Mary Jane and Matchdays
Tags: Mental Health, Anxiety, Marijuana, Depression, Anxiety Disorder

Mary Jane and Matchdays

Marijuana, Mary Jane, Weed, or whatever your preferred way of calling it, can be and is used as a recovery tool for certain mental health disorders. Ever since moving to America, I have personally used the drug to help with my anxiety and depression, and hey it works. When I do reach my high which only takes 10 minutes to hit me, I experience relaxation to the max in my mind and body. My mind begins to laser in and only focus on one thing which helps massively with my overthinking, the tightness and all the stresses I have in my body loosen up, and my creativity springs to life I begin to open doors in my mind that I never knew existed. I also feel emotions ten times harder than normal, this is why it is important when your “high” to focus on the good and happy things because a turn into a little darkness can make your experience go south real quick. I’ve heard watching football high is also an experience but haven’t tried this myself but I am intrigued. My sleep hygiene also benefits as I fall asleep a lot quicker and deeper making me feel refreshed and awake the next day. To put it simply marijuana takes the edge off and relieves symptoms of my depression and anxiety in a big way.

Marijuana in football though is a big no no even for players off the pitch, the Football Association have the drug banned on their substance list. Musonda Mweuke in 2003 was arrested for unlawful use of the drug and later pleaded guilty, it’s important to note that he was the top scorer for Zambia’s domestic league at the same time. As marijuana becomes ever so increasingly used in America with more and more states legalizing it, it still has an uphill battle for legalization with other nations such as England. As mental health takes a front seat in the UK with the backing of Prince William, it has me wondering if marijuana will ever be given a chance to help the mental health community within the UK.

While I was doing my soccer coach summer camps, I would smoke on my off days on the weekend and felt more relaxed and refreshed to coach through the week. This is because I wasn’t worrying and overthinking like I usually do on whether my session plans would be up to standard and was right for the kids or whether I was impressing or disappointing my boss the director of coaching. I did see the amazing benefits until I started not doing it only on my off days but then every day after the summer camps ended. Too much of something is never good and with smoking every day, I started to become lazy, bigger because of the bloody munchies, unmotivated and uninspired, and kept myself on an ongoing loop of this. I get inspired just by watching football and indulging with all its content that it has to offer especially women’s football. During quarantine, I discovered that I want my career to be in the football industry more so the women’s side but I’ll take either and I also discovered that I wouldn’t get anywhere if I were to stay on this lazy bum route I was going on. So as of right now I have been abstinent from weed for 18 days now and counting and am now back at it and ready to continue to fight this depression and anxiety and live the life I envision of myself. I won’t kick out marijuana forever but it won’t ever become a daily occurrence again maybe something like one day every two months or so.

So to end it all marijuana is a huge help in relieving systems of depression and anxiety but in my opinion only to be used in moderation. I now leave you with a little weed meme.