Been an intense series of days around these parts, but at the moment me and my compatriot Dr. Cuts have overtaken a lovely apartment in Stuyvesant Heights and are dancing the stress away. About time we put all of our recent crate digging to use. By the by, this is without a doubt the friendliest, most comfortable neighborhood I’ve ever spent in. Fueling the fun are some delicious milkshakes, courtesy of The Deitch Project, which was bizarre to say the least. If anyone knows since when and why (and who, how and what) Deitch has become the new Mr. Softee, any insight would be greatly appreciated. Damn good milkshakes nonetheless.
In other news, I am beyond pleased to share with you the full text of that Elle article I mentioned the other day about the relationship between marijuana and anxiety. I got in touch with the author, the incredibly kind Patsy K. Eagan, and told her my own history. Having suffered from Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) my whole life, in my early twenties I discovered that marijuana provided more relief than paranoia, which seemed to defy conventional wisdom. Even more odd, I started to realize that many of my male and female friends recognized a similar correlation. Why this was, however had been something of a mystery, as I had no idea how to explain to my distressed mother that pot didn’t exacerbate my anxiety (something that had eluded my father, it turned out).
Fortunately, Ms. Eagan has entered the arena of educating people on the scientific causes behind this phenomenon and, as it turns out, the whole thing is, surprise suprise, quite natural.
One study published in a 1982 issue of Psychopharmacology found that the marijuana compound cannabidiol muted the anxiety produced by THC–marijuana’s main psychoactive cannabinoid….Also in the past decade, scientists discovered that the brain produced its own endocannabinoids, which mimic plant-made cannabinoids and transmit their chemical messages through the same neural receptors. High numbers of the receptors were also found to occur in the amygdala and the hippocampus, the parts of the brain that play the biggest role in anxiety. Also significant for anxiety suffers, scientists concluded that endocannabinoids–and arguable cannabainoids–may serve in the forgetting of fear.
Pretty juicy stuff, eh? To read the whole thing, you can download the article here. Well that does it for me…I got some eBay listings to create. At least I’ll have this on repeat the entire time:
Tags: Deitch Projects, Ice Cream Trucks, Milkshakes, Pot and Anxiety, Records
