4 mental health tips for weed lovers

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and a powerful time to reflect on your mental and emotional well-being. For people who love weed, there are a variety of ways we can honor and check on our sanity this month, and each month into the future.

With so much going on in the world around us, it’s important that we take extra time to process our feelings, try new ways to make ourselves feel better, or identify the root cause of patterns we just don’t match can escape. This could include evaluating our relationship with cannabis (yikes!) or even having in-depth conversations with loved ones.

But here’s a little spoiler. Sometimes the only answer you will find is that you are a human with complex hormones, chemicals and emotions. Everyone approaches life in different ways, and your job is to find the paths that are healthy and manageable for your unique life.

Here are four ways people living the cannabis lifestyle can check their sanity right now:

1. Trade social media time for self-exploration

Social media can spiral our brains and emotions as we update a timeline. Not to mention that social media isn’t always the most cannabis-friendly place. Rate how much time you spend on social media and how it makes you feel. And don’t be afraid to take a break.

There are many hypotheses about what all our time on the internet is doing to our brains and we need to remember that we are not living in the Matrix yet.

Reducing your time on social media is a great way to make time to pay attention to your own thoughts and feelings—an activity that’s a lot easier when you’re not constantly confronted with opinions and headlines.

Set limits on your phone that remind you to take a break after ten minutes of scrolling, or go cold turkey and delete apps entirely. And no more cheating by logging in on your desktop!

Use the extra time to think, light up a joint and meditate, or read a few pages of a new book.

Related

Weed rituals: a cross-cultural connection to calm

2. Find sunlight

Well this is something I really hope everyone can do.

Find a ray of sunshine and stay in it for at least twenty minutes. You can journal on a park bench, stare aimlessly out of a window, walk around the block and have a smoke, or just lie on the carpet and take a nap. What matters is that you step into the light of this huge, gaseous, fiery star!

As many of us know, sunlight helps our bodies make vitamin D, and a lack of vitamin D can lead to depression. It may seem simple, but our exposure to the sun can have a major impact on our mood and, over time, our mental health.

Studies show that people with more melanin have a harder time making an adequate amount of vitamin D, which means we may need to talk to our doctors about other ways (besides the sun) of getting vitamin D into our systems — how about a daily supplement.

No matter how much melanin you have, don’t forget sunscreen.

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Does cannabis help or worsen depression?

3. Live in your truth

Life is crazy every day. It comes with ups and downs and everything in between. Take the time to recognize what you went through and how it shaped you into the person you are today.

Make decisions based on what’s best for you and don’t let anyone shame you for being different. Struggling against who you really are will affect your mental health – you deserve to live in your truth.

If you need and can take a mental health day off work, take it. If you need to set firmer limits to reach your goals, do it. If you need to tell your family that you enjoy smoking weed to relieve stress, today is the day.

Give yourself permission to prioritize your well-being and don’t feel guilty about feeling self-preserving (even if it feels a little foreign to you).

4. Research therapy and don’t be afraid to delve into medication

The cannabis community is full of many different types of people. There are people who are bursting with passion, determination, energy, and the resources they need to be okay. And it’s also full of people who have experienced trauma and deserve the attention of a mental health professional to talk about it.

Sweet stoner family, please note: sometimes weed isn’t enough to take us to the other side of life’s biggest challenges. The plant cannot go back in time and rewire our brains or erase our trauma.

Weed is an incredible tool and a trusty companion when pharmaceutical drugs are unavailable – and sometimes – even in addition to drugs. but sometimes too, prescription drugs are necessary and there is no shame in that. Several things can exist at the same time.

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You may find a new kind of peace in smoking strains for your unique problems by speaking with a mental health professional. and always on a little medication. It’s a privilege to have the money and time to invest in yourself in this way and if you can, don’t be ashamed to seek help.

Resources like Talkspace, BetterHelp, or Hers can help you understand what types of mental health support are available to you. Betterhelp even offers financial support options for people who need help at the price of their mental health care.

Remember: you don’t have to do everything on your own.

Cannabis use can be an important part of our self-care, but as humans we sometimes need more than one thing to really improve our mental health. These tips are just a starting point. The rest of your mental health journey awaits when you are ready to begin.

Janessa Bailey

Born and raised in the Midwest, Janessa serves as the current culture editor of Leafly. She has a background in content, activism and African American Studies.

Janessa is the creator of Lumen and Seeds of Change.

Check out Janessa Bailey’s articles

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