The purpose of marijuana is to calm you down, help you relax and keep anxiety and stress at bay. So why does it have the opposite effect in certain people? Experts have been looking into what causes marijuana-induced panic attacks, who’s most susceptible and what is actually happening in the brain. The results may surprise you.
What is an Anxious Reaction to Marijuana?
For starters, it’s important to note that a panic attack is a formal diagnosis and it’s not clear that a panic reaction to cannabis necessarily meets this diagnosis, says Ryan Gregory Vandrey, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University whose research is primarily focused on the behavioral pharmacology of cannabis. “Still, cannabis absolutely can cause anxious and panicked reactions,” he says.
