The United Nations states that 158.8 million people around the world use marijuana. It’s considered to be a mild substance, but the truth is more complicated. Our drug addiction treatment programs at Promises offer information on marijuana use, including answers to questions like, “Does marijuana make you hungry?” Call 844.875.5609 for more.
Why Does Weed Make You Hungry? Understanding How Marijuana Affects You
Marijuana refers to the cannabis plant. People use its leaves, flowers, seed oil, and other parts of it for medicinal and recreational purposes. It can be smoked, eaten raw, converted into oil, brewed as tea, and much more.
Marijuana is made up of many components, some of which are mind-altering and others that are not. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the most potent of its components, and it’s what causes the high marijuana offers. It produces its strongest effects when inhaled, which is why so many people smoke marijuana.
THC affects different areas of the brain, including those that control:
- Balance, coordination, and posture
- Attention and memory
- Reaction time
As with other types of drugs, THC stimulates the release of large amounts of dopamine, creating a sense of pleasure.
So why does weed make you hungry? The THC in marijuana stimulates the hormone in your body that sends signals alerting your brain when you’re hungry — ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that tells you when you’re full, and THC can also impact it. When these two hormones are out of balance, you can end up eating more than you should.
Does marijuana make you hungry? It certainly can, though not everyone experiences it in the same way. Some people have the opposite effect and lose their appetite completely. It depends greatly on your brain chemistry and the balance of your hormones.
Marijuana Addiction: Why It Occurs
Your brain is geared toward wanting to repeat experiences you find pleasurable. This is a biological tool that keeps humans alive by encouraging the search for food, the need to reproduce, and many other activities. With addictive substances, however, this biological tool works against you.
Your brain tells you to use marijuana again so that you can repeat the feelings of euphoria you received in the past, leading you to experience cravings.
The more you use marijuana, the more the drug makes structural changes to your brain. It can potentially make it more difficult for you to feel pleasure from anything but using marijuana, and it can make breaking free from using the drug very difficult.
Once you start experiencing withdrawal symptoms, if you don’t use marijuana and you need to use more of it to feel the effects you want, you’ve developed an addiction.
Getting Help for Marijuana Addiction with Promises’ Drug Addiction Treatment
Although you may think of marijuana as a mild drug, it can be difficult to stop using it—just like any other addictive substance.
To start healing and getting back on the path to sobriety, you first have to know why the addiction occurred in the first place. Individual therapy and group therapy sessions can help you uncover where the problem stems from.
You also need to learn relapse prevention strategies and understand what your triggers are so that you can avoid relapsing.
At Promises, we offer treatment programs to help you manage addiction and change how you deal with difficult emotions and circumstances. We offer inpatient and outpatient services to provide the exact level of care you need.
Whether you face alcohol or drug addiction, our team of experts is here to help. Contact us at Promises today by calling 844.875.5609 and speaking with our admissions team about our programs.