Does Smoking Weed Make You A Better Person?
11/5/2021 8:55 PM
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that being more empathic is the foundation to getting through one of the world’s toughest economic times in over 100 years.
It doesn’t take much to realize that not everyone is good at putting themselves in another’s shoes. However, recent research shows that cannabis may help you become more empathic.
Read on to learn more about the science behind how weed makes you more empathic, and why this connection affects how we interact with other people.
What is Empathy?
Empathy may only be one personality trait that makes you a better person, but I think we can all agree it’s a good one.
Defined as the ability to understand another person’s feelings, empathy allows us to put ourselves in someone else’s
shoes - emotionally - to see where they are coming from.
Research shows that empathy allows us to share in on the experiences, desires, and needs of others. Dictated by various neural networks, empathy affects the part of our brains that perceive other people’s emotions and allows us to resonate with them, understanding their perspective and distinguishing our own emotions from someone else’s.
Arguably, being more empathetic makes us better people because it helps us get along with others, maintain friendships, make better decisions, and take action when we see someone else being bullied.
And while humans start showing signs of empathy as infants, we tend to lose our sensitivity towards others as we age. We may even be more tolerant of those who look and think like us and less empathetic toward members outside or our faith, family, community, or race.
As you can imagine, having more empathy helps us strengthen bonds, creating a better world for future generations to come.
How Does Weed Affect Empathy?
So, how does weed fit in here? Well, research shows that cannabis may help make us more empathetic by affecting our thought process, encouraging us to think more creatively and spiritually.
According to psychotherapist and CEO of The Cannabinoid Institute, Dr. Jan Roberts, cannabis may affect a person’s ability to understand others’ feelings and relate to them.
Cannabinoid receptors are primarily located in the part of the brain that is well known for its ability to influence emotion called the amygdale. They are also located in the medial prefrontal cortex, which is a part of the brain that is responsible for emotional response and decision making.
Research shows that the administration of THC decreases the amygdala’s response to threats, such as ones that may come from angry faces, indicating that cannabis may impact mechanisms in the brain that are tied to underlying emotions and other neural processes.
Additionally, using cannabis can lead to both immediate and long-term changes in the brain, such as altered emotional behaviour and emotional processing. It can also directly influence mental and physical processes in the body, such as sleep patterns and appetite.
However, one study found that THC may increase the user’s ability to become empathetic by affecting thought processes that make it difficult to identify negative face patterns, such as anger and fear.
Dr. Roberts explains that neurotransmitters are impacted each time you consume cannabis. The endocannabinoid system is so tightly entwined with our nervous system that it interacted with serotonin, dopamine, GABA, glutamine, and other brain chemicals that influence our actions, emotions, and behaviours.
Weed is also really good at causing you to slow down and become more aware of your feelings and the feelings of those around you, creating a sense of mindfulness that leads to a more empathetic outlook.
According to Dr. Roberts, people with anxiety and depression tend to be more empathic, which may draw them to marijuana use. She notes that when cannabinoids are used at the right dose, anxiety shuts down and helps users become more connected to themselves and others.
Best Cannabis Strains For Increasing Empathy
While it’s tempting to think that smoking weed alone can make someone a better person, Dr. Roberts notes that it comes down to intention, dosage, and type of method used.
Too much will suppress or dull your emotions while too little won’t give you the desired effect you’re looking for.
The connection between cannabis and how it affects your empathy is personal. It’s well-known that cannabis affects everyone differently.
If you have experienced a lot of stress or trauma in your life, then Dr. Roberts suggests that you may need more CBN or CBD to really affect your level of empathy.
However, as noted in the study in the section above, THC plays an important role in affecting areas of the brain that process emotions.
So, you may need to experiment with a strain that includes proper amounts of THC and CBD to help bring out your best side.
Here are some cannabis strains that may help make you more empathetic by affecting emotion processing:
Final Thoughts
Using cannabis is usually very effective at alleviating anxiety and speech problems that make people unable to communicate, grow as a person, and reciprocate feelings of compassion and sensitivity.
However, this reaction tends to be very specific to each person’s mind, body, and spirit. The best way to use cannabis if you are looking for a more empathetic reaction is to focus on the cannabinoid profile.
The right combination can make someone better able to understand and feel what someone else is feeling - maybe even by learning how it feels themselves. After all, cannabis is great at building and establishing connections.
How does cannabis affect your empathetic side? Let us know in the comments below.
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