How CBD cured my anxiety

There are many articles that have appeared over the last few years stating that CBD can treat everything from pain, arthritis and epilepsy to stress and anxiety and many things in between. The truthful answer is that as yet there is no hard Scientific evidence to back up these claims, however, CBD is being used by an ever growing number of people to help them with certain conditions, so it must be having some positive effects for them to continue using it.

Dr Calm was started due to one of the founders experiencing these positive CBD effects first hand after a particularly bad episode with generalized anxiety disorder, this is the story of how I became an advocate for CBD and founded my own company to provide the highest quality products that genuinely work, in a marketplace full of shady individuals trying to make a quick buck from people seeking a solution to their problems. 

My CBD Story by David Walby (Dr Calm Co-Founder)

I had been managing my generalized anxiety disorder for around two years and it had slowly gotten worse due to a range of factors (3-4 hours daily commute, lack of exercise, not eating a balanced diet and rarely eating breakfast, trying to run a business and work full-time, fear of flying, etc) but the tipping point came when one of my closest friends passed away unexpectedly at the age of 36 due to heart failure. This scared me a lot, as one of the symptoms of my anxiety was that I would regularly get heart palpitations and a large thud in my chest every once in a while. Therefore I was worried that perhaps I could face a similar fate as I had never heard of someone so young dying of heart related problems that didn’t have an undiagnosed heart condition.

In the few months after his death my anxiety really ramped up and it got to a stage where I could no longer be in a meeting for more than 10 minutes without feeling insanely tense and I could not concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time; I had to regularly go for a walk to alleviate my symptoms. Even driving was difficult as I felt like I needed to get out of the car to ease the tension – not particularly easy when you have a 90+ minute commute each way to work! It was clear I could no longer cope with the situation I was in and one day I had to leave work to seek some solace. I had not been able to fully relax for over a year, but this was different, the tenseness was so intense that I really found it hard to breathe and I could not concentrate on anything for more than a few seconds – I knew I needed some help, but I didn’t know what could help me, especially as I needed a quick fix to enable me to get through life until I could see a doctor. It was in this moment that I remembered an article I had skimmed over a few days earlier relating to a new product that could potentially help to deal with stress and anxiety – CBD.

I googled it and found that CBD products were available at a large retailer nearby – much to my surprise. I went to the store and bought the cheapest CBD oil I could find, as I was worried that it may not work for me. I used it as instructed but due to its low strength (2.5%) it did not have an instant effect, however, it did seem to reduce my symptoms somewhat and allow me to cope a little better over the next few days. I used the whole bottle within 4 days and bought another one to carry on my self-treatment, the whole bottle was gone within 3 days this time as I could feel it was slowly making me feel less tense and anxious. It was working! I couldn’t believe that a completely natural product with no side effects could actually allow me to snap out of my downward spiral of super tense anxiety that had plagued me for months (and years to a lesser degree). It allowed me to fully relax for the first time since I can remember and I was able to sit in a meeting without feeling like I needed to escape the room. I now use CBD daily to fend off the anxiety that I can feel trying to come back, but as long as I keep up with my CBD intake it keeps it at bay and I can now live a normal life again. I can concentrate for long periods, my muscles have thanked me as they are not tensing 100% of the time and I just generally feel much happier, even my heart palpitations and headaches have all but disappeared.

"I had not been able to fully relax for over a year."

This is the reason that I decided to start Dr Calm and create a range of CBD products that can help people to get back to normality. From my experience anxiety can be so debilitating and people that have not experienced it really don’t understand how much it can affect your whole life. From the simplest thing like driving to work, being in a meeting or getting to sleep at night – these things are so much harder when you have anxiety and it is not always easy to pinpoint how or why anxiety occurs. I think for me it was numerous things that all piled on top of each other and the death of my friend pushed me over the edge, but even before that I was having problems dealing with life in general due to the ever increasing tenseness and anxiety I was coping with.

"not only does it alleviate almost all of my anxiety issues, it also helps me to drift off to sleep much easier."

I cannot speak for people with other issues that CBD has been touted as being able to help with, such as arthritis, epilepsy or pain, but I would say that it is certainly worth a try to see if it does help. Getting the dosage right is a bit of trial and error as everyone is different, but I have found that between 50mg and 100mg per day seems to keep my anxiety at bay and allow me to live a normal life again. I therefore have moved up to a 10% strength CBD oil, as I can use a smaller amount and therefore the bottle lasts a lot longer than if you buy one of the lower strengths (between 10 and 20 days with a 10%, compared to 3-4 days with the 2.5% I started on). I put some drops (one or two pipettes of 0.5ml) under my tongue at night before I go to sleep and not only does it alleviate almost all of my anxiety issues it also helps me to drift off to sleep much easier.

Unfortunately CBD is quite an expensive product. This is due to the processes required to grow, pick, extract, mix, import and test the product, to ensure it is safe to use and contains almost no THC (the psychoactive element from the Hemp plant from which CBD is extracted). There are also quite a lot of brands in the market place that are cutting corners and not properly manufacturing or testing their products, so please be wary of cheap CBD products, as they will often be poor quality or contain very low amounts of CBD and therefore will not have the desired effect or even worse have high amounts of THC that can cause the psychoactive effect of Marijuana and also may show up in blood tests, which is illegal if you are an athlete.

"At Dr Calm we pride ourselves on being the most trustworthy and transparent brand in the CBD marketplace"

At Dr Calm we pride ourselves on being the most trustworthy and transparent brand in the CBD marketplace, this is why all of our products contain the lowest levels of THC possible, whist still preserving the extra terpenes to provide the entourage effect (see other blog posts for more information) and are sourced from the highest possible quality EU approved CBD strains grown and extracted in Colorado, USA - so you can ensure you will get the required CBD effect, but none of the psychoactive inducing THC content.

Please beware of cheaper CBD products, there are too many companies using inferior CBD in their products, which either do not have the same stringent extraction, mixing and testing processes, are misleading customers about the CBD or THC content in their products or are not disclosing the type/origin of CBD they are using. This is the main reason I set up Dr Calm (with my close friend, Teck Soh, a design and business expert), as I wanted to create a brand people could trust and rely on to provide the best possible products, be completely transparent about the source of their CBD and it's strength and make these products available at a fair price.

We will happily answer any questions you may have regarding CBD products (not just ours) and how you can effectively use it to help with your specific problem.

Please get in touch if you have any questions!