Has this ever happened to you? You’ve spent days cramming for an important test. You’ve even pulled an all-nighter, but you’re ready. You enter that class filled with determination. The teacher passes out the test, you take one look and…freeze. Nerves and fatigue have gotten the best of you. With every passing second in which you can’t think clearly, your heart races a little more. You’re not alone. Plenty of us have fallen victim to this angst before, especially when it comes to important events like test-taking.
Anxiety is an emotional reaction to stressful stimulus. It’s characterized by the unpleasant feeling of discomforted inner turmoil.
Symptoms vary widely. For some, anxiety manifests in spiraling thoughts, pacing, hand-wringing, even chronic pain. But it can also manifest physical conditions such as muscular tension, gastrointestinal distress, restlessness and insomnia, amongst many more.
Our culture is suffering from an epidemic of anxiety disorders, with more than forty million Americans suffering from one. Many of them don’t seek treatment. And there’s emerging research to suggest the ubiquity of social media is making the problem much worse.
Furthermore, when anxiety gets bad enough, we tend to lean strongly on pharmaceuticals for the answer. Problem is, these other medications come with myriad side effects and when you stop using them, you may experience withdrawal symptoms. They also can work for years and then lose efficacy.
While we don’t discourage people with debilitating disorders from seeking psychiatric and/or pharmacological treatment, we believe there is a science-backed, safer and more sustainable solution to anxiety in CBD!
Anxiety can be problematic. Getting nerves before giving a speech is one thing. But if it’s standing in the way of living your life, if it’s impeding your ability to get better grades on important tests, or pursuing the career you wish you had, then it’s time to seriously consider CBD.
People can really start struggling when they suffer from an anxiety disorder. A disorder is when everyday angst seriously impacts other avenues of the person’s social, occupational and personal lives. Let’s explore a few common disorders:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder – This disorder is characterized by excessive worry about certain events – future, past and present. The worry is prolonged and acute, and has the potential to interfere with daily functioning.
Social Anxiety Disorder – This disorder is characterized by the feeling of fear in social situations. Sure, most of us experience a little angst when walking into a party. But for some, any social gathering provides them with unlimited amounts of dread.
Agoraphobia – This disorder is characterized by extreme discomfort in outdoor and or public settings. In rare cases, if agoraphobia gets bad enough, sufferers even struggle to leave their homes.
Now let’s delve into how CBD helps your body fight anxiety!
Before we get into how CBD helps treat your nerves, let’s first discuss, for educational purposes, how it works within your body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS).
The Endocannabinoid System is a biological system that exists in your body. While research on this critical system is fairly new, we know that the ECS is involved with the preservation of your body’s equilibrium and balance, i.e., homeostasis. In other words, this means the ECS is responsible for regulating any number of critical physiological and cognitive functions, such as sleep, appetite, pain-sensation, mood, memory, etc.
The Endocannabinoid System consists of three parts: receptors, cannabinoids and metabolic enzymes. First, the cannabinoids are like fuel for the entire ECS. Cannabinoids float inside your bloodstream and are embedded in fat, waiting to be utilized. Whenever they’re needed, they bind with cannabinoid receptors thereby triggering a function to bring the body – and in this case anxiety levels – back into homeostasis.
Cannabinoid receptors live on the inside of various types of cell walls (immunity cells, skin cells, blood cells etc.) and line our central and peripheral nervous system, as well as our skin barrier, brain, soft tissue and organs – basically everywhere. You can think about them as sensors that help the body determine where and when the ECS should deploy cannabinoids in order to deal with a specific, or variety of ailments. They also play the important role of being landing pads for cannabinoids, which when they land, as mentioned before, trigger functions in order to bring the body and mind into homeostasis (some cannabinoids don’t “land” but rather hover around receptors.Finally, the last variable of the ECS are metabolic enzymes. Simply put, the enzymes are generated in order to break down unnecessary and unused cannabinoids.
Now that you have a very general idea of how the system works, imagine the problems that arise when the body is lacking cannabinoids, the fuel for the entire ECS! A cannabinoid deficiency makes it more challenging to regulate the body. But the good news is, you can easily refill your system of legal cannabinoids with CBD!
Since CBD works within your ECS, which is responsible for regulating cognitive functions like mood, it should come as no surprise that clinical trials show high quality sources of CBD (like CBD oil) have a profound ability to temper nerves.
If you’d like proof of the potential benefits, look no further than this macro analysis of peer reviewed studies published by the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, which examined several studies exploring the potential benefit of CBD on stress. While dosing varied widely between studies, their conclusions were simple: CBD consistently improved clinical outcomes amongst participants.
Here’s another study published by Neurotherapeutics that explored the effect that CBD had on anxiety. It also analyzed a number of studies and found that:
“Existing preclinical studies strongly supports CBD as a treatment for generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder.”
How does using CBD accomplish this? While science is just starting to answer that question, we have an idea of what’s going on. If you take CBD products, like CBD oils, they interact with the ECS receptors in your brain that are specifically charged with fear and anxiety-inducing behaviors. These are the receptors that get daily, active workouts if you’re an anxious person. CBD interacts with these receptors, catalyzing the body’s natural response to regain homeostasis. And taking your daily dosage of CBD ensures that your body won’t be depleted of this invaluable resource.
Let’s talk about the difference between CBD and THC derived from cannabis plants. Don’t confuse CBD with recreational cannabis use. CBD is derived from the hemp plant and can be isolated from THC and/or any other cannabinoids that might also be present in the hemp (in small amounts) . Recreational cannabis products, like THC oils, are completely different from CBD products, like CBD oil.
The two are often linked because they both have similar chemical structures. But they impact different receptors in the brain. For this reason, they have fundamentally different effects on the brain.
THC comes from the cannabis plant and is rich in THC and is psychoactive – it’s responsible for the infamous “high” one gets when smoking cannabis. Whereas, CBD is not psychoactive. Therefore, unlike THC, you can have as much CBD as you’d like and you’ll never feel the sensation described as a high!
You might live in a state that has recently legalized medical marijuana. Marijuana is still illegal in the eyes of the federal government. But again, none of this impacts the availability of CBD.
There are myriad CBD products, like Full Spectrum CBD Oil, that can deliver your daily dosage of CBD into your bloodstream. When it comes to treating stress, research hasn’t yet pinpointed exactly how much daily CBD is required. But we do know that CBD doesn’t come with side effects and is never habit-forming. We recommend starting with 20mg dose twice per day and working your way up from there (if needed). If full spectrum CBD oils aren’t your thing, there are plenty of other CBD products that will do the job! Here’s a list of Somebody’s more popular ones:
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Outside of taking CBD oil, there are several other factors that can help control anxiety. Our society tends to focus so heavily on calling a doctor and getting pharmaceuticals for the answer to our problems.
Again, sometimes drugs are necessary! But sometimes they aren’t. So if you’re struggling, why not try the CBD avenue before experimenting with medications.
Exercise – The difference exercise can make in your overall mental health is profound. Don’t forget, exercise floods our brain with endorphins. This biochemical has the potential to reduce your perception of pain, while triggering positive sensations as well. That’s because of endorphins. And consistently giving your brain a workout and flooding it with biochemicals that enhance mood will significantly help with mental health and depression symptoms.
Diet – The food we eat plays a huge role in our overall health and wellness. Instead of cramming dietary supplements or low cost carb-rich diets, this Harvard study proves eating whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables is significantly more beneficial for the body and mind.
Emotional connection – Venting to a friend or loved one is a very powerful force! Don’t hold back if you have something on your mind. Venting to a friend has the added benefit of allowing you to voice your worries. Sometimes, once we hear them out loud, all of a sudden they sound a little less scary and sometimes far-fetched and unrealistic. Try it sometime!
Anxiety has an innate ability to creep up on us and change how we live our lives without being noticeable. If you’re struggling with it, don’t hesitate to get help from CBD! If it’s messing with your sleep cycle, don’t hesitate to try a Full Spectrum CBD Oil. If you feel like your stomach is in knots all day long and you don’t know why, CBD can help! And if your test-taking skills are being impacted by the excessive nerves you feel on exam day, it’s time to do yourself a favor and allow CBD to help. Remember, CBD is THC free. CBD is legal. And if you take any CBD product, like CBD oil, you will NOT test positive for THC.
If you’re struggling with anxiety, the good news is, you have a world of options available to treat it. If you want a solution that works naturally within your body, sustainably and without serious side effects, the answer is CBD. Check out the products we have available to start supplying yourself with your body’s favorite cannabinoid and reclaim your life!