Being certain that someone is trying to harm you is one of the most terrible emotions. Paranoia is undoubtedly one of the least desirable of the chain reaction of effects that cannabis can unleash. It turns out that THC, the primary psychoactive component of cannabis, can be the cause of certain users’ paranoid thoughts when they smoke cannabis.
Although not all cannabis users will suffer paranoia, it can be a typical negative side effect. Furthermore, some people are more prone to developing paranoid than others. Knowing the causes of paranoid thoughts and how to prevent or control them while using cannabis can empower you rather than make you feel afraid.
How can cannabis cause paranoia?
The long-held belief that THC can cause psychosis was validated by a seminal study on cannabis and paranoia published in 2014. 121 people participated in the trial and were administered intravenous THC (the equivalent of a potent joint) or a placebo.
The findings clearly demonstrated that THC can cause paranoia in people who are predisposed to think in paranoid ways: Paranoia was experienced by 50% of volunteers who received THC, compared to 30% of volunteers who got a placebo. Other fascinating details about how THC affects paranoid thinking were also revealed by the study.
Abnormal brain processing
THC appears to interfere with the way the brain interprets chance events, a condition known as aberrant salience. Simply put, after consuming cannabis, people are more likely to overvalue chance occurrences and misinterpret them.
Other studies have demonstrated that when a person is exposed to unpleasant emotions like fear and wrath, the likelihood of attributing significance, or salience, is further raised.
To put it another way, someone who has just smoked weed is more likely than someone who hasn’t to panic out over an angry facial expression and misinterpret its meaning. However, altered salience processing appears to be a passing phenomenon that only happens when a person is intoxicated.
There is currently no proof that regular cannabis usage can harm salience processing permanently.
Overstimulating the brain
THC also has other ways to cause paranoid thoughts. Endocannabinoid receptors, including those in the amygdala, can be activated by cannabinoids in all parts of the brain. Anxiety, worry, and paranoia are just a few examples of the fear-related reactions that the amygdala controls.
The amygdala can get overstimulated by high THC doses, which can trigger a flood of fear or anxiety-based reactions. It can cause paranoia when negative emotions are overactive.
CBD strains may assist with effects of paranoia
More proof suggests that THC can amplify fear reactions and paranoid thinking. In one study, participants were given 10 mg of THC before seeing terrified expressions. The amygdala was more activated in these people than it was in the CBD group. In fact, there was a decline in amygdala activity in the study’s CBD cohort.
It’s amazing and paradoxical that two different substances found in the same plant can both worsen and lessen paranoia.
Another recent study comparing the effects of cannabis cultivars high in CBD and THC found that the CBD-dominant cultivars immediately reduced anxiety and tension. The paranoia experienced by consumers of the THC-dominant strains, on the other hand, increased soon after ingestion and only subsided after an hour.
Knowing THC causes paranoia doesn’t necessary help
Researchers informed participants that THC could cause paranoid thoughts in the largest study on cannabis use and paranoia to date. By informing participants that THC might cause such an impact, the researchers reasoned that they would be less likely to interpret chance events incorrectly, which is a prelude to paranoid thinking.
This information, however, seemed to have the reverse effect, escalating paranoia in individuals who had been informed. In other words, it seems to be a self-fulfilling prophesy to foster the assumption that cannabis usage can be followed by paranoia.
There is more proof that suggests people are more likely to notice a relationship when they are encouraged to believe cannabis causes paranoia. Studies on the relationship between paranoia and cannabis have revealed that persons are noticeably more likely to express paranoia when prompted to define it in a fixed way.
Biological propensities
Recent research suggests that genetics may affect the likelihood that cannabis may make a person paranoid. Researchers discovered that persons with a hereditary propensity towards mental diseases were more likely to suffer paranoia after cannabis use in a large study involving 109,308 participants.
Though many people experience minor paranoia at some point in their lives, it’s crucial to keep in mind that feeling paranoia doesn’t always indicate a psychotic condition.
