15 Downsides of Smoking Marijuana That People Don’t Talk About Enough

As legalization sweeps the country, weed is becoming more acceptable. Smoking weed after work is basically the new version of having a glass of wine. But surely there are some potential downsides to weed, and one AskReddit thread had people chatting all about it. Here are 15 downsides of weed that people don’t talk about, courtesy of Redditors.

1. Lack of appetite.

“Not having an appetite if you’re not high. You have to smoke heavily though to get to that point.”

2. All thought, no action.

“Been smoking everyday for the past decade and am recently realizing that being too introspective can be a negative thing at times – I’ve been thinking too much and acting too little.”

3. Cognitive issues.

“Both my roommates are heavy smokers, and they just… think so slowly. It takes them forever to understand anything. They also forget a lot of stuff, like they’ll step away from the dishes for a moment and then never finish them without prompting.”

4. A one-track mind.

“It can become your only personality trait.”

“Some of my peers’ only goal is when they are going to get their next high and like they are so stuck in the culture that they just become sort of boring and their personality lacks dimension.”

“I lost a significant chunk of my best friends in college because by senior year all they were focused on was weed.”

5. Loss of motivation.

“It is fine in moderation, but multiple times per day seems to suck the ambition from most people I’ve seen, including myself long ago.”

“I used to smoke every day multiple times a day and I can confirm: it made me useless and killed my motivation. It also contributed to me losing my job.”

“It makes you okay with being just okay.”

6. Anxiety or panic.

“Things that aren’t currently stressing you out may start to induce anxiety in you. While this isn’t always the case, weed has the potential to worsen your mental state if you aren’t careful. This impact became more pronounced when I smoked weed solo, having other people around allowed me to be more present in the moment, whereas I was in my head when I was alone.”

7. Poor conversational skills.

“I’ve noticed after the initial uptick in chatter- people tend to get really quiet, and zoned out in their own thoughts.

When I used to smoke it, I found it had a dulling effect on my personality and conversational skills after the fact, too.”

“Yeah I’d never tell any of my sweet lovely friends this in real life in case it hurt their feelings, but a couple of them are a lot less fun after they smoke weed.”

8. No more dreams at night.

“One thing that I never see brought up is the effect of marijuana on dreaming. Marijuana use can prevent the user from dreaming during regular sleep. When the user stops using Marijuana for a while, they can experience night after night of extremely vivid dreams. I can only speak for my own experience, but I have heard this echoed by a co-worker’s dad who started smoking again because he couldn’t handle “having acid-trip dreams every night”.

I suspect that marijuana has some potent effect on REM sleep that will remain under-documented until it is de-scheduled and more thorough research can be done.”

9. Vomiting.

“Cannabinoid hyperemesis and cyclic vomiting syndrome.”

“Yeah my ex had cyclic vomiting syndrome so bad, but he smoked weed to help him fight the nausea turns out it was making him worse off. Not a lot of people know about this one, where I’m from at least.”

“I started smoking regularly at night to assuage anxiety and kick start my appetite and eventually ended up developing this super fun condition. It’s absolutely awful. I thought I was pregnant and or dying.”

10. Dependency.

“Its not that its super addicting its just nothing is as fun as being high so you want to be high all the time.”

“As a pretty consistent weed smoker, I don’t like when people say that weed isn’t addicting. They’re right in saying that it’s not addictive chemically like nicotine or something, you can still get addicted to not being sober.”

“I’ve been a daily user for the last 15 (or more) years and my mind automatically starts to feel like I’m not relaxing if I haven’t smoked.”

11. A higher tolerance.

“The one most annoying thing with being a smoker is your tolerance level goes way up so even though you are smoking you arent getting that high you used to get, just a mind numbing insomnia almost.”

12. Triggering psychosis.

“It can trigger psychosis if you’re susceptible to it already.”

“I had a friend go through a mental break after smoking a lot. Had to be admitted and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (which ran in their family).”

NPR did a report about a study done in the UK, saying that heavy pot smokers are 3x more likely to have a psychotic episode than people who never smoked at all.”

13. Brain development.

“There is “moderate evidence” that acute marijuana use can impair learning, memory, and attention, leading to a reasonable argument that it shouldn’t be consumed by those under about 25 since the brain is still developing during that time.”

14. Money.

“If you use it regularly it can become super expensive.”

15. Disassociation.

“Cannabis induced disassociation. Can completely ruin your life.”

“I’ve had it (I think it materialized from my generalized anxiety disorder) but it was the scariest fucking thing when it first happened. You feel like you’re in a fog, and disconnected from everything. Took about 8 months for me to shake it.”

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A Terminally Ill Scientist Wants to Turn Himself Into a Cyborg Before He Passes Away

We sometimes joke from time to time about robot uprisings, the day when technology becomes too much for humanity to handle, or how we might be able to use it to be able to “live” forever. There have been countless television and movies that have explored those ideas (and associated fears) over the years – but now one scientist thinks he could actually live forever via tech.

Or at least become part robot.

Dr. Peter Bowman Scott-Morgan is a roboticist who has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It’s a degenerative condition, also known as Lou Gehrig’s. It has few treatment options and no cure, so Scott-Morgan decided to work toward becoming the “world’s first full cyborg.”

Image Credit: Twitter

After undergoing four medical procedures in an attempt to prolong and improve the quality of his life, he refers to himself as Peter 2.0.

Peter has a feeding tube that goes directly into his stomach, a catheter that goes directly into his bladder, a colostomy bag into his colon, and he also underwent a laryngectomy to remove is larynx, which connects his mouth and nose to his lungs.

He’s not able to speak with a natural voice and can breathe only with a respirator, but it also takes away the risk of  saliva accumulating into his lungs, which would basically cause him to drown.

He tweeted after coming home from the hospital the last time.

“Just home from 24 days in Intensive Care. All medical procedures now complete and a huge success. My mini-ventilator keeping me breathing is a LOT quieter than Darth Vader’s. All speech is synthetic but at last sounds like me again. Long research road ahead but in great spirits.”

Scott-Morgan writes on his website that he’s working on the “experiment of this life,” and plans to use his robotics knowledge to not only survive, but to thrive with a disease that spells the end for everyone who gets handed the diagnosis – over 220,000 people around the world.

In addition to the surgeries, he’s made big upgrades to his wheelchair that make it easier to move around his home, and will undergo laser eye surgery so that he can better read and control the computer screen using only his eyes – because in time, he won’t be able to control any of the other muscles in his body.

You can catch a documentary detailing his journey into becoming Peter 2.0 in 2020.

And for now, Peter is living happily in Devonshire with his husband, Francis.

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Wow! Playing Music Benefits Your Brain More Than Any Other Activity.

If you’re interested in strengthening your brain, playing a musical instrument is the best exercise you can do to improve brain function, make you happier and protect against dementia.

Learning to play an instrument actually changes brain structure and improves functioning better than any so-called brain games. Those who learn to play when they are young also have better long-term memory and brain development.

Photo Credit: Pexels

A study completed by researchers at the University of Montreal found musicians tend toward more mental alertness over those who don’t play.

Head researcher Simon Landry said,

The more we know about the impact of music on really basic sensory processes, the more we can apply musical training to individuals who might have slower reaction times. As people get older, for example, we know their reaction times get slower. So if we know that playing a musical instrument increases reaction times, then maybe playing an instrument will be helpful for them.

Previous to this study, Landry discovered musicians have faster auditory, tactile, and audio-tactile reaction times, and an altered statistical use of multisensory information.

Photo Credit: Pxhere

In other words, playing an instrument is a complex and emotional task requiring multiple senses, inputs and fine motor skills. This is what changes the brain and can also help musicians be successful in other fields, like business.

Scans of brains actually show physical differences between musicians and non-musicians. The huge bundle of nerves connecting the two sides of the brain, or the corpus callosum, is larger in the brains of musicians.

Learning an instrument at a young age leads to the biggest brain differences. Even if someone doesn’t dedicate the rest of their lives to an instrument, there are still drastic changes caused by even moderate or intermittent study. That’s because music instruction makes these changes in the brain more efficiently than any other activity (that we know of).

Photo Credit: Pxfuel

From strengthening speech processing to protecting against dementia, learning to play an instrument is like lifting weights for your brain. So forget the dumb brain games on your phone. Pick up guitar or find a piano teacher.

Your brain will thank you.

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Enjoy These Funny Tweets About Self-Care

A lot of times, in the midst of our incredibly busy lives, we forget that we need to take the time to relax, reflect, and take care of ourselves. Maybe not all the time, but at least occasionally.

I’m sure you’ve heard of “Self Care Sunday,” where you treat and pamper yourself after a lot of hard work? Well, these tweets are kind of about that phenomenon, but they flip it on its head a little bit with some humor.

Enjoy…and see if these tweets speak to you…

1. Please fix me.

2. Does it work, though?

3. All good tips.

4. Totally worth it.

5. I have a feeling it would be popular.

6. Do what you gotta do.

7. I do!

8. Sorry about that…

9. Start today!

10. This is so funny.

11. All very good tips.

12. The last one is crucial.

13. Doesn’t seem to be working…

14. I need to talk about how healthy I am.

15. I see…

Take good care of yourself in 2020 and beyond!

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You Might Need This ‘Nap Desk’ in Your Life If You Want to Be More Productive

George Constanza was right…about napping during working hours, that is.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to hit the wall in the middle of the workday. I have a TON of energy from about 8 A.M. to about 2 P.M. and then…uh oh…this guy gets a little sleepy, and it’s time for a 30-minute snoozer. Well, it turns out I’m not alone, and maybe I shouldn’t even feel guilty about that mid-day nap!

That’s why you might want to consider picking up this nap desk that allows you to slumber peacefully below your desk so you don’t have to go far to get those ZZZZZZZs in.

The desk comes to us from folks at the architecture and design firm Studio NL in Greece, and it is pretty impressive. The sleeping quarters are snuggled conveniently underneath the desk where a worker slaves away, so you’d be able to just kick off your shoes, put on your sleeping mask, and start counting sheep.

Although we have a hard-working attitude here in the U.S. for which downtime is frowned upon by many, relaxing and refueling are very important to well-being.

But if you’re one of the naysayers who think that napping is bad or counterproductive, many studies have shown that naps can actually make you more productive: they can “increase alertness in the period directly following the nap and may extend alertness a few hours later in the day.”

Sign me up! I’m ready for this! How about you?

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A Man Died of Sepsis After His Dog Licked Him

I routinely let most dogs I encounter lick me as much as they want. Now, after learning about this story, I can say that maybe I need to back off a little bit…

A 63-year-old man in Germany began to feel ill and ultimately died – and the culprit might freak you out a little bit: the man’s dog licked his face. A couple of weeks later, he got a fever, started experiencing muscle pains, and then had trouble breathing. He decided to go to the hospital to find out what was going on and he received some awful news: he had advanced kidney damage and liver dysfunction.

 

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He was admitted to the hospital but things took a turn for the worse. The doctors realized he was suffering from gangrene and that he had a terrible sepsis infection.

Of course correlation is not causation, so how do we know it was the dog licking that did it?

The man’s bloodwork showed that he was infected with Capnocytophaga canimorsus, which is a bacteria usually found in the saliva of cats and dogs.

No treatments worked on the poor man, and he suffered for 16 days as multiple organs failed. Sadly, his family eventually decided to turn off his life support and the man passed away.

This may sound like something that has never happened before or that would never happen again, but there were two other cases of humans contracting Capnocytophaga canimorsus from dogs in 2018 alone. A 58-year-old woman in Wisconsin died after her dog nipped her, and a man, also from Wisconsin, contracted the bacteria after spending time with eight puppies. The man had to have both of his legs amputated and parts of his hands removed because of the infection.

Our advice: if you happen to be bitten by a dog or a cat, wash the area immediately with soap and water, and have a doctor take a look at the wound just to be on the safe side. Yikes…

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Nurse’s Video About Fake Symptoms of Patients Has Twitter in an Uproar

This is pretty good.

A nurse and content creator created a viral video about patients who pretend to be sick. But rather than laugh along with her, Twitter users made an entire hashtag about how wrong she is: #PatientsAreNotFaking.

In Danyelle Rose’s video, a patient (played by Danyelle) coughs and is short of breath. The nurse (also played by Danyelle) dances to the beat of the patient’s strained breathing. The caption: “We know when y’all are faking.”

Twitter users were not happy about the video, which implies that patients regularly fake symptoms just to… Get attention from hospital staff? It’s unclear.

In a world where countless patients — especially women of color — experience harm because doctors and nurses don’t take their symptoms seriously, the video is especially offensive.

Many people immediately replied to Danyelle’s video with stories of not being believed by health professionals.

“I swear this was my labor and delivery nurse at @OUMedicine Children’s hospital when I told her I felt like I needed to push and she said I was ‘overexaggerating’ and 3 min later I had my baby NATURALLY without an epidural like I requested because she felt as if I was ‘FAKING,’” one user wrote.

“I had several white doctors/nurses think I was faking some serious mofo pain, because they assumed I wanted drugs,” another woman, Joy Henderson, wrote. “Turns out I had an ovarian cyst burst. Not a giant emergency, but easily pain worse than childbirth (I have three kids).”

Here are a few more:

The hashtag #PatientsAreNotFaking draws attention to all of these concerns. Because yes, patients are not faking — and it’s dangerous to assume that they are.

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Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates in America Are out of Control

Isn’t that a headline you just love to see?

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the sexually transmitted disease rate in the United States continues to rise in 2019. The report that the CDC released in October of this year shows historically high rates of chlamydia and the worst rates of gonorrhea and syphilis in almost 30 years – since 1991.

One of the most alarming statistics in the report concerns congenital syphilis, which has seen a 40% rise since 2017. The condition is potentially fatal and is passed from mother to fetus through the placenta.

This marks the fifth year in a row that sexually transmitted infections have been at an all-time high.

In a press release, the CDC addressed the situation:

“Data suggest that multiple factors are contributing to the overall increase in STDs, including:

Drug use, poverty, stigma, and unstable housing, which can reduce access to STD prevention and care.

Decreased condom use among vulnerable groups, including young people and gay and bisexual men.

Cuts to STD programs at the state and local level – in recent years, more than half of local programs have experienced budget cuts, resulting in clinic closures, reduced screening, staff loss, and reduced patient follow-up and linkage to care services.”

The states with the highest rate of chlamydia infection: Alaska (nearly 800 cases per 100,000 people), Louisiana (742), Mississippi (707), New Mexico (651), and South Carolina (649). The states with the lowest rate of infection are West Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Utah, and Maine.

These statistics are pretty frightening, to say the least…

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A Guys Asked If He Was Wrong for Fat-Shaming His Teen Daughter on Her Birthday

I think I know my answer to this question that someone asked on Reddit, but I’ll let you make up your own mind.

A father took to Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole” page to ask about how he treated his teenage daughter about her weight. Read the man’s words and then decide how you feel about this situation.

sight

Here is the full post from Reddit:

“This happened a few months ago. I just learned about this subreddit and thought this would be a good place to ask about a point of contention in the family.

My daughter is overweight. Not anything too drastic, but she is around 5’4 and 155 pounds. So she could stand to lose a few pounds. I’ve been concerned about her weight for a long time. None of it has been helped by my also-overweight, enabling wife.

On her 19th birthday, in August, we went on a hike in the state forest. She complained about it literally the entire time. She didn’t like that it was hot, she didn’t like the incline, she didn’t like the mosquitoes. I still encouraged her and pushed on, I think she was satisfied with having exercised at the end of it.

Hiking

But, while we were driving back home, she knew that we would be driving past a Dunkin Donuts. She wanted me to stop so she could get herself a “birthday donut.” I said no. She was upset about it, saying she just wanted a donut and she’d just done this long hike to please me on her birthday. I argued calmly that she didn’t want to undo all the work of the hike by getting a donut. She said the one she wanted is 350 calories (which I doubt is true) and would fit into her day. I pointed out she’d probably be eating cake later. We didn’t stop and she sulked about it on the whole ride back. When we got home, she told her mother, who of course sided with her and went on a rant about how our daughter’s birthday shouldn’t be a time I’m preaching healthy eating.

Donuts

I am trying to protect her health at every turn, when she spends most of her free time with her mother. Am I really the asshole for not wanting to stop and get her a fatty donut after a nice hike?”

People weighed in on the situation and it was pretty clear that basically NO ONE was on this guy’s side.

“You’ve got to be fuckin kidding my man. On her birthday, you forced your daughter into an activity I suspect you knew she would not enjoy, and then denied her a 75 cent treat. Beyond that, you didn’t even pretend you took the hike for time together, or– God forbid– her enjoyment; you made it clear that your focus for this event was getting her to exercise. You’re a huge asshole.”

Angry Man

“This is completely the wrong way to go about helping someone lose weight.. One hike is not going to make a difference in the larger picture of health, but this memory is going to be burned into her brain. Health and weightloss is an ongoing lifestyle change and one doughnut has ZERO impact on her weight.

As someone who spent their teens slightly overweight, it was my relationship WITH food that was the problem, I was an emotional over eater, no matter how much I wanted to slim down. My parents withholding something like a doughnut only drove me to eat in secret and form unhealthy habits. such as binge eating. For teenage girls, their relationship with their body easily becomes a societal reflection of their self worth.

You say she “sulked” in the car home, she was probably filled with lots of shame and self hatred that she was fighting with her dad who clearly views her as fat. If you really want to help your daughter, which you seem to care about, you need to change your tactics.

Depriving her of one doughnut is not the solution, working on life long healthy patterns is. For me, I dropped weight in university when I found an activity I liked to do with friends and learning to cook my own food, so that when I wanted a something tasty, I could make something myself rather than grabbing and downing a bag of chips. You’re not wrong to want your daughter to be healthy, but weightloss is as much about mental health as physical.”

What do you think about this situation? Does the dad have a point or is he WAY off base?

Let us know in the comments!

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15 People Share Small Things You Can Do Today to Start Making a Difference in Your Life

Change can seem very overwhelming, especially when we’re talking about big lifestyle changes.

That’s why this article from AskReddit is so helpful. People offered up small tips that you might want to consider to start improving your life.

Baby steps!

1. Flossing is important.

“Oral hygiene. Gotta be more consistent when it comes to flossing.”

2. Just do it.

“Start doing the “Rule of 5″ If it takes less than 5 minutes to do a task when you see something, and you’re not already mid task, just get it done. You’ll get your chore list cracked out a lot faster if you just clean the counters as you go around the house doing other stuff.”

3. Just a little bit.

“Do something a little bit.

Work out a little bit, so you can be just a bit stronger.

Eat a little more healthy, so you can be a bit healthier.

Always improve on something at least a little bit every day, and in the long run, you’ll be doing great.”

4. Always improving.

“Be actively kind to yourself. What did you do today that was great? Cherish it.

On the other hand, when you’re good at being kind to you(!), take the next step: what did you do today that you want to do differently tomorrow/next time?”

5. Set your goals.

“Start thinking in long-term (say, five years), medium-term (say, a month to six months) and short-term strategies (say, one day to a week).

You can break the long-term plan down into medium-term plans, and the medium-term plans into short-term plans. What do you need to be doing today to get you to where you want to be next week? Next month? Next year? Once you’ve got that in mind — and you get into the habit of taking manageable bites out of your life goals — it becomes a lot easier to achieve what you want.

The advice I always give relates to writing a novel. A novel is 90,000 words, give or take. If you write 250 words a day, every day, you’ll have the first draft of that book you’ve had rattling around inside your head on paper by the end of 2020. If that seems daunting… well, this comment is 210 words long. It took me less than five minutes to type up, and I’m only, what, forty words away from being on target? How many Reddit comments do you write in a day? How many Facebook updates? How many tweets?

A little amount of sustained effort is (usually) the best way to get where you want to be.”

6. Take a walk.

“Go for a walk, even just a short one. I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome a few years ago and I could barely get out of bed but I forced myself to walk- first to my mailbox, then the end of my street and beyond. It may not seem like much but I promise it can make a huge difference.”

7. Clean it up.

“Donating/throwing out/selling old stuff you no longer use. Also, cleaning out your fridge.”

8. Wake up fresh.

“Do your dishes before you go to bed. Waking up with a clean kitchen is a great feeling.”

9. All in your head.

“Be aware of the narratives we make up in our heads that only cause distress or anger.

An example of what I mean: “My friend hasn’t texted me for 3 days, she must be growing tired of our friendship!” More likely is that your friend is simply busy.”

10. All good tips.

“Allocate time more directly to maintenance of my body and home:

I lost 100 lbs this year. All due to diet. I could be a lot healthier if I added 30 minutes of exercise.

Then there’s my house, after I lost my wife I had a lot of trouble motivating myself to clean and now certain rooms are really needing it. If I could allocate even just an hour a day to it I would eventually be able to get back to regular maintenance rather than feeling helpless every time I open the door to one of those rooms.

Lastly, reading. I desperately want to get back into it and I’ve succeeded a couple times and loved it. But college broke my spirit of habitual reading and I’m not sure how to get it back.”

11. One piece at a time.

“If you’re sitting on a couch, desk chair, or lying down, and you get up to go to the bathroom or kitchen, take something with you. The 2 empty water bottles near your bedside, or the dirty dish on your coffee table. Knock out 2 birds with one stone.”

12. No more soda.

“Drink more water. Less soda.”

13. Very important.

“Stretch.”

14. Nobody’s perfect!

“Realizing you don’t have to be perfect is a good first step. People get shit wrong, we’re fallible!

Also I cannot stress enough how good books are for your brain. Expands your vocabulary, encourages imagination and creative thinking and even if you have problems with reading words, for example if you’re dyslexic, audio books are a thing and for the most part they’re just as good and effective.”

15. Start MOVING.

“Get the fuck out of bed. Stop snoozing. Stop laying there. Just get up, make your bed if that’s your thing, and have a big glass of water. Then move. Yoga, a walk, 20 jumping jacks. Anything. Just move a little bit.”

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