Decades ago, many people were afraid to talk about depression, anxiety, and a host of other mental health conditions. Currently, these issues have taken the internet by storm with articles about mental health all over.

In the past, people felt like talking about their mental health issues would make them appear flawed, weak, or troubled. It's impressive to see the wave of openness and honesty surrounding mental health and problems caused by these conditions.

However, though you have heard of depression and anxiety, you might not know what precisely mental health is. While you may have heard about the adverse effects of stress on the body, you may not know about the nuances of stress and why caring about your mental health is essential for living a healthy, happy, and well-rounded life.

So, What Is Mental Health?

Mental health is the state of our psychological, emotional, and social well-being. Your mental health will affect how you think, how you feel, and how you act in certain situations.

It is common for people to associate mental health with conditions like anxiety, bipolar disorder, or loneliness. However, to be in a good mental health condition doesn’t mean living without a diagnosable condition. It could also mean simply being able to maneuver your day-to-day life responsibilities with ease and grace.

According to WHO, mental health is a state of well-being in which someone realizes their potential, can effectively cope with normal life stresses, work fruitfully and productively, and can be able to contribute to their community.

Taking care of your emotional well-being should be imperative now more than ever, mainly because the young generation is more predisposed to poor mental health. The most affected are teens and young adults born between the mid-90s – mid-2000s, according to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Luckily, according to the study, though they are the generation that struggles the most with mental health conditions, they are also the most likely to seek professional mental health support.

It is vividly clear the impact of diseases and physical illnesses like high blood pressure, cancer, and diabetes. Hence, we do everything in our power to try and improve physical ailments through life changes like exercise, diet, visits to the doctor, and medications.

Unfortunately, a considerable number of people let their mental health fall by the wayside because they don’t take it with the same importance as their physical health. We tend to underestimate the impact of stress on our bodies even though poorly managed stress tends to lead to migraines, fatigue, overeating, and upset stomach to irritability, depression, and alcohol abuse, and sometimes diabetes.

Our mental health is just as important as our physical health because it affects our normal state of being, hence not managing it the right way can lead to a host of medical issues. It can negatively impact every element of your life, from your work performance to your personal relationships.

Can CBD Help With Mental Health?

In the past few years, there has been an increase in CBD consumer interest to treat anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions. Celebrities like Kristen Bell and Jennifer Aniston have helped drive this trend by embracing CBD as a way of easing their depression and anxiety symptoms. You can also visit https://www.greenfinder.co.uk/ for more information about CBD.

There is an icrowdnewswire study suggesting that CBD or cannabinoids can improve symptoms of anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions. Hence physicians tend to refrain from recommending CBD to their patients as a treatment option for mental health disorders

You can read more about CBD oil benefits here: https://www.thehempire.com/best-cbd-oil/

Researchers analyzed 83 studies that looked at the use of CBD in treating mental health conditions symptoms. These studies from 1980-2018 looked at the treatment of anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and Tourette syndrome.

Among the studies, only 40 were randomized controlled trials, which are the gold standard for medical research, while most were small with less than 40 people and ran only for 4-5 weeks. According to the analysis, pharmaceutical THC, with or without CBD, helped reduce symptoms of anxiety in people suffering from other medical conditions.

However, this was based only on seven studies with 252 patients. Hence the evidence could be classified as low-quality. There was no impact on the same on depression symptoms. Most of the studies were for conditions like multiple sclerosis, and chronic, non-cancer pain, with depression or anxiety as a secondary symptom. 

The authors in the analysis indicated that the reduction of the anxiety symptoms seen in these studies could have been due to the pharmaceutical THC, which helped relieve symptoms of the primary medical condition.

However, they found no evidence of CBD improving symptoms for psychosis, PTSD, ADHD, and Tourette Syndrome. In fact, one of the studies suggested that pharmaceutical THC made psychosis worse. Other research also shows that there is a massive risk of adverse side effects from CBD use like addiction, anxiety, depression, and psychosis.

Even so, most people with chronic pain tend to turn to CBD to treat symptoms and avoid serious side effects of long-term opioid use. According to The Hempire, There are also people with depression or anxiety that self-medicate with cannabis.

Though there are not enough studies yet to support the use of CBD for mental health conditions, that doesn’t mean that it won’t change as there are still studies being conducted. More high-quality data is needed from randomized controlled trials to look at the benefits of CBD  for specific conditions, like psychosis.

Hence, you should be extra careful about using CBD to treat mental health conditions, mainly because poor treated or untreated mental illness could get worse and could lead to unwanted side effects.

If you want to use CBD products to improve your mental health, it’s best to avoid self-medicating. We recommend working with a mental health provider because using CBD without supervision could lead to severe consequences. You need a doctor who will carefully monitor your improvement in your symptoms and for potential adverse effects.

Author Bio

Keith J. Myers is the Founder & Editor in Chief of The Hempire. He has overseen and directed the editorial growth and skill of this website since 2012. Before creating the Hempire, He was a writer and editor who covered topics in CBD, health, science, and wellness.

His personal commitment to helping people naturally and safely improve their health has driven the Hempire to commit to quality and consumer transparency.