One of the most obvious things about Alanis Morissette is that she struggles from depression, but her angsty attitude may be a thing of the past now that she’s discovered a couple of natural cures: Running and getting high on medical marijuana.
From People:
Morissette, 35, tells that “running has made being depressed impossible. If I’m going through something emotional and just go outside for a run, you can rest assured I’ll come back with clarity.”
The Grammy-winning singer, who has run two marathons, tries to live a healthy lifestyle, including eating lots of kale. But she still occasionally indulges “in red wine, and it’s fun to have medical marijuana once in a while,” she says. “I still party and include a little debauchery.”
LOL @ Alanis Morissette doing an interview with Runner’s World.
It might be hard for some people to believe, but the active lifestyle mixed with the combo of safe and legal medical marijuana seems to be the go-to for most people I know who suffer from depression here in California where it’s legal. Alanis stepping out and talking about it isn’t exactly brave, per se, but it definitely brings the topic of conversation up.
What do you guys think about medical marijuana when it’s used the way Alanis does it?
I think that “medical” marijuana is a better idea in theory than in practice. I have had experiences in my life with people close to me who have become addicted to marijuana by using it occasionally to relieve stress and anxiety. After a while, they began to rely on the drug and forgot all other coping mechanisms when they got angry or stressed. I think that although it may induce a release that going for a jog or doing breathing exceresizes can’t, it’s illegal for a reason and the THC causes irreprible damage.
I agree 100%. People talk about pot like it’s so safe, it isn’t. Just like cigarettes it can cause lung cancer and it kills brain cells. Anyone who smokes pot regularly has impaired short term memory and concentration problems. A better idea is to go to a counselor.
I know people who’s concentration improves when they are high. It may be especially useful for people with Attention Deficit and/or Hyperactivity disorders
Sorry, “whose.”
I agree. I’ve seen “occasional” users become full blown potheads because they can’t figure any other way to deal with the stress. To me, it’s the same as having a beer after a tough day or even a (tobacco) cigarette. It’s not gonna kill you doing it once in awhile, but some people take it to the extreme. For people that can handle it, I think medical marijauna is fine, but I think the reason it hasn’t been legalized everywhere in the US because of the potential harm it could cause.
I’ve seen more people who “occasionally” use prescription anti depressants or vicodin and oxcontin become full blown addicts and those legal medications do much worse damage than pot could ever do. It is nearly impossible to OD on marijuana and it is much harder to become addicted. And that addiction is purely mental, not physical like it is with most legal medications as well as tabacco and alcohol. Someone who smokes pot everyday for years can stop and not face the physical reactions that an alcoholic or a person taking mood stabilizers will.
I would much rather be able to control my depression and manic depressive tendencies with medical marijuana instead of the legal and yet physically dangerous medications that I have to take. They have numerous dangerous side effects and unnatural laboratory created ingredients that I personally am not completely comfortable taking, but I need them. Unfortunately the completely biased and uninformed opinions of the masses won’t allow me the opportunities to treat myself legally in the way that I best see fit. It is a shame to deny someone relief just because you think you know what is better for them and millions of other people out there who would benefit from being allowed to legally and safety procure a completely natural drug with a prescription from their physician.
Sure some would abuse the system. But isn’t that the case with everything. People abuse the system everyday because of their addictions to prescription pills. People lie everyday to continue receiving unemployment benefits and social services. That doesn’t mean we take away those things from everyone else who is deserving and in need.
I’ve been toking for 43yrs,still enjoy it.
Occasional user I am. Addict I am not. Been doing it this way for years. I am all in. Leagalize the shit already.
AMEN!!! Agree 100%!
i’ve been using marijuana for years. not once have i ever become addicted to it. i’ve gone months and years without smoking it at all. it’s illegal for a reason..do you know the reason? you’re wrong about it causing irreparable damage. it has been proven that all negative effects caused by marijuana go away after the user stops using it.
Singer like her should always not worry and smoke pot..
Alcohol is 1000x worse than pot in terms of societal consequences. I’ve seen it first hand working as a bartender. Legalize pot and not only do you balance budgets pretty quick because you aren’t wasting court time and police time and federal agents time but you tax the hell out of it like you do tobacco and now we can afford universal, quality healthcare for the entire country. And maybe everyone would mellow the fuck out.
Amen!
Having watched way too many people ruin their lives over the fact that they do pot, no I don’t agree with legalized marijuana. And I don’t mean just because they were arressted for possession. I mean people who smoke themselves into a brainless haze where they are sooo mellow and sooo relaxed they could give a rat’s ass about anything, up to and including their homes, children and family.
Every other high school kid and college student would be on it the second it was legalized and any money saved from not having all the legal fees from the court cases concerning pot would be eaten up by the amount of debt counceling and help these people are eventually going to need to pick themselves back up out of the haze they’ve been living in when they realize their life is now going no where. Your thinking and reflexes are as impaired after smoking pot as it is when your drunk and frankly it’s scary to think of all the people who would show up to work high as a kite if it was legalized. I, for one, certainly don’t want any of them driving around me, cooking my food, or being any where near anyone I hold dear.
kratsina, you need to inform yourself better. marijuana absolutely does NOT impair your thinking and reflexes the way alcohol does.
And I suppose it’s just some massive coincidence that almost everyone in prison and almost all high school drop outs were tokers? All the guys I went to high school with that smoked that crap on a daily basis still live in their mom’s basement. Just sayin’
And every girl I know that had a kid in high school because they were to stupid to use condoms were and still are fucking idiots. What is your point?
If you weren’t smoking pot your post might have been grammatically correct. That’s my POINT.
Do you know how many people who smoked pot in high school DIDN’T end up dropping out and/or going to prison?
Most of them.
Alanis will one day realize that endorphins will be enough. I think it’s great that she’s running but not so great that she’s compromising her lungs by smoking…something she should think about if she wants to comeplete any more marathons later on down the road.
ick….all you self-righteous worry warts need to chill out! maybe go smoke some pot :o) when used in moderation pot will not kill you, will not give you cancer. sorry, but alcohol is waaaaay worse for you and far more destructive. ya’ll are just brainwashed by our government’s war on drugs. peace and love, man
i live in michigan where medical marijuana just became legal..but i have been using marijuana on a semi-consistent base for about 15 yrs. it has not ruined me or any others that i know of (who use it daily for recreation or stress/ailments). they can handle the real world and function high or not high. marijuana is much safer than alcohol, prescription pills and other medications…granted medical strains of pot are more potent and work faster and you need much less to get high..plus when using the oil for cooking, smoking w/a vaporizer and using the oils in ointments is safer and has less negative effects on the lungs than smoking a joint.
I don’t really agree with prosecution of marijuana users but I, too, have seen people reduced to shells of their former selves from addiction to pot. It happens. I don’t think it’s safe. I also think it’s horrible to inhale anything unfiltered and deliberately hold it in till you can’t any longer. Especially when we’re so busy demonizing smokers. Pot is just gross and stinky too..
I think it should be legalized. I really don’t think pot can do any more harm than cigarettes or alcohol. Those two as a whole kill and ruin more lives in this country than pot ever could. Can people get addicted to it? Absolutely, but people can get addicted to anything, eating, drinking, gambling, sex… Also, marijuana actually HELPS many people out there who really need it…people coping with chemo, and I’ve recently read some articles with studies on how it helps people with ADD. I think if regulated correctly, and taxed, legalization could really help get this country out of some debt!
alot of people that are strongly against using marijuana, have obviously never tried it.. it does not fuck up your life completely or leave you in a drugged out haze like other narcotics definitely do. it is a plant, people. you can also smoke it out of a vaporizer if the carcinogens worry you (although lung cancer has never been linked to ONLY thc) i think using marijuana occasionally can be a great way to see a new perspective on life, especially if you are depressed. sure, it can be pyschologically addictive, but what can’t be? caffiene is proven more addictive than thc! i think that if you keep your priorities in line, and your life in check thenthere is absolutely nothing wrong with marijuana what so ever. legalize it!
It’d help enforce your pro-marijuana cases if you guys would at least learn how to properly capitalize or, you know, not sound like a stoner idiot.
peace & luv, maaaaaaaaan
I always find it funny that people see marijuana users so one-dimensionally. $10 says that a lot of people in your white collar world get home from work, take of their tie or pumps and sit back and smoke a bowl occasionally. Most pot smokers aren’t Jeff Spicoli or gang members. They are normal people you work and interact with every single day.
I know plenty of people who smoke pretty regularly but are also responsible about it – they don’t drive high, they don’t go to work high. These are otherwise law-abiding citizens with full-time jobs who own their own homes and have children who are loved and well cared for. Obviously weed is not for everyone, and there will always be people who choose not to exercise self-control and will abuse it. But why should those few people ruin it for the rest of us?
See you do need to chill out.
This is interesting. I’m a loooooooooong time depression and anxiety sufferer, but never considered marijuana as a treatment option. The handfull of times I have used it, I’ve wound up with a bad case of the green grumpies a couple of days later.
I frikkin hate running.
i suffer from depression. it sucks everyday bc i know that i don’t want to feel this way but i can’t seem to help it when this “wave” just washes over me and i’m suddenly doing a 180 from being happy. i don’t have money to go see a therapist/psychiatrist so i don’t have a means for proper meds. my bf gets weed and i’ll admit, although it’s a temporary relief from whatever it is i’m feeling, it’s not good bc i feel as though i have become “addicted” to it. i have come to rely on it and it’s become a quick fix to get me out of my funk. but without it, i’m afraid there are things i would have done to myself that i would not be proud of.
Go to a clinic or Hospital ER and explain your situation. Pot will only make things worse in the long run. There are studies in Britain that show it can cause Schizophrenia, and no, I am not making that up. Google it.
Good luck to you.
Everyone’s raising great points. It’s totally true that alchohol (for example) and many other legal or prescribed drugs cause a ton of problems, perhaps way more than pot does/could.
HOWEVER, Liza – I have personally seen someone very close to me become steadily more disconnected, paranoid and ultimately completely isolated and schizophrenic who smokes upwards of 10 joints a day to “manage” anxiety.
I guess my point is not that everything that is legal is good and pot is bad but that pot is not the safe, natural, “herbal” remedy that people make it out to be. I’ve done it a handful of times, it’s made me really paranoid, laugh hysterically and pass out. Do not want. If others enjoy it, I don’t take issue. I know people who use it regularly and occasionally with no visible ill effects. But I’ve seen people smoke like chimneys till the ripe old age of 94 too, cancer free – this does not mean smoking cigarettes is healthy.
“I have personally seen someone very close to me become steadily more disconnected, paranoid and ultimately completely isolated and schizophrenic who smokes upwards of 10 joints a day to “manage” anxiety.”
Maybe that’s b/c they ARE Schizophrenic like you said ..or some other problem…not the pot. Lung Cancer… You do know you don’t have to smoke Marijuana right?
No, and you don’t have to snort cocaine or shoot heroin but that’s how people tend to do it. I’ve never seen anyone use pot and not smoke it. Not to say it MUST be smoked, I just think that’s the most popular method.
And yeah, for sure, there were obviously mental issues there to start with but someone that had a job and social life turned into someone who did not leave the house, just sits on the sofa all day smoking pot. And if you have the misfortune to talk to them, you get subjected to paranoid rants. Especially if you catch them right after a joint.
And again, I am not saying that’s everyone. I’m just saying it bugs me when people go on about what a safe, harmless wonder-drug it is. That’s no better than the drug companies. Go ahead and legalise, just do it with eyes open.
The direction of causality between marijuana use and schizophrenia is not established. Schizophrenia is not caused by marijuana use. The truth is that people with mental disorders (including schizophrenia) often self-medicate with alcohol and other drugs. In other words, it is more likely that schizophrenia causes marijuana use and not the other way around.
I don’t believe it CAUSED schizophrenia, I believe it certainly exacerbated an underlying issue. Isn’t it the same with alcohol? There’s usually an underlying issue before someone becomes a raging alcoholic too. I’m saying that marijuana can be just as harmful in the wrong hands and that’s all I’m saying.
Liza said it caused schizophrenia.
Have you considered that your friend might actually be worse off if he didn’t manage his anxiety by using marijuana?
Wow, you are so right! I have an idea. Let’s make it so adults can no longer choose what they do. Driving a car could end up badly for some….someone may have a fender bender *gasp*..heaven knows it sucks for the environment…Let’s Ban people from using them!
If you don’t like it. Then don’t do it. You don’t agree with it….don’t do it. Stop thinking you have to subject everyone to your feelings on it. “do it with open eyes” Like adults have no clue about what pot does or how it affects them….b/c we aren’t talking about ‘kids’ we are talking adults….I swear to God if you come back with ‘well, some people don’t’ I’m just going to redirect you to the beginning of what I just wrote.
Jamie, maybe calm down, have a joint if that’s what you need ;)
Perhaps I need to redirect YOU to the beginning of what I said. Did I say to BAN anything?? I said I was in favour of legalising. The ONLY thing I said I had issue with was people who blindly attest that pot is completely safe and non-addictive and natural, etc. etc. It’s not completely safe. Not much is. I said it can be harmful in a similar way to alcohol (isolating and exacerbating mental issues) IN THE WRONG HANDS. I’m not looking to score a point on you, I’m sure your experiences with it colour your viewpoint. I’m simply sharing mine. Relax.
One 2005 study, for example, found similarities between the brains of adolescents who smoked marijuana regularly and adolescents with schizophrenia. Researchers at North Shore University Hospital-Long Island Jewish Healthcare System found that found that a brain region that connects the front of the brain to deeper regions (the arcuate nucleus) is underdeveloped in both schizophrenia patients and regular marijuana users.The under-development was only on the left side in these teenagers, while schizophrenia patients who also abuse marijuana showed under-development on both sides of the brain.
Other studies have found that THC can cause schizophrenia-like symptoms in some. Most experts do not believe this. It is more likely that marijuana can trigger the emergence of schizophrenia in persons who are already predisposed to developing schizophrenia. This probably includes anyone with a strong family history of schizophrenia.
People are so uninformed.
Legalize It!!
I live in BC Canada and people do it here for many reasons buuuuut I gotta say i have used it for depression and anxiety and also add…. yeah, it works for me but it depends on the stuff you get… we have some good mellow bud here which works quite well. and one toke is enough for school or work… any more and you really just stare into space and want pie.
Yeah, but really, isn’t it ironic?
Don’t you think
I’m sure the reason she is feeling better is much more closely linked to her active lifestyle rather than the “medical marijuana”. Lifestyle changes are one of the most important things when fighting depression.
1. No one’s ever OD’d on pot.
2. No one’s ever smoked weed then gone home to beat thier wife
3. Pot has no addictive properties
4. When drug dealers and politicians are both in agreement that pot shouldn’t be legalized, you have to ask yourself why that is.
5. Don’t you think the police have better things to do than bust folks for pot?
6. People in this country don’t seem to have a problem with anti-depressants or any other synthetic drugs perpetrated by drug companies, but for some reason everyone jumps down the throat of people who are smoking a totally natural thing.
7. Less we forget that Bayer is the company who gave us heroin, so who’s the bad guy in all this? Drug companies or something that’s been around for millions of years?
The ONLY reason it isn’t legal is because the government makes money off of it. As with ALL illegal drugs. How do you think the stuff gets over the border? It could be stopped if anybody really cared. The government gets a cut. They get a cut on large scale locally grown weed too. As far as Marijuana being bad for you…that seems a little relative to me. I’m not against it, god knows I’ve done it all but….I think a person should be able to work it out without drugs. If you’re cripplingly clinically depressed I don’t see how weed will make you feel better. If you’re mildly depressed then therapy and changing your life seems like a better plan to me. Besides, how good can the high be if your sad and anxious underneath it all?
Maybe both. Don’t act like pot doesn’t have downsides. It does. Heroin has its upsides too, you know? It just has a potential for abuse, as does pot. Just because pot’s potential for abuse may be less than heroin doesn’t make it perfect.
you are really going to compare Heroin and Cannabis. you must lead a sheltered life.
Not really and not really. Maybe you should re-read what I wrote.
“May” be less than heroin?
um, what are heroin’s upsides?
Doctors, lawyers, teachers, moms and dads, bond traders, plumbers, professors, accountants, etc. use marijuana. People who are fully functioning members of society do it. As long as they aren’t hurting anyone else, who cares?
I think they SHOULD legalise it because really, if someone wants to hang out in their own house and smoke pot, who cares? Honestly, as someone who had parents that smoked it frequently, I have a real disdain for it – but I know people that do it and would never suggest that it’s something that hinders a friendship or should involve the law. Again, my main issue is just you hardcore Green party types who try to assert that it’s 100% safe and “natural”. (Opium is natural too, isn’t it?) I take prescription pain medication fairly regularly for sciatica and nerve damage in my neck. I am not addicted nor do I abuse pain pills. That doesn’t mean the potential isn’t there and that some people could, would and do. Going on about how pot doesn’t have addictive properties is fairly ridiculous. Anything that makes you feel that different and for some people – makes you feel that GOOD, can be very addictive. I guess what I’m getting at is to just not act like there’s no downside to it.
I think that the side effects of smoking anything are enough to warrant looking into an alternative remedy. Getting active, though? Brilliant!
I love it. I can just picture Alanis depressed in the middle of the night, jogging down the street in her bathrobe, singing Hand in My Pocket. Hey, if I saw that, I think it would cheer me up if I was feeling blue.
I toke up once or twice a week regularily and I am an honour student. Do not start about memory loss, or loss of concentration or brain cell damage. There is no conclusive link to cancer, it may have more carcinogens than cigarettes but much less is actually smoked, it does not demotivate people who are not already susceptible to that and it is not addicting or destructive. The exception is people who can’t cope with their problems in the first place and most likely would’ve been screwed over anyway, pot or not. You’d be surprised at how many “respectable” and “successful” people smoke marijuana regularily (your terms for success, not mine).
Also, the word marijuana looks aesthetically pleasing because of the i and the j are adjacent. I CAN USE FANCY WORDS TOO! =p
Why are you all such grammar bullies? I didn’t realise you ALL had an English degree and therefore feel that you can educate people (poorly) on the way they type, on a gossip site that they might happen to frequent occasionally. They may have a well reasoned and sound comment to make on the debate but NAW they began it in lower case therefore their opinion is null.
All I know, is I’d rather have 10 joints than 10 beers. I know that I could walk home after 10 joints, I would be in a ditch after 10 beers. I know I’m not gonna rob anyone having smoked a joint, although you can’t say the same for alcoholics.
Most people need a crutch in life, and for some of you self righteous losers it’s trying to make other people feel worse than you feel. Away smoke a joint and take a shit, you’ll feel better.
And that’s good for you, Frank. Personally a couple tokes would have me snoring in a ditch. That’s all I’m saying. It’s not a totally harmless mild thing for everyone. Furthermore, everyone always points to alcohol as being so damaging, which in many cases, it can be. HOWEVER, seriously, how many people only drink socially with no ill effects? How many people have a glass of wine at dinner and don’t turn into alcoholics? The sheer volume of people who drink in any capacity vs. people who are alcoholics is vast. But it’s widely accepted that alcohol has such a potential for abuse. I attest that there would be an underlying issue in all alcoholics and also that if pot is the drug of choice that can be abused too… because I’ve seen it.
One or two glasses of wine a night, depending on size can actually exceed your weekly recommended intake of alcohol, for a woman. A lot of ‘social drinkers’ don’t know what quantity of alcohol constitutes harmful, and you don’t sound like you do either. If you get drunk only one night a week, it’s still probably a technical binge and still exceeds your weekly intake even if you only drank once that week.
Also no one was saying that you cannot abuse pot, all I was saying anyway was that weed isn’t a social problem because there is little crime attributed to cannabis, there is HUGE public spending going on cleaning up after people on a Saturday night. The social cost for society is much higher for alcohol than it is for marijuana. If legalised weed could even pay for itself since it’s a biofuel, clothing, food and paper source, and any crime attributed to it would fall because the only real crime there is in relation to it is drug distribution and supply.
Many doctors have actually said that alcohol and nicotine, if discovered today are so harmful they would be made illegal, but because there are enormous industries around them that’s clearly not going to happen. Whereas weed, sure it causes can cause cancer and sure it breeds laziness and self satisfaction where none should exist but at least it doesn’t breed violence and addiction to the point where it actually reduces quality of life (in a serious way, turning someone into a lazy stoner doesn’t count).
Alcohol is incredibly harmful and destructive and weed isn’t. That’s the long and short of it in my view anyway.
I love Alanis!