Question:
Hello, my name is Cathy and I have a 20 year old son who has
been struggling with marijuana addiction. He is in college
and has many negative encounters associated with this drug,
although he fails to see the necessity of quitting. He has
tried in the past to no avail, and he is presently seeing
the school counselor, but has missed several appoints due to
various reasons. He says he is on a plan to slowly cut down
and then quit, but I am very apprehensive about this,
probably because we have been struggling with this for
nearing 8 years. I have tried my best, but do realize it is
up to him. He says that his mind races and that this calms
him down, that he gets anxious when he doesn't smoke pot and
that he is in fact self medicating. What steps can we take
to help him? Please respond. I don't know what more to do!
Dr. Heller's Answer:
You identified the problem - he’s self medicating his
anxiety disorder(s). Marijuana "helps" many anxious people
feel better, at a price.
He needs to get his anxiety problems diagnosed and treated.
The screening test I use for my patients may be helpful, it
can be found at
http://www.BiologicalUnhappiness.com/screen.htm
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