What Happens When I Take A Tolerance Break

Recently , I fielded a great question from another Steemian, @massmedicinals.

As I began to craft my response, I thought the question was worthy of an independent post.

I also wanted to start a community conversation related to the topic of taking a break from using cannabis.

When a person takes a break from using cannabis, the process is known as taking a tolerance break.

Here’s the original question:

I am curious to ask what it's like for you, the first week after your break from cannabis. I think you described in a previous post about the physical impact the holiday from cannabis has on you. Hope that's not intruding too much. But hearing real accounts of how cannabis helps people is something I care a lot about.

Great post!
@massmedicinals

Here’s my response:

First of all, I use cannabis to treat an autoimmune disease called Multiple Sclerosis.

I was diagnosed 15 years ago and before I discovered that I could use cannabis to successfully treat the disease, I’d had 3 major episodes with it.

This included having some mobility issues and I have lost the sight (completely) in both of my eyes.

(Thankfully, not at the same time...but have been declared legally blind in both eyes on separate occasions.)

Once I started to eat cannabis, I haven’t had a single attack and have been living a “normal” life without any loss of function since 2007.

My vision completely restored to 20/20.

I’ve never had to take any pharmaceutical medications to treat the disease.

Technically, I’ve been stoned every day for almost 12 years...with the exception of taking 7-10 days off for a tolerance break, once a year.

I try to do this annually, as a way to reset my cb1 and cb2 receptors.

The endocannabinoid system is self-regulating.

This means that the system itself, controls the physical number of receptors which are available for the cannabinoids to bind to, on the cellular level.

If a person is regularly exposing their cells to cannabinoids daily, the cells will retract and shut off some of their receptors. When the receptors are retracted they aren’t available to bind with any cannabinoids.

If you think of the receptors like docking stations for THC and CBD, this means that with regular exposure some of the receptors will be completely closed for business.

Usually people try to break for 30 days to really reset all their receptors but that’s admittedly bloody hard to do with illnesses.

Once a person realizes just how good their body can feel when it’s not functioning with deficiencies, they don’t want to go back to that place.

Ever.

If left untreated, I have severe insomnia (as part of my symptoms) and brutal muscle spasms in my legs.

When I take a tolerance break, the first thing that happens is that I stop sleeping.

I’m lucky to get 3 hours a night.

My body then tries to pull as much stored THC and other cannabinoids out of my fat cells.

Now, like most chronics and people who don’t eat much sugar/carbs, I run lean. Read: not much body fat.

Night sweats ensue...not sleeping and completely drenched in my own perspiration is the result with muscle spasms thrown in, every night until I medicated with cannabis again.

(“Sign me up for that!” said no one ever. Lolz!)

The benefits do outweigh the negatives...(that’s what I tell myself anyway.)

Benefits:

After a 7-10 day abstinence, I require less than half of my highest cannabis titration level to achieve the same disease management results.

Less Than Half

If I don’t make an effort to reset my receptors, I just have to keep taking more cannabis to achieve the same results.

This is one of the reasons why we end up with people who have large daily prescriptions for cannabis. Many of my friends have double digits (in gram weight) daily prescriptions.

When we choose to take a break, there are things that one can do to lessen the blow while the receptors are resetting themselves.

I normally try to travel to a destination that I know will be sunny and warm. I exercise outside everyday and focus on keeping my body well hydrated and nourished with nutritionally dense food.

It’s tough to convince someone to take these measures but it is all about respecting the plant medicine, the human body and how both were and are designed to work together.

I welcome your comments and I invite you to contribute to the discussion.

Thanks again to @massmedicinals for starting the conversation...

~ Rebecca ;)