Know how marijuana affects your well-being

All you need to know about marijuana and how it affects the brain

Aishwarya Vaidya 

There have been several cases of marijuana addiction as well as marijuana induced mental conditions like depression, mania and psychosis. “Marijuana is a grey or green mixture of dried flowers and leaves from the cannabis sativa, or hemp plant. Marijuana is actually smoked as a cigarette (called a joint or a nail) or in a pipe or a bong. Recently, it has appear in cigars, called blunts, explains Shilpa Basrur, a Mumbai-based Consulting Psychologist and Counselor.

She adds, Marijuana addiction can broadly understand in terms of tolerance: tolerance to marijuana is said to develop when the response to the same dose of marijuana decreases with repeated use:
Dependence/withdrawal:

• Anger, irritability, aggression
•  Aches, pains, chills
•  Depression
• Inability to concentrate
•  Sleep disturbance
• Slight tremors
• Decrease in appetite
• Sweating
• Craving

Know how you can recognize someone who uses it: Here, are few symptoms which one can look out for:
He or she might:

• Seem dizzy and have trouble walking
• Seem silly and giggly for no reason
• Have very red, bloodshot eyes
• Have a hard time remembering things that just happened.
• He/ she laughs without reason all the time

Effects on the brain:

• Makes  harder for the user to recall recent events and hard to learn while high.
• Can induce severe mental conditions like psychosis, depression and mania.

One should immediately seek help and beat the addiction to lead and happy and a healthy life. Remember, not to over do it. As, it can be life-threatening.”