What Information technology'south Like to Be a Stoner Who's Allergic to Marijuana

Photo-Illustration: Photos: Corbis

A few years ago, a resident in Yale'due south Principal Intendance Residency Program was presented with a mystery: A 22-yr-old woman arrived in the ER airsickness uncontrollably. Her nausea was and so farthermost, it didn't ease with antiemetic medication. She'd suffered these bilious bouts sporadically for almost a year, spending many sleepless nights hunched over a bowl in the ER while confused doctors attempted a diagnosis. She didn't exhibit whatever of the gastrointestinal complaints that usually back-trail a stomach virus or food poisoning; CT scans, a pregnancy test, endoscopy, colonoscopy, and screenings for liver or kidney disease were all clear. There was one clue: While resistant to medication, the nausea and vomiting eased when the patient took a hot shower, and she told the doctor that she had been compulsively showering to obtainrelief.

After that night, stumped and concerned, the young dr. Googled the main symptoms. She discovered a 2004 study published past a Southward Australian psychiatrist who had observed the sudden onset of cyclical airsickness, farthermost nausea, and obsessive showering among xix long-term chronic marijuana smokers. After she established that her patient had been smoking weed daily for a number of years, the Yale resident took the just advice the literature gave her and told her ailing patient to stop smoking. The syndrome, cannabinoid hyperemesis, is only about a decade erstwhile, and doctors practise not know exactly what causes it, though a 2011 report notes that its appearance coincides with an increased national rate of marijuana consumption (2.6 million new users each year in theU.S.).

Hither, a 33-year-sometime photograph producer talks about her feel with CHS, which started suddenly when she moved from the Due east Declension to Fifty.A.

I hear you have been through some trauma?
Yep. I lost my best friend. My husband and I decided we were going to move to L.A., which is where I grew up. We simply got married last summer. I was working as a photo producer in Chicago, but I quit a month before nosotros were ready to leave for one terminal hurrah. My smoking increased. I've always smoked every twenty-four hour period, and I smoke a lot more most people, merely I never smoked before work. I was free, and I could fume as much as I wanted. When that month was up, I arrived in 50.A. and I went directly to my new house, I ate some nutrient and went on FaceTime to requite my a friend a tour (my husband was out of town on business). As we chatted I rolled a joint, just equally soon as I took a hit, I felt really ill. Really, actually ill. I ended the call and immediately started vomiting. I couldn't stop throwingup.

Are you typically that much of a puker, or was that abnormal?
I never go sick. I causeless I had food poisoning. I idea, I can handle it. I'll piece of work through information technology. I've had a bad hangover before. And so, within an 60 minutes, I called my dad and said, "You need to come get me, I need to be with somebody." I was so sick, I was scared to be lonely.  The airsickness was continuous. I couldn't proceed anything downwardly, and it lasted for a calendar week.

A whole week! Did you seek medical help?
I chosen my friend who is also a physician. He said it sounded only similar norovirus — that awful tummy issues people get on cruise ships. Just that is super contagious, and nobody around me got ill. So, after about 6 days, I went to the ER because I couldn't keep anything down. They said I was dehydrated and gave me fluids and potassium and did some tests. My husband remembers they said the examination results were inconclusive, just that it was possible I had avirus.

Were y'all smoking during that kickoff week of sickness?
Merely a fiddling flake, to sleep, but in that location was no existent point — the vomiting was so continuous. And I had awful intestinal pains, correct around my rib muzzle. Yous know when you lot're hung-over and you want to throw upwards to get it all out? It wasn't like that. I was really extreme. I was doing anything to avoid throwing up. At ane point, even eating ice chips fabricated me puke. So I only lay on my bed with a wet towel on my chest, sucking on water ice chips, letting them melt down my face because I couldn't swallow. My oral fissure was dry and gross, and I began to compulsively shower. I wanted to clean upward, and when I was under the h2o, I feltgood.

Were you someone who typically enjoyed a shower when y'all were stoned?
No, I detest showering. I'm not a dirty person. But I observe showering a pain, and it'due south not something that I practise regularly. I would take cold showers because I was simply and so sweaty and gross, but then I started to take hot ones. I would say I showered nigh five times a twenty-four hour period. It felt ameliorate to exist in theshower.

What did you remember was going on?
I just didn't know. The main symptom was vomiting, and that was just then foreign. They gave me a pregnancy exam correct abroad, simply I knew it wasn't that because my husband had been in L.A. for a month without me before I got there. I believed the norovirus theory. This isn't that flattering, but I'll acknowledge I'm non a big … "washer." I don't impact things with paper towels or obsessively use manus sanitizer. I was at JFK. I ate nutrient. I went to the ATM. JFK's disgusting. I got it. I became very cautious about hygiene because I never wanted to experience thatonce again.

And then things just went back to normal. I'd been working full-fourth dimension since my last semester of higher, and so I was enjoying life before rushing to look for a new task. I went dorsum to my sometime habits. I was smoking more than normal — well, more than when I was working. Also, it'south L.A., so we'd be driving around, running errands, which meant lots of joints for the car. My friends here don't work normal hours, so nosotros would exist at the beach smoking. That lasted for near iii months: I wasn't sick atall.

And then …?
Information technology happened once more. My husband and I went to the farmers' market in Hollywood. Information technology was insanely hot — we met some friends there — but I remember beingness actually hot. When we got dwelling house, I was bending over, putting produce in the crisper, and and then I stood up and felt low-cal-headed, so I lay downward for the rest of the day. That night, we went and had dinner at a eatery in Koreatown. We ate a lot of pork. I usually take a practiced stomach, but we did accept ice cream for dessert, and I'm pretty much lactose-intolerant, I've always known that. I have never been ane to avoid milk entirely. I just deal with the gas, and I really wanted to try this Korean ice foam. The adjacent morning, I woke up early to become to a workout grade, and equally presently as I got at that place, I went to the bath and started throwing up wildly. I thought it was food poisoning over again. I was like, Why is all the food hither toxic? I took some Pepto Bismol and threw upward for half the twenty-four hours. I was very sweaty and I felt awful, but luckily, it simply lasted two days.

Did you get to the md?
No. And when I felt better, I went back to my normal smoking habits. I didn't think to link the ii at all. My husband was doing a lot of online enquiry, and he suggested I stop smoking weed considering he read that it can encourage your gag reflex if yous are already ill. And then, almost exactly a calendar month later, information technology happened a tertiary time. This time, it lasted for another week. I didn't want to go to hospital, but at one indicate information technology looked like I had been throwing up blood, so we went to the ER. They asked the same questions and did a pregnancy test. Null was showing up — they said I probably scratched my throat from throwing upwardly so much. But that only explained theblood.

We asked to run into a specialist, but I was sent to an internist kickoff. He didn't discover anything, but since I'grand lactose-intolerant, he referred me to a GI specialist. Every bit he was going through my medical history, he asked if I smoke cigarettes. I said no, only socially, if annihilation. And so he asked if I drink. I was like, "No." Well, occasionally. I'chiliad non AA sober, simply I'm not a drinker — I couldn't even tell you an average of drinks per week because information technology's so rare. But I told him that I smoke a lot of pot. He asked how ofttimes, and I said every single day for the by 15 years. He but looked at me and said, "I think I know what thisis."

Oh love …
And so he said it: "Yous accept CHS," which stands for cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. He gave me a pretty loose rundown. It's an intolerance that only develops in long-term habitual smokers. Information technology'south more than likely to happen to people who get-go smoking weed regularly when they're younger. I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it — I asked to exist tested right away, and that's when he told me that in that location is no test. It's new, and he's been seeing it in a lot of patients, and I fit the profile. The only manner to know for sure is to eliminate every other possible explanation, quit smoking, and if information technology happens again, then you know information technology's not that. Just he pretty much guaranteed that wouldn'thappen.

Did the doctor give you any other options?
I told him I'd been smoking a lot considering I hadn't been working — I could just tone information technology down a bit. He was similar, "Nope." So, I suggested that I stop for a while so go back? I asked if information technology would clear up. He wasn't evasive or rude, simply he was just like,"Nope."

Were you ever concerned that you were allergic to your new surroundings, or that there was something toxic about Fifty.A.?
Totally! I had mostly been ownership from a friend who grows it herself, so it was outdoor and organic. Well, non certified organic, but at least it wasn't branded with names similar "Coo Coo Bubblegum Princess." It was like: Here's weed! I traced back and realized that every time I got sick, I'd merely gotten the weed from a clinic. I wondered if it was just too intense, or not what I was usedto.

How much were you smoking?
I was ownership about ii ounces a month. Merely I just ever had it. When people came over, nosotros'd smoke my pot. I pretty much ever mix tobacco with it. I asked my doctor if that was an effect — what if I vaped or used a bong? I was like, "Do I really need to cut it out totally?" I wanted some information, only I couldn't find anything. My doctor wasn't exactly going to recommend that I smoke pot. He'd tell me about some of his other patients who'd merely get back to their normal situation and three months later they are back in the hospital, having lost 30 pounds. I was thinking, This is fucking absurd. How can weed make me this sick? No. Come upon.

But they ruled out everything else, right?
I did a stool and pregnancy exam. Colonoscopy. Endoscopy. They were all articulate. I tried to do a bunch of research, but there's so little out there. It did look like I could potentially take Crohn's disease — merely I had to have a Deoxyribonucleic acid test to be certain. My married man gently suggested I quit for a month, and and then maybe I could bring it dorsum gradually. So I quit. I had smoked every single twenty-four hours for the terminal 15 years, peradventure fifty-fiftylonger.

Non even one interruption?
Once I went to a wedding where we didn't really know anyone, and information technology felt likewise sketchy to bring it. I didn't desire to get arrested on the way. Simply it was but two days, and I was drinking.

How erstwhile were you when you started smoking?
I was in my junior yr of high schoolhouse, and it became an everyday thing from and then on. I moved to Chicago to become to college, and my boyfriend and my roommate both smoked. It was our thing.

What sort of a stoner were you?
I'm not someone who sits in a basement playing video games. Weed didn't make me hating. I didn't become the munchies. I have an insanely good retentivity. My doctor asked me, "Why exercise y'all fume?" I told him that information technology's not a huge coping mechanism, it'due south simply what I practise. It's my vice. I never felt like it made me antisocial or depressed or overweight or unhealthy. When I was stoned, I wasn't sitting around watching Tv set. As cheesy as information technology sounds, I was into crafting, and smoking made me more than creative. Information technology was just fun. I was the sort of person who would smoke pot and make clean the firm — it made me desire to do those things. Ofttimes I just wanted a adept sometime bag of Schwag from Mexico that I could smoke all day long. Probably because of the quantity and the fashion that I fume, I love the burn. There was a menstruation in my life where I was a pot snob, but now I am similar, whatever, the weaker the improve, to exist honest.

How many spliffs were you smoking per day?
My doctor and I figured out that it was probably virtuallyten.

So what was the initial withdrawal like?
Terrible. It was the worst affair. I couldn't sleep, and when I did sleep, I had the craziest dreams. In one, Gigi Hadid was my Uber driver in New York as a Fashion Week promotion. She gave me sage advice after the diamond popped out of my date band and nosotros spent hours looking for it in Key Park. Knowing I couldn't smoke made me so unmotivated. It was really hard to accept. It colored how I thought nearly everything. Someone might betoken out a house to me and say, "That's cute." I'd be thinking, Yeah, right. So cute. And information technology fifty-fifty has a beautiful balcony. What'due south the point of having a balcony unless you tin smoke pot on it? "Expect at this beautiful vacation home!" How can all this nature be enjoyed not-stoned? What's the signal of going to the embankment if you lot can't fume pot? What practise I do? Just sit downthere?

There was a little bit of a defeatist mentality. I would weep all the fourth dimension, and I'one thousand non an emotional person. Then I had an anger phase. I kept looking back at the amount of weed I'd smoked over the years, thinking, God information technology was all my fault! Why did I have to fume and so much? If I was on a six-hr car ride, did I actually need six joints? I could have smoked four and been fine. I got mathematical well-nigh it, thinking if I had just cutting out 10 number of joints, I could however be smoking today. I'd kept an one-time articulation, and sometimes I'd light information technology and take a simulated niggling religious ritual where I would waft it like a sage stick around the room — information technology smelled so good. Then in that location was guilt. I felt bad that anybody was and so worried about me and if information technology was self-inflicted, and I didn't want to put them through that. I felt similar a lost body. At first, I forgot things. I felt very disorganized and dumb. It was all I could remember about. I was super self-conscious of not existence a DebbieDowner.

Did part of yous wish information technology was Crohn's illness?
When they told me that might be it, I was like, "Fingers crossed — Crohn's!" Everyone thought I was insane. Crohn's is serious. I was like, "Aye, well, I have done the research, and I could deal with information technology if I could fume pot." I started seeing a md who does nutrition and yoga and acupuncture and cupping and all that cockamamie shit — I really needed a different perspective. My GI doctor just did non empathize how important weed is to me, my life, and myidentity.

This md looked at my test results and said I should do a iii-month detox. He suggested that if I do go back to smoking, I should do information technology in a cleaner way, i.e., I should vape or smoke out of a h2o pipe. He as well told me to drink lots of water and flush my system, and that if I exercise start smoking after the detox, I shouldn't do it within 2 hours earlier I go to bed because it sits in your body in a weird way and you can't flush it out. I was totally that person who smoked and then went to bed. He said I should only have sessions separated by at least six hours. So I was like, "Okay, how many times a day does that mean I can smoke?" My father was very worried. He was similar, 'This is bullshit: Why don't you just consume it?' I was like, "No, I think that's probably worse, and I need to smoke to know that I am loftier,anyway."

The human action of smoking is the pleasure — a lot of people don't understand that …
Exactly. Just sitting in that location chatting and smoking a joint is i of the accented best things in life, and I didn't know if I would ever exist able to do that again. The GI specialist actually told me to go to rehab. I told him he should go to hell. Substantially, he was similar, "If you remember you're going to accept a problem stopping, yous should go to a place that can assist you in doing that, like a rehab facility." I was like, "Come on! Noway."

Practice you recall he merely didn't understand how of import information technology is to you?
Totally. And he was focused on getting to the bottom of why I did it. He suggested that I get to a therapist — I was like, "No. I merely similar it. Don't you get it? It's merely fun!" And I don't have a personal relationship with him, he doesn't know who I am. I can tell him I had a job and that I'thousand a functioning person, but it'south hard for him to know that. During one of my darkest moments, I was Googling things like, "Can CHS exist cured with acupuncture?" and "CHS: Will I ever exist able to fume again." I establish a couple of bulletin boards; the only other fourth dimension I have done that was to expect up theories about Lost. I wasdesperate.

Did you post anything?
No, but I've been reading through them, and at that place are people offering sensible advice. Some talk about going dorsum to weed simply switching to a vape, and they take been fine, but joints withal make them ill for a week. But I take not been able to find whatsoever legit enquiry that says, "This is what a cannabinoid is, and this is how information technology is stored in your trunk." What'due south happening? Where are they hanging out? I have no idea. One of the ways that they clinically diagnose CHS is past asking sufferers if they take showers. If they do, and so it has to exist this. Aye, the showers practice aid, but that's so unscientific. They also say that it affects your hypothalamus gland, which is the function of the encephalon that controls your bodytemperature.

Did you have an identity crisis when you quit?
I find myself request, "Who am I? What am I doing with my life?" Everything's more fun when you're stoned, or when yous know yous have the option to go stoned. And L.A. is tough considering every corner I turn, I run into a weed store. And I can smell information technology everywhere. I know someone is smoking right now, and information technology'due south notme.

It is sort of an identity, isn't it? Even if you aren't public about it …
Definitely. When I quit, I really idea, I'chiliad not absurd anymore. My border has been taken abroad. Now I am merely a normal person with a bunch of weed paraphernalia and iconography. Simply that's not who I am anymore. What does that make me? Who does that brandme?

I was irrationally pitiful and depressed thinking almost what my life would exist like. Who am I now? There was definitely a time in my life when I didn't annunciate it to everybody. But and then it got to the betoken where I thought, Fuck it, I'm a stoner — who cares if you all know. I too think because I was a functioning stoner, I felt like I was getting so much stuff done, simply I was stoned the whole time. When I stopped it was like, "Okay, now information technology's time to take a look at what I'k doing with my life, and what I'grand doing is actuallynothing."

How do you feel every bit a person since you quit? Is there a new post-stoner version of you?
When I was stoned all the time, I was like, "The business firm is muddied, I'm going to clean it." Now information technology'due south like, "The house is dingy, and I don't want to fucking deal with it." Things badger me more. I was always annoyed by footling things, but I could have a fume and set up it. Now it's allterrible.

When I lived in Chicago, I would swallow out a lot. I wasn't Suzy Homemaker, but I wasn't down on my knees scrubbing shit. My hubby did the cooking. And then, when we get-go moved here, I was recently married. I had more time and a larger dwelling house, so I was like, "This domestic stuff is fun! I'm going to read a recipe and cook! I'm redecorating the business firm." And now that I'grand non smoking, that stuff seems so uninteresting to me. Information technology's like, cooking is merely a irksome task. Who am I? I am non your housewife. I didn't sign upwards for this. And my husband is past no means that "type of guy" — he's the nicest, sweetest nigh supportive person, simply I had liked doing all that stuff, and now it's but like, "Oh gosh, this is and thenlaborious."

I know you're planning on starting again soon, at a reduced stride … Are you lot concerned about getting "the fright," or your reduced tolerance, or fifty-fifty associating it with that bad illness?
I'one thousand pretty aware that my tolerance will have changed, merely I do I wonder, if I fume once more, if I'll trip out like when I was a teenager. I worry I might be paranoid. I am definitely going to take it slow. The official engagement is supposed to be side by side Thursday, just I'yard non going to throw a party for myself and become a cake. I think I might wait a few more days. I'm prettysuperstitious.

What Information technology'due south Like to Be a Stoner Allergic to Weed