Depression is fickle. Sometimes it is experienced once in a blue moon. In other situations, it is expressed chronically. In either case, CBD can help you fight depression and allow you to lift your spirits up again.
What is Depression?
Depression is a mental health disorder associated with significant morbidity and mortality, being a major risk factor for suicide, substance abuse, poor outcomes of medical conditions, and impaired functionality.
Many of those who don’t suffer from depression believe depression is feeling sad and negative. It’s actually not like that at all. When you suffer from depression, you don’t feel anything at all. Your emotions are numbed and your persona feels empty and dark. The soul fire within is dimmed.
Sometimes, we cry because we feel hopeless because feeling numb is one of the worst feelings to experience. Can you imagine being in a room full of people that you know you love with all of your heart, but can’t feel your love for them, or their love for you? It’s a living nightmare. Especially if you are not aware of being depressed, it makes you question everything. It makes you feel like people are acting fake around you and don’t truly love you when it’s just your mind tricking you to feel that way.
Depression drains you of energy and leaves you feeling fatigued. You’re not able to put your full potential into your life when depression weighs you down. I like to think that feelings are like the colors of the mind, and with the depression, you only feel in black and white. No one deserves to live their life in black and white.
CBD Brings Emotions Back to Life
If you suffer from chronic depression and you are seeking a healthy alternative to pharmaceuticals, CBD could be what you are looking for.
Take me for example. I have suffered from depression for 6 years before I found true relief. I would have days every so often that I felt like I was on top of the world. That I finally found the freedom I was looking for. But then, I would wake up the next day back in my slump.
It was frustrating. I ended up using pharmaceuticals for help and they gave me relief for about a month before things plummeted even deeper. I became suicidal and lost control of my thoughts entirely. My ego took over and started to control my life and I felt like a prisoner in my body.
When I went off the pharmaceuticals, I stumbled upon information about CBD and how it works within the body. I began experimenting with high CBD strain flower and found that Harlequin gave me a huge relief. That magical spot in my mind was found again; this naturally uplifted, calm, in-tune, balanced state-of-mind. I’m sure what I was experiencing was homeostasis, which is when your body is completely physiologically balanced. It was better than feeling just “high” to me.
I then found just straight CBD products. My first CBD product was a tincture I had bought at a well-known dispensary in the area. The product was from the brand, Green Earth Hemp and it had some other root herbs included in the blend. I was mending an injury at the same time while I used the product to help calm my mind while weaning off the pharmaceuticals. I found immediate relief, that same sweet spot I remembered feeling from smoking the harlequin flower, but without the high.
It felt like pure bliss and everything in my life started to make sense. This was the answer to finding my relief. After using CBD as a daily regimen for a month, my natural state of mind started to unwind from the numbness. I started to feel things again. I felt sad and angry at times but then felt happy and relieved because I could actually feel and cope with these feelings that I had been hanging onto for so long. I could finally let them go.
It also helped mend my injury much faster than anticipated. It really opened my eyes that this cannabinoid holds many powerful healing properties.
CBD and Depression Studies
A 2016 research study demonstrates that CBD induces rapid-acting antidepressant effects in mice. This is huge because most antidepressants that are prescribed need about a month before effects will kick in. This was always frustrating as someone who bounced off and on different pharmaceuticals. You’d have to wait for a whole month just to see if the drug would actually help or if it made you worse. All the pharmaceuticals I attempted made me feel worse in the long run. I noticed the relieve from CBD after one use!
This 2011 research study depicts the connection between the endocannabinoid system and depression. Results show that there are abnormalities with receptors in the ECS that are linked to not only depression but other mood-related disorders as well, including schizophrenia.
Do you suffer from depression or another mood-related disorder and are seeking a healthy alternative? Check out our vetted list of reliable CBD companies as a place to start your research!