- 03/03/2022 -

CBD with Bre: CBD for Anxiety

Welcome to CBD With Bre, a blog series where I, as a self-proclaimed CBD noob, recount my experiences getting into the world of CBD. While I have a fair amount of knowledge about the research and science side of things, as I’m learning, it’s quite different when applied off the page.

Continuing with some of my previous experimentation, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my experiences with CBD and anxiety. Like I wrote in my post about sleep, I had a short list of things I wanted to test out. As a university student and someone who struggles with high-functioning anxiety, the impact  CBD might have on my anxiety was top of mind. After researching the science, I wanted to test it out for myself.

Of course, just as a quick disclaimer, this post is for informational purposes only and not meant to endorse any company or product. It’s just here to reflect and discuss my personal experiences in hopes that they provide others with some deeper understanding of CBD.

Context and Background

I never used to consider myself an anxious person. Up until a little while ago, I thought it was a recent development, brought on by compounding external influences. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized I’ve been struggling with high-functioning anxiety for most of my life. As a kid, however, I believe I was better able to regulate it through things like lists and clean rooms, so it remained unnoticed by me, only to escalate significantly in the past few years.

As a background note, I have been attending therapy for a few years now and thankfully, my anxiety levels have been going down. Nevertheless, it never really goes away. I know it plays a huge role in my problems with sleep, as well as my overall health, wellness, and mood. I’ve also noticed it having a negative impact on my relationships. I don’t get anxious and avoid, I get anxious and work. Compounding external factors, such as university and pandemics, probably just heighten the issue as well.

The Experiment

For the past few months, I’ve been taking CBD semi-regularly. Although I’ve admittedly gotten out of the habit during the holiday season, I’ve otherwise remained consistent. Throughout the time of assessment, I have been both in school and on break, going through exam season and the holidays. Having the chance to explore different stress variables means that I’m able to come to a more complete understanding of how CBD impacts my anxiety levels both in times of escalated and diminished stress. This, along with the somewhat fluctuating regularity of my CBD routine, will of course have an impact on my results and observations. This experiment isn’t meant to be perfect science, but rather, taking into account the various shifts and changes in my day-to-day life.

Although I do occasionally experiences instances of more extreme anxiety, for the purposes of this experiment, I wanted to see how CBD would impact my general anxiety levels and if it would help prevent or manage escalation. I also wanted to see if it would help me stay more balanced during heightened periods of stress, like deadlines.

My Observations

As always, I’ll be summarizing my main observations in bullet points below:

  • One of the main things I’ve noticed is that CBD gives me the ability to concentrate and focus a lot better than if I don’t take it. I get a lot more work done. Today, for example, I was starting to feel anxiety welling up about all the things I need to get done, which made it hard to prioritize or move forward with tasks. However, after taking CBD, I was able to sit down, stop worrying about it, and actually do stuff.
  • I mentioned this in my post about sleep, but it’s not so much that I feel any different on CBD. Rather, I notice an absence of issues. After taking CBD, I tend to feel a lot calmer and balanced. Less volatile and easily triggered, if that makes sense. Less likely to jump into emergency mode.
  • After taking CBD, my thoughts feel a lot calmer as well. They’re a lot less busy, as it were. It’s not an 100% solution, but I feel like it’s more comfortable to exist within myself because I’m worrying a lot less about having to scramble and keep everything together.
  • I’ve tried a lot of therapy-related anti-anxiety strategies, from meditation to breathing exercises, and I personally never found them very effective. It’s hard for me to maintain a solid habit, and when I’m feeling really anxious, the last thing I want to do is sit still. CBD, on the other hand, I can just take whenever and notice considerable calming effects. I don’t need to worry about being consistent or developing meditation skills over time.
  • CBD helps me feel less bogged down with stress. My thoughts feel less like a tangled pile of spaghetti, and I have so much more energy when I’m not trying to sort through that. I feel like I have more space to be myself. My thoughts, feelings, and whatever else seem to belong more to me than the anxiety. It feels like my body’s getting something it was missing, and I’m able to function more like ‘normal’ people can.
  • All this said, as I mentioned above, I’ve also been attending therapy, working on better self-care, and doing other things to better handle my anxiety. It’s important to take these factors into account. Although I feel like CBD has had a positive impact, it’s only a small piece of what I’ve been doing to help treat my anxiety. Things like the placebo effect can be powerful, and with what limited science is available now, my observations can’t be taken as any guarantee of outcome either. Everyone responds differently, after all.

TL;DR

CBD obviously isn’t a cure all, and different people will respond differently to it. It certainly shouldn’t be used to replace therapy or other important methods of managing anxiety. However, I can say that after taking it, I certainly feel a lot calmer, less escalated, and my body just feels more comfortable to exist within. In my experience, CBD helps me untangle my anxious brain a little bit and give me the space to breathe and be myself a little more.





- 03/03/2022 -

CBD with Bre: CBD for Anxiety

Welcome to CBD With Bre, a blog series where I, as a self-proclaimed CBD noob, recount my experiences getting into the world of CBD. While I have a fair amount of knowledge about the research and science side of things, as I’m learning, it’s quite different when applied off the page.

Continuing with some of my previous experimentation, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my experiences with CBD and anxiety. Like I wrote in my post about sleep, I had a short list of things I wanted to test out. As a university student and someone who struggles with high-functioning anxiety, the impact  CBD might have on my anxiety was top of mind. After researching the science, I wanted to test it out for myself.

Of course, just as a quick disclaimer, this post is for informational purposes only and not meant to endorse any company or product. It’s just here to reflect and discuss my personal experiences in hopes that they provide others with some deeper understanding of CBD.

Context and Background

I never used to consider myself an anxious person. Up until a little while ago, I thought it was a recent development, brought on by compounding external influences. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized I’ve been struggling with high-functioning anxiety for most of my life. As a kid, however, I believe I was better able to regulate it through things like lists and clean rooms, so it remained unnoticed by me, only to escalate significantly in the past few years.

As a background note, I have been attending therapy for a few years now and thankfully, my anxiety levels have been going down. Nevertheless, it never really goes away. I know it plays a huge role in my problems with sleep, as well as my overall health, wellness, and mood. I’ve also noticed it having a negative impact on my relationships. I don’t get anxious and avoid, I get anxious and work. Compounding external factors, such as university and pandemics, probably just heighten the issue as well.

The Experiment

For the past few months, I’ve been taking CBD semi-regularly. Although I’ve admittedly gotten out of the habit during the holiday season, I’ve otherwise remained consistent. Throughout the time of assessment, I have been both in school and on break, going through exam season and the holidays. Having the chance to explore different stress variables means that I’m able to come to a more complete understanding of how CBD impacts my anxiety levels both in times of escalated and diminished stress. This, along with the somewhat fluctuating regularity of my CBD routine, will of course have an impact on my results and observations. This experiment isn’t meant to be perfect science, but rather, taking into account the various shifts and changes in my day-to-day life.

Although I do occasionally experiences instances of more extreme anxiety, for the purposes of this experiment, I wanted to see how CBD would impact my general anxiety levels and if it would help prevent or manage escalation. I also wanted to see if it would help me stay more balanced during heightened periods of stress, like deadlines.

My Observations

As always, I’ll be summarizing my main observations in bullet points below:

  • One of the main things I’ve noticed is that CBD gives me the ability to concentrate and focus a lot better than if I don’t take it. I get a lot more work done. Today, for example, I was starting to feel anxiety welling up about all the things I need to get done, which made it hard to prioritize or move forward with tasks. However, after taking CBD, I was able to sit down, stop worrying about it, and actually do stuff.
  • I mentioned this in my post about sleep, but it’s not so much that I feel any different on CBD. Rather, I notice an absence of issues. After taking CBD, I tend to feel a lot calmer and balanced. Less volatile and easily triggered, if that makes sense. Less likely to jump into emergency mode.
  • After taking CBD, my thoughts feel a lot calmer as well. They’re a lot less busy, as it were. It’s not an 100% solution, but I feel like it’s more comfortable to exist within myself because I’m worrying a lot less about having to scramble and keep everything together.
  • I’ve tried a lot of therapy-related anti-anxiety strategies, from meditation to breathing exercises, and I personally never found them very effective. It’s hard for me to maintain a solid habit, and when I’m feeling really anxious, the last thing I want to do is sit still. CBD, on the other hand, I can just take whenever and notice considerable calming effects. I don’t need to worry about being consistent or developing meditation skills over time.
  • CBD helps me feel less bogged down with stress. My thoughts feel less like a tangled pile of spaghetti, and I have so much more energy when I’m not trying to sort through that. I feel like I have more space to be myself. My thoughts, feelings, and whatever else seem to belong more to me than the anxiety. It feels like my body’s getting something it was missing, and I’m able to function more like ‘normal’ people can.
  • All this said, as I mentioned above, I’ve also been attending therapy, working on better self-care, and doing other things to better handle my anxiety. It’s important to take these factors into account. Although I feel like CBD has had a positive impact, it’s only a small piece of what I’ve been doing to help treat my anxiety. Things like the placebo effect can be powerful, and with what limited science is available now, my observations can’t be taken as any guarantee of outcome either. Everyone responds differently, after all.

TL;DR

CBD obviously isn’t a cure all, and different people will respond differently to it. It certainly shouldn’t be used to replace therapy or other important methods of managing anxiety. However, I can say that after taking it, I certainly feel a lot calmer, less escalated, and my body just feels more comfortable to exist within. In my experience, CBD helps me untangle my anxious brain a little bit and give me the space to breathe and be myself a little more.