Last year, Sonoma winemaker Hadley Larson’s mother had a stroke, a relative attempted suicide twice, and the Wine Country fires forced her to evacuate with her son while her husband stayed to guard their home.
Months of anxiety and nights of five hours of sleep led to outbursts of “random rage,” panic attacks and suicidal thoughts, she said, according to Green State.
A psychiatrist in November recommended anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs, but when Larson, wary of side effects, asked him about using cannabis instead, his answer surprised her. “I will tell you,” she recalled him saying, “that that is where the research is headed.”
Within days of ditching the prescriptions in favor of a tincture of cannabidiol, or CBD, at bedtime, she was a new woman. The non-psychoactive cannabis substance helped to calm her racing thoughts, allowing her to nod off within 45 minutes, rather than ruminating for hours, and her anxiety subsided, too.