Talk to yourself when you’re high? Does cannabis cause more internal conversations in the head?

Cannabis helps me check and stop the negative self-talk in my head. When I’m high, it’s like I can see clearly that I am wonderful. from entwives

We all talk to ourselves. Some call it the “voice in our heads” and it reveals our thoughts, beliefs, questions and ideas. Depending on your personality, you can either be predominantly a “positive self-talker” or a “negative self-talker”.

The inner voice is something that can radically affect your quality of life and your health. Here is an excerpt from the Mayo Clinic:

Positive thinking doesn’t mean burying your head in the sand and ignoring the less pleasant situations in life. Positive thinking just means that you will deal with inconvenience more positively and productively. You think the best will happen, not the worst.

Positive thinking often starts with talking to yourself. Talk to yourself is the endless stream of unspoken thoughts that cross your mind. These automatic thoughts can be positive or negative. Some of your self-talk comes from logic and reason. Other self-talk may result from misunderstandings you create because of a lack of information. – Mayo Clinic

The health benefits of positive self-talk include:

• Increased service life

• Lower rates of depression

• Lower stress levels

• Greater immune function

• Better mental and physical well-being

• Better cardiovascular health and lower risk of cardiovascular disease

• Better coping skills during difficult and stressful times

Of course, these benefits seem to be a trend, but it does not go without saying that you will receive these benefits from positive self-talk. It just goes to show that the majority of people who engage in this type of thinking seem to have these benefits.

Negative self-talk, on the other hand, can lead to depression, increased stress that increases cortisol, which negatively affects immune function, and a host of other potential negative side effects.

This brings us – after a long introduction – to the premise of this article – How does cannabis affect your self-talk?

I saw this question on the subreddit / EntWives where the title of a post was; “Cannabis helps me check and stop the negative self-talk in my head. When I’m high I can clearly see that I’m wonderful. “

This made me think about my own self-talk, and after some thought, I agree that “smoking cannabis can help with negative self-talk”. However, it is not always the case.

Before we get into some of the possible reasons cannabis can help improve self-talk, let’s take a closer look at some of the other comments from the subreddit.

SheThemBian said;

It clears my mind when I go nuts. It doesn’t make the problems go away, but it helps me calm down and move forward. I wish more people would understand.

This is an important point – cannabis isn’t going to fix your problems unless your problem isn’t weed. While it’s true that cannabis won’t take problems apart, it does lower your cortisol levels, which allows you to see the problem from a different angle. Often it only takes a moment of “altered perception” to see a solution that was previously blind to.

GoingSom3Wo said;

Smoking weed almost always reminds me not to take life too seriously. So many times I’ve got upset about something just to smoke and say, “Oh yeah, it’s really no big deal”.

A feeling that was repeated by the mystics of the old days – “Don’t take life too seriously!” This world with all its problems is a massive multiplayer experience, and when you fixate on certain problems you begin to go against the tectonic Struggling nature of the universe – things are always in motion.

Rigidity of mind is often the cause of many of our sufferings. Cannabis gives you the opportunity to see that “this is not that big a deal,” which allows you to withdraw your emotional charge, which often clears up problems.

said Narwalhour;

Sometimes I start to just be “you stupid POS” with me, but then I have a scream and I say “nah, I’m pretty good”

This is a direct break from negative self-talk. Perhaps the euphoria associated with the cannabis high allows people to break the negative feedback loop. You can’t “feel shitty” if dizziness is the side effect of smoking weed.

Of course, this is not always the case. Some people have fallen into paranoid delusional thinking due to too much THC coupled with deeply ingrained neural networks associated with negative self-image.

However, if you smoke enough weed to relax your mind and body, most of the time you break the negative feedback loop and have an opportunity to think more positively. “Maybe it’s not that bad …” is one such thought that cannabis could inspire.

said Fluffynug;

Yes indeed! For me it clears my “tunnel vision” of impending doom and helps to stop my black and white thinking so that I can see the full spectrum of possibilities

This agrees with the vast majority of the rest of the answers – it “pulls people out of a unique way of thinking,” which means that it enables non-linear thinking. From a neuroscientific point of view, your mind becomes more “plastic”, ie it becomes more agile and more adaptable to new norms.

This often leads to the discovery of that “aha” moment or a revelation on a certain topic.

If it works with PTSD …

While science isn’t sure how cannabis helps with PTSD, this study offers some insight;

Given that eCB processes are influenced by stressors and can affect anxiety and anxiety, 21 it has been hypothesized that eCB function is linked to the development of PTSD, possibly through a reduction in corticotropin-releasing hormone-mediated Anandamide in multiple brain regions.17 In parallel, it has been suggested that pharmacological manipulations of endogenous cannabinoids could be used in the treatment of PTSD.22 – SOURCE

If what you suspect is correct, a reduction in anandamide in several areas of the brain could be responsible for the development of the negative feedback loop of PTSD. Cannabis can replenish these endocannabinoids through phytocannabinoids – which interact with the endocannabinoid receptors.

The reactivation of these diminished areas of the brain could be the reason cannabis “breaks” the feedback loop and allows the sufferer to change the framework of the trauma. Shifting internal dialogue towards a more positive voice.

Perhaps, with the same understanding, we can find the reason why our inner voices tend to shift under the influence of cannabis. Often, negative self-talk comes from minor traumatic experiences in which we perceive our inadequacies and our “self” feeling diminished.

Maybe cannabis just reminds you that life happens and you’re doing your best what you can … so give yourself a break, right?

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