Ben’s story: Freedom from pharmaceuticals with medical cannabis

Can you tell us a bit about your health journey, and the conditions you’ve been diagnosed with?

I’m 37 now, and for most of my adult life, I've been prescribed and have been taking some sort of pharmaceutical treatment to help with my anxiety, depression, and more recently fibromyalgia. I was first diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and depression in my late teens, with my fibromyalgia diagnosis being confirmed about seven years ago. 

I have been on SSRI antidepressants for pretty much my whole adult life, and have been taking opioids to help deal with the fibromyalgia pain since being diagnosed. These both come with some pretty heavy side effects, and they can make me feel awful after taking them. Very lethargic, fatigued, thirsty — you name it. 

And so, for the last few years, I have been wanting to try a natural approach to my treatment, with the hope that an alternative treatment option might help to wean me off, and potentially discontinue, these pharmaceuticals I have been on for so many years. The idea of taking something more natural, as opposed to something artificially created in a lab, definitely appealed to me and is what led me to Releaf. 

The end goal for me is to get to a point where I can stop taking all medication, and I see medical cannabis as a stepping stone towards that. 

And, what inspired you to look into alternative treatment options?

I like to do my own research, and I have always been a big proponent of alternative treatments. I've tried a lot of things like Reiki, sound healing, all that kind of stuff, just because I believe that there's merit in it. 

I've also been aware of cannabis. I was a recreational user, a long time ago, in my youth, so I had some idea of what it can and can't do. Then I found out that medical cannabis was a legal treatment option in the UK, and stumbled across the Releaf Instagram page. 

I clicked through and found a video which explained in detail what it is you need to qualify for medical cannabis treatment through Releaf, and what it helps for. This was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me, I thought “Oh, God, that sounds brilliant, I'll look into it”. 

I reached out to Releaf straight away, and within a week, I had my prescription confirmed and delivered. 

How did you find the Releaf sign-up process? 

It was great. 

I've had two consults - the initial consultation and then a follow-up consultation, and the doctors I have seen have been absolutely brilliant, very informative, and very conscientious.

During my initial consultation, it was immediately obvious that the doctor had taken the time to have a very detailed look at my medical history, and was able to remind me of certain aspects I'd actually forgotten about. They obviously care, and they know what they're doing. It was really informative, and the doctor was able to then tailor a treatment plan based on that information.

The fact that they were able to be so detailed in my treatment plan blew me away a little bit. It’s not just “You've got these symptoms, here, have some cannabis”. 

There are so many choices available, whether it be the dried flower or oil, it's not just a cannabis one-size-fits-all solution. It's more like “This particular type of cannabis works well for this particular condition, and these different options can work well in combination”.

I was shocked, to be honest. I think it took just two days for my first prescription to arrive. 

And, how are you finding using the Releaf Patient Portal?

It's just so easy to navigate. All the information you need is there, it's laid out really well. It's user-friendly. 

I'm a network engineer, so I know my way around computers. But for anyone, regardless of how long they've had internet, or whether they've grown up with technology, I think they'd find it very easy to navigate and do what they need to do. It's really, really good. 

Can you tell us more about how the first few weeks of medical cannabis treatment has been?

After my initial consultation and discussing the options with the doctor, my case was escalated to the multidisciplinary team to get signed off, which it did the same day. I logged into the Patient Portal immediately to choose to pay for my medication, and within 48, it was at my doorstep.  I can't say anything but positive things about the whole process. 

When it arrived, I was a little bit tentative. Even though I've had some experience with cannabis, there's a lot of social conditioning and sort of ‘brainwashing’ that goes on in terms of the demonisation of this medicine. There was a little bit of trepidation because I didn't want to be “stoned”, if that makes sense. 

So I started a very, very slow - almost lower than what was prescribed, just to sort of introduce it to my system, but now I'm quite comfortable taking the recommended dosages, and I’m not having any adverse effects.

It's been great. My sleep is more prolonged and waking up less. I just generally feel more relaxed before going to sleep, because usually when the lights are off, there's no stimulus. I'm not reading a book. These thoughts can come in, and I can worry about stuff. Whereas now, going to sleep is a bit more chilled, and my head's a little bit less chaotic, which isnice. 

It's early days, but I'm certainly feeling calmer, generally happier. My thoughts are more easily managed. I don't know if it's, it's some sort of placebo effect, since I did do so much research into medical cannabis before and since becoming a patient, but I do believe that it is the treatment actually doing exactly what the doctors said it would do.

With your treatment going well, is there anything else you are hoping that medical cannabis will help you with?

Yeah, the health benefits of not being on SSRIs, because they come with loads of side effects, even after years of taking them. 

There are some not-so-nice ones, and some obvious ones, like fatigue - particularly in the mornings, I find it very difficult to wake up. I found the sedative effects of cannabis to be much more natural, I can still function perfectly fine. It sort of gradually eases you into a relaxed state, as opposed to taking my SSRI, and suddenly I need to sleep.

Have you started to reduce your use of traditional medications already? 

I've got a consultation with my GP about that at the beginning of November. I booked a week off work in the middle of November to completely stop my mirtazapine, which is the pharmaceutical antidepressant that I'm on currently. 

In the meantime, I’m at half the dose already, and I plan to half the dose again at the beginning of November. Then, hopefully, by the third week of November, I might do every other day, and then come off it completely. 

As I progress through November, I will probably slightly increase the cannabis usage within the parameters that the doctor has prescribed, but just more towards the upper end. And then with that week off of work, if I have any sleep problems or other issues, I have the room to adjust things without it affecting my professional life. 

Have you had any conversations with friends or family about your treatment since starting with Releaf? 

Most of my friends and family know, since I've shown them my Releaf medical cannabis card. 

I've even got a friend who's a police officer, and she was just like, “Brilliant, I hope it works for you!”. She was already aware of it being a controlled drug treatment for patients. So, yeah, I think the stigma is slowly washing away, even with people that I would have thought would be, you know, totally against it.

I think what you guys do that's brilliant, compared to some of the other clinics, is the money-back guarantee on the initial consultation. If you're not eligible, you don't pay, which I think is great. That's actually what made me take the leap with Releaf because I thought “Well, if I'm deemed not suitable (even though I know I meet the criteria) at least I've lost nothing”.

Would you recommend Releaf to people interested in medical cannabis treatment?

I've had several conversations already with people that I've pointed in your direction and said how good and easy it was. 

I explained that I've got the diagnosis that I have, and I've gone and sought help through Releaf - I've kind of detailed the prescription process, the consultation process, and having the Releaf+ subscription to reduce costs.

I have explained that if they have a condition that's had more than one treatment, or a number of conditions that have had more than one treatment, they might be eligible, and to reach out to Releaf. 

Like myself, a lot of these people are not wanting to be dependent on opiates, SSRIs, or any other type of pharmaceutical, whether it's for chronic pain or some sort of mental health condition. So I've said to quite a number of people that it's worth giving it a try because it's a natural alternative, and it's helped so many people.