The Anxiety Epidemic, Antidepressants, and CBD Part III

 

Cannabis: the Essential Relief of Being Connected

(This is the final of a three-part series: The Anxiety Epidemic. Read Part I and Part II.)

“We are not humans having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” ~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Modern society is so far down the rabbit-hole that we can easily forget who we are. Anxiety sets in when we want to measure up to standards of “the good life,” as determined in large part by commercial interests. Advertising can override our natural intelligence and instead lead us to buy-in to what we think we must have or do to be happy.

Do we have the right clothes, beliefs, education, car, home, attitude, partner, cell phone, apps, job, political affiliation, hairstyle, social media friends, etc.? The list of must-haves and the anxiety over achieving them seems only to grow. It’s a zero-sum game.

A Sign of the Times

These days the image we project endears more social currency than our likely less-illustrious reality. Behind the facade of unaffected coolness anti-anxiety pharmaceuticals serve to mask the epidemic truth of emotional and mental anguish. Such performance charades may be politically correct and financially expedient but come at a high cost to the intangibles of human integrity, wellbeing and relationships.

Given that material splendor is held up as the ultimate, to-be envied cultural benchmark, the spike in anxiety is no big surprise. In my view, North America has surpassed the tipping point. Not unlike the Roman Empire, where greed and covetousness poisoned everything, we now traverse the downside.

What goes up must come down.

The good news? Whenever material success is understood for what it is – an empty shell in the grander scheme of things – something interesting happens. The focus can shift from prioritizing external image to tending to one’s inner substance and integrity.

One by one, we each become a building block towards the creation of a more honest culture: the Golden Rule replaces Zero Sum as the measure of success. But, make no mistake: this won’t happen from the top-down; rather only when enough of us, not motivated by power or money, figure it out and find a way to reclaim sanity in our communities.

This is where cannabis enters the equation.

No way am I referring to the recreational use of cannabis though neither do I judge it. CBD, and other cannabinoids administered in micro-doses, can have a profound and long-term effect in both reducing and healing anxiety with little to no side effects.

It’s a scientifically proven fact. Cannabinoids, (particularly CBD), can improve anxiety by increasing serotonin in the brain and also via neurogenesis, the production of new brain cells in the hippocampus. [1] [2] [3] Precise dosing for anxiety is on a case-by-case basis.

Perhaps equally, if not more, important is the profound psycho-spiritual impact cannabis can affect when used for this purpose.

Here’s why: The filters through which we view and live our daily life can fall away and open us to see from a different (10,000 foot view) perspective. Intuitive intelligence kicks in beyond our familiar ego structure to help us see and know things about our life that we may not have considered; things that may help us to understand ourselves or a situation more deeply.

All this as therapeutic cannabis opens a window to our true nature.

Anti-anxiety pharmaceuticals are only useful for short-term immediate relief, in my view. Actually solving the personal issue of anxiety is something else altogether; in many cases it is not as much a medical problem as it is the territory of self-reflection and having the courage to take it on.

Therapeutic cannabis use is nature’s prescription for healing anxiety from the inside-out. As we turn our backs on and loosen the zombie-like grip of commerce over expectations they have manufactured for us, we can absolutely recover the health of our soul and commit to a life worth living.

It’s time to learn a new face to the whole world wide human race
Stop the money chase – lay back, relax and get back on the human track
Stop racing toward oblivion – oh, such a sad, sad state we’re in
And that’s the thing – do you recognize the bells of truth when you hear them ring?
~Leon Russell, Stranger in a Strange Land

4 Responses to “The Anxiety Epidemic, Antidepressants, and CBD Part III”

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  1. Paul Llewellyn Gray says:

    Spot on my friend
    Realizing and then committing to conect and letting go of mainstream and then weaving through the past programming to a new existence
    Let me know when and where i can find a place with like minded humans and ill be there
    Thankyou so much for your wisdom
    Kind regards Paul 🙂👍

    • Susan Boskey says:

      Hi Paul,

      I think the idea is for each of us (who hear the call) to build their own sphere of influence of like-minded humans. It happens for each of us from the inside-out which hopefully attracts another and others into relationship somehow who are also waking up. It would be cool, in a way, for a ready-made group of such folks to show up all at once, as in from another planet :-). But on the other hand, I would wonder if they were ‘for real’ or just a different version of what’s already not working. Your thoughts?

      Susan

  2. Whew! You hit a bullseye on this one. Well DONE!

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