Emily uses CBD daily to cope with the aftermath of a motorcycle accident which caused an opioid addiction. Today she is opioid free and an advocate of everything cannabis. This is Emily's journey with CBD...
Why do you use CBD?
“For my back pain, hip pain, knee pain, fractured shoulder and wrist. I was in a car accident in 2014. I was on my motorcycle and I basically T-boned someone who was making a wrong turn. I was in the hospital for 4 months after the accident, had a few surgeries but it triggered a pain in my back that I had already had before the accident. I noticed I was getting back pain from my back pack for school. I would weigh my backpack and it would be 55lbs. So before the accident my back pain was random and after the accident it was just all the time. I also have 3 screws in my hip and my left leg, the whole entire leg, is all held together by a metal rod and screws.”
Does anyone else in your family use CBD?
“My dad did before he passed away. I would give it to him randomly for some things so he could try it out. And then when he was passing away, over a 2-week period, he would have me get him CBD stuff. I gave him some RSO Full Spectrum CBD and gummies”.
Is CBD hard for you to acquire?
“Well, for my back pain, it’s expensive. I would like to buy it for digestion or heartburn. I wish I had it sometimes for that.”
How has CBD made a difference in your everyday life?
“When I do normal things during the day, I know the pain will go away after I use CBD. I only use it after activities. I don’t have to use my back brace at all when I have CBD. My brace is constricting, I can’t do anything in it. I can’t bend over wearing it. When I use CBD I don’t have to wear it and it’s like I never did the bending or anything all day. I hate bending over because it hurts all of my body --- any kind of bending. People will say, “Use your knees” but my knees don’t work. I can’t bend or squat I can’t hit them against anything either. I can feel the metal.”
How has it affected your everyday mood?
“When I use CBD the pain isn’t on my mind. So then I feel carefree. Sometimes I have a hard time sleeping… maybe if I had some CBD dabs it would help.”
Tell me about your life before CBD.
“Pain, just like pure pain, lots of pain. If I want to sit criss-cross-applesauce at the end of the day on my couch, I can’t until I use CBD. I can’t sit however I want. I can’t just go like do dishes. I can’t do anything looking down really until I use CBD.”
How has it affected your career?
"I quit my job at Subway because they had me bending down into a freezer and wouldn’t put me on the day shift, which didn’t make you do that so I had to quit.
Then, I quit my job as a caregiver. Right after my accident I was lifting people a lot at my job and I didn’t realize how much it was hurting until maybe a month later. I had already quit subway and went back to caregiving and realized how much it was hurting me. It wasn’t working out. I also had to quit a couple more jobs. Right now I’m at a call center and I’m like, ‘Give me that good chair. I need that chair.’"
Do/did you take any other meds?
"They had me on 20mg of oxycotton 3 or 4 --- sometimes 5 --- times a day. Four if I really needed but easily 3 a day. They just convinced me that I needed it. Like, ‘If you need it ask for it. This is all for you. You’re in pain, so you need this. You should take this.’ So when I got out of the hospital I was taking them as much as I could, all the time. Then even when I ran out I was getting really bad anxiety, even in the hospital because they started weaning me off. So I was having withdraws from oxycotton really bad. So I was just getting this crazy anxiety 24/7, all the time, unless I had it. So when I got out, I convinced a couple doctors in the hospital to give me some because I didn’t really have a normal doctor to prescribe them to me after the accident. So then I stopped and I started just buying it from people but it was hard to find and my anxiety went away so it just wasn’t working anymore. So thank God I was able to just wean myself off of it. Now I don’t take any. I maybe crave it every six months but I don’t act on it. I relapsed maybe 4 times after and it was just all throwing up and no fun so it makes it less appealing to start again. I don’t have an addictive personality, but the hospital got me addicted for sure."
Do you feel there is a stigma with CBD?
“Only dabs. Only with people who are confused on the legality, but it’s really easy to convince someone. Just show them something on Google. I’ve convinced a lot of people. Even my mom and my dad before he passed. But, yeah just dabs because it looks kind of like a weird substance if you don’t know what it is”
Explain your CBD journey in a few words.
“Non-psychoactive opioid for everybody and I will tell everyone about it all the time no matter how old or young they are. It’s a cure-all and it can help everyone who has just a little after-work pain to serious chronic pain. CBD is for everybody.”