Cannabis and Negative Symptoms

🌿 Why Cannabis Feels Like It Helps

Many people with schizoaffective disorder use cannabis—especially those struggling with negative symptoms like emotional numbness, lack of motivation, or disconnection from reality.

Why? Because cannabis can:

• Temporarily enhance sensory experience

• Make food, music, or conversation feel enjoyable again

• Interrupt flatness and emotional blunting

• Reduce anxiety and restlessness

• Create a feeling of connection or insight

For people living in a fog, that temporary clarity or depth can feel like the only way to feel anything at all.

🧠 The Risks Are Real—But So Is the Relief

Cannabis can also:

• Worsen psychosis (especially high-THC strains)

• Trigger or prolong delusions and hallucinations

• Interfere with medications

• Make motivation and focus worse over time

• Increase the risk of hospitalization, especially for younger users or those with a family history of psychosis

This isn’t about fear-mongering. It’s about being honest. For people with SZA, cannabis is both medicine and poison, and often both at once.

🔄 It’s Often a Cycle

1. You feel numb or anxious

2. You smoke to feel something

3. You feel better for a few hours

4. The comedown is worse

5. Your baseline gets lower over time

6. You use more to feel anything at all

You’re not weak for being in this loop. You’re trying to survive.

🛠 If You’re Using Now

You don’t have to quit all at once—or at all. But it helps to be intentional:

• Track your symptoms before and after using

• Experiment with strains—lower THC, higher CBD may be less destabilizing

• Set boundaries around when and why you use

• Talk to your provider honestly about your use—some will work with you instead of judging

• Use harm-reduction spaces, not abstinence-only ones, if that’s what you need