Quitting cannabis has been an important part of her recovery from mental illness, Margaret Trudeau said Monday at a press conference in Vancouver for the Canadian Mental Health Association's upcoming Bottom Line Conference.
Trudeau, who suffers from bipolar disorder, spoke openly with reporters about her experience with depression and the effect of her long-term marijuana use.
Margaret Trudeau went on to claim that marijuna can trigger psychosis. However, this is inaccurate. What THC, the psychoactive drug in marijuana, may do is trigger anxiety. It is the user's reaction to that anxiety which leads to psychosis, not marijuana itself.
While paranoid thought may be a result of such anxiety, the fear of being caught intoxicated is more of the reason for paranoia than THC itself.
Therefore marijuana does not cause psychosis. Maladaptation to anxiety about one's substance abuse is more directly causal to possible psychosis than taking 200 micrograms of THC.
Compare this to a man being found out about his online time spent exclusively surfing for porn. If he knows it to be wrong to spend so much time online, and discovers he is being shamed by looking at porn, he may exhibit anxiety which may result in agitation, anger, and sometimes irrational behaviors associated with guilt. Thus he will act guilty and get upset, perhaps even exhibiting rage and possible brief psychosis.
So in Margaret Trudeay's case, she may have gotten high on pot, been caught by paparazzi and discovered her pictures in national tabloid with guilt-inducing headlines.
I would attribute her crises to public censure more than to occasional use of marijuana.
However, quitting pot did help Ms. Trudeau manage her bipolar disorder by reducing risk of anxiety. Thus, being drug free does improve mental health.
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