Jane* reached out to Lovin Malta to detail her prolonged and traumatic experience with prescribed medication that was only put to a relieving end once she was given access to medical cannabis oil.

Jane explained that, for ten years, her medication was constantly changed and adjusted while her symptoms consistently worsened.

“The medication led me to nowhere but more despair. Yet, our psychiatrists seem to just dose us up and abandon us,” she said.

“No matter how grave the side effects were, the medication was always upped in dose or changed to something similar,” she continued.

Her anger soon turned to rage, leading to frequent outbursts against those closest to her, leaving long-lasting impacts on herself and her family.

Besides this, her symptoms of depression were also magnified.

She began to experience suicidal thoughts and found it increasingly difficult to leave her house, doing so only when necessary or when experiencing bouts of mania which always left her with additional feelings of guilt.

During this period, she began to develop physical pain which led to two new diagnoses; fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome.

She often felt burning sensations, stabbing pains and the feeling of being physically suffocated.

However, the pain didn’t stop there.

Symptoms intensified and she soon developed an aversion to food because she was vomiting several times a day.

Oftentimes, she experienced such severe brain fog that she couldn’t even remember what day it was.

“All I felt for the last year before I switched to cannabis was intense pain, sadness, hopelessness, rage and fatigue,” she said.

“When the pain took over, it became a daily battle to choose between having a shower or making dinner. All while trying to raise my child and maintain my home,” she continued.

At this point, she was on high doses of prescribed Lyrica and Codeine, along with more medication with names she can’t recall.

And ironically, her psychiatrists attributed her severe symptoms to the self-medication of cannabis; however, she fortunately maintained that it was her only relief from her numerous symptoms.

By some type of “miracle” the then general practitioner Dr. Andrew Agius, who is now a pain specialist, informed her about cannabis oil which she was eager to immediately try.

“Within days I was feeling ‘normal’, I had energy and happiness,” she recounted.

Nonetheless, she had to experience a number of distressing withdrawal effects as she began weaning herself off all the medications. But these were still minimised by cannabis.

Revitalised and swimming in newfound hope, Jane was able to try new things and meet new people.

Her mind was finally clear and she was able to communicate everything that she was feeling, something that the previous medication stole from her.

She eventually applied for medical cannabis flowers because, according to her experience, the combination of THC and CBD is the optimal way to keep the endocannabinoid system balanced. And she has since found it a lot easier to take care of herself.

“With cannabis, I feel I have a lifetime of opportunities ahead of me.”

Jane also described the paradoxical nature of the long and arduous process that surrounds the acquisition and maintenance of medical cannabis; she must reapply every six months for medication that left her with no negative side effects while the psychiatric medication that led to her mental deterioration was maintained with a repeat prescription and “little to no contact with the prescriber”.

She and her family are still recovering from the ten years of darkness that they experienced at the hands of a psychiatric system that let them down.

Jane concluded by saying that despite the awareness, this world was made for and by the “healthy and attractive people of society”.

“We have a very long way to go to make the minorities in society feel safe and accepted,” she said.

Her experience is a true testament to the advantages reaped from the use of medical cannabis.

With stories like hers, it’s hard to believe that there’s still such a stigma that harshly dictates the use and legitimisation of both medical and recreational cannabis. It is a social burden that has robbed so many people of an essential improvement in their mental health and quality of life.

What do you think about this?