Microdosing: Everybody’s Doing It
Not only are alcohol, caffeine, and cannabis all drugs, they are also all biphasic substances. A biphasic substance is one that has quite different—even opposite—effects on your body at different blood-concentration levels.
Alcohol, although classified as a depressant, actually acts as a stimulant until it reaches a certain threshold, at which point it reverses into sedation. Caffeine, at low doses, causes alertness and mental focus for most people, but at higher levels can cause anxiety, heart palpitations, and jitters (good to know, CBD might be able to counter-balance some of that anxiety the next time you OD on caffeine). Note: caffeine often has sedative effects on people who are neurodivergent.
At low doses, CBD can actually have a mild stimulating effect, and does more to benefit anxiety-reduction. At higher doses, it's more sedative, but may be less useful for reducing anxiety.
THC is less clear cut because various strains have different effects, various delivery methods have different effects, and all human bodies have unique chemistry that can result in—say it with me—varying effects. All of these factors can work in harmony to give you perfectly blissful relief, or can create an unpleasant storm of anxiety and paranoia that is unfortunately inescapable until it wears off, and severs many people’s relationship with the drug once they experience it.
The reason bad trips happen is that when you oversaturate your system with too much of a cannabinoid, the receptors that normally are activated by that cannabinoid (CBD or THC) will be turned off by your body. They will only turn back on once everything is back in balance, because our bodies are constantly trying to maintain homeostasis. If you are regularly over-saturating your receptors (smoking throughout the day, or smoking strains with very high THC %), more of them might stay "off" or your body can actually reduce the amount of them, which is what we call "developing a tolerance" for the substance, causing you to have to smoke more to get the same desired effects.
If this happens, a "tolerance break" might be necessary, to allow your system time to recover and reset. A few days could be enough to see a difference, although 2-4 weeks is recommended to really give your body the benefits. After the break, you should be able to feel stronger effects with significantly less quantity.
I just still don't get why Weed Culture makes it seem like the only way to enjoy weed is by consuming massive quantities of it, when it's very clear that doing so is counter-productive to receiving the many benefits of it. Sure, it's clearly just another example of like, toxic masculine bro-culture, but like... don't bro's want help with their anxiety too???
But yes, I do realize there is nuance here that I am breezing over. Cannabis’ place in our society is deeply intertwined with larger issues about the stigma of seeking mental health treatment and access to care (don’t get me started on how much easier it is to order weed than confidently ask your doctor for SSRI’s).
To bring us back to where we started though, discussing the biphasic effects of various drugs and the unfortunate reality that THC and CBD require so much personal awareness and experimentation, I'm becoming more interested in tinctures, because it's the only application method that has such a high level of dosage control, and the effects set in relatively quickly (slightly longer than smoking, much quicker than edibles).
Especially after learning about the biphasic effect, I think it's probably the best delivery method to use if you really want to nail down a micro-dosing regimen for specific symptoms relief, or if you've had a bad experience with cannabis but are now realizing maybe you just consumed way too much. The only downsides are that it'll take a bit of time and effort to figure out what works best for your body, and the cost of entry is higher. But the potential rewards are also much higher if you are looking for mental health and wellness-type results.
