Chunk #31 — Conceptualizing Problematic Cannabis Use in Mental Illness: Addiction Vulnerability versus Self-Medication Hypothesis — The Perception of Self-Medication
As previously noted, many individuals tend to describe using cannabis to self-medicate the symptoms of mental illness. In using the term “self-medication”, one assumes that the substance is helping to treat the specific illness; however, cannabis only provides momentary relief. There is an acute reduction that one may perceive in their symptom severity that is masked by the “high” that they feel. This subjective feeling may temporarily hide the reality of their illness presentation, substituting distressing symptoms of their illness with acutely pleasurable ones. For example, acute use of cannabis in people with BD is associated with symptom alleviation, including symptoms of depression, mania, anger and tension [126]. The relief, however, is not a true therapeutic effect, but rather a temporary and immediate relief that would not be found through their absent self-regulatory processes. Additionally, this perception may be more of an initial reason for use, illustrating the addiction vulnerability in this population (Figure 1). In fact, roughly half of individuals who initially use cannabis for anxiety, depression, and insomnia do not report these same reasons for continued use cannabis [11].
