Today, CBD, also known as cannabidiol, has become a rising star in the health and wellness community. Partly due to its versatile nature (you can take your CBD by adding CBD vape juice to your vape pen, as a liquid, edible, capsule, or suppository form) and partly due to its potential as a healing, restorative aid for a wealth of conditions, CBD certainly has range covered.
With more emphasis being placed on CBD’s potential to boost and stabilize mood, its effects on curbing anxiety have been looked into. As studies show, with the increased presence of CBD, there’s a chance of lowering anxiety: namely anxiety disorders, which range from generalized anxiety, social disorders, and phobias to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
How Does CBD Help With Anxiety?
The endocannabinoid system (ECS), which we all have in us, is a complex system responsible for balancing a whole lot of processes in the body. In a nutshell, our ECS is responsible for keeping homeostasis running smoothly. This means, when done correctly, our ECS should keep us happy, healthy, and able to regulate normal things – like body temperature, libido, cognitive function, and even memory.
Our ECS pretty much operates around three molecules- endocannabinoids (little molecules which connect to receptors to trigger modulation), cannabinoids (like THC or CBD – which can also trigger ECS modulation), and ECS receptors (which are differentiated as CB1 and CB2 receptors).
The purpose of these CB1 and CB2 receptors is to regulate and modulate all the major processes in the body- including keeping anxiety levels stable. So, when endocannabinoids aren’t quite doing their job (and this can happen for a number of reasons), we can take cannabinoids, which modulate the release of certain feel-good neurotransmitters.
The neurotransmitters involved in alleviating anxiety include serotonin, dopamine, and GABA. In particular, CBD has been shown to increase serotonin levels – which can dim the symptoms of anxiety. This is how.
