Of All the Potential Uses of CBD, This May Be the Biggest

America is in an opioid crisis. We hear this every day on the daily news and in our local papers. The obituaries are filled with deaths of people in their young 20s and 30s. Families are left to grieve and wonder how the pharmaceutical companies can put such dangerous drugs out there in the market, for people to abuse. Far worse than any other drug use that has hit our shores, this problem grows deeper each year and the lives lost are tragedies of epic proportion. How do you combat drug use when the drugs are so easy to obtain? One estimate has opioid deaths at 120 per day. 120 Per day. Please, let this sink in. The families that are impacted by this every single day is a tragedy. Children grow-up minus parents because of this horrible affliction. Opioids are highly addictive, and most people will have withdrawals after only five days of use. The should not be prescribed to patients in a majority of the cases that it is. Once addicted, people find it almost impossible to stop using them.

It may be beneficial to talk about why people turn to drugs in the first place. We are seeing upward trends in using opioids in places where incomes and jobs are at their lowest numbers in a generation. When people have little to look forward to, with low income, they struggle to pay their bills and live their lives without extreme stress. This stress and anxiety lead many to turn to drugs as a way of taking their escape from this reality.

Some people have become hooked on painkillers as a result of an operation, a bad accident that led to a back issue or a broken bone that hurt them beyond ability to cope with the pain. Pain pills that are prescribed are far more often a gateway drug than alcohol or marijuana every have been in this country. Statistics prove this out time and time again.

CBD oil is showing that it has a benefit in helping people to quit addictions, even smoking, but the most exciting benefit is the possible help in getting people off opioids and other pain-killers. More research is necessary, but the benefits are already being seen.

How CBD Works to Break the Cycle of Addiction

The human body has a system that is specifically designed to work with cannabinoids, to influence the way the body receives information. The endocannabinoid system is a series of receptors located in the brain and throughout the body. There are two types of receptors and they are named CB1 and CB2. CB1 is primarily the one that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) binds to. CB2 is the receptor that primarily accepts the bond to CBD. Both CBD and THC are compounds of the hemp plant, and hemp might be easiest explained as a cousin to the plants that are produced specifically for medical marijuana. THC in those plants is extraordinarily strong and in a higher concentration.

Industrialized Hemp is what is used for producing CBD products. It, on the other hand, is selectively grown from plants that have shown to have lower THC and higher CBD values. During the extraction process, the THC is left behind. By starting with a lower THC value to begin with, it is ensured that less than .03% of THC will end-up in the final CBD product. This is the regulation requirement. It is not enough THC to cause someone to feel high or to get stoned. You won’t fail a drug test with normal use. If you take an excessive amount of CBD oil, it is possible to fail a test for THC, but it is not likely.

CB1 receptors are concentrated within the brain, with very few located anywhere else, and when THC bonds to them, it has an impact on your ability to think. Therefore, THC is classified as a psychoactive compound. Cognitive function is impaired and so is your ability to use fine motor skills. Your brain becomes impaired in its ability to send and receive signals. CB2 receptors are concentrated in places all around the body. When CBD bonds with these receptors, it works by blocking signals that come from all over the body to the brain.

Neurotransmitters travel along the routes in your body, through your nervous system, between all parts of the body to the brain. Imagine them like cars on a superhighway. CB2 receptors send out blockers that work like barricades across those highways, stopping all incoming traffic.

Negative though patterns are stopped by blocking the onslaught of repetitive thoughts. Pain signals are block in large number so that severe pain is turned into a minor issue. For chronic conditions that cause signals to be sent that cause seizures, pain, and intense cravings, CBD works wonders. It doesn’t completely block everything, but it blocks most of the information from reaching the brain, where the body is then told to react. By blocking the signals, you can fend off a problem before it starts.

This is a huge benefit to anyone who is trying to beat an addiction of any sort. If cravings for tobacco, or opioid, or even food are an issue, CBD oil is your ticket to helping to break the cycle. Cravings are the biggest problem. When the body sends the signal to the brain that it wants or needs something, the brain obliges by driving you crazy until you get that thing the body wants. Cravings go away in time, but most people cannot fight this part of the detox from their addictions.

CBD is being used to help with this process. CBD, itself, is non-addictive. When you kick your habit, you can also stop using CBD if you choose, but many people continue using it for the other many benefits of use. Moods are greatly enhanced, and you’ll note that you have patience that you never had before. Since anxiety is also something that causes people to turn back to their addictions, using something that means you won’t be bothered by normal daily stresses is essential. CBD is that key factor, that ammunition that you need to ensure you have what you need to break bad habits.

More research is imperative, and it is being conducted right now. As CBD has gained in popularity, more discoveries for its use have been sought. CBD is now legal nationwide, contributing to the educational material that is available and the places where it can be purchased. Rarely a day goes by that you won’t see an ad for CBD products on social media. It’s being called a miracle drug. Caution should be used in setting expectations. CBD can have a dramatic impact on virtually any condition that ails you, but it isn’t a cure … yet. Research is needed and private companies are pouring dollars into this research at this very moment. It is very possible that CBD will lead to a cure for some diseases in the future.

Why Is Opioid Addiction So Hard to Break?

Opioid addiction is a nightmare for people. With addiction happening after only five days of use, most people who are taking it for a legitimate medical reason will not know that they are addicted to them until they try to stop. The symptoms of opioid withdrawal are intense, and many people start using them again to stop the withdrawals.

Some of the symptoms of withdrawal include:

• Nausea and vomiting
• Feeling like you have the flu
• Sweating
• Fever and chills
• Runny nose, red and weeping eyes
• Body aches
• Insomnia
• Anxiety
• Joint pain

Quitting opioids, as you can see, is not an easy thing to get beyond. Research is showing that CBD can help the anxiety, the insomnia, the nausea, and the body aches. When you get relief from the anxiety and the sleep deprivation, it goes an exceptionally long way in helping to cope with the breaking of the addiction cycle. By working to block the reception of signals from the body that cause craving and withdrawal symptoms, CBD is proving itself to be a big help in conquering the addiction to many types of drugs, not just opioids. For example, someone who has a problem with benzos or with alcohol could have the exact same benefit from using CBD to break their cycle of abuse and addiction.

If you are trying to quit a cocaine habit, you will have detox symptoms that are also extremely hard to beat. Many people must seek help at treatment facilities and some of those will still go back to using.

Some of the symptoms that you will feel from quitting cocaine include:

• Paranoia
• Fatigue
• Anxiety
• Anger/Extreme agitation
• Irritability

A research study was conducted with rats that had been addicted to cocaine for research. A CBD patch was used on them and replaced every 24 hours for 7 days. Not only were the rats better, they were astonishingly better. They continued to be calmer and less irritable for five months after the CBD was no longer being used. Rats and humans are remarkably similar in the way our bodies metabolized medications and drugs, therefore rats are so often used in research studies. By addicting them and conducting this research, doctors can better predict how humans will react to treatment. CBD proved that it has a lot of benefit; more so than any other treatment that is available on the market at this time in history.

A huge factor in using CBD is that unlike methadone, a legal treatment for those who have been addicted to heroin, CBD is not addictive. Methadone is as addictive as the drugs people are trying to kick. Methadone is regulated at clinics and it has not proven to get people completely drug-free. CBD could be that treatment that will free people once and for all of all addictions. That is very earth-shattering.  If you or a family member has been affected by an addiction, then you understand the impact that this type of research has. You understand how important this is.

A Few Words Regarding Alcohol Withdrawal

Addiction to alcohol is not always considered a drug addiction because alcohol is legal. Hundreds of thousands of people suffer incurable liver disease and hardening of arteries because of alcohol abuse. Thousands of people are killed in the United States each year because of someone driving drunk. Alcohol is possibly the worst addiction problem that we face but because of alcohol’ legal status, it is often overlooked. Alcohol not only impairs people, but it creates addiction cycles that are just as hard to break as cocaine or other types of pills. Some say that the ability to just walk into a store and buy alcohol, if you are of legal age, makes it incredibly difficult to stop drinking.

Alcoholics Anonymous is one of the most famous groups in the world, dedicated to helping people break the cycle of alcohol abuse.

Some of the symptoms of withdrawal of alcohol include but aren’t limited to:

• Tremors
• Anxiety
• Sleep deprivation
• Sweating
• Hallucinations
• irritability
• Nausea
• Fits of rage in the worst cases

You can see why alcohol deserves to be mention here. The symptoms for alcohol withdrawal are just as bad, if not worse, than opioid addiction withdrawals. Alcohol ruins many lives and CBD has also been shown to help break this cycle of addiction. Families should learn more about using CBD and implementing it in a program to quit abusing their body.

CBD is an elixir that can help the body, never harm it. CBD can bring calm, ease anxiety, give relief from pain and nausea. CBD works as a sleep aid. CBD literally touches on every single point of the painful parts of addiction. Even hallucinations can be diminished because of the way that CBD works in the neural pathways. CBD also comes in many forms, including Full Spectrum and CBD Isolate oils, Hemp Capsules, Balms and Creams, and even CBD for pets.

Getting Healthy Safely

CBD is not only fantastic for you, but it is also non-addictive, as we have already mentioned. CBD is not something that you can overdose on. Use it as you need to and don’t feel guilty about it. CBD will not give you any withdrawals when you are ready to quit using it, if you ever think you want to. It will always help with anxiety, which can keep you from ever being ‘triggered’ and wanting to take that drink again, or pop one of those pills, or ‘do a line’ again. CBD is the thing that can always help stand between you and those addictions again, like a steel door. Why not take advantage of that?

You might experience some slight side-effects if you start with a dose that is too high. Diarrhea and headaches are typical. Try decreasing your dose for a few days and then gradually tapering back up so that your body has time to adjust. These very mild symptoms will go away almost immediately.

If you ever do stop using CBD and wonder if you’ve become addicted to it, the answer is no. You may have not gotten completely over the addiction that you had with previous drug use or alcohol abuse. Try continuing your CBD for a while longer and slowly, very gradually, taper your use down, to see how you are doing with your cravings and triggers. It would not be advisable to take your crutch out from under yourself, cold turkey.

Be kind to yourself. We often talk about love and loving others, but people forget that they must also love themselves. You are feeling a lot of stress and your body is fighting a battle inside. Others can’t see what you are going through, and you’ll feel stress over this that will push you toward another drink or a pill. CBD can help you fight that desire. Remember to love yourself through the process. You will make mistakes and you will sometimes need to start over, but if you forgive yourself and refuse to give-up, CBD will be there to help you make it through to the final round of your fight, when you can declare yourself clean.

You could possibly go back to a normal life, with your family. You can live to see your kids grow-up, or to even have children if you haven’t yet had them. Maybe you have yet to meet the love of your life? It’s hard to meet that person when your head is so filled with paranoia and your body is sick with cravings. You can’t be your authentic self when addiction is in control. CBD products may be exactly what you need to lead a normal life again, beyond addictions that drag you down constantly. Breaking the cycle can help you to start your life over again and enjoy all the things that addiction took away from you for whatever reason. Don’t allow yourself to feel bad about the time lost. You’ve got an entire life ahead of you to live. Let CBD give you the fighting chance.

Sources:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4444130/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2829756/