Lior Schonfeld. Clinical psychologist.

A. Sensitive women and cannabis addiction

Throughout my years of working with women with addictive patterns, I have noticed that many of them meet this definition. I will try to briefly clarify several points that can explain this connection.

Our ability to contain ourselves develops in interaction with the significant figures during the period of initial development. When these interactions take place in a benevolent way, the baby turns the ability to self-soothe and emotional regulation. However, when a baby is born with high sensitivity many times there will be many failures of these figures in containing the emotional strengths of the baby and therefore the baby will have difficulty developing these abilities. Into this space enters the use of marijuana, which produces a significant relief in emotional flooding and suddenly the world is experienced differently - more pleasant and simpler. However, after a certain period, the effects of marijuana fade and sometimes smoking actually increases the emotional intensity. Naturally, there is a longing to experience the same pleasant relaxation from the past and therefore the use continues and perhaps even increases, which may lead to the development of a strong dependence on the substance.

In addition, very sensitive women can live their lives in a reality that they experience as too powerful, intrusive, overwhelming. Starting with physical contact, through the physical environment and ending with daily interactions - every encounter with reality, internal and external, is a potential for a difficult, tiring and repulsive experience. In such a day-to-day experience, every moment of relaxation is priceless and that's exactly where the use of marijuana comes in, which creates a kind of distance between me and my emotional experience, numbing, numbing. Many times the initial experiences of use will be so pleasant and relaxing - suddenly the world is not experienced as overwhelming and there is something relaxing and magical about it. However, after the effect of the substance wears off, reality is experienced again in a rough and powerful way, and from there the road to further use is short.

For very sensitive women, therapy can often be a significant lifeline that helps them learn to regulate their emotions in the face of reality. Since many times their experience in the relationship is that their feelings are burdensome, illegitimate, too powerful, excessive, it is very important to build a close and beneficial therapeutic relationship. Therefore, the therapeutic relationship is often a significant anchor in the ability to deal with unhealthy patterns of substance use. The more a highly sensitive man or woman can trust a significant figure who knows how to deal with their sensitivity well enough, the more they will be able to give up their habits of use, transfer their dependence on the substance to dependence on the therapeutic relationship and succeed, through processes of internalization and growth, in learning to deal with their sensitivity better in the world.