Bi-Polar describes a collection of symptoms, which may be the normal reaction to abnormal situations for which a person has no recognized (either by the person or society) coping skills. Bi-Polar medications “stabilize” a person within a pharmacologically defined “normal” zone. As I am fond of saying to my addictions clients, “Pills are not Skills”. The working theory (in the old days before the rise of Big Pharma), the pills were to stabilize you during the most stressful times of your life: death, birth, change in relationship, change in employment, change in geography. The pill, let’s say its xanax (a super valium) was supposed to get you through the rough patch of say three weeks after the death of a loved one, or other normal life stressor. Here’s the problem. In addition to your pills, you were supposed to get counseling from a person who could give you the emotional coping skills to deal with whatever happened to you, so you don’t need the pills. Which in the case of xanax and valium, (physically addiction, in only a week of use, and the withdrawal is potentially fatal). Another downside of pharmaceuticals besides being physically addiction, is that many of them are neurotoxic, and cause irreversible organicity (physical brain damage). So there are risks and benefits from pharmaceuticals. The side effects from pharmaceuticals, are one motivation for people self-medicating themselves with marijuana on top of their psych meds. It makes them feel better. Anything that makes you feel better is addicting. Marijuana is an addictive drug for the same reasons that other addictive drugs are addicting: Tolerance and withdrawal. The severity of the withdrawal depends on the intake. In my addictions practice of nearly 40 years, the severest withdrawal syndromes (described as heroin like by clients) seem to occur between an intake of greater than 1/8th oz – ¼oz 3.5g – 7g for you metric types a day. Consider that an ounce can yield up to 40 joints, and certainly if you have two pack a day cigarette smokers, then it is certainly possible to smoke an ounce a day of high grade sinsemilla in a day, and imagine what the withdrawal would be like from that. I don’t actually have to imagine it ,I’ve seen it.
So whether marijuana can treat bi-polar, depends on the nature of both. Marijuana is not a skill, its a drug, primarily acting along the anandamide pathways in the brain. Its produced from a natural source, without the benefit of a measured dosage. Since it hasn’t been studied for long term effects, and interactions with pharmaceuticals…its hard to say what its long term effects would be in combination with meds. Best thing I could say, is that it depends on the individual. If they were my client, I would say…its not whats wrong with you, bi-polar, its what happened to you…. Are you an abuse survivor, are you untreated for substance abuse, and self-medicating yourself using amphetamines, have you been traumatized, have your people been traumatized? How are you recovering from that trauma, has it been acknowledged, has an acceptable treatment been devised for it by society or your people? And don’t tell me depakote is treatment…sorry…Pills are Not Skills. What are the skills you need to develop? Bi-Polar is the new name for Manic Depressive…are you manic as a response to intense situations, are you depressed because you’ve suppressed your anger? Not a simple answer, not a simple question. Best I could do online.