THC Recovery. First and foremost, THC psychosis could go on permanently (which is then labeled schizophrenia) if they continue smoking/vaping/dabbing/taking edibles (however they are ingesting THC products). No psychiatrist should be labeling them with a serious mental health illness until at least one year 100% clean and drug-free. Up to that point the THC is likely responsible for the symptoms. The symptoms and behaviors of THC-induced psychosis are identical to bi-polar and schizophrenia. If my son had been seen by a psychiatrist who was unaware he was addicted to THC and in THC-induced psychosis he would have been mistakenly diagnosed with both. He was forced (in a psychiatric hospital) to go through horrible withdrawals and shakes and had about a month of sleepless nights and awful anxiety and depression coming off the weed/vapes. Through intensive daily treatment in a facility with good addiction counselors, our family holding firm boundaries (no phone/laptop/xbox/tv/friends all so he had no way to sneak and buy THC and relapse) he was able to beat it and heal over the period of a year. The KEY is they have to get off and stay off all THC or other drugs. I slept on the floor in my sons room when he was having trouble sleeping (this was after he had gone through withdrawals and hospitalization and was coming out of psychosis but still having a few delusions and intrusive thoughts). To be quite frankly most psychiatrists don’t seem very educated on this new THC psychosis that is so rampant nowadays. The psychiatrists (we saw 3 different ones) all told us they are only there to prescribe meds, the specially trained drug addiction psychologists are the ones who got through to and saved my son. Also my son hated the way Olanzapine (anti-psychotic) made him feel, although i do feel it was necessary in the beginning to bring him out of psychosis so he chose to try recovery meds-free and we, and his doctors, agreed as long as he didn’t relapse. The first six months were rough for him, a lot of depression and slowly learning to live like a “normal” non-addicted person again. We chose to keep him here at home and have him do outpatient intensive counseling, because I was fortunate enough to have the option to be with him 24/7 when he wasn’t in counseling. We cloaked him in family love and support but also he was told daily that in order to save his life we would do whatever it took so that he would not use drugs again. He was 23 and like i said, phone, car, Xbox, computer all taken away,door off his bedroom, none of the old friends allowed to visit or make contact. He was obviously sad and depressed about it but a little part of him knew that it was necessary to get his life back. And he did! He is now 2.5 years drug free and after about a little over a year he was almost back to normal. In the first months he seemed brain damaged and we wondered if he would ever be his old self again but his personality and intelligence did return with time and no drugs.
Saving Our Youth from the Harms of THC
This is ever so immensely helpful!!! Thank you for sharing your story. My daughter is Just 1 year THC negative. She hasn’t used in 14 months but it took approx. 80 days to clear the THC from her system. Also on Olanzapine, would love to try to get her off the antipsychotic. Her psychiatrist is not convinced she has full blown schizophrenia. But she still giggles and gets spaced out periodically. It is a very slow process. She works 20 hours a week at a non-profit thrift store and goes to college, just finished 9 hours (3 classes) in December and her grades were an A,B and C!! So that was very encouraging!! She doesn’t socialize, which breaks my heart, and recently quit going to yoga class. But attends church, family outings and we even just went on a short cruise as a family! (The cruise was very exhausting. but she participated in dinner and activities!) Its hard to see her struggle. I wonder how much of her “vacant”episodes are due to exhaustion and/or the side effects of the olanzapine? I’d really like to see her off of the meds.