My son Jesse was always highly sensitive, kind, empathic, articulate, and affectionate. He loved physical activity, lived for social connection, and was a gifted musician. Everyone loved Jesse, and he had wholesome, beautiful friends.
In the last two years of high school, he was diagnosed as ADD and given medication. Academic pressure was creating huge anxiety, and unbeknownst to us, he started using THC when he was sixteen years old.
As his use intensified, we noticed weight loss, disengagement from his family, bouts of aggression and risk-taking, and a loss of interest in exercise and his friends. As life got tougher, he used more, and his aggression continued to increase.
We became more concerned, because he lived with us and refused help. He was no longer working and fluctuated between severe depression and anxiety. It was very clear that he had severe mental health challenges. Our beautiful boy was disappearing before our eyes. Before this happened, I didn’t know THC could cause psychosis.
I learned what a broken mental health system we have when we tried to get him help. It took six months to finally get Jesse taken to hospital and have his psychosis taken seriously. It was so traumatic for our whole family. He was hospitalized for a month. We eventually showed the ambulance officers before and after photos regarding his psychosis for us to be taken seriously.
Our system doesn’t know how to triage mental health, neurodivergence, and addiction. Often the issues that arise end up in the legal system, because of a lack of understanding of these three related areas. Neurodivergent kids are more vulnerable to both addiction and cannabis-induced psychosis, especially if using ADD medication. Jessie then turned to Meth.
We have been on a hell ride rollercoaster since then. He has now had two more hospitalisations for psychosis. We have taken him through so many detoxes, but he walks out of rehab and returns to using cannabis and meth every time.
He is twenty-three now and still an addict. Occasionally our soft, sweet son sometimes appears, but he his mostly lost in his tough rapper dude psychotic persona. It seems like he is possessed. As a mum, I constantly search for a way to help. But as the years go by, the more he medicates his self-hatred through drugs. Everything started with THC at 16.
Cannabis-Induced Psychosis is REAL. It happened to my child. Educate your child on the harms of THC at JohnnysAmbasssadors.ORG.
If you’re concerned about your child’s THC use, visit https://JohnnysAmbassadors.org/parents and join our private Parents of Children with Cannabis-Induced Psychosis (POCCIP) group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/POCCIP.
My son Jesse was always highly sensitive, kind, empathic,
articulate, and affectionate. He loved physical activity, lived for social
connection, and was a gifted musician. Everyone loved Jesse, and he had
wholesome, beautiful friends. In the last two years of high school, he was diagnosed as ADD
and given medication. Academic pressure was creating huge anxiety, and
unbeknownst to us, he started using THC when he was sixteen years old. As his use intensified, we noticed weight loss, disengagement
from his family, bouts of aggression and risk-taking, and a loss of interest in
exercise and his friends. As life got tougher, he used more, and his aggression
continued to increase. We became more concerned, because he lived with us and refused
help. He was no longer working and fluctuated between severe depression and
anxiety. It was very clear that he had severe mental health challenges. Our
beautiful boy was disappearing before our eyes. Before this happened, I didn’t
know THC could cause psychosis. I learned what a broken mental health system we have when we
tried to get him help. It took six months to finally get Jesse taken to
hospital and have his psychosis taken seriously. It was so traumatic for our
whole family. He was hospitalized for a month. We eventually showed the
ambulance officers before and after photos regarding his psychosis for us to be
taken seriously. Our system doesn’t know how to triage mental health,
neurodivergence, and addiction. Often the issues that arise end up in the legal
system, because of a lack of understanding of these three related areas. Neurodivergent
kids are more vulnerable to both addiction and cannabis-induced psychosis,
especially if using ADD medication. Jessie then turned to Meth. We have been on a hell ride rollercoaster since then. He has now
had two more hospitalisations for psychosis. We have taken him through so many
detoxes, but he walks out of rehab and returns to using cannabis and meth every
time. He is twenty-three now and still an addict. Occasionally our soft,
sweet son sometimes appears, but he his mostly lost in his tough rapper dude
psychotic persona. It seems like he is possessed. As a mum, I constantly search
for a way to help. But as the years go by, the more he medicates his
self-hatred through drugs. Everything started with THC at 16. Cannabis-Induced Psychosis is REAL. It happened to my child.
Educate your child on the harms of THC at JohnnysAmbasssadors.ORG. If you’re concerned
about your child’s THC use, visit https://JohnnysAmbassadors.org/parents and join our private Parents of Children with
Cannabis-Induced Psychosis (POCCIP) group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/POCCIP.