Letter to a Paranoid Stoner

Hi,

I am very interested in your line of work as former daily hashish (BHO method) smoker (dabber,”freebasing thc”) I took a break for about 3 months and am now back to only smoking flower again with the occasional dab of hash maybe once or twice a week. It seems I am prone to getting major anxiety and paranoia when I smoke, It used to not be this way in my earlier teen years but now it seems to be at its worst sometimes I can control it when I realize my thoughts are creating it so I change my thoughts. Anyways, I would love to get to know you and maybe get some coaching from you and I think it is great what you are doing and you can be a major help to a lot of people. On a side note are you the only “Marijuana Paranoia Management Coach” because you are the first I have heard of and I have been around this scene for a long time. Sorry If I am not putting my thoughts in words clear enough its late and im tired. I hope to hear back from you I would really appreciate the help and I will do my best to pass it on to others in my family that are prone to this as well. even with the anxiety and paranoia I still LOVE to smoke i feel i need it to be healthy.

(Michael)

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Hey (Michael),

Your history is very common- at the moment we’re calling it ”the sleeper syndrome,” and describe it according to the following history: frequent cannabis usage before the age of 19, usually with dreamy and euphoric experiences, followed by a period in the early to late twenties where the user is “woken up” to unsettling and often traumatizing experiences.

I’ve been through it, and I can tell you first-hand, learning to understand and control these darker territories of consciousness is a fascinating journey. Success is possible, but it does not come easy. There’s a section in my book that offers an explanation for “sleeper syndrome” based in narrative psychology. If you like, I’ll send you a free copy of the ebook— kindle, i-pad, nook, sony, or pdf if you like.

What I know now–cannabis can be extremely rough on the developing (adolescent) brain and should be abstained from until the age of 19. That said, I know it’s possible to reinvent your experience with cannabis. I caution, however, your experiences will never be the same as they were when you were young.  Nevertheless, it may in fact still prove rewarding. For some clients, certain supremely meaningful cannabis experiences tend to manifest just beyond the shadows of extreme MIPA (Marijuana-Induced Paranoia/Anxiety).

Again, this is an extremely complicated issue, and even when I have the advantage of working with people face to face, it takes a long time to navigate the sleeper syndrome. My advice– read the book, follow my research, and if you choose to continue to use cannabis, strive to learn from these darker spaces. In short, you are an adult now in a fucked up world. As an adult you have a new power/responsibility that wasn’t fully developed in adolescence. Cannabis was never meant to provide an escape but to magnify the deeper elements of our shared humanity, hence its negative association with violence. The darkness is there to direct us, to sharpen and steel us into positive and purposed agents of change. This is what I choose to believe.

If you are in Vancouver, I’d be happy to meet with you–

All the best-

Bryan

To my knowledge no one outside of our organization is practicing MPMC right now. There are several people from all walks of life interested in seeing MPMC develop. It’s not easy work, one must proceed very cautiously and responsibly– but I’m thinking in perhaps 6 months or so, you will be able to locate similar practices, hopefully in your area. The demand is clearly abundant, we just need time to lay out the ethics and norms for this type of practice, and that’s proving an extremely complicated and fascinating task.