the high feeling that some people get from exercise. Everybody has an endocannabinoid system. And every body naturally produces its own endocannabinoid molecules, whether you smoke weed, whether you don't, whether you've ever seen weed, looked at weed, smelt weed or not, your body already has a system in place. In particular, your body naturally produces two well-known cannabis-like chemicals, anandamide, which is known as the bliss molecule, and two A G.
7:34 Jemma Sbeg? These chemicals naturally bind to cannabinoid receptors in your body to influence mood, pain, appetite, memory. Another fun fact, a Harvard report found that we actually have more cannabinoid receptors in our bodies, specifically CB1 receptors, than nearly any other receptor in our brain and in our system. That is how important they are to how we function. Now cannabis works by interfering with this system and acting on those same receptors of which we have many, but in ways that is artificial. Meaning basically the chemicals that are coming in weren't naturally produced by the body
8:16 Jemma Sbeg? and may occur at like a higher level than what the body is normally used to, meaning it disrupts the system, meaning we get the symptoms of being high that we are used to. The main reason weed can feel euphoric or strange or calming or even disorientating is because of its chemical makeup. One University of Mississippi study has found that there are over a hundred and forty cannabinoids, as well as other chemicals that make up the chemical structure of cannabis. When those enter our body, they kind of flood every single system and they create the reactions that we know. But when we talk about mainly the psychological sensation that accompanies weed, we are mainly
9:00 Jemma Sbeg? talking about two specific cannabinoids that have the most impact, THC and CBD. They are both active components found in cannabis. They affect the body and brain very differently and are the most significant of the chemicals that make up cannabis. So basically, they are responsible for the majority of the feeling that we have in response to smoking weed or consuming weed. So THC is the main psychoactive component. This is the component most responsible for the classic high that people feel. So that shift in time awareness, the increase in appetite, the foggy memory and thoughts, like thought patterns, everything.
9:44 Jemma Sbeg? And for some people as well, anxiety and paranoia, it's THC. CBD is very different. It does not produce the classic high associated with THC and it does not seem to bind to the brain's CB1 receptors in the same direct, powerful way that THC does. Instead, CBD has a much broader and more indirect pharmacology. So what that basically means is that THC is coming in and only really hitting one kind of receptor. CBD is hitting multiple different kinds all across the body, including CB2 receptors, which actually occur primarily in our immune system.
10:27 Jemma Sbeg? So it's involved in several systems is basically what we're saying. And CBD is what you would often see marketed as medical products. So CBD oil, CBD gummies, CBD drops. Some people think of it as like a weaker weed, but it's a different cannabis compound or derivative entirely, with a completely different profile of feelings or sensations. It doesn't create that same overhaul in our consciousness. In research, it's often described as actually having a potentially calming, antipsychotic, anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory uh kind of job or role.
11:07 Jemma Sbeg? So whilst THC or typical weed tends to shift our experience psychologically into this altered, intensified state, CBD is better understood as a compound that may influence our, our body more than our mind, but also our overall ability to regulate. Okay, turning away from medicinal uses. One question I got from a lot of you when I said on Instagram that we were doing this episode is, why does it impact me? Why does smoking weed impact me differently compared to my friends? Compared to my boyfriend, my girlfriend, I don't know, my parents even? Why do I have such a different response?
11:50 Jemma Sbeg? Two different people could consume the same product, same amount, same everything and have wildly different psychological experiences, particularly when it comes to feelings of calm versus feelings of anxiety. Now, one of the main reasons is that, and one of the main reasons it has such a different effect is simply because we have different brains and therefore different cannabinoid systems, different sensitivities to substances, different psychological profiles that impact how we interpret the physical and emotional sensations of weed. This is all affected by things like personality, genetics, stress, even the setting that we are in when we use it currently, when we first used it.
12:32 Jemma Sbeg? THC changes how the brain filters attention, filters reward and emotion, but it can also feel very different depending on what Already going on internally or the state of your uh CB two or CB one receptors. Despite a lot of research suggesting that there is a casual link between cannabis and anxiety. A large twenty twenty four review from researchers based at UCLA actually suggests that this association can be best explained by the fact that anxiety predisposing individuals tend to use cannabis more as a method of self-medication compared to people who don't have an anxiety predisposition.
13:16 Jemma Sbeg? So this suggests that it's not necessarily cannabis usage overall that makes you anxious, makes everybody anxious. But it's just that when people with a certain anxiety profile or a certain personality do use cannabis, the effect of that on their anxiety is a lot worse. But also they may be more likely to try it in the first place or lean on it in order to self-soothe because of this promise initially that it's this calming chill out, really dopey kind of feeling. Now, how our anxiety presents beyond cannabis use, just in general, is also different from person to person.
14:00 Jemma Sbeg? Some people feel anxious when they feel out of control. Some people feel anxious when they feel like they have too much control and they're too overstimulated. They're too alert, they're too aware. You can kind of guess which person is gonna have a worse reaction. Two people might both think that they're anxious, but for somebody weed is really calming, for others it's not. For the person for whom like their anxiety really manifests as needing to be alert, wanting to be on top of things, consuming weed might not always give them the break from time, memory and place and sensations that they want. It just feels like dissociation, it feels really. Overwhelming. So I maybe I'm not explaining that well, but basically you can come to the table.
14:46 Jemma Sbeg? Like anxiety isn't one type of thing, right? We think of anxiety as this one condition. There are actually variants to our anxiety. And that is why, even if we're not just comparing anxious and not anxious people, but two, three, four different anxious people. Every single one of them could respond differently to weed based on how we interpret and how we relate to body sensations or bodily sensations and how in control we want to feel. Cannabis doesn't just create anxiety out of the blue. It seems to amplify whatever emotion or feeling is already there, such as pre-existing anxiety. Especially when the dose of THC is higher.
15:30 Jemma Sbeg? That also may explain why, again, you may have different reactions across two different days because of your pre-existing emotional state on top of dosage, on top of your environment, on top of what is unconsciously going on for you. One day you're fine, the next day you're not. This is also the case for things like creativity as well. A lot of people feel way more creative when they're high because our thoughts can feel less filtered and more unusual. It makes whatever emotional state we're in heightened. But the research here is actually really interesting. This was an area I really wanted to look into. And it suggests that feeling creative is not the same as actually being creative.
16:13 Jemma Sbeg? And when people smoke, they just feel creative. They may not actually be more creative, tangibly, practically, physically. One twenty twenty three study found that cannabis use didn't increase actual creativity, but it did make people have biased evaluations of their creativity. Basically, that means they judge their own ideas, other people's ideas as more creative. So if you've ever been high with your friends and thought, oh my God, this conversation we're having right now is hilarious. This is the funniest thing ever. That was, how has nobody ever thought of that joke or that saying or whatever? We should start a podcast. If you've ever had some bizarre idea for a movie or a joke that you're like, that is just, this is genius.
16:56 Jemma Sbeg? And you look back the next morning and you're like, that was really actually unfunny. Like, that really was just bizarre. That's what's happening here. That, that effect on perceived creativity has, has struck you. An earlier twenty fifteen research paper also found that highly potent cannabis may actually impair divergent thinking in people that smoke regularly. So weed may make thoughts feel more novel and exciting in the moment without necessarily making them better and actually making it harder for us to think differently long term. Essentially, what we're really talking about is the effect that it has on our inner critic.
17:37 Jemma Sbeg? What weed really does is impact emotional control. It can't make you more creative, but it can reduce the pressure and the, I guess, yeah, the pressure and, and the criticism surrounding, surrounding you on a daily basis, and it just lets your thoughts flow differently. It just weakens your impulses that are perhaps previously holding back creative or non-creative thoughts that you would usually have. What else do we have to mention about how weed impacts us differently? Um, oh, we have to mention the hunger, the munchies. Because weed makes some people absolutely ravenous, absolutely ravenous, and other people, they don't wanna touch,
18:23 Jemma Sbeg? they wouldn't, they don't wanna touch even their favorite meal. Again, this is because the endocannabinoid system helps regulate not just your appetite, which it does, but also the pleasure and emotional pull of food. THC appears to increase both wanting and liking food. Food can seem more appealing and eating it feels more rewarding based on kind of how THC interacts with your CB one receptors. That is why the munchies, it's usually not physical hunger, but it's because the sensory experience of eating is so much better. The flavors feel richer, more satisfying. That's why food seems so irresistible.
19:08 Jemma Sbeg? People who feel less reaction to THC, though, may not have that same drive. And what we're really getting at here is that there are There are basically dozens of different psychological reaction profiles that you can have from consuming cannabis, based on how many CB1 or CB2 receptors you have, based on how much weed you're consuming, based on how much weed you've consumed in the past, based on your emotional state, based on your genetics. Again, you could have a completely different experience from somebody sitting across from you, and a completely different experience every single time you smoke. The common thread here is that weed doesn't create one fixed effect on people, but that it changes the intensity and meaning of the experience.
19:54 Jemma Sbeg? Let's talk about the next big cannabis debate. Any guess is what it could be? Okay, it's the question of whether weed is addictive. There is a big myth that I've seen online and heard in person that it's impossible to have a problem with weed because it's not addictive. Is that true or false? Let's break it down. It is true that cannabis is not addictive in exactly the same way as every other drug or alcohol or nicotine, but it's also absolutely true that it has its own unique pattern of dependency. A useful way to talk about this is to separate biological dependence from psychological dependence. Biological dependence is what happens
20:36 Jemma Sbeg? when the brain and body adapt to regular use of a substance over time. That means that they build up tolerance. It means that they need more of the substance for the same effect. And it also means that if they stop, they may experience physical withdrawal symptoms like irritability, recklessness, sleep problems, low mood, reduced appetite, anxiety. The reason people may say that weed isn't as chemically addictive is because most people don't experience physical withdrawal symptoms the way they do with alcohol or harder drugs that typically affect our dopamine and GABA systems.
21:14 Jemma Sbeg? You know, the next morning you might feel a little bit hazy. But your body isn't going to physically, isn't going to have the same physical withdrawal pattern. Research does show this changes depending on when you start using cannabis. So if you start before sixteen, or if you smoke a lot, you can develop physical dependency and your likelihood of having a, a chemical or a biological addiction is much higher. But psychological dependence is a different story. Weed may not have the same chemical biological pool. But when it becomes a form of emotional and psychological coping, it is just as dangerous. It is just as dependency dr- driven or dependency risky.
21:58 Jemma Sbeg? It can start replacing all other coping. It becomes difficult to stop, especially when it is the only thing sitting between you and the pain, you and the social anxiety, you and the grief, you and the hopelessness. Its ability to dull or remove intense emotions is rewarding. It's called negative reinforcement. It removes a bad feeling. And that is just as motivational as when something gives us a good feeling. And that's why it's so intoxicating. Research into the drive behind cannabis use has consistently found that using weed to cope with dis- with distress, with tension, emotional discomfort
22:41 Jemma Sbeg? is linked to more problematic use and worse outcomes. And often because of the way weed makes us feel, which is maybe quite sluggish, tired, lethargic, we rarely then go on to engage in things that might actually help us. So rather than being something we just use casually for fun, in this situation, it becomes emotional management, or it becomes escapism from our current situation without actually allowing us to address the root problem. One of the emotions or feelings I feel like links most significantly to cannabis usage is loneliness. This is a great example of how weed can become a way that we avoid the deeper feeling.
23:26 Jemma Sbeg? The literature on the correlation between loneliness and smoking weed is just that, correlational. So we can't say that smoking weed directly causes loneliness, because that would be inaccurate. But what a lot of studies, including one in two thousand and sixteen, suggest is that social anxiety, solitary cannabis use and cannabis-related problems are often clustered together. And that using cannabis can actually be one of the roots that takes social discomfort and mild isolation and turns it into something more problematic, like full-on solitude and full-on a bit of a personal loneliness crisis.
24:07 Jemma Sbeg? And this makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. Weed can amplify certain emotions that we can feel very self-conscious of in front of people, in front of other people, but it can also make us feel better about other emotions that we feel individually. So therefore, it can become something that we only do by ourselves, because we want, we want the, we want the feeling. We don't wanna see or be around other people while we have the feeling, but the feeling in itself is, is still good. And that can mean that the more we really just enjoy that solitary time, smoking alone, consuming alone, the more of a comforting ritual it becomes, the more of a habit, the more that it can be a replacement for connection.
24:51 Jemma Sbeg? If someone, maybe it's you right now, starts to use weed mainly in a solitary manner or to manage a broader sense of loneliness, that is dangerous territory, because it becomes harder and harder to come back from and harder and harder to, you know, feel okay with being around people. But again, people are different. Like, for some people, it's a purely social activity. It can actually be a really fun source of memories. It just depends on your response and it depends on everybody's response. So I think the thing we can't do when we talk about weed is make broad stroke statements that weed is bad. Every weed user is lonely and depressed, because it's just not true. It's just something to be aware of, about how,
25:34 Jemma Sbeg? you know, there is a deep correlation between solitary usage and.
25:40 Jemma Sbeg? Extended loneliness, meaning that yes, loneliness initially might cause somebody to smoke weed by themselves because they don't have anybody to smoke or consume with. But then it can make it worse and it can be a mediating factor that continues to escalate the pattern. Okay, that was so intense. Let's take a break. I feel like I just lectured everybody. Let's, yeah, let's take a break and then let's talk about the effect that it has on our brain, what it does to our emotions and motivation, and also our relationships in the long term. Stay with us.
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30:35 Jemma Sbeg? Okay, let's talk about the long term effects of smoking weed on the brain. Cause I feel like this is something a lot of people want to know about. When people ask about the long term effects of smoking weed, one of the most important things to clarify is that the answer is not completely simple. On one hand, research doesn't support the idea that everybody who smokes cannabis will end up with severe permanent brain damage. But it also doesn't support the idea that using weed long term is completely harmless either. What the evidence suggests is that the effects depend a lot on how often somebody uses it, how much they use, how and how old they were when they started,
31:20 Jemma Sbeg? and whether they have developed more dependent patterns of use. So using multiple times a week for extended periods of time. Basically, the younger you start, the more frequently you use, the greater the amount, the longer the period of usage, the greater the correlation with problems involving attention, learning.
31:42 Jemma Sbeg? And working memory especially. Cannabis affects brain systems specifically that are heavily involved in learning and memory. Specifically, this region called the hippocampus, which you guys probably know from episodes in the past, helps us form and organize new memories. THC in particular basically interacts with the endocannabinoid receptors in this region and disrupts the process of encoding information. Meaning that smoking weed doesn't erase our memories or consuming weed doesn't erase our memories. What it does is mean that the information never gets properly stored in the first place. It just gets held in short-term working memory.
32:26 Jemma Sbeg? It never gets converted into short and then long term. This is why people who are high often lose track of conversation. They may struggle to hold on to new information. They may struggle to problem solve in the moment or get things done. Because working memory is so, so short. The storage time is very, there is not much storage time at all. So it's hard to cram everything in there when the influence of THC and of weed in general is disrupting the consolidation of memories needed for short-term and long-term memory. In the long term, oh my God, I feel like I've said long-term, short-term memory, all those things a million times, but in the long term. Research from 2025 that looked at a sample of over a thousand adults aged 22 to 36
33:12 Jemma Sbeg? found that heavy lifetime cannabis use is associated with lower brain activation during working memory tasks. And this association remains even in individuals who hadn't necessarily smoked recently or heavily recently. So it suggests that, you know, the impact and effects of weed on cognitive function, even after you quit, even after you taper down, can be long-lasting. Despite reducing slowly over time, you may still feel that your brain is different.
33:45 Jemma Sbeg? Our brain does have an amazing and incredible capacity to rewire and restore itself. So it's not to say like if the damage is done, you may as well keep going. Like you're never going to get a certain level of brain functioning back. But it is just like important to to recognize that if you're sitting here being like, I do notice differences. I don't know if I'm performing at my best to know that like, yeah, that's probably correct. There is danger to how your brain functions that you should be aware of. At the same time, there is some evidence to the contrary for when weed, specifically medical cannabis, is used for medicinal purposes.
34:27 Jemma Sbeg? One of the largest ever longitudinal observational studies on the effect of medical cannabis on individuals followed participants over a two-year period. And it assessed them before they started using and then at three months, six months, 12, 15, 18 and 24 months. Even after a few times, even at the the three-month mark, patients actually performed better in particular cognitive tasks that required executive functioning. So we're seeing a different pattern. This is a direct quote from the researcher. Her name is Stacey Gruber. She actually runs the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery Problem. That is a mouthful. And she does heaps of studies around this.
35:12 Jemma Sbeg? But on this study, she said, rather than getting worse, they're actually getting better because their physical symptoms are alleviated. That means they can think more clearly and often they rely less on other substances like opioids that can disrupt thinking. This contrasts with poorer cognitive performance seen among heavy recreational marijuana users relative to non-users. There you go. So basically, what this is saying is that when there's a lesser THC factor, when marijuana is used medicinally, especially for chronic pain or chronic illnesses that are otherwise clouding cognitive capacity, cognitive functioning does go up.
35:57 Jemma Sbeg? So again, you can't, it's not all or nothing. It's not any. Any, if you touch cannabis, you're immediately like twenty times dumber. No, it's a complex interaction with the body, with our emotions, with time, with psychology. Let's turn our attention to motivation. Because of the impact of THC on reward processing and motivation, people often talk about cannabis as if it is automatically something that will turn you into this lazy zombie-like person. Of course, in the short term cannabis use does and can reduce motivation, especially in someone who is actively high, like things that require planning and sustained focus are a lot less appealing
36:42 Jemma Sbeg? in that state. Everything that is, you know, the immediate reward is a lot more tantalizing, a lot more naturally attractive during those periods. But long term, the stereotype of like the lazy unmotivated weed user seems to be incorrect, especially if you're not using every single day or every single week or all the time. Like you are kind of allowed to have a couple of moments where you aren't heavily motivated because you can sustain motivation elsewhere and in other times of your life. In fact, across newer studies, there is little consistent evidence that all cannabis users are generally less motivated than non-users, once you actually look carefully at the data.
37:24 Jemma Sbeg? Some studies, including a significant paper from twenty twenty-three from researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Bath, found absolutely no major differences in self-reported motivation, pleasure, or willingness to work for reward, especially in non-dependent users. Now, critical point here is self-reported. So obviously, you know, obviously, there's like, there's a level of trust that we have to believe that people know what motivation feels like for them, but a lot of participants, you know, didn't show decline or didn't show differences in their ability to delay pleasure, in their ability to work
38:07 Jemma Sbeg? long-term and steadily and consistently for goals. The other critical thing, though, is non-dependent users. It is a different story when somebody is dependent. This is key. The more
38:22 Jemma Sbeg? Convincing concern is always and has always been around heavier use and cannabis use disorder. That is where the issue around motivation most likely comes up. But the thing is, is that not everybody who uses cannabis is going to go on to become dependent. In fact, it isn't not, it's not unheard of and it's definitely not rare, but it is not as risky and as common as most people who are opposed to any kind of cannabis usage in society, including for medicinal purposes, would make it seem. One more thing to note here as well, just like we talked about how long-term cannabis
39:04 Jemma Sbeg? use can impact cognitive, uh, cognitive skills and memory, um, but that those things can return and can be rebuilt. Same goes for motivation. So basically it's not over, like it's not like you have, it's not like you have physically permanently damaged your entire relationship to reward, like it can be reversed. Let's talk about one final impact that requires close examination, which is the impact of weed on relationships, especially when one person is a frequent user and the other is not. I got a lot of messages about this because it creates a lot of complications, right?
39:49 Jemma Sbeg? There's a lot of pressure to participate. Um, there's different mental stages at different moments or at the same moment. So two people could be in a completely different mindset for connecting and for bonding in the, in the same time period. There's concerns about somebody's usage when they do feel like they have a problem. There's resentment, there's fear. There's also just plain annoyance that maybe you don't want somebody to be smoking all the time or be high all the time and they just can't seem to give it up and it's frustrating. There is a lot of potential for weed to shape the way we connect with people. In the short term cannabis can make us more social and it can feel, and it can make social moments.
40:31 Jemma Sbeg? Feel easier for some people by lowering tension, by lowering those impulse barriers, by making things seem funnier, by creating shared memories and a shared sense of ease. That is the part of smoking with friends or with partners that can sometimes feel like a bonding opportunity. Conversations feel a lot looser, laughter comes more easily, ordinary moments are more imaginative and enjoyable. But in a long term relationship, sometimes it can feel like, well, why would you need that? Why do you need conversations to be easier? Shouldn't our conversations already be easy? Shouldn't I already make you feel safe and relaxed? Am I not entertaining enough?
41:13 Jemma Sbeg? Like, ah, like, maybe you need this for other people, but why would you need this for me? Like, I'm your person. And you can very quickly see how insecurity is valid here and can really spark in those moments, especially if you aren't on the same page and there's not full truthfulness. And it is a fair concern from, like, the loved one. Especially if you've had, you know, if they've had partners who've previously ignored them because of weed, previously made them feel insecure, previously rejected them, usage or not. They're coming into this relationship with a different need for openness and a different need to understand your motivations. Because being with somebody who smokes a lot of weed even when they're asked not to,
41:57 Jemma Sbeg? or being with somebody who maybe you as a weed smoker or somebody who's a weed smoker is with somebody who isn't and they don't understand the relationship you have with it, there's a lot of room for ambiguity. And when we have ambiguity that is not addressed, we have people come up with their own stories and people come up with their own reasons for why somebody is participating, somebody isn't. That can create a lot of resentment and a lot of fear around. The relationship being at risk. It all comes back to this core concern of presence. Relationships of any kind, friendships, family ties, romantic bonds, depend on attention, depend on shared memory, responsiveness and emotional availability. And because cannabis can affect short-term memory as we know,
42:42 Jemma Sbeg? but also motivation and attention, it can sometimes interfere with these key aspects. Somebody may seem checked out, forgetful, hard to follow, less reliable, less emotionally engaged. And it's not necessarily because they don't care. It's because weed is changing how they present in that interaction. And if that becomes a pattern, other people, especially loved ones, start to feel a kind of distance. That's actually pretty awkward to bring up. Another issue is that cannabis can sometimes become part of avoidance in relationships more broadly. If someone uses weed after stress, after moments of loneliness, conflict, boredom, emotional discomfort, it may help them feel better quickly,
43:25 Jemma Sbeg? but it can also make them less likely to reach out, to repair, explain themselves or sit with difficult emotions alongside other people. And that is the foundation of of deep relationships, romantic or not. The risk is not just that someone smokes and becomes distant, but that cannabis becomes their preferred way of managing feelings that would otherwise lead them to connect with somebody that they loved. Like, again, it all comes down to this psychological dependency and psychological, emotional management of discomfort. Listen, we can't not mention the positive side. Cannabis can improve intimacy, especially for people with chronic pain
44:09 Jemma Sbeg? or a lot of stress and anxiety around sex. I've heard that from some people, you know, it's the only thing that allows them to really feel in the moment with somebody. It can also be bonding just because it's funny. You know, two of my best friends smoke weed and play video games together as like a little treat every few months. And honestly, it sounds like a blast and it sounds like something that really nurtures their relationship. And honestly, like when I hear about it, I'm like, God, you guys, that sounds really, really fun. But when should we be worried about it? When does it flip over? I'd say you should be worried individually or in terms of your relationship with somebody.
44:49 Jemma Sbeg? When weed starts to change your behaviour in a very clear observable way to you. Not observable to everybody else, to you, like you can notice it. That might mean you keep using more than you planned. You find yourself smoking earlier in the day, smoking on days you said you wouldn't. Building your routine around when you can get high next. One of the clearest signs is loss of control. And that's what all of these come down to. You feel like your life ori- is orientated and centred around this, this substance. And when you're going to consume it, how much with who? When is the next, next available time or period where you can do it?
45:34 Jemma Sbeg? And you no longer feel in control of your relationship to it. You kind of know deep down, like, I keep saying I could stop. I keep saying I don't need this, but every time I'm given the opportunity, I, every time I'm, or not given the opportunity, I just always find myself saying, yes, I always find myself back here. You should also pay attention to when weed starts affecting you emotionally in a way that is more about reducing negative emotions rather than increasing only positive ones. Basically, if getting high is no longer mainly about the pleasure aspect and about elevating experiences
46:15 Jemma Sbeg? and making experiences better, and it's more about not wanting to feel a certain thing, not wanting to feel stressed, bored, awkward or overwhelmed. That is a different relationship with the substance. That is a negative driven or a removal of negative feeling driven like relationship where, again, we're experiencing negative reinforcement. We want to be experiencing positive reinforcement where we're like, oh, this is making things better for me, rather than it's meaning that things aren't getting worse. At that point, weed is not just something you enjoy, it's something. That you lean on and it's something that you specifically rely on to regulate inner wellbeing. Whether you realise it or not, it is a relief oriented pattern of use.
47:00 Jemma Sbeg? Another distinct warning sign is when weed starts affecting how clearly you think and function on a daily or regular basis. If your memory feels worse, if your concentration is wavering or it's getting harder to stay motivated and follow through on not just ordinary responsibilities, but things you really wanted to, that is worth noticing A, acting on B. These effects can creep in gradually, of course, which is partly why people miss them. But over time, there will come a point where you will tip into this into this new mental state where you're like, I just am not the same person as I used to be. And I don't really like that. That is a clear sign that something needs to change. And that you can change as well, since you've noticed.
47:46 Jemma Sbeg? And finally, a different kind of red flag, one that may not be as common, is when your body starts showing signs of dependency. If you feel irritable, anxious, restless, unable to sleep, your appetite is messed around or revolves around weed. That suggests that your system has adapted to regular use and you've developed a new kind of baseline. And that is indicative of this kind of chemical dependency alongside of psychological dependency. We've kind of been speaking about. It's really important at this stage that you cut down. Because physical dependency, I know people talk about weed as a gateway drug. Especially when you experience a physical dependency where you feel like you need to smoke so much.
48:32 Jemma Sbeg? That is when you can start looking for other ways to get the same feeling. That is when you can start escalating usage to the point where it is really, really psychologically disruptive alongside physically disruptive. And look, again, I'm not trying to villainise it at all. I would be a hypocrite if I did. But we also can't pretend it's harmless either. I think this is the, why the conversation around weed is so difficult. Is because there's either people who want to say it only harms people. Or there's people who want to say there are absolutely no issues with it and people just need to chill out. No, it's somewhere in the middle, which is that. Individuals are going to react differently to this substance.
49:15 Jemma Sbeg? People do go on to develop really severe mental health conditions in response to smoking weed. Psychosis from weed or from cannabis, uh schizophrenia from the consumption of cannabis is real. It's not just like something that is used to scare people. There are certain individuals who have a a personality genetic temperament vulnerability, psychological vulnerability. That means their schizophrenic psychotic symptoms remain on like remain untriggered until they smoke weed. And that can genuinely, that is life changing for them. And that is like, uh it's life changing.
50:00 Jemma Sbeg? So be careful, be safe, know if your family has a history of that. Go slow and just like take care of yourself. Like if, again, I think it all comes down to this. If this experience is elevating life for you and making, if it's elevating already positive experiences, elevating time with your friends, elevating your creative practice, elevating your mood on a beautiful sunny day. Go for it. But if you are honest with yourself and it's not doing those things, or if you're just doing it to keep up with a partner, with a friendship group, or you're just doing it to avoid other stuff that's going on.
50:41 Jemma Sbeg? That is not a healthy state of mind to be in at at the very minimum when consuming weed. And it's not a healthy place to be in in terms of risk of dependency. So that's what I'm gonna, that's what I'm gonna leave it at. I do think weed can be quite a spiritual positive thing, quite psychologically rewarding. But when it isn't that for you, it requires closer examination. And I hope that this episode has allowed you to do that. Or allowed you to do that in in regards to a relationship that you're in or in regards to a friendship or somebody that you know who might also be. Struggling with whether weed is a good or bad choice for them or their relationship to it. I'm gonna leave a couple of links in the description for you guys to check out further.
51:26 Jemma Sbeg? If you like have concerns or worries, but also if you just wanna do some deeper research. I know we couldn't touch on everything today. Again, this is meant to be a bonus episode. It's now like almost an hour long, so I'm sorry. But if you want a part two, let me know. If you've made it this far, leave, leave a little comment down below. Let me know that you're still here. A reminder as well, you can always watch episodes of the podcast on Netflix. If you prefer video content, you can follow us on Instagram at That Psychology Podcast. That's where I got a lot of questions for today's episode from, and it's a great place to connect with me and other members of the podcast listener community. I don't know what else I need to tell you guys. Yeah, just hope you enjoyed the episode. And if there's something I didn't cover, feel free to mention it down below.
52:11 Jemma Sbeg? Uh, but until next time, be safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself. Definitely be safe and we will talk very, very soon.
52:24 Jemma Sbeg? I've been really trying to prioritize my health in a realistic way this year. And something that has kept me really motivated is my Whoop. I am such a data person, which is why I love Whoop, because I can genuinely see why my body feels differently depending on the day. Why I'm running differently, why I'm maybe less focused. Whoop effortlessly tracks my sleep, it tracks my strain, my recovery, my stress, and most importantly, my overall health. And it just gives me all that data and all those patterns. So I can make better decisions, which includes knowing when to go easy and knowing when to go hard. New members can try Whoop with a 30 day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join dot whoop dot com slash psychology for your free month of Whoop.
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