Does CBD oil help to decrease anxiety?
Although I have not been able to locate any “research” about using CBD oil for anxiety, I have plenty of anecdotal evidence that it is immensely helpful for some people. To begin, a support group member named Cathy has been using CBD oil for about a year to relieve the symptoms of her insomnia. She started taking a dropper full at bedtime and again if needed whenever she woke too early in the morning. The CBD oil greatly reduced her nighttime anxiety and had a nice side benefit of reducing joint pain. Cathy told me that she never felt groggy in the morning after taking CBD.
In addition, I talked with a person who works at marijuana dispensary in Portland. He told me that he had been using CBD oil to replace the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. He uses a tincture of 90% CBD oil and 10% THC. This amount of THC is not enough to be psychoactive but it helps to potentiate the effect of CBD. He says that at night, this tincture relaxes the muscles of his chest, allowing his body to take the deep breaths that he could not otherwise take. Thus helps him to calm down and go to sleep
Finally, my brother uses a CBD/THC Tincture to help reduce his chronic pain
How do you obtain CBD oil?
If the CBD oil is derived from the hemp part of the plant, you can get it from any state in the US except except Idaho, South Dakota and Nebraska that ban all marijuana use.
However, if the CBD oil contains some cannabis, you can only get it in a state where medical marijuana or recreational are legal, which limits your options. So most people will only have access to the hemp-based CBD oil.
Finally, the purpose of this blog is not to advocate that readers take CBD oil, but only to inform you of its potential benefits. So if you are thinking of using it to help with decreasing your anxiety or pain, you might want to let your prescriber know to make sure there are no potential adverse interactions with medications you may be taking.
This has been Douglas Bloch.
