Cannabis and autism/adhd
I am sure that I’m autistic but I can’t afford an assessment. But ADHD assessments are covered by healthcare. So I got a referral and I saw a psychiatrist for an ADHD assessment and he claims that weed always makes depression and adhd symptoms worse. He wouldn’t officially give me any diagnosis because he says I’d have to stop cannabis use first. I feel like “stop smoking pot” is the “just lose weight” advice of the mental health world.
In my life weed has helped me cope with a lot and it has made me enjoy life a lot more than I did before I started smoking it. AND sometimes it actually helps me focus to get tasks done! But I am sure as hell not going to try to convince a psychiatrist of that, when they’re likely to think something like “typical of a DRUG user to claim their DRUGS help them. Delusional. And In Denial” or some such nonsense.
I’m just feeling extremely frustrated by the world of psychiatry. It seems I’m on my own to find ways to deal with my health. I just want to feel like I’m not alone with this. I’d like to try adhd meds but now I never will be allowed to because I “do cannabis” ..? Allegedly mixing weed and adhd meds is “very dangerous”. I think some people, especially health care professionals, still have archaic views about pot. I wish I’d never mentioned the cannabis. What would he have said then, I wonder. I doubt I would have been dismissed so easily.
I’ll probably delete this pretty soon I just needed to reach out into the neurodivergent community in hopes of finding some insight and understanding.