I started noticing elevated anxiety symptoms in high school, but my parents urged me it was completely normal for someone my age to feel the way I did.
As much as I appreciate them trying to reassure me that there was nothing “wrong” with my head, I could have benefitted from mental health help when I was a teenager.
I suffered for years before I finally sought out therapy and medication in college. If I hadn’t acted when I did, I definitely would have failed my classes and dropped out of college. The doctor suggested an effective medication that gave me the immediate relief I needed while group and one on one therapy both helped immensely after I started going every week. I feel fortunate that my college had all of these services for free offered to all students, regardless of your financial situation. While I still take the medication I was first prescribed back in undergraduate school, I find that it’s no longer sufficient at alleviating my mental health symptoms that plague me on a daily basis. That’s why I started using CBD products as I discovered on a whim one day how effective they are melting away my stress and anxiety on high doses. A friend of mine let me share a CBD flower joint with him and I immediately felt both pain and anxiety relief unlike what I’m used to with normal cannabis that is high in THC. In fact, lots of traditional cannabis gives me way too much anxiety for me to be able to use them regularly. Instead, I buy my CBD products from a great hemp company that is out west.