Sadness, anxiety, and stress are all feelings that we experience at points throughout our lives. However, some of us experience negative feelings more than others and these feelings sometimes impact our moods and health significantly.
Achieving and maintaining a positive mood can be difficult but there are tools out there that you can use to help improve your mood. And no, we aren’t talking about getting "high". One such tool that is becoming very popular is CBD, a compound that is harvested from the hemp plant and contains only trace amounts of THC (less than .3%).
One of the big reasons that CBD is chosen to help with mood disorders and the blues is the fact that it has very few side effects. In most people who experience side effects from CBD, the side effects are believed associated with taking too large of a dose, with the most common side effects being drowsiness and fatigue. Finding the proper dose for your body and needs is crucial to the proper relief of symptoms.
CBD is an easy, natural tool to help you get over the blues. Especially when used in combination with other methods, such as positive self-talk, exercise, and socialization. But how exactly does CBD help with your mood?
How CBD Makes Me Happy
Those of us who have used CBD know that there isn’t a high, so we don’t miraculously find ourselves happy. Instead, when most people take CBD it simply works to remove negative emotions. From there you have to help generate positive emotions. Let’s take a look at how CBD oil is being used for anxiety and depression, not to mention other mood-related conditions.
CBD Oil and Depression
CBD oil and depression have been tied together for a while now with people using CBD oil and hemp to help treat symptoms for quite a long time, even before research studies began. Overwhelming sadness and a loss of interest in past activities are two of the main symptoms with other common ones being anxiety, trouble sleeping, appetite changes, and lower energy levels. Everyone who is diagnosed with depression experiences it on a different level but CBD can be a great tool for anyone.
CBD works to combat stress by helping the body to produce more serotonin. Tests with rats have found that stress reduction is similar to that of an antidepressant. More research is needed into the exact connection between serotonin and CBD oil for depression as there are multiple theories behind the results seen in studies.
Recently another reason that CBD can be helpful for depression has started to be researched. During studies that are unrelated to depression, CBD was found to help protect neurons in the brain. Depressive conditions work negatively against the neurons in the brain, actually harming various areas of the brain. With the neurons protected by CBD, it is believed that parts of the brain can start to regenerate. This, of course, needs more study but if found to be true, it can help fight depression from the ground up.
One of the most common drugs used to treat depression is SSRIs. SSRIs can take quite a while to start working, weeks even, and for some people, they never work. You also have to find the right SSRI for each patient. While there are various forms of CBD, it is more about finding the right form of CBD for each condition, not which one is right for each person.
As opposed to many antidepressants, CBD is also not biologically addictive. You can use it and stop using it without any trouble. In fact, CBD is being tested to help treat addiction.
CBD Oil and Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are common around the world. There are more anxiety-related disorders than most people know. Some of the common ones include Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and phobias. These conditions are so common that it is believed that at least one-third of the population will experience one or more of the above conditions at some point. During an anxiety attack, the fight-or-flight response is triggered. For those with such a disorder, this can happen at times when most people wouldn’t be triggered leading to further negative emotions, such as feeling awkward.
It also doesn’t have to be present at a level to constitute a disorder for you to want to get help with it. Stressful jobs, dynamic situations in our lives, and the many other difficulties we encounter in life can cause us temporary bouts of anxiety that we need help with.
It isn’t uncommon for those who sell CBD to hear the question, “Is CBD good for anxiety?” and the answer is we don’t know for sure, but so far studies have been showing positive results.
As mentioned above, CBD has been found to help regulate serotonin which can reduce the fight or flight signals that our body sends out. Just reducing the fight or flight signals can help us to keep calm and overcome our negative feelings. Increased blood flow in certain areas of the brain when using CBD is also thought to contribute to the reduction of symptoms from SAD.
Over time we become used to feeling anxious and one of the great benefits of CBD is that even a small break in the cycle can give us the help we need to overcome anxiety. This is especially true when you pair CBD with therapy. During therapy, you can learn techniques to help change your ways of thinking when you have a lull in symptoms caused by CBD. It won’t happen overnight but if you put in the work you can make a difference in your anxiety disorder.
CBD Oil and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder has been around since the beginning of time, but we are still working to better understand the condition. Commonly referred to as PTSD, the condition is caused by exposure to a traumatic event. You don’t have to have been the victim of a traumatic event or even directly be involved, even those who have witnessed events have experienced PTSD. While we typically associate PTSD with combat and sexual assault, any traumatic event can cause it.
There are a wide variety of symptoms associated with PTSD but some of the most common are:
- Depression, Sadness, and Other Negative Emotions
- Nightmares, Night Terrors, and Insomnia
- Flashbacks and Strong Memories of the Trauma
- Intense Reactions to Sensory Input
- Anxiety
One of the newly researched benefits of CBD is its effects on the fear learning center of the brain. After research, it is believed that CBD helps to disconnect sensory input from the fear memory. This allows you to stop reacting to sensory input.
CBD for anxiety and depression is tied with serotonin. Proper control of serotonin can help to relieve some of the symptoms of PTSD.
As you can see CBD is believed to be a great tool to help with anxiety, depression, and related disorders. Whether you are experiencing severe symptoms or mild ones, you can start to get relief and CBD can even help to relieve mild blues. CBD oil for depression has become very popular as people around the world are looking for tools that don’t cause a large number of side effects.
