21 Aug Does Hemp Oil Help With Anxiety?
By now you’ve probably heard a lot about Hemp oil and CBD oil and wondered, why is everybody talking about it and what can it do for me, and does hemp oil hemp with anxiety? Many doctors and scientists have touted CBD-containing hemp oil as a viable treatment for mental health issues, anxiety, and really a ton of other conditions that have become commonplace nowadays. The problem is a lot of treatments for anxiety can be overly pharmaceutical, super expensive, and incredibly habit forming, so I want to take this opportunity to explore whether hemp oil really does help with anxiety so you can decide whether it might help you.
How is Hemp Oil Different From CBD Oil?
The first thing you should understand is that hemp oil and cbd oil are essentially the same thing and describe oils that have been extracted from the leaves, flowers, and stems of the hemp plant. They can also be extracted from the marijuana plant, so be aware especially if you work in an industry which prohibits the use of marijuana, that these hemp oils may contain trace amounts of THC. These oils are most commonly purchased in dropper bottles or infused into gummy candies and other types of edible delights and are labelled in a ton of different ways.
If you are looking to purchase hemp oil (or CBD oil) you always need to check the label first and make sure there is a listed concentration of cannabidiol, or CBD. If there isn’t, you are most likely looking at hempseed oil for cooking and you are shopping in the wrong place. You should also make sure you don’t see a concentration of THC on this label – that would mean you are about to embark on a bit of an adventure and you’ll get a lot of unexpected effects that aren’t related to the hemp oil itself. If there are no concentrations listed of anything, your only option is to take the company’s word for what might be in the oil. This is a huge red flag and personally I would make sure to avoid any products like this, period.
What is anxiety really?
People have become more comfortable openly discussing their mental health problems than they ever have been before, and one of the most common ones is anxiety. It’s a reaction to all of life’s stresses, a natural mechanism that can make you respond proactively to things that you can see will cause you future stress or harm. It can also have extremely negative impacts to your life, welfare, and social relationships when you are unable to manage anxiety properly. Anxiety can cause an uncomfortable feeling in social settings or make you completely unable to tolerate crowds, sensory stimuli like television screens and music, public transportation, airplanes, and the list goes on.
In the United States it affects women more than men and has and will substantially impact nearly a third of the population at some point in their lives. You likely have felt anxious before, but true anxiety can mean your only solution is to remove yourself completely from whatever situation is causing it and more than likely get yourself home to be alone, calm yourself down, and try to convince yourself that it won’t happen again next time. The reality is that if you experience severe anxiety you will probably think about how in the world you’ll be able to treat it the next time it happens.
How does hemp oil help with anxiety and why should I try it?
Instead of relying on Valium, Xanex, or other drugs from big pharma to treat symptoms of anxiety, a lot of people are turning to hemp oil. But does hemp oil help with anxiety, or is it just a placebo that people are starting to swear by? Put simply, there have been few human trials to date largely because hemp oil is so new to the legal market but the frequency and need continues to increase. Much of the scientific data currently available about CBD comes from animal trials – not to say that it will have the same impact on you that it had on a bunch of rats, but this is the method for experimentation that most pharma companies follow when they are testing a new drug.
While the science catches up to the market, here’s what we do know (without getting too dry and scientific):
- Hemp oil containing CBD can help promote more serotonin signals in the brain. This is significant largely because a lot of current pharma treatments for anxiety and depression focus on the serotonin system in your brain specifically. Serotonin release is closely tied to your mood and may help regulate your anxiety levels.
- CBD has been shown in several human trials to help with a variety of anxiety disorders like social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and PTSD, among others. Recent researchers concluded that their study “suggests a potential usefulness of CBD in ameliorating symptoms of clinically significant anxiety”. While more testing is required to determine long-term impacts of taking hemp oil on a periodic, “as-needed” basis, the short-term results have been quite positive.
- Pharmaceuticals can be expensive and habit-forming, to the point where you might end up taking them daily even when you are not experiencing symptoms of anxiety. Hemp oil is legal in many markets and might help with your anxiety if you are unsatisfied with other treatments. You should always consult a doctor before trying something new and you should always know what something is made of before you put it in your body.
- Most users of hemp oil do not experience any side effects at all, and those that may exist are far less severe than their pharmaceutical counterparts. In the rare circumstances of side effects, CBD can cause dry mouth, diarrhea, reduced appetite, drowsiness and fatigue.
Tell me how to use hemp oil for anxiety!
This is pretty simple. Most people take hemp oil orally or by holding the oil under their tongues for about a minute, so that it absorbs under the thin layer or skin at the bottom of your mouth. It doesn’t taste great as a pure oil and you might want to mix it in with your favorite drink to kill the taste a little bit, but you can also get hemp oil-infused edible treats like gummy bears, cookies, lattes, and plenty more, as long as you know where to buy them. You can also make most of these yourself if you’ve already purchased some hemp oil with a decent CBD concentration. You can also vaporize hemp oil or apply topical creams but the preferred method is ingestion because it’s simple, makes the least mess, and is plenty efficient as a treatment method.
What is a normal hemp oil dosage for anxiety?
All I can give you here is a recommendation because at the end of the day, you know yourself and your body better than anyone else ever would. A normal hemp oil dosage for anxiety varies based on how much you weigh, your personal tolerance level which can increase the longer and more frequently you are using hemp oil, and the concentration of CBD that is found in your hemp oil specifically.
Hemp oil is available in all kinds of concentrations and it may take some trial and error combined with the advice of your doctor to decide what concentration of CBD and what dosage of hemp oil will really help you with your anxiety. Concentrations of hemp oil can range between about 100 mg per 30mL bottle to upwards of 5000 mg or more. The higher the concentration, the less of the liquid you will actually require to achieve the correct dosage. Generally speaking, people that are experiencing severe symptoms of anxiety should aim for between a 30-50 mg “dose”, which could mean 0.25 mL of hemp oil of the higher concentrations or a 15mL dose of the lowest concentrations available on the market today.
At the end of the day, you will ultimately decide what works best for you, but my suggestion is to start with much lower dosages (in the 10 mg range) and work your way up depending on the symptoms and effects. Keep in mind that it could take a while to actually notice the effects of your hemp oil especially if you are consuming it, so exercise some patience (give it about 15-30 minutes if you’ve eaten it) and then take a bit more if your symptoms haven’t subsided.
Final thoughts and some encouraging words
If you’re currently suffering from an anxiety disorder, just remember that you are not alone. There are plenty of other people having similar experiences and similar issues. Talk to them – find out how they are coping – and share your advice with them as well. Does hemp oil help with anxiety? Even though scientific interest is increasing every day, some people are already swearing by it. If hemp oil interests you, you should absolutely speak with your doctor to find out whether it’s a viable treatment for your anxiety especially if you’ve tried a bunch of things and none of them are working. Hemp oil definitely has a ton of potential as a treatment and might just be the answer to your anxiety issues.
[3] https://link.springer.com/
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