CBD is a great, natural way to reduce anxiety that has destroyed the lives of so many. Learn through our comprehensive visual guide on how it can be used to fight anxiety and related symptoms.

Using CBD for anxiety is an effective way to be free from its crippling hold and improve life quality. Learn how in our full visual guide.

CBD is a great, natural way to reduce the anxiety symptoms that have destroyed the lives of so many. I’ve experienced, firsthand, the effects of CBD on social anxiety. A calm feeling floods my mind and there are few, if any, side effects if I get my dosage right.

The only downside is that I have to re-medicate every couple of hours. Or is that a downside? From Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) to PTSD and other specific phobias, studies suggest that CBD can have this same effect on all anxiety disorders.

I am passionate about promoting CBD as a treatment for anxiety disorders but I won’t simply use my subjective experience to pitch this to you. In fact, I’ve analyzed every single CBD study I could find, as well as hundreds of user experiences, and compiled all the information into five bite-sized chunks that will help you make an objective decision about your treatment.

Here’s how CBD battles anxiety

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health disorders worldwide and its symptoms significantly reduce patients’ quality of life. Chances are, you probably already know someone who’s going through such a tough time.

When it comes to the medicinal application of cannabis, there is an ongoing debate of whether you should focus on THC or CBD rich strains when treating specific conditions. When taken together there is a synergistic relationship between these two cannabinoids, which can do wonders for many symptoms of the disease.

When it comes to anxiety, however, CBD seems to be much more helpful. First of all, it does not produce psychoactive effects so you won’t feel paranoid. Second, CBD is superior to THC in the sheer number of conditions it helps with. It regulates many physiological processes such as sleep and appetite and also helps the body relax. It’s also proven to reduce chronic inflammation, which can make anxiety disorders worse.

Let’s check out the 5 main benefits of CBD for anxiety from the infographic.

CBD relieves physical symptoms of anxiety

Anxiety is not just in the mind—it also produces a wide variety of physical symptoms, which can be debilitating. Many people have reported CBD’s positive effects on their physical symptoms of anxiety, and the effects range from life-improving to life-changing.

In fact, CBD:

•   Relaxes muscles and relieves tension
•   Relieves nausea and bowel problems caused by severe anxiety disorders
•   Relieves headaches and tingling in your hands
• CBD can reduce learned fears and help with phobias
  

Some psychologists think that we (by “we,” I mean humans—if you’re a capybara then what are you even doing here?) are born with only two fears: fear of falling and fear of loud noises. Every other fear? We learn it. And this includes the hundreds of phobias that people are struggling with.

Unfortunately, some still dismiss anxiety as being “all in the head” but sometimes you just can’t cope with a traumatic experience. In these cases, CBD could help.

As you might know, both phobias and PTSD are marked by fear-related memories. According to a report published in 2017—titled, “Cannabidiol regulation of emotion and emotional memory processing: relevance for treating anxiety-related and substance abuse disorders”—by the British Pharmacological Society, several studies have confirmed that CBD reduces learned fear response in ways that could be helpful for patients suffering from phobias and PTSD. Onestudy—titled, “Cannabidiol Regulation of Learned Fear: Implications for Treating Anxiety-Related Disorders”—in particular, details how CBD relieves fear response. The researchers found that it helps in three ways:

• It acutely decreases fear expression
• It disrupts memory reconsolidation
• It enhances fear extinction

The studies all point to this single fact: CBD can help reduce the impact of learned fears, whether you are suffering from phobias, PTSD or other life-changing traumatic experiences.

CBD makes public speaking a walk in the park

There are many varieties of anxiety disorders (and many dimensions to their management) but the fear of public speaking is one of the most common ones.

You’ve probably been there yourself: The spotlight hits your face like a beacon of hopelessness and you suddenly feel a knot in your stomach. It doesn’t take long before you completely lose your grip on reality.

I’ve experienced this myself on many occasions and I am not joking when I say that it can have detrimental effects on future public performances. In fact, I am confident that it can cause social anxiety afterward. In moments like these, CBD could be a lifesaver, as it can relieve the symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and of specific phobias, one of which is the fear of speaking in front of people.

A study done in 2010—titled, Cannabidiol Reduces the Anxiety Induced by Simulated Public Speaking in Treatment-Naïve Social Phobia Patients—explored this issue in more detail. They took two groups—one was given a placebo and the other was given a single dose (600 mg) of CBD oil. About 1.5 hours later, they put both groups through a public speaking simulation and found that: “Pre-treatment with CBD significantly reduced anxiety, cognitive impairment and discomfort in their speech performance, and significantly decreased alert in their anticipatory speech.”

So to round this up: If you’re suffering from social anxiety and you’re afraid of speaking in front of unknown people, taking a dose of CBD oil 1.5 to 2 hours before your appearance could help.