How Does Marijuana Affect the Brain and Body?
Most people know that marijuana is heavily used in the United States. In fact, statistics point to the drug being the most commonly used federally illegal drug in the country. However, awareness of the motives behind that usage is generally lesser known. That’s why researchers in recent years have conducted a variety of studies to explore how and why marijuana users consume the drug.
What one study found was that nearly 40% of adult users consumed the drug purely for recreational purposes, while 33% used it for recreational and medical use, and only 29% used it solely for medical use. Digging deeper and investigating younger users, researchers found the top reasons adolescents entering college used marijuana were curiosity and experimentation, fun/enjoyment, and peer acceptance.
Regardless of the age of the user or their reasons for partaking in the activity, marijuana consumption can have dire consequences on the user’s physical and mental health. Read on to learn how marijuana can affect both the brain and body.
Effects of Marijuana and How it Works
To better recognize the dangers of marijuana in the brain and body, it’s helpful to understand the effects the drug can have and how and why those effects occur. The most common (and desired) effect of marijuana use is euphoria or a sense of relaxation. Besides getting high, some people may perceive things like colors, sounds, or time at a heightened level when using the drug. Others, particularly those involved with medical marijuana, use it for pain or anxiety relief.
It’s also important to point out that not every user has the same experience with marijuana. While one user might feel relaxed, another using the same dose of marijuana might feel paranoid or anxious. The main reason marijuana can have those effects is the psychoactive properties of its chief ingredient: Tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC. When marijuana is consumed, THC binds to receptors found throughout the brain and body.
How Marijuana Affects the Brain
Because marijuana is a psychoactive drug, it’s easy to comprehend the significant impact it can have on the brain.
Starting with some of the most prevalent outcomes, marijuana can hurt your senses and judgment, lower your inhibitions, and cloud your ability to make good decisions. Unfortunately, that can cause physical harm because of distorted motor skills that make you a trip hazard or impair your ability to drive.
Marijuana can negatively affect the user’s balance, coordination, and ability to respond to peril quickly. Reports also show that marijuana and alcohol are often used together, which further increases the chances of making a poor decision. When large doses of marijuana are consumed, the psychoactive component of THC can even cause hallucinations or delusions, and some research shows a connection between marijuana use and mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
Over the long term, some studies have shown that continued marijuana use can cause a decline in IQ, especially if usage started during adolescence. In addition, prolonged use may intensify the age-related loss of neurons in the hippocampus, thus decreasing the person’s ability to learn or retain new information.
But perhaps the most damaging brain-related effect of marijuana use is the likelihood of addiction. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 30% of marijuana users have some degree of marijuana use disorder. Worse, someone who begins using the drug before the age of 18 is up to seven times more likely to ultimately develop a marijuana use disorder. As with any drug dependency, marijuana addiction can damage personal and professional relationships and wreak havoc on one’s ability to live a productive, healthy life.
How Marijuana Affects the Body
The effects of marijuana on the body are wide-reaching and can be severe. For example, users who smoke marijuana are subject to several respiratory conditions. Marijuana smoke irritates the lungs and bronchial passages in the same way tobacco does and can lead to a phlegmy cough, burning mouth or throat, and even a heightened risk of bronchitis. Further, marijuana can worsen existing respiratory conditions like asthma or cystic fibrosis.
Smoking marijuana can cause one’s heart rate to spike, generating a demand for increased oxygen, which adds continued strain on the body and can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Often, the blood vessels of marijuana users will expand — an occurrence that explains why so many marijuana users appear to have bloodshot eyes. People who consistently use marijuana may find that they get sick easier or more often than others who don’t. That’s because the THC found in marijuana can weaken or suppress the body’s immune system, making the person more susceptible to bodily infections.
Marijuana also has a heavy influence on appetite and digestion. Active users find the drug may increase their appetite, which often leads to unhealthy weight gain, especially when a sedentary lifestyle is involved. And while there’s some evidence to believe THC can ease nausea and vomiting, the inverse can also be true, with long-term and heavy use also triggering those same symptoms.
Women who are pregnant are advised to abstain from using marijuana as the child may be born underweight and experience a variety of developmental delays.
Of course, the best course of action for anyone using marijuana without the direction of a physician is to quit. Yet, even quitting can cause its own physical reaction — a process known as withdrawal. Symptoms of marijuana withdrawal include nausea, vomiting, sweating, and body aches, along with bouts of anger, restlessness, depression, anxiety, and insomnia.
Midwest Recovery Centers Can Help Users Overcome Marijuana Addiction
We provide cost-effective, quality treatment focused on marijuana addiction to help users get back to living productive, healthy lives. But we always recommend anyone in the throes of addiction spend time in our residential detoxification center to begin the road to recovery. This ensures that the person has access to real-time medical care and counsel on safely navigating the symptoms of withdrawal. Once detox is complete, we help users understand the root of the problems that drove them to partake in marijuana use and work with them to develop long-term solutions for success.
If you or a loved one is worried about the impact of marijuana on the brain and body, Midwest Recovery Centers can help. Contact us today.
Reviewed and Assessed by
Taylor Brown, B.A.Com., CADC
Tim Coleman, M. of Ed.
Start Your Recovery Now!
Have A Midwest Recovery Centers' Team Member Call You Today.
Recent Posts
The Role of Self-Care in Sustaining Recovery
Self-care is a cornerstone of successful long-term recovery from substance abuse. It involves adopting practices that promote physical, emotional, and mental well-being, helping individuals manage stress and maintain sobriety.
Overcoming Stigma in Seeking Treatment for Substance Abuse
The stigma surrounding substance abuse is a significant barrier to seeking treatment. Many individuals delay getting help because of fear, shame, or judgment.
The Role of Nutrition in Substance Abuse Recovery
Substance abuse takes a significant toll on the body, often leading to poor nutrition and weakened health. At Midwest Recovery Centers, we emphasize the importance of proper nutrition as part of a holistic recovery plan.
Staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Medical
Midwest Recovery Centers believes strongly in a client-centered approach. Substance Use Disorder is not what it was 5 or even 2 years ago. The substances on the street are constantly changing and so are the number of contraindications and fatal threats that substance use imposes on the person suffering. Our Medical team continues to stay up to speed with new advances of evidence-based approaches in treating those with both substance use disorder as well as their co-occurring mental health diagnosis. There are many varying pieces to each client’s situation when it comes to tackling the puzzle of a medical detox, and each step in the treatment planning is carefully selected, reviewed, and communicated for the best possible outcome of each client. We understand that consideration of the medical history, family history, past trauma, past and current substance use are all key indicators to most effectively give each client the best chance at developing a recovery process. Each client may present with a different scope of medical needs whether it’s their blood work or the most effective medications for them. Midwest Recovery Centers is proud to have the finest medical team to meet these individual and specific needs of each client that walks through our doors.
Clinical
When it comes to the therapeutic treatment of patients with substance use disorder, Midwest Recovery Centers believes in a client-centered approach guided by evidence-based practices. Substance use disorder has been identified by the American Medical Association as a disease, but because addiction is a disease that impacts behavior, treatment of this disease is often heavily focused on modifying behaviors and thoughts as well as establishing a new way of life. We place a strong emphasis on educating patients about this chronic illness and empowering them to practice treating it as such. Our clinical team is composed of leading experts in the field. We believe in having a staff as diverse as the clients we serve; from Licensed Professional Counselors to Licensed Clinical Social Workers, our staff is highly trained and educated in not only addiction but the mental health issues and life circumstances that often accompany it. Many of our clinicians have their own personal experience in long term recovery which lends them to an even better understanding of what our patients are experiencing. Our staff is highly skilled in choosing the most effective therapeutic modality for each client’s needs, to give them the best chance of securing the recovery process that will change their lives. Our clinical team understands that this is a family disease. This is why clinicians will offer weekly updates to families as well as concrete tools for families to utilize as they journey through this illness with their loved one. Those tools will be offered by the patient’s individual clinician as well as at our free Family Night on the first Wednesday of each month, offered to anyone in the community.
Our Origin Story
I began Midwest Recovery in honor of my mother, Betty Lou Wallace, who taught me responsibility in life and sobriety.
Mom was born, raised, and lived most of her life in Missouri, a state I'm still proud to call home. She had five children. The youngest were my older brother Don and me.
We knew that the disease of addiction ran in the family, but it wasn't until Don and I grew older that we realized we were falling into addictive patterns. Through it all, Mom was supportive of her children but firm about one principle: whether the disease was inherited or developed through your environment, you were responsible for your recovery from addiction.
"I will be supportive of your recovery but I will not enable your addiction," she was fond of saying.
Ultimately, I stayed sober from 1990 to 1997, when I relapsed. With Mom's support, I was able to get sober again in 2002. Tragically, Don was not so lucky. He passed away in 2005 from complications of an injury and continued addiction.
Mom wanted no parent to suffer from the sorrow and anguish of losing a child, so in 2002, she helped me establish my first treatment center business.
As Mom grew older, she shared with me some lessons she had learned through her affiliation with Al-Anon, a support group for family members of loved ones struggling with addiction. She asked me to stay clean and sober one day at a time and to use the lessons I learned in my own recovery to help others who were suffering.
In 2008, Mom passed away from throat cancer, one day after my six year sober anniversary. I still remember that one of the last times we spoke, she told me she was proud of my recovery.
Mom would be so happy to know that myself, our partners, and our team are carrying on her legacy in her home state. I don't know if my own recovery process would be intact without her and the lessons she shared. So much of what we share with our clients at Midwest began with Betty Lou.
Above all, Mom imparted several teachings that I carry with me every day: that people are inherently good, and if they fall into addiction, this makes them sick, not bad. She taught me to be patient, tolerant, loving, and kind to myself and to others.
Most of all, she taught me that recovery works if we are able to be honest with ourselves about our own behavior. That’s what she helped me accomplish and that’s what we strive to accomplish with every Midwest client.
On behalf of Betty Lou, I thank you for your interest in Midwest Recovery.
Jeff Howard
Start Your Recovery Now!
Have A Midwest Recovery Centers' Team Member Call You Today.
Recent Posts
The Role of Self-Care in Sustaining Recovery
Self-care is a cornerstone of successful long-term recovery from substance abuse. It involves adopting practices that promote physical, emotional, and mental well-being, helping individuals manage stress and maintain sobriety.
Overcoming Stigma in Seeking Treatment for Substance Abuse
The stigma surrounding substance abuse is a significant barrier to seeking treatment. Many individuals delay getting help because of fear, shame, or judgment.
The Role of Nutrition in Substance Abuse Recovery
Substance abuse takes a significant toll on the body, often leading to poor nutrition and weakened health. At Midwest Recovery Centers, we emphasize the importance of proper nutrition as part of a holistic recovery plan.
