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One of the most pressing concerns a lot of people have about cannabis has to do with how it affects them personally. It’s not scientifically accurate to say “this blood type will experience this” or “a person of that particular body mass can expect to feel that”. Consuming cannabis can be like rolling the dice sometimes, because you can’t be quite sure what you’ll get – but we have a general idea what six likely outcomes there will be.
On the broad spectrum of effects you can expect from cannabis, the majority of them are positive. Feeling relaxed, falling into a deep sleep, having your appetite stimulated, or easing pain & inflammation are just a handful of the most common results from ingesting or absorbing cannabinoids. On the flip side there are annoying effects like dry mouth, hallucinations or frantic paranoia that can creep up on you, even if you’re an experienced stoner.
On top of the positive-negative dualities of how cannabis makes us feel, who we consume cannabis with, why we consume it, what we’re consuming (both dose and genetics) and where we’re consuming it play major roles in our experiences with this unique plant variety. The majority of stoners like to smoke up socially or share edibles with friends & family, whereas solo dosing is equally prevalent but for more serious medical reasons – in most cases.
The real takeaway from this introduction to how weed affects you socially is this: weed can affect your personality in obvious ways, and more subtle ways, but it’s vital to maintaining a healthy relationship to cannabis that you understand which is which.
How does weed affect you socially? Does weed make you lazy? Can weed change my personality for the better? Let’s get in touch with our ‘higher selves’ as we delve into the mysterious domains of marijuana and mood swings.
Keep in mind that the contents of this article aren’t meant to constitute professional, medical advice. If you think you have a serious personality disorder that is adversely affected by cannabis, then seek out health practitioners as soon as possible – even something as common as weed can be abused to the detriment of your health or the wellbeing of others.
How Does Weed Affect You Socially?
Before we get personal and talk about how weed can change your personality, let’s focus on the social settings we often find ourselves in whenever we’re consuming cannabis. For most stoners, smoking or eating marijuana is meant to enhance their enjoyment, quell nerves or boost the fun factor of their next shindig. Partying under the influence of cannabis has its advantages and disadvantages, but if you know your tolerances and manage your doses you can have your space cake and eat it too.
Being under the influence of cannabis is a lot like becoming one of the plants themselves – sure, you can grow solo, but plants are just happier when they’re part of a crop. The yields from growing multiple plants far outweighs that of individual ones – literally and figuratively. So, it makes sense that the majority of stoners will try to maximize their high-factor by sharing their THC with others. Not only can you enhance one another’s experiences, you can also avoid a lot of problems associated with getting too high too quickly when you’ve got a troupe of tokers with you along for the ride.
Cannabis doesn’t have to be taken just in social settings, however. A growing number of Canadians – especially those further along in their years – are consuming more cannabis, more frequently, for an increasing number of health reasons. The great thing about weed is that there are so many different kinds to suit whatever you want as well as whatever you need. While cannabis fits perfectly as a social enhancer for all summer BBQ’s, boating or beach days, concerts and more it can also turn a rainy day at home into a blissful, relaxing night that helps you recharge for a busy week ahead.
Have you ever considered how weed affects you socially? It’s important to have an appreciation as well as understanding of your relationship to cannabis. Some people might worry that weed does make them lazy, while others track closely the interconnectedness between marijuana and mood swings. There’s no chart or map for predicting these effects too, because cannabis can vary from person-to-person, crop-to-crop, strain-to-strain and even moment-to-moment.
To get a handle on how cannabis affects you socially, whether you perceive it to be a hindrance or a benefit, ask yourself these kinds of questions:
WHAT kinds of cannabis products do you prefer? What kinds of doses do you take? What reasons do you have for enjoying cannabis vs requiring it?
HOW do you typically take your weed? How much is too much vs too little for you? How does it make you feel?
WHEN is your ideal time for imbibing in the dro? When do you need cannabis the most? When has marijuana led you astray vs helped you find what you were seeking?
WHO do you typically share cannabis experiences with? Who produces your favorite strains or products? Who do you get your information about weed from? **The answer to this question better be Haute Health!**
WHY do you like cannabis? Why did you start vs stop taking it? Why do you think you enjoy how weed makes you feel?
Can Weed Change Your Personality?
The simplest answer to the question of “can weed change your personality?” is simply this: no. Nothing that you consume can actually enforce long-lasting personality changes that take hold of your very being. This might sound fishy, but we’ll explain…
Despite what most people think, it’s not the actual substances or nourishment that we put in our bodies that makes us feel addicted to them. An alcoholic would tell you otherwise, but they don’t physically need to drink in order to survive – quite the contrary actually. External substances that some people find addicting like caffeine, nicotine, alcohol or even cannabinoids like THC or CBD don’t actually “hook you” onto them in order to force you to buy & consume more.
These substances don’t give a swig, a hoot or a puff what you do with them because they don’t think. It’s how people use them, why the use them, how often the use them and what they’re using that can develop into what we commonly refer to as habits.
Habits are formed not because we fall prey to the evils of alcohol or other addictive substances – we’re addicted to the feelings they give us, or how they can affect certain changes in our behaviors. Coffee doesn’t actually imbue you with additional energy, nor does a martini actually make you more confident. What these substances are doing has more to do with what THC or CBD can achieve when taken for pain or anxiety – blocking the bad so that we feel more of the good.
There are social benefits to feeling more confident after a few drinks, but the risks to your mental and physical health because of what alcohol does to your body over time makes these a bad trade off. The same goes for caffeine, nicotine and of course those nasty, addictive pharmaceuticals that so many people are enslaved to. The same cannot be said, however, for cannabis despite what many pundits will have you believe.
Are there people with unhealthy relationships to cannabis? Absolutely. If you’ve ever watched the show hoarders, you know that people can become addicted to literally anything – we’ll avoid mentioning too many examples from this bizarre show for the sake of keeping your lunch in your stomach. The point we’re making here is this: cannabis itself is not inherently addictive or habit forming, unlike some pharmaceutical substances like opioids or over-the-counter painkillers.
As a natural product of the environment, even when grown in tents or massive cultivation facilities, cannabis is always an organic input into your system. In our opinions – and hopefully you agree because you’re shopping online for marijuana while reading this – cannabis has the potential to be far superior to any human made medicines or substances because of three important factors:
It’s Natural
Cannabis has developed on this planet for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years, therefore nature’s billions of years of “R&D” have played a major part in generating so much biodiversity in this unique, family species of plants.
It’s Diverse
Speaking of biodiversity, cannabis comes in thousands upon thousands of varieties, found on every continent on the globe excluding Antarctica (we’ll say “so far”, because you never know if those penguins have been harvesting underground ice-buds until proven otherwise!). This means that there are so many kinds of cannabis with unique cannabinoid & terpene profiles to service a staggering number of needs/wants.
It’s Intelligent
Whether we’re talking about the myriad ways in which cannabis can be cultivated or formulated to fit a wide range of health needs, or the fact that cannabinoids & terpenes interact with our endocannabinoid systems so perfectly, it’s well known that cannabis just “knows what to do” for your wellbeing whenever you take it.
You might think that weed changed my personality, or that weed does make you lazy, but it’s how you choose to take it, when you take it, how much you take and who you take it with that have more of a bearing on your management of these phytocompounds. Now that we have a better understanding of the ways in which cannabis can affect you socially or how weed can change your personality in positive ways if you take it for positive reasons, let’s look ahead to some tips & tricks for anticipating marijuana mood swings.
Anticipating Marijuana & Mood Swings
As we wrap up this article on how weed can affect your personality – if you’re not careful, that is, because it won’t turn you into a zombie or an activist without your knowledge – let’s consider how much power our moods can have on what we experience on any given day. Moods are often overlooked, but they hold so much significance on our physical traits, how we behave, what we connect to, who we connect with, and why we’re having a good vs a bad day.
Something that is so prevalent in today’s bustling society is this focus on being in a “bad mood”. An alarming number of us will sometimes wake up and say aloud “I’m in a bad mood” before we’ve even really had a chance to figure out how we’re feeling or why we’re feeling that way. This rushed disassembling of what we’re feeling can lead to even worse moods if you don’t process your emotions effectively. Being in a bad mood can happen to even the most enlightened beings among us, but it starts and ends with you – and we’ll tell you how to do that.
We’d like to leave you with something that will surely help you in your life moving forward. This nugget of truth came to yours truly one day while meditating – under the influences of a particularly pleasant edible:
A mood is something that cannot ‘have you’, nor can you have a bad mood… Moods are a choice, whether conscious or subconscious, but they’re always within our ability to control.
You might think this sounds hokey, and you have every right to feel that way – especially if you’re in a bad mood! Nevertheless, nobody can make you feel better better than you can. We’ll say that again: only you can right your own ship because only you’re at the helm. One more time: only you can turn your day around, because it’s your day after all. When you invest your energy in processing how you’re feeling, focus on being positive and put your efforts into balancing the scales in your favor you’ll always be in harmony within and without.
These same principles apply to how to manage marijuana mood swings. If you struggle to stay focus on cannabis, then lower your dose and fixate your mind’s eye on what you need instead of what you want to happen. If you find yourself falling victim to your own anxieties whenever you get high, then up your CBD intake every dose whilst doing something you truly enjoy doing. If you can’t get out of bed after a night filled with weed, maybe a light wake-and-bake of something high in CBG will be all you need to sharpen your senses the next day.
These are just a sprinkling of examples of ways you can control how weed affects your personality. Cannabis is just a natural tool that we are so fortunate to have access to, so learn how to use this tool instead of letting it lecture you through negative experiences.
