1. Why Do Some People Experience Psychosis the First Time They Use Marijuana?

​

STM Explanation: Cognitive and Sensory Overload in a Pre-Sensitized System

• Marijuana (especially high-THC strains) rapidly floods sensory and cognitive systems, disrupting normal information flow.

• In highly sensitive individuals, this can exceed the brain’s processing threshold, especially if their sensory filters, emotional regulation, or dopaminergic system is already fragile (due to early trauma, genetic predisposition, neurodevelopmental factors).

• This acute overload mimics a system crash: hallucinations, paranoia, time distortion — all signs of a catastrophic prediction error cascade.

• One-time stressor = trigger + low buffer = collapse.
   

Biochemical Correlates:

• THC increases dopamine release in the striatum and disrupts glutamate transmission, which in vulnerable individuals can mimic or provoke a psychotic state.

• Genetic factors (e.g., COMT Val158Met, AKT1) are associated with heightened risk of THC-induced psychosis.
   

2. Why Doesn’t the Brain Recover Afterwards?

STM Explanation: Irreversible Load Damage in Sensitive Brains

​

• Psychosis isn’t a transient glitch — it represents a circuit failure, where feedback loops become self-reinforcing (e.g., stress → dopamine → paranoia → more stress).

• In some people, a single intense overload is sufficient to destabilize long-term filtering, prediction, and memory systems.

• Recovery depends on the brain’s plasticity and available “spare processing capacity.” In highly sensitive individuals, this reserve is often already low — they don’t bounce back because:

  • The event structurally destabilized key circuits (e.g., prefrontal-limbic connectivity).

  • Subsequent stress or stimuli keep retriggering the overload loops.
     

Supporting Evidence:

• First-episode psychosis after cannabis often shows persistent gray matter loss in key regulatory areas.

• HPA axis dysregulation and glutamatergic toxicity may leave long-term excitotoxic “scars.”
   

3. What Explains This Variability in Response?

​

Factor -> Effect on Psychosis Risk from THC

Genetic sensitivity (e.g., COMT, BDNF variants) -> Alters dopamine metabolism; lowers threshold for overload

Early life stress / trauma -> Primes -> HPA axis, reduces buffering capacity

Neurodevelopmental anomalies -> Incomplete pruning, impaired myelination — unstable networks

Cognitive and sensory sensitivity -> High environmental reactivity = fast threshold breach

Sleep deprivation, anxiety, or fasting during use -> Further reduce cognitive buffer; increase breakdown risk

​

STM posits that thresholds vary person-to-person, and marijuana acts as a “load burst” — if it breaches your threshold, psychosis can result.

​

4. Why Do Some People Continue Using Marijuana After Psychosis Begins?

​

Paradox of Relief via Numbing:

• THC can blunt anxiety, emotional intensity, and sensory awareness in the short term — effectively reducing input.

• For a brain in chronic overload (post-psychosis), this can feel like relief: fewer thoughts, reduced sensory intrusion.

• STM interprets this as misguided self-medication: the individual is trying to reduce the input load, albeit through a mechanism that ultimately worsens the system’s integrity.
   

But Long-Term Use Worsens the Problem:

• THC further disrupts neural oscillations, reduces memory, impairs executive function — all critical for system recovery.

• It also inhibits REM sleep, reducing the brain’s opportunity to process and repair.
   

Summary of STM Insights

​

Question -> STM Explanation

Why some get psychosis after 1 use? THC breaches a fragile cognitive threshold in sensitive brains.

Why no recovery in some? System crash → persistent feedback loops + low neuroplastic reserve.

Why variability? Individual thresholds vary by genetics, development, trauma, and sensitivity.

Why keep using marijuana? It acutely reduces sensory load but degrades long-term system capacity.