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sk-getsfit-blog · 5 years

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About Me

Hi everyone and welcome to my weight loss blog! A little background on me and my journey.

My weight issues started when I started middle school. Growing up, my parents both had a negative relationship with food, and this rubbed off on me. My hormones went crazy in puberty (more on this later), and weight started piling on.

A few weeks before my 16th birthday, I was diagnosed with PCOS, a chronic illness that, among other things, comes with insulin resistance, similar to type 2 diabetes. I was put on medication for my insulin resistance and told to lose weight. Super helpful advise for someone with a disease where weight gain is one of the main symptoms. I weighed in at 253 pounds and started weight watchers, with a little success.

FLASH FORWARD to college a year later, fall 2008. I’d lost a little weight in high school, but was still struggling since I could not cook my own meals and was around my mom and brother, who both had a destructive relationship with food. In college, I started focusing my meals around fruits and veggies. I walked a TON on campus. Michigan State University has the largest campus in the country, and I started walking for several hours a day. Weight started to come off without a ton of effort, and I started to feel much better. My second semester, I didn’t have many classes outside of my dorm, and my weight loss stalled.

That summer, I went home. No job, no car, no INTERNET (we didn’t get high speed internet in my home town until 2012). I was miserable. I started running and fell in love. Things clicked and I continued to lose weight.

Year two of college, I kept running and started doing Jillian Michaels workouts with my roommate, and continued to lose weight. I also started counting my calories and focused on what I was eating even more.

Year three, I moved into an apartment with some girls who ended up being horrible. I became more obsessed with working out and dieting, and things quickly went from healthy to sick as weight loss became a competition between “friends.” By the end of year three, I looked sickly thin and ran so much I injured myself. An injury that still bothers me because I never took the time off I needed.

Year four started with more of the same, hours of exercise biking 4 miles to and from campus, walking hours a day, working a very active job, and working out daily. I took pride in eating as little as possible.

Then, it all stopped. The weight started piling back on, and any motivation and control I had was gone. By the time I graduated after year 5, I had gone from my lowest weight of 168 back up to 225.

In the years following college, I was depressed, lonely, and hated my job. I yoyo dieted and injured my achilles tendons from running too much (my ankle injury didn’t teach me anything, I guess). The good thing about this time was that I started weight lifting on and off. Starting over again at 290.8, I’m around the same size as when I originally started (I’m also using a different scale from when I first started, so there is likely a difference there as well. I don’t think for one second that I put on nearly 40 pounds of muscle). While I don’t love how I look now, I know it was important to go through what I did. I had an eating disorder and was over exercising. I needed the break, as much as I wish I didn’t, to repair my mindset.

My PCOS symptoms got much worse as I gained weight back. Mainly, my insulin resistance. This drives pretty much every other symptom of PCOS, which can include hair loss, hirsutism, depression, anxiety, brain fog, chronic exhaustion, pelvic pain, acne, weight gain, trouble losing weight and SO ON.

In January of 2016, my mother passed away unexpectedly because of complications with her weight. It was a wake up call, but it would take a while for me to get back on track. I went on a Disney vacation by myself for her birthday. Disney World was her favorite place, but she didn’t want to go back until she lost weight. The trip was a reminder to not let my weight hold me back, and that I needed to pursue a better life, not live in the downward spiral I had been wallowing in because I didn’t have the life I envisioned after school. I came home inspired. It would take time, but this vacation kicked off a massive life change.

In December of 2018, I took another solo trip to Disney World. When I came home, I knew I wanted to pull the trigger on something I’d dreamed about since that trip in 2016. I decided I was going to move to Florida.

I suffer from severe seasonal depression. I love Michigan with all of my heart, but knew I needed a change. So I applied for a handful of jobs during a blizzard, interviewed for two, got a job offer for one and was able to negotiate my start date so I didn’t have to break my lease. As of April 4th, 2019, I was officially moving to Florida.

So now I’ve been here since August 1st. After a whirlwind of moving, starting a new job, and learning an entirely new state, I knew I could start to focus on my next goal: 12 1/2 years after getting diagnosed, 8 years after hitting my lowest weight, it was time to finally tackle my health.

Which brings me to now. After a few false starts, I’m back to making progress. My diet is mostly vegetarian, with a little meat here and there when it sounds particularly good. I eat a little higher fat, lower carb, and moderate protein. I avoid wheat, added sugar and most grains as they cause my blood sugar to spike and drop, leaving me nauseous, shaky, and in danger of passing out if I don’t eat sugar right away...starting the cycle all over again.

My goal is to lose 100 pounds in a year. I’m incorporating working out back into my life, and attempting to find something I love as much as running.’

So that’s the super long story of me! I’ll add updates to this tag every so often. I reached my goal of losing 8 pounds in October, and want to do the same thing in November.

#aboutme

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vervents · 4 years

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sundry complaints/depression a-z

anger: everything is at least a minor irritation, when I'm upset I yell and it reminds me of my dad which makes me feel sick because i don't want to have inherited his temper

bedroom: looks like a hoarder's apartment because of the papers and trash and clothes piled everywhere. I don't have the energy to pick them up.

crying: I cry at everything. If I'm stressed I cry. If I feel trapped I cry. If I'm procrastinating I cry. I can't process emotions in a healthy way so I lash out, feel bad and then cry.

dullness: Everything feels muted, i feel like I can't react to things that used to make me happy anymore, no matter how hard I try (the one exception is being sad, it's like my emotional capacity is still the same but the half that used to deal with good things has been reassigned because there's so much bad)

executive dysfunction: see bedroom, above. A paper for research methods that's the most important assignment of the entire course is now almost three weeks late because I haven't been able to start it. I didn't attend any of my classes for three weeks straight, and before that I was so anxious about other people looking at me that I had to keep my webcam off

food: initially I wasn't eating because of the nausea, then it was because I didn't have the energy to cook, then it was because I felt like I didn't deserve it, then i was eating an excessive amount, then it was a way to punish myself, then it just didn't seem like a priority

games: stardew and animal crossing are the only things I can put effort into anymore, maybe because of the escapism?

hypersomnia: I don't remember the last time i felt good or rested waking up. I drink ~750 mg of caffeine a day and it does nothing to wake me up

inattention: I zone out when people are talking, I forget to complete tasks even if I'm in the middle of them, I can't stay focused on schoolwork for more than ten minutes, and I lose track of both my time and my belongings

jealousy: Anyone who I perceive to have anything I don't: more money, better looks, more intelligence, even just the motivation to get anything done: I can't help but compare myself to them even when I don't want to, which only makes me feel worse.

kindness is still one of my biggest values, but I have trouble practicing it fully toward anyone, especially myself. When people like my mom or Luis or my professors act in a kind way, I feel bad for not showing how much I appreciate it, even though those small acts are super meaningful to me

lying: telling other people I'm doing great, thanks! telling my mom I'm definitely not having suicidal thoughts. telling Luis that I'm outside eating an apple instead of curled up in a ball on my floor shaking.

muscle/joint pain: Everything hurts.

negative self-image, I don't remember what confidence feels like- to look in the mirror and feel any joy or pride or gratitude. I'm so tired of being so critical but it's a habit I can't bring myself to break.

oblivion: time doesn't feel real. I don't notice important things and spend most of my time in a daze waiting to go to bed.

panic attacks: sometimes I feel like I'm drowning and I can't breathe and there's pain in my chest and tears streaming down my face and I can't do anything until it stops.

quiet: the worst part of this is that it's inside my head- no one knows exactly what I'm feeling, and even if I knew how to tell them/ask for help it would be too much to explain to one person

responding to messages: when my friends text me (or message in group chats) I feel like an outsider or don't immediately know what to say, so days go by without me responding- This usually doesn't mean I forgot to respond, I just don't have the energy and then agonize and beat myself up over it for days until it gets resolved or I force myself to communicate the bare minimum

suicidality/self-harm: I never seriously understood these urges until now. Holding a lighter flame against my skin, pricking my arms and wrists with thumbtacks, picking at the dry skin on my lips until they bleed and not letting them heal, and the other day shredding my fingertips trying to get the blade out of a razor. Initially I just had passive thoughts like "I wish it would end" or "I want to sleep and not wake up" or "what if I got in an accident?", and I don't think I would ever do it, but recently those thoughts have progressed to fantasies about the easiest ways to go. Telling the psychiatrist's office about these thoughts got me nothing but the number of a suicide helpline.

thanks I'm cured!: Exercise, waking up early, meditation, prayer, talking to loved ones, hobbies, etc. I know they want to help, but none of this works because I can't find any meaning in it.

unemployed: I miss having a job and don't know what I'll do when I'm able to find one other than find a bad one that doesn't drug test

veronica pre-depression: I used to be consistently happy and confident and functional or at least optimistic, I got my work done on time and got good grades, I didn't feel like I was at rock bottom, I worked to maintain my relationships and had ambition and pride in my work

weed dependence: my one coping mechanism- I have no alcohol, no nicotine, but when I'm high i forget how sad everything makes me and I get to feel like a kid again.

xeniatrophobia: I'm scared to see a therapist I don't know, so I cannot and will not go to therapy

yuck: my personal hygiene has fallen by the wayside, which means I shower twice a week (only when I'm high/motivated to), my hair is matted into knots the size of golf balls, my skin is scabbed and breaking out, i rarely wear underwear or deodorant, brush my teeth, or wash my face- I know all of this is gross! Again, right now it's just too much

zoloft: the worst. no sex drive, the tiredness/brain fog is worse, mood swings, nausea, fear of serotonin syndrome, psychedelics won't work, and I'm stuck taking it for at least a week more

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blackcatplant · 4 years

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I need a clean slate. I want to start a new journey. I want to get used to my disability.

I just quit my job because my body is too weak to perform the tasks. It felt good because my manager kept pestering me how I’m doing and waiting for updates, even if I said that one appointment with a health professional can take weeks.

I've been living on the couch and bed for 3 months now. I can’t do chores, I can’t focus anymore and I have a hard time controlling my depression.

Ten years ago, my chronic illnesses ruined my dreams and I dropped out of school. I kept trying to find something that would suit me, but nothing worked. 2 years ago I decided I wanted to become a writer and I did volunteer work that I loved. I worked once or twice a week and sometimes once every 2 weeks and it fits perfectly for me.

I finally had the feeling that had my stuff together, but then I got tired all the time. I felt bad and I don’t know why. I tried exercising more, I tried veganism, then flexitarian, then just a person who eats a lot of vitamins, but nothing worked. I got sick more often, had no motivation and my depression appeared because I didn’t understand why this is happening. Then 3 months ago my body gave up on me and now I’m stuck on my couch and bed.

It broke me because it took me ten years to figure out what suits me best. I might pick up writing, but my creativity plummeted. My brain is filled with fog and everything I love to do is put on hold.

I love gaming every since I could hold a controller and playing Mario hurts my hands now. I can’t focus with reading anymore. I have so many hobbies, but sitting for a long time hurts as well.

So, I spent these months by watching youtube, Netflix, scrolling on the ‘net and playing bad idle mobile games on my tablet.

For some people this is the ideal life, but for me it’s mind numbing. I worked so hard to make something work for me by being obsessed with productivity. I had to prove myself I was ‘useful’ despite my chronic illnesses. Now that my sense of identity and hard work is taken from me, I have nothing left.

If I want to get out of the house, my husband needs to push me on my wheelchair.

My whole life is put on hold. And I don’t think it will change for a while. Even it does change, it will take a long time to recover from this. Especially mentally.

My sleep schedule changed massively, I can’t exercise or cook and I probably need to change everything from scratch to get back where I was before.

But I don’t want to go in depth about how miserable I felt during these months, this is about a clean slate.

Before I got this sick, I had a few months where I felt sluggish and tired all the time. So when I was trying to figure out what the source was, I begin questioning a lot about myself.

What fits my needs right now? What food suits my body best? How to balance rest and productivity? When to take a long break?

Then it turns into: what do I like? What do I like to wear? Who am I?

So it’s not that I’m having a identity crisis, it’s more that I’m outgrowing the things I like and constantly feeling the need to change my whole lifestyle. I tried minimalism, veganism, zero-waste, mindfullness, simple living and the whole package of being too rough with myself with every thing I buy or consume.

At the same time, I already established a lot of hobby’s, like drawing, writing, fitness, sewing, knitting, journaling, reading, gaming, thrifting, swimming, playing music, design, and doing DIY crafts. I want to do so many things but I kept it to drawing, writing, fitness, reading and gaming last year to stay productive.

Since I barely can do any of them, I might try some of them with a different angle or style and remove the mindset of holding on my old lifestyle.

I want to start from the absolute beginning.

• I want to get to know my body.

• I want to create simple morning and evening routines.

• What food suits me best (easy to prepare, yet yummy, nutritious and cheap)

• What music do I like

• What clothing am I comfortable with?

• What jewelry do I like?

• What hobby suits me now?

• What kind of media do I want to consume?

• What types of games suit me now?

• What kind of books do I like to read? (instead what I need to read)

• What kind of self care ritual suits me best to practise a clear mind

• What’s the best way to groom myself? (since I’m weak now, I have to make it as easy as possible)

• What are my new habits?

• What kind of religion (or lack thereof) suits me best?

• What is my sexuality and gender?

• What kind of hairstyles and care suits me best? (I have locs and my arms has trouble taking care of it)

• What new things do I want to learn?

Well, you get the idea. I want to start a new journey.

There are things that I would like to keep doing

• Writing (like this)

• Reading, like audiobooks

• Practise mindfulness, minimalism and simple living

• Gaming

• (indoor) gardening

• Art

But even these things needs a lot of tweaking so the new me can feel comfortable doing it. For example, reading a book more slowly, like one page for every session.

Anyway, this takes a lot of time, last time I did this, it took me ten years. I think it will be faster this time, because I’m actively working on this.

#clean slate #newlife #New life #lifestyle #habits #disability #chroniclife #chronicillness #mindfulness #minimalism #hobby

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thomasedward236-blog · 5 years

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Important tips about keto diet for beginners

If you are a sentient being living in the year 2019, you’ve heard about the keto diet. More than that, there’s a 98 percent chance* that you know someone—your best friend, mother, former high school classmate who is involved in a pyramid scheme—who has embraced this low-carb/high-fat diet. (*Based on my very unscientific, but probably accurate, real-life observations.)

Only unlike that MLM company Becky from freshman year bio keeps spamming you about on Facebook, the keto diet could actually be a positive thing for you. A growing body of research has shown that our bodies need fat to thrive, which explains why the ketogenic diet—which emphasizes fats and strictly reduces carb intake—is having a serious moment. (And nearly every celeb, from Halle Berry to Vinny from Jersey Shore, is on board.)

While a diet filled with avocados, EVOO, and butter may sound like a true gift, there are a few super-important rules—and icky side-effects—that you need to know about. (Hello, “keto flu”!) keto budget meal plan http://www.ketogasmic.com/keto-budget-meal-plan-a-handy-guide-for-beginners

Scroll down for the ketogenic diet for beginners, explained.

Learn the ratios

Let’s start with the basics: your macros. “The most important thing to know before embarking on the ketogenic diet is that you need to keep your carb intake under 30 grams total per day,” says Keto Comfort Foods author Maria Emmerich.

This is because the absence of carbohydrates forces your body into—and keeps it in—ketosis, the metabolic state key to the ketogenic diet. When your body is in ketosis, it switches from using carbs as its primary source of energy and instead uses ketones (fats) as its energy source. “This enables you to tap into greater energy reserves, improves your moods, and allows you to burn excess body fat,” Emmerich says.

Next, you’ll want to eat about 0.8 times your lean mass in protein every day. “A woman who weighs 150 pounds and has 30 percent body fat has about 105 pounds of lean mass, so she would shoot for 84 grams of protein each day,” says Emmerich. Fat should clock in somewhere around 90 to 100 grams per day. Luckily, you can easily reach these macros with some insanely delish recipes, like these cinnamon maca bites, avocado fries, or Emmerich’s basil deviled eggs—scroll all the way down for the how-to. Keto Egg Recipes For Breakfast http://www.ketogasmic.com/top-10-keto-egg-recipes-for-breakfast

Expect some side effects

The main side effect of keto is that you’re required to post on Instagram stories about how delicious your cauliflower pizza crust is, and how you totally don’t miss carbs because it’s just as good as real pizza crust (even though everyone knows that’s false). I know because it happened to me.

But real talk, there’s also this thing called the “keto flu” which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. “During the first one to two weeks of the keto diet, it’s common to experience a number of symptoms as the body adjusts to using fat for energy instead of glucose,” says Josh Axe, D.N.M., C.N.S., D.C., author of the upcoming book Keto Diet. The main side effects, Dr. Axe says, are fatigue, brain fog, headaches, trouble sleeping, constipation and indigestion, trouble sleeping, less motivation to exercise, irritability, and increased urination and moodiness. Cool. (Again, you will probably feel inclined to post about all of this dramatically on Instagram stories. This is all very normal.) While you’re at it, maybe stay off your dating apps for a while—or, at least, don’t schedule any dates during this two week period. There’s this fun thing called “keto breath,” where your breath stinks worse than old garlic during the transition into ketosis. This admittedly does not lend itself well to romance (not that I’m speaking from personal experience or anything).

Headaches are also really common, but can be prevented by upping your water intake and adding electrolytes into your diet. “[The headaches] are primarily due to dehydration, because your body retains water when you’re on a high-carbohydrate diet,” explains Emmerich. “Going into ketosis will release much of this water along with electrolytes.” Make sure to sip on tons of H20 along with coconut water (which naturally has electrolytes), and you should be able to manage the first few weeks without relying on a steady dose of aspirin.

Stock your pantry with the keto staples

“Your pantry won’t look a whole lot different—just remove all the carb filled junk,” Emmerich says. Here are some low-carb basics she says your new-and-improved keto kitchen will need:

• Coconut oil and/or MCT oil • Ghee • Grass-fed butter • Olive oil • Grass-fed beef • Line-caught fish • Organic chicken • Eggs • Non-starchy vegetables like spinach and Brussels sprouts • Almond flour (Emmerich says this is a great tool for putting a keto-friendly spin on your favorite desserts) • You may notice there’s one major ingredient missing: sugar, which pretty much instantly kicks you out of ketosis.

While a few natural sweeteners are fair game on the diet, including stevia, xylitol, and monk fruit, Emmerich recommends avoiding them, too, while you adjust to this new way of eating. “Abstain from all sweet flavors for a month; this will shift the palate away from sweet tastes,” suggest Emmerich. “At the end of the month, you’ll find that sweet flavors won’t cause so many cravings, even when using healthy natural sweeteners in moderation.”

Don’t make these common mistakes

Dr. Axe says that there are three major mistakes people make when they embark on a keto diet that could be affecting their experience on the eating plan (and their results). First up: not eating enough non-starchy veggies. “We need vegetables in our diet to obtain fiber, vitamins, and electrolytes that help prevent side effects,” he explains. “Non-starchy veggies like leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables should be eaten throughout the day.”

Dehydration is another thing to watch out for. “Urination is increased on the keto diet, and electrolytes are lost at an increased rate,” Dr. Axe says. He says it’s important to drink lots of water, and consuming salt (an electrolyte!) by adding sea salt to your food and drinking bone broth.

Last, he says people often make the mistake of using a high-fat diet as an excuse to eat tons of processed food (there’s a reason why keto is known as the butter-and-bacon diet.) “A clean approach means focusing on whole, unprocessed foods (like olive oil, grass-fed butter, avocado, cage-free eggs, fish etc.), limiting processed meats and refined vegetable oils, and incorporating vegetables into the diet too,” Dr. Axe says. That way you’ll enjoy the results of ketosis without missing out on major nutritional components that your body needs.

Prepare to make long-term changes

Think the keto diet is a “one-and-done” kind of deal? Not necessarily! You may just be testing the waters or taking on a 30-day challenge, but know that many people wind up making the keto diet a permanent lifestyle change.

“Most of my clients are amazed at how good they feel after starting this diet,” says Emmerich, adding that many experience healthy weight loss. “Once people realize how great they feel on a keto diet, they’ll likely try to stay keto for life.” Keto Egg Recipes http://www.ketogasmic.com/top-10-keto-egg-recipes-for-breakfast

However, a lifetime of keto eating is not recommended for everyone, so it’s best to listen to your body and talk to your doc. “Typically it’s recommended that a traditional keto diet be followed for about two to six months, or perhaps for about a year if someone has a lot of weight to lose and is responding well,” Dr. Axe says. “In some cases, if a patient with a health condition (such as diabetes or epilepsy for example) is working with a doctor, they might follow the diet for longer, such as one to two years.” He adds that most people will see results like weight loss, improved mood, and better mental clarity in six months or less. After that, people may choose to carb-cycle moving forward—”meaning they increase carb intake about 1-2 days per week to restore their glycogen stores,” he explains.

Ready to try it? Check out one of Emmerich’s go-to keto recipes, below. Basil deviled egg recipe

Serves 6

Ingredients

12 large eggs 1/2 cup basil mayonnaise (see below) 1 tsp coconut vinegar or apple cider vinegar 1/2 tsp fine sea salt 6 cups mixed greens, for serving 12 cherry tomatoes, halved, for garnish Fresh basil leaves, for garnish 3/4 cup easy basil hollandaise (see below)

Basil mayonnaise

1 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves 3/4 cup mayonnaise 1 clove garlic, crushed to a paste 1/4 tsp fine sea salt Easy basil hollandaise 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves 1 cup bacon fat, beef tallow, or leaf lard 4 large egg yolks 1/2 cup lemon juice 1/2 tsp fine sea salt 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1. Make the basil mayonnaise: Place the basil in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Add the mayo, garlic, and salt and pulse until well combined. Place in a jar, cover, and store in the fridge for up to one week.

2. Hard-boil the eggs: Place the eggs in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil, then immediately cover the pan and remove it from the heat. Allow the eggs to cook in the hot water for 11 minutes.

3. After 11 minutes, drain the hot water and rinse the eggs with very cold water for a minute or two to stop the cooking process. Peel the boiled eggs and cut them in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks and place them in a bowl (or a food processor). Mash or blend the egg yolks with a fork (or a food processor) until they are the texture of very fine crumbles.

4. Add the basil mayonnaise, vinegar, and salt to the egg yolks and stir to evenly combine. Fill the egg white halves with the yolk mixture.

5. Divide the mixed greens among 12 plates and place 2 deviled eggs on each plate. Garnish with cherry tomato halves and basil leaves and drizzle each deviled egg with 1½ teaspoons of basil hollandaise, if desired.

6. Keep leftover deviled eggs in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Basil hollandaise

1. heat the fat in a small saucepan over high heat (or in the microwave) until very hot and melted. Set aside.

2. Combine the basil, egg yolks, and lemon juice in a blender and puree until very smooth. With the blender running on low speed, drizzle in the hot melted fat until a thick, creamy mixture forms. Add the salt and pepper and pulse to combine; adjust the seasoning to taste.

3. Use immediately or keep warm for up to 1 hour in a heat-safe bowl set over warm water. Store in a covered jar in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat the sauce in a double boiler or a heat-safe bowl set over a pot of simmering water, whisking often, until the sauce is warm and thick.

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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America’s Invisible Pot Addicts

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=9425

The proliferation of retail boutiques in California did not really bother him, Evan told me, but the billboards did. Advertisements for delivery, advertisements promoting the substance for relaxation, for fun, for health. “Shop. It’s legal.” “Hello marijuana, goodbye hangover.” “It’s not a trigger,” he told me. “But it is in your face.”

When we spoke, he had been sober for a hard-fought seven weeks: seven weeks of sleepless nights, intermittent nausea, irritability, trouble focusing, and psychological turmoil. There were upsides, he said, in terms of reduced mental fog, a fatter wallet, and a growing sense of confidence that he could quit. “I don’t think it’s a ‘can’ as much as a ‘must,’” he said.

Evan, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of professional repercussions, has a self-described cannabis-use disorder. If not necessarily because of legalization, but alongside legalization, such problems are becoming more common: The share of adults with one has doubled since the early aughts, as the share of cannabis users who consume it daily or near-daily has jumped nearly 50 percent—all “in the context of increasingly permissive cannabis legislation, attitudes, and lower risk perception,” as the National Institutes of Health put it.

The surprising effect of marijuana legalization on college students

Public-health experts worry about the increasingly potent options available, and the striking number of constant users. “Cannabis is potentially a real public-health problem,” said Mark A. R. Kleiman, a professor of public policy at New York University. “It wasn’t obvious to me 25 years ago, when 9 percent of self-reported cannabis users over the last month reported daily or near-daily use. I always was prepared to say, ‘No, it’s not a very abusable drug. Nine percent of anybody will do something stupid.’ But that number is now [something like] 40 percent.” They argue that state and local governments are setting up legal regimes without sufficient public-health protection, with some even warning that the country is replacing one form of reefer madness with another, careening from treating cannabis as if it were as dangerous as heroin to treating it as if it were as benign as kombucha.

But cannabis is not benign, even if it is relatively benign, compared with alcohol, opiates, and cigarettes, among other substances. Thousands of Americans are finding their own use problematic in a climate where pot products are getting more potent, more socially acceptable to use, and yet easier to come by, not that it was particularly hard before.

For Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, the most compelling evidence of the deleterious effects comes from users themselves. “In large national surveys, about one in 10 people who smoke it say they have a lot of problems. They say things like, ‘I have trouble quitting. I think a lot about quitting and I can’t do it. I smoked more than I intended to. I neglect responsibilities.’ There are plenty of people who have problems with it, in terms of things like concentration, short-term memory, and motivation,” he said. “People will say, ‘Oh, that’s just you fuddy-duddy doctors.’ Actually, no. It’s millions of people who use the drug who say that it causes problems.”

Users or former users I spoke with described lost jobs, lost marriages, lost houses, lost money, lost time. Foreclosures and divorces. Weight gain and mental-health problems. And one other thing: the problem of convincing other people that what they were experiencing was real. A few mentioned jokes about Doritos, and comments implying that the real issue was that they were lazy stoners. Others mentioned the common belief that you can be “psychologically” addicted to pot, but not “physically” or “really” addicted. The condition remains misunderstood, discounted, and strangely invisible, even as legalization and white-marketization pitches ahead.

The country is in the midst of a volte-face on marijuana. The federal government still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug, with no accepted medical use. (Meth and PCP, among other drugs, are Schedule II.) Politicians still argue it is a gateway to the use of things like heroin and cocaine. The country still spends billions of dollars fighting it in a bloody and futile drug war, and still arrests more people for offenses related to cannabis than it does for all violent crimes combined.

Yet dozens of states have pushed ahead with legalization for medical or recreational purposes, given that for decades physicians have argued that marijuana’s health risks have been overstated and its medical uses overlooked; activists have stressed prohibition’s tremendous fiscal cost and far worse human cost; and researchers have convincingly argued that cannabis is far less dangerous than alcohol. A solid majority of Americans support legalization nowadays.

Is marijuana more addictive than alcohol?

Academics and public-health officials, though, have raised the concern that cannabis’s real risks have been overlooked or underplayed—perhaps as part of a counter-reaction to federal prohibition, and perhaps because millions and millions of cannabis users have no problems controlling their use. “Part of how legalization was sold was with this assumption that there was no harm, in reaction to the message that everyone has smoked marijuana was going to ruin their whole life,” Humphreys told me. It was a point Kleiman agreed with. “I do think that not legalization, but the legalization movement, does have a lot on its conscience now,” he said. “The mantra about how this is a harmless, natural, and non-addictive substance—it’s now known by everybody. And it’s a lie.”

Thousands of businesses, as well as local governments earning tax money off of sales, are now literally invested in that lie. “The liquor companies are salivating,” Matt Karnes of GreenWave Advisors told me. “They can’t wait to come in full force.” He added that Big Pharma was targeting the medical market, with Wall Street, Silicon Valley, food businesses, and tobacco companies aiming at the recreational market.

Sellers are targeting broad swaths of the consumer market—soccer moms, recent retirees, folks looking to replace their nightly glass of chardonnay with a precisely dosed, low-calorie, and hangover-free mint. Many have consciously played up cannabis as a lifestyle product, a gift to give yourself, like a nice crystal or an antioxidant face cream. “This is not about marijuana,” one executive at the California retailer MedMen recently argued. “This is about the people who use cannabis for all the reasons people have used cannabis for hundreds of years. Yes, for recreation, just like alcohol, but also for wellness.”

Evan started off smoking with his friends when they were playing sports or video games, lighting up to chill out after his nine-to-five as a paralegal at a law office. But that soon became couch-lock, and he lost interest in working out, going out, doing anything with his roommates. Then came a lack of motivation and the slow erosion of ambition, and law school moving further out of reach. He started smoking before work and after work. Eventually, he realized it was impossible to get through the day without it. “I was smoking anytime I had to do anything boring, and it took a long time before I realized that I wasn’t doing anything without getting stoned,” he said.

His first attempts to reduce his use went miserably, as the consequences on his health and his life piled up. He gained nearly 40 pounds, he said, when he stopped working out and cooking his own food at home. He recognized that he was just barely getting by at work, and was continually worried about getting fired. Worse, his friends were unsympathetic to the idea that he was struggling and needed help. “[You have to] try to convince someone that something that is hurting you is hurting you,” he said.

Other people who found their use problematic or had managed to quit, none of whom wanted to use their names, described similar struggles and consequences. “I was running two companies at the time, and fitting smoking in between running those companies. Then, we sold those companies and I had a whole lot of time on my hands,” one other former cannabis user told me. “I just started sitting around smoking all the time. And things just came to a halt. I was in terrible shape. I was depressed.”

Lax regulatory standards and aggressive commercialization in some states have compounded some existing public-health risks, raised new ones, and failed to tamp down on others, experts argue. In terms of compounding risks, many cite the availability of hyper-potent marijuana products. “We’re seeing these increases in the strength of cannabis, as we are also seeing an emergence of new types of products,” such as edibles, tinctures, vape pens, sublingual sprays, and concentrates, Ziva Cooper, an associate professor of clinical neurobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, told me. “A lot of these concentrates can have up to 90 percent THC,” she said, whereas the kind of flower you could get 30 years ago was far, far weaker. Scientists are not sure how such high-octane products affect people’s bodies, she said, but worry that they might have more potential for raising tolerance, introducing brain damage, and inculcating dependence.

As for new risks: In many stores, budtenders are providing medical advice with no licensing or training whatsoever. “I’m most scared of the advice to smoke marijuana during pregnancy for cramps,” said Humphreys, arguing that sellers were providing recommendations with no scientific backing, good or bad, at all.

In terms of long-standing risks, the lack of federal involvement in legalization has meant that marijuana products are not being safety-tested like pharmaceuticals; measured and dosed like food products; subjected to agricultural-safety and pesticide standards like crops; and held to labeling standards like alcohol. (Different states have different rules and testing regimes, complicating things further.)

Health experts also cited an uncomfortable truth about allowing a vice product to be widely available, loosely regulated, and fully commercialized: Heavy users will make up a huge share of sales, with businesses wanting them to buy more and spend more and use more, despite any health consequences.

“The reckless way that we are legalizing marijuana so far is mind-boggling from a public-health perspective,” Kevin Sabet, an Obama administration official and a founder of the nonprofit Smart Approaches to Marijuana, told me. “The issue now is that we have lobbyists, special interests, and people whose motivation is to make money that are writing all of these laws and taking control of the conversation.”

Canada’s new model for a health-first approach to legalizing weed

This is not to say that prohibition is a more attractive policy, or that legalization has proven to be a public-health disaster. “The big-picture view is that the vast majority of people who use cannabis are not going to be problematic users,” said Jolene Forman, an attorney at the Drug Policy Alliance. “They’re not going to have a cannabis-use disorder. They’re going to have a healthy relationship with it. And criminalization actually increases the harms related to cannabis, and so having a strictly regulated market where there can be limits on advertising, where only adults can purchase cannabis, and where you’re going to get a wide variety of products makes sense.”

Still, strictly regulated might mean more strictly regulated than today, at least in some places, drug-policy experts argue. “Here, what we’ve done is we’ve copied the alcohol industry fully formed, and then on steroids with very minimal regulation,” Humphreys said. “The oversight boards of a number of states are the industry themselves. We’ve learned enough about capitalism to know that’s very dangerous.”

A number of policy reforms might tamp down on problem use and protect consumers, without quashing the legal market or pivoting back to prohibition and all its harms. One extreme option would be to require markets to be noncommercial: The District of Columbia, for instance, does not allow recreational sales, but does allow home cultivation and the gifting of marijuana products among adults. “If I got to pick a policy, that would probably be it,” Kleiman told me. “That would be a fine place to be if we were starting from prohibition, but we are starting from patchwork legalization. As the Vermont farmer says, I don’t think you can get there from here. I fear its time has passed. It’s generally true that the drug warriors have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

There’s no shortage of other reasonable proposals, many already in place or under consideration in some states. The government could run marijuana stores, as in Canada. States could require budtenders to have some training or to refrain from making medical claims. They could ask users to set a monthly THC purchase cap and remain under it. They could cap the amount of THC in products, and bar producers from making edibles that are attractive to kids, like candies. A ban or limits on marijuana advertising are also options, as is requiring cannabis dispensaries to post public-health information.

Then, there are THC taxes, designed to hit heavy users the hardest. Some drug-policy experts argue that such levies would just push people from marijuana to alcohol, with dangerous health consequences. “It would be like saying, ‘Let’s let the beef and pork industries market and do whatever they wish, but let’s have much tougher restrictions on tofu and seitan,’” said Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Project. “In light of the current system, where alcohol is so prevalent and is a more harmful substance, it is bad policy to steer people toward that.” Yet reducing the commercial appeal of all vice products—cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana—is an option, if not necessarily a popular one.

Perhaps most important might be reintroducing some reasonable skepticism about cannabis, especially until scientists have a better sense of the health effects of high-potency products, used frequently. Until then, listening to and believing the hundreds of thousands of users who argue marijuana is not always benign might be a good start.

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2018/08/RTX5UD1F/lead_960.jpg Credits: Original Content Source

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nancygduarteus · 6 years

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America’s Invisible Pot Addicts

Evan, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of the professional repercussions, has a self-described cannabis-use disorder. If not necessarily because of legalization, but alongside legalization, such problems are becoming more common: The share of adults with one has doubled since the early aughts, as the share of cannabis users who consume it daily or near-daily has jumped nearly 50 percent—all “in the context of increasingly permissive cannabis legislation, attitudes, and lower risk perception,” as the National Institutes of Health put it.

But cannabis is not benign, even if it is relatively benign, compared with alcohol, opiates, and cigarettes, among other substances. Thousands of Americans are finding their own use problematic—in a climate where pot products are getting more potent, more socially acceptable to use, and yet easier to come by, not that it was particularly hard before.

The country is in the midst of a volte-face on marijuana. The federal government still classifies cannabis as Schedule I drug, with no accepted medical use. (Meth and PCP, among other drugs, are Schedule II.) Politicians still argue it is a gateway to the use of things like heroin and cocaine. The country still spends billions of dollars fighting it in a bloody and futile drug war, and still arrests more people for offenses related to cannabis than it does for all violent crimes combined.

Academics and public-health officials, though, have raised the concern that cannabis’s real risks have been overlooked or underplayed—perhaps as part of a counter-reaction to federal prohibition, and perhaps because millions and millions cannabis users have no problems controlling their use. “Part of how legalization was sold was with this assumption that there was no harm, in reaction to the message that everyone has smoked marijuana was going to ruin their whole life,” Humphreys told me. It was a point Kleiman agreed with. “I do think that not legalization, but the legalization movement, does have a lot on its conscience now,” he said. “The mantra about how this is a harmless, natural, and non-addictive substance—it’s now known by everybody. And it’s a lie.”

Sellers are targeting broad swaths of the consumer market—soccer moms, recent retirees, folks looking to replace their nightly glass of chardonnay with a precisely dosed, low-calorie, and hangover-free mint. Many have consciously played up cannabis as a lifestyle product, a gift to give yourself, like a nice crystal or an antioxidant face cream. “This is not about marijuana,” one executive at the California retailer MedMen recently argued. “This is about the people who use cannabis for all the reasons people have used cannabis for hundreds of years. Yes for recreation, just like alcohol, but also for wellness.”

This is not to say that prohibition is a more attractive policy, or that legalization has proven a public-health disaster. “The big-picture view is that the vast majority of people who use cannabis are not going to be problematic users,” said Jolene Forman, an attorney at the Drug Policy Alliance. “They’re not going to have a cannabis-use disorder. They’re going to have a healthy relationship with it. And criminalization actually increases the harms related to cannabis, and so having like a strictly regulated market where there can be limits on advertising, where only adults can purchase cannabis, and where you’re going to get a wide variety of products makes sense.”

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/08/americas-invisible-pot-addicts/567886/?utm_source=feed

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