Cannabis/Bad Reaction

Hi there. I've was diagnosed with Lyme in January. Not sure how long I've had, I'm estimating 2 years. A lot of my symptoms are neuro. I'm currently seeing an LLMD, and am on a herbal protocol, and have been trying abx, the last one was Minocycline, but I had a strong reaction to depression with it. My husband had read that cannabis could possibly help. Now mind you, I'm 45 year, and up until this year have never smoked "pot" or anything else. But we decided to try it. We live in his deceased brothers house, and found some.

After smoking it, I experience nothing short of a nightmare. I truly felt like I was dying. I felt like I kept passing out, coming and going, extreme fear, felt like I was going to stop breathing, and then seizure like activity. My husband called the ambulance, and resulted in a 3 day hospital stay with many test. After leaving the hospital, my husband & I discussed whether it was the pot, the Lyme, or just a severe die off reaction. A month later, we decided to try it to see if the same response would happen. It did, and I'll never touch it again. It's as close to death...or what I would think, that I have ever felt.

My question with anyone that may be experienced in it. Was it the pot? Or just a severe die off reaction that gave me a huge herx? If it caused a severe die off that would be great, it's just that I'm so frightened by it, that I no longer will smoke it. I do have some oil, without the tch in it, no sure if that works just the same.

Thanks

How much did you smoke? And how old was the pot? It may have been moldy. And since you said most of your symptoms are neuro, it may have just overloaded your brain. I had bad reactions from drinking even the smallest amounts of alcohol before I started treatment.

It's the oil that you want. We're after the CBD content which doesn't get you high.

If the pot is really strong...it could cause severe reactions.

I think it has much more psychoactive properties now...than it did in the 'old days'.

I smoked cannabis on and off for many a year and I've never had that kind of experience. The worst was my pulse increased and it overlapped with a pulse increase from my bugs acting up and it was really bad felt like my heart was going to pop out of my chest.

Hard to say what happened to you but straight up pot doing that is definitely not a normal reaction.

I am super grateful you posted this. I had a similar experience last night, and it was terrifying. Like you, I was diagnosed with lyme - chronic late stage. I had symptoms that got worse over a period of at least seven years, and two negative lyme tests before the third showed reactive markers. I have many neurological symptoms as well as major inflammation issues.

I have used cannabis many times before. In college it was recreational, I ceased smoking at around the age of 23 and started again a few months ago to see if it helped with my lyme related insomnia.

To get to the point: I have experienced cannabis initiated anxiety as well as a few episodes of paranoia in the past, but what occurred this last time is exactly what you described. I felt extreme heat radiate from my head to my feet, followed by the most intense dread in the world. The only other time I felt dread like that was with a severe allergic reaction to the Zpack. It was like my body was preparing me for some kind of trauma. I also got simultaneously nauseous and severely dizzy, though I was lying in bed. My vision started going black and I tried to get up to wake up my husband. I remember screaming his name three or four times, and that I thought I was going to die.

He apparently found me on the floor in front of the door after I blacked out. Because I have night terrors and sleep paralysis issues (genetic) he assumed I had been sleeping and hadn't fully woken up from a nightmare. I regained consciousness only to hear him yelling in order to "wake up" - was trying to explain to him that I hadn't been sleeping, but was pretty hysterical. I was covered in sweat, felt like I was gasping for air, and begging him to call an ambulance.

Because he had no idea what was going on, he put me back into bed. For about twenty minutes I kept getting the sensation that I lost consciousness, which would start me gasping and screaming for him to help me again. It ended with a tingly sensation in my head. He repeatedly shook me awake and calmed me down, cooled my body temp with a fan and had me drink a bottle of gatorade. I also took ativan and eventually calmed down, but right before I went to sleep I remembered thinking this what it must feel like when you die.

Today I am pretty traumatized. I couldn't even get out of bed until 4 pm because my inflammation flare was so bad, and I haven't been able to really think straight or focus for the last eight hours. I feel all foggy. I started wondering if my body went into fight or flight mode because my inflammation got dangerously high when I smoked. My normal inflammation markers range from 4 to 17 times higher than normal on any given day. I spoke with some people in my chronic illness support group, and they also suggested the possibility of dysautonomia or POTS syndrome?

In any case my non lyme friends keep telling me I just smoked too much and I refuse to accept that. As I've already mentioned, I have had paranoia before from smoking and this was not even comparable. My husband is very supportive but even he is telling me I need to move on from what happened. He says when he found me I was not shaking and he's confident it wasn't a seizure, that I simply appeared to be sleeping on the floor. He also assures me I was in no danger of dying at any point. I just want to be able to figure out what happened and why. I never want to smoke again either now, and I cannot use melatonin or most sleep aids bc of my sleep paralysis.

I see someone mentioned CBD without the THC so maybe I will try that. I am glad I'm not alone with this but also so sorry someone else experienced it.

Hi Treasure - welcome to our community!

That is a horrible experience you went through...I hope it doesn't happen again.

I used the CBD oil - it is naturally very low THC and high CBD. But, it didn't do anything in regards to sleeping.
I am able to sleep pretty good anyway...but when I was on the CBD oil...it didn't make my sleep any better.

You can try the CBD and see if it works for you.

We suggest all new members take a look through the thread at the top of the page titled: "New to Lyme?..Start Here!" its packed full of useful information.

Are you currently treating Lyme? Do you have a LLMD?

Two things. One is pot can be very anxiety provoking if too much is consumed. Play it safe and go slow. Very slow. Two is that i haven't been able to smoke since getting sick. But i can take edibles. Something about all those combustion products hitting my lungs that makes me instantly inflammed. Never had this issue with oil, though i can get some mild herxes

Thanks for the welcome and responses everyone. I was recently diagnosed so as far as treatment I did three weeks of doxicyclene - my pcp doesn't treat for lyme after that point and by now the antibiotic did little more than help my inflammation fevers - and only while I was on it.

Found an LLMD and was prescribed some kind of four step detox, one of the herbs are called wanderer plus "tea pills" and I was supposed to take 24 a day but I couldnt even handle 8. The entire week I was on them, my sleep paralysis came back and I honestly have only had only one episode in the last 6 years until I started them. Even though I stopped my sleep paralysis has still been intermittantly occuring, not sure if its a herx reaction or some kind of melatonin property would be in the pills. In any case I need to follow up and get different herbs then continue with the detox process.

Am grateful that someone mentioned those with more of the neurological symptoms of lyme may react badly to the THC - thats definitely me. Oddly this wasnt a sativa strand however, it was helpful to me with sleep the first few times I smoked it but I usually only take one hit and am done - enough to relax but not get high. That particular night I took two hits right after each other not thinking that little of an increase was going to matter much. But it was a newly packed bowl so guess I was super wrong.