CBD for Depression (A Story of HOPE) And a Possible Treatment

CBD  For Depression

C–B–D. Whenever I see those 3 letters used in tandem, I am piqued as to what new malady is on the horizon for this natural wonder drug to treat.

Naturally, one might ask if CBD can cure one of life’s complicated dilemmas; To paraphrase; Can CBD cure depression?

I bet this question is on the tip of many tongues out there, and might possibly be the reason you have found this article. You are on a quest, in seek of a cure for that petulant depression.

Well, If you are willing to lend an ear for maybe the next three mere minutes, I am willing to share with you, my very own long-winded journey dabbling in the effects of CBD and my depression.

If you do not have time to spare, I leave you with a blunt, yet inane answer; That is–I would be lying, If I had said that CBD “cured” my depression.

If this answer hasn’t satisfied your curiosity, I urge you to read on and examine how CBD was used to untangle some of the intricate mess that leads up to depression, to work at battling this life draining foe.

This article does not intend to be a letdown, rather it tends to be the truth about my experience and offer some light, to illuminate the rather dark situation.

What is Depression?

Like an old friend, Merriam Webster puts it, depression is: “a state of feeling sad” or “a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies”

If you are under the same assumption as I am, after perusing these definitions, then it is safe to say that there is no concrete, one size fits all, feeling behind depression.

It is very complex and can take on many forms, the symptoms are subjective to the occupant alone.

No external contemporary can fully comprehend the circumstances leading to the individuals’ depression.

The numbers are astonishing

“Major depressive disorder affects approximately 14.8 million American adults”-DBSA

As there is no “one size fits all” solution, there is also no “one size fits all” solution.

The root cause is unique to every individual. As you will soon see, in my own experience, CBD was not my solution but has been a help on putting me to the correct path of that solution.

What is CBD?

I will keep this segment very brief, as I have written profusely in many places on this site as to what CBD is in detail.

CBD or cannabidiol (it’s proper name), is the non-psychoactive cannabinoid in the cannabis plant.

Unlike its partner cannabinoid THC, it will not get you high, as a matter of fact, CBD is known to subdue some of the psychoactive effects caused by THC.

The human body contains an endocannabinoid system. This is where CBD comes into play and has a rather peculiar function.

Two notorious receptors of the endocannabinoid system are the CB1 and CB2 receptors. The endocannabinoid system is responsible for maintaining homeostasis (balance) in the body.

CBD restores this homeostasis by stimulating the CB1 and CB2 receptors.

Theoretically, depression, in some cases may be caused by an imbalance of serotonin production.

In these cases, it is presumed that CBD, acting as a serotonin reuptake inhibitor as well, can provide a positive outcome in treating depression.

This is my brief description.

Enough with the banter, time for my story.

The Beginning of My Depression

To spare a lot of long, mundane details. For the earlier part of last year, things were not going well for me.

Due to extreme anxiety, I had to take time off from my job, I was at my lowest point, one thing lead to another, and the next thing you know, you wind up digging a very steep pit for yourself.

It was disheartening, I felt like there was no solution to my anxiety and no one could understand it, speaking to both professionals and family alike.

I came to the reality, that I was the only one who understood my mind, and there was little for anyone to offer.

I became a prisoner of my mind and one negative thought led to another.

I felt attacked on all sides.

No one could understand a plaque of the mind, it sounded silly mentioning it to people and hard to explain why I was out of work. The thought of lost finances became a reality as well.

The darkness crept in until it consumed my thoughts day and night.

For the first time, I, a naturally content person, was depressed.

I don’t know what was more alarming, the fact that I had never been depressed and never had to deal with it, or the fact that it seemed like I was cursed with the most severe form of it, so suddenly; all over what started out as simple anxiety. To add insult to injury, I was becoming claustrophobic as well.

My Motivation to Overcome Depression

Sitting in my lowest point, at no fault of my own, I felt a tad bit angry at my circumstance and then I decided that it will not get the best of me.

If there is anything I learned in life, it is that horrible situations can be used for good and times of desperation bring out the best in us if we let it.

I immediately did research vehemently into what I can do to remedy the anxiety at least. Not being one to want to take medication, I found myself connecting with the homeopathic community.

Unfortunately, many of the natural supplements I tried failed to be strong enough to subdue any part of my anxiety.

One day, through my routine search of herbal remedies, I came across an article for CBD. After reading what it was derived from, I was quickly turned off (I have never taken anything psychoactive and don’t plan on it), but my despair left me curious.

I continued to read on and on and gathered all I needed to know. CBD sounded like it would do the trick and I was assured that it was not psychoactive.

My condition caused my otherwise stubborn mind to place an order for CBD.

CBD and My Depression

It had finally arrived, the moment of truth was on my doorstep. I’m gonna admit, I was slightly fearful when I put the oil in my mouth, I did not know what to expect.

After a few minutes had gone by, I was disappointed, I didn’t notice anything.

Sitting in my anguish, something amazing happened, maybe 30 minutes later, my otherwise severe anxiety had been significantly reduced for the first time in months, and the mental fog that came with it.

I had a modicum of joy for the first time in a while. That small victory meant hope.

Hope for progress.

Now,

As initially stated, CBD did not cure my depression, but this was a start at working to cure things that were keeping me depressed.

I began to notice other things, I had slept very well that first night of taking CBD, another small victory considering the lack of sleep I was getting since my new anxiety induced way of living.

I was able to eat again, nausea attributed to the same anxiety was diminished.

Other maladies had been treated over the course of the next few weeks that I had lived with prior to the anxiety.

Like chronic headaches I have lived with, what was once frequent, became infrequent.

I bring it up again, CBD did not cure my depression, but it became my invisible crutch to stand upon, where I was otherwise impaired.

Using CBD to Work Towards My Depression

Now that the anxiety, and the effects it brought along with it, was not as big of an obstacle to climb, my mind was somewhat clear to think and work at the things causing my depression.

I took CBD daily while working on these issues, it did act somewhat as a mood lifter.

I began to realize that depression sometimes partners with loneliness.

I examined all my flaws, I tend to not be very sociable.

What’s rather amusing,

CBD works well for social anxiety as some scientific studies have proven.

While taking CBD, I decided myself to become more sociable. After all, we are sociable creatures, relationships can be very meaningful and can lift a burdened soul.

I took my newfound wonder drug and put myself in more sociable situations, it would prove to take the anxiety that comes along with these situations and reduce the severity. I would then improve my art of conversating and engage in more meaningful conversations.

This, improved my mood significantly, I was climbing out of my pit one step at a time.

The next step in the climb was having a purpose.

That purpose fell into my lap and was staring right in front of me. As I have said not too long ago, all bad situations can be used for good, and possibly for the good of others. I realized that CBD had helped me, information about CBD has helped, I was stubborn and there might be others out there who can benefit from knowledge of CBD and my circumstance. And thus, honestcbdreviews.com was born.

Ever since I have been writing blog articles in order to get information out there and share my experience with CBD.

As it has helped me, maybe it can help others.

If you look carefully into other articles on this website, you can see that a lot of blood sweat and tears, and my personal trials and experiences went into them.

Before I wrap this up, I will now discuss the studies behind CBD for depression, why it should work and how CBD works to try and combat depression. CBD may very well fight your depression if one of the reasons is a chemical imbalance, in my case, it was a plethora of external issues, therefore CBD was not a direct solution, but it was a step in achieving that solution.

CBD For Depression Studies

A few studies have been carried out that looked into the effects of CBD as an antidepressant or potential compound for treating mood disorders.

The majority of studies mostly focus on the anti-anxiolytic effects of CBD with
minor emphasis on its ability to help with depression.

But nevertheless, a handful of experiments have been conducted, revealing the
effect of CBD on depression.

Most of the studies were conducted recently (within the last few years).

They have led to several advances in resolving the mysterious role of the endocannabinoid
system with regards to depression, in addition to the function of antidepressant
drugs and their effect on the endocannabinoid system.

What the studies uncovered is that when there is a deficiency in endocannabinoid system (specifically with regards to signaling in the system), and that deficiency is sufficient enough, it may lead to “depression-like” state.

Deficiency in the endocannabinoid system can also manifest in other symptoms related to depression.

These include alterations in behavior such as differences in reactions to rewards, differences in emotion, and even cognitive ability.

Other changes relate to biological symptoms such as a reduced ability to adapt to stress, reduction in neurogenesis (the formation of new neurons in the body) and alterations in serotonin levels and its feedback systems.
All of these combined may lead to a person showing clinical signs of depression.

What’s surprising is that in congruence with these studies, clinically depressed patients are found to have slightly lower levels of endocannabinoids circulating in their blood.

Moreover, some models and studies have even revealed problematic central endocannabinoid signaling in depressed patients.

Improving endocannabinoid system signaling in patients is actually capable of producing similar effects of traditional antidepressant drugs.

Many types of antidepressant medications and treatments actually affect endocannabinoid system signaling.

For some types of medications or treatments, the improved endocannabinoid signaling is partly involved in some of the effects that these treatments have on the nervous system, specifically in relation to its adaptation.

The data from these studies present a compelling narrative of the supposed function of the endocannabinoid system’s signaling in the processes involved in the development and treatment of depression.

Other studies, mostly involving animal models, involved performing different types of experiments using techniques that have been established for testing the efficacy of drugs on animals.

In these studies, the animals are given CBD in different doses or via different routes and then the effects of CBD are measured using different setups and techniques.
Some examples of these techniques include what’s called a FST (forced swimming test), elevated plus maze (EPM) and Vogel conflict test (VCT).

These studies suggest that CBD has some level of anti-anxiolytic and antidepression effects in the animal models tested.

The experiments involving the use of CBD showed that some of the effects work via neuroreceptors (CB1 and CB2).

Interestingly, some of the studies also showed a positive interaction between CBD and the serotonin neuroreceptor.

Now,

CBD has not been approved by the FDA to treat depression, although it has been so for epilepsy, as we’ve written about previously.

CBD is known to have anti-oxidant effects which means that it’s capable of detoxing toxic substances obtained from food or generated in the body.

These toxic substances are sometimes involved in the formation of inflammatory conditions such as myocardial infarction, stroke, and inflammatory bowel disease.

In addition, these toxic substances cause oxidative stress and lead to complications such as age-related diseases. For example, they’re involved in development of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

CBD has been shown in studies to partially protect against these degenerative diseases.

It can work to protect the brain and reduce clinical progression in patients suffering from these conditions.

Moreover, studies have also shown that CBD’s anti-oxidant properties may have therapeutic benefits for brain disorders such as psychosis, depression, and multiple sclerosis.

Other beneficial effects of CBD are also currently under investigation, including its effects on anxiety, as well as on social anxiety disorder, and even post-traumatic stress disorder.

CBD For Depression Conclusion

While CBD did not directly treat my depression, it indirectly helped me with other aspects causing my depression. I have not fully one this fight yet, but I am in a much better place than where I was at a year prior, standing on higher grounds.

Depression is complex and can have many things causing it, each person is unique and CBD may be a direct solution for you, even though it wasn’t for me.

I hope this article offers hope to anyone experiencing a horrible situation. My heart goes out to all of you, I was in the worst place I could possibly be, but looking back on it, I wouldn’t want it any other way, I learned to grow from it and corrected many other things in my life in my despair.

For some additional observations I have made,

I have questioned some beliefs and formed new ones and learned when things are out of my hands they are in another.

Remember, be patient, all bad situations can be used for good, nothing lasts forever, you can and will be happy again, it starts with accepting the circumstance and understanding that there are others who have gone through it, no situation is impossible.

If anyone is curious, in this product finder here, is a list of CBD products I have personally used throughout my tribulation, they all worked for me differently in their unique way. If you are looking for a specific product, I recommend giving it a try.

I wish you all the best, and the comment section is open for any questions.

May you find your happiness.

And to break up the melancholy mood, I leave you with a happy picture 🙂