Cloudscape

There has long been controversy about whether or not marihuana causes psychosis. The correlation that has been found between marihuana and psychosis is indisputable, but it is unclear whether marihuana causes psychosis or vice versa.

It is probably a bit of both: marihuana use can be out of a need to flee from reality, meaning that beside marihuana, the person will also seek other ways of fleeing from reality, which is basically synonymous to psychotic diathesis. It can also be because of isolation, or to find distraction from stress. Stress, isolation and a tendency to flee from reality happen to be the three most important factors of psychosis. At the same time, however, marihuana may also cause a person to flee even further from reality, become even more isolated, and because of this, eventually go through even more stress.

As a result of this, the increased risk of psychosis caused by heavy marihuana use is probably not as high as anti-drug activists are inclined to believe, but also not as low as marihuana users are inclined to believe. Studies indicate that the risk of psychosis in marihuana users is 2 to 8%, compared to 1% in the general population — an increase of 100 to 800 percent. If the correlation is bidirectional, the risk of psychosis would increase with heavy marihuana use, but not by 800 percent.

It may seem hard to find out by how much the risk of psychosis is really increased by marihuana, since there is no way one can subject a random sample of the population to heavy marihuana use and see what happens, but there can be another way:

The researchers should ask not for subjects who are already using marihuana, but for subjects who claim to be interested in using marihuana but have never used it. The subjects would then be split in two groups, both of which would be subject to regular drug tests. In one group, the control group, subjects that are found to have used marihuana are eliminated from the study. In the other group, subjects that have found not to have used marihuana will be eliminated from the study, though not before the end of the follow-up. To prevent the study from manipulating the subjects' behavior, all subjects would be paid the same amount of money at the end of the study, even if they were eliminated at an early stage. At the study's conclusion, it is important that the user group (that is, the group where all non-users have been eliminated) is subdivided into separate groups according to how heavily they used marihuana, and the percentage of psychosis be mentioned for each subdivision. This study would last for at least years and at most decades.

Worries are often the result of indecision. We worry about things if we aren't sure what to do about them, or even what to think about them. In fact, worrying is basically about making decisions: the mind recognizes a problem and debates what to do about.

When we think of doing something but dither about what we should do, or if we should really do anything at all, this vacillation may resound in our minds for some time, and for some people longer than for others; at first, consciously; then, when our minds are distracted by other matters, this may go on on a subconscious level. When this happens, we may have the feeling that we have forgotten something we need to do. The feeling that something needs to change leads to unrest. We have a nagging feeling without knowing just why.

At this point, we may struggle, perhaps without being fully aware of it, to remember what it was we still needed to decide about, sometimes to such extent that it causes us to forget to enjoy. We know not what to think about, but we know that we should be thinking about something, a matter which still needed to be settled upon. Since we forgot what it was, we simply go on thinking about what we were thinking until our thoughts wander. The more frequently it occurs that we cannot decide on something, the further we get lost in our thoughts.

On the other hand, indecisiveness may also be linked to philosophical abilities, since people who are indecisive about what to do may also be unable to decide on what to think, allowing them to keep their mind open to possibilities.

Another phenomenon where indecisiveness can lead to anxiety is in an undesirable situation which may or may not be changed. The mind cannot relax and accept the situation before it knows that it will not change it, as it otherwise wishes to seek a way to change it. However, it may be difficult to change the situation, which may lead to indecision whether or not to change it. To make matters worse, to change the situation one may have to sacrifice something else, further making the decision harder. As long as this has not been decided on, the mind will remain in a state where it sees the given situation as something it wishes to change, and therefore it will become more frustrating. As long as the mind thinks of changing the situation, it cannot accept it. However, someone who is indecisive may also be indecisive about whether or not to even think of changing the situation or accept it.

In addition, indecisiveness is also likely to generally slow people down in everything they do, as they spend a large portion of their time deciding what to do, so that, in this way, indecision may significantly make their lives less fulfilling and more frustrating.

Many people may be faced with indecision now and then, but for some people, this may become so frequent that a chronic sense of uncertainty settles in their minds. If this problem becomes severe, these people may eventually develop depression. It has indeed been observed that in depressed people, the prefrontal cortex, the brain's decision center, is hypoactive, which is one of the most characteristic signs of depression. Perhaps indecision is not just a symptom but also a cause or contributing factor of depression, though it is certainly not the only one. Either how, it seems clear that people who are indecisive run a higher risk of developing depression at some point in their lives.

Children should at all times had the right to choose freely to be received in a foster family, be it temporarily or permanently, for instance in the case of abuse or neglect. As soon as a mental illness (including alcoholism) has been diagnosed in either of the parents, the children of the parents should be informed of this right.

In schizophrenia, severe chronic stress resulted in the failure of the individual's coping mechanisms; she or he loses courage to face his difficulties and therefore to care for her- or himself. In other words, the ego dissolves. Practical thought becomes reduced because the individual has lost the will to concern her- or himself with it. Not finding safety in reality, the individual is then forced to flee into unreality, leading to psychosis.
What remains is simple experience, be it of a sensory nature (i.e. sensations) or abstract (i.e. imagination). No longer having the will to filter perceptions of practical value from those without, perceptions that are normally filtered at once become more prominent. This is referred to as decreased latent inhibition. Perceptions that are normally unconscious encroach upon the conscious, while normally conscious (practical) perceptions become unconscious.
Because the individual's awareness is partly transferred from the practical thought which usually accounts for a large part of our mental processes to experience, this may lead to a state of expanded consciousness. While this may be experienced as pleasant at times, as the illness progresses it becomes so inescapable that it becomes horrifying.