CBD oil eased my anxiety; Texans must have access
The first time it happened, I felt like my heart was going to explode. My mind couldn’t catch up. Every second, every movement was an eternity. I couldn’t explain the dread, the lava surging through my body. I couldn’t talk straight.
That’s when my wife, who’s a registered nurse, told me I was having a panic attack.
Since that night, I’ve been diagnosed with severe anxiety. I’ve even got a little depression to boot. If you search Google for anxiety symptoms, there might as well be a photo of me next to the definition, because I’ve got everything that’s listed. Shaky hands, hot flashes, constipation, insomnia, swollen tongue, mood swings — all of it.
One minute, I feel like I’m Mike Tyson in his prime, swinging at the world. But out of nowhere, something can trigger my subconscious, and I can feel my pulse in my neck, shoulders and hands. A piece of bad news puts me in Eeyore territory, where just about nothing can cheer me up.
When I visited my doctor, he did what’s become an industry standard for treating mental health: He gave me a prescription for pills. After experimenting with a few different varieties of medicine, the conclusion was the same: I hated the way pills made me feel. If I popped an Ativan, I was falling asleep mid-sentence. If I took something else, I wasn’t any less crazy, just numb. While I hate anxiety, I hate walking through a mental fog even more.
So, I went without. I developed routines like wearing myself out with hourslong walks at night. I got into meditation, tried a sensory deprivation tank and started smoking pot.
Smoking works well enough, but the thing about non-legal pot is instead of walking into a wood-paneled shop with multiple choices, where I can talk about my anxiety and what strain I could try that’s developed specifically for people like me, I have to buy off some dude who hangs out in his car all day.
After reading up about CBD oil, I was ready to try it. Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a hemp extract that does not have any intoxicating properties. A shop selling CBD oil recently opened in my North Austin neighborhood, so I went and got a bottle. I started small, but within hours, I noticed a significant difference. I wasn’t as shaky or as moody. I didn’t feel so much on edge from the never-ending panic that can surge through me like waves. According to NPR, the CBD oil industry has become a $200 million empire, and after trying the remedy, I understand why — and Texas doesn’t even have the higher-dose varieties that legal weed states get.
We need to offer people like me, and others who have chronic pain, seizures and sleep disorders, the chance to experiment with marijuana as a medical remedy. Texas’ medical cannabis law allows only patients suffering from a single rare form of epilepsy to buy CBD treatments from licensed dispensaries, though some stores offer over-the-counter hemp oils like the kind I bought. Earlier this year, the Texas Department of State Health Services drafted a rule to crack down on over-the-counter sales if the packaging specifically mentioned CBD, but officials put the rule on hold after receiving a wave of public comment.
Legislators should clear up the issue by making CBD oil available to more people who need it. Anyone who wants to try CBD should be able to walk up to any counter across Texas and get a bottle. Help shouldn’t require a prescription.
About 18 percent of the population lives with anxiety. Texas can be a leader in this space: We can show the country that a few drops of CBD oil can help rewire someone’s panic-induced brain.
I hope that as the state continues its upward growth we’re not defined by politics, but by possibilities. The Compassionate Care Act, the 2015 law allowing limited medicinal marijuana use, shouldn’t be a murky “maybe” for legal, medical weed, but used as a machete to cut through the red tape cobbled together by outdated points of view on marijuana for a variety of reasons.
I’m lucky that I live in Austin where CBD oil shops will become as common as taco stands. But the remedy may be out of reach for others in the Panhandle, Odessa or in Huntsville. Having access to a non-psychoactive treatment could change their lives.
Within hours, I noticed a significant difference. I wasn’t as shaky or as moody.