Posted on February 26, 2026 View all news
My name is Parker Jackson. I was diagnosed with cannabis-induced psychosis in September of 2025. The most noticeable symptoms of my psychosis were grandiose thinking, paranoid thinking, and sleeplessness.
During my psychosis period I had multiple psychotic encounters with neighbors and friends. Two of these encounters led to the police being called. The first incident involving law enforcement involved me walking 2 ½ hours in business attire to go confront someone who I thought was being creepy with me at church at his workplace. The second incident where police were called I scared my neighbor by confronting him about a homeowner issue from a few years back. I used racial slurs and eventually told him that I thought I was going to kill myself.
I also made a series of angry posts on Facebook that multiple people confronted me about in person. I sent abrasive text messages to many friends and family, and some strange emails.
On September 21st, I felt like I was high and could not come down, so I walked out into the yard to sit outside. I had had a few sleepless nights leading up to this high. I could tell something was wrong with me. I ended up telling my mom that I needed to go to the hospital because I felt like I was going to kill myself. My mom drove me to the emergency room, where they triaged me to the front and brought a secure escort.
The secure escort brought me to the psychiatric hospital. The psychiatric hospital was the best possible place for me to be. As soon as I was there, I was safe from myself and I knew it.
At the psychiatric hospital, I was afraid to talk. I walked into the lunchroom extremely timidly and apologized to a black man to say that I was not racist because I feared that we were about to get into a fight.
Throughout my stay at the psychiatric hospital, the most noticeable symptom I had was grandiose thinking. I thought that because my grandfather was a psychiatrist, I had special knowledge of the way things should go in a psychiatric hospital. I was trying to help the other patients who were at the hospital, but I was wrong for yelling at the staff. After three days at the hospital, my mom came to get me. The help that the hospital provided me was time in a safe environment and medicine. I finally got some sleep as well. Most of my time was spent coloring, listening to music, and socializing with the other
patients.
When I left the hospital on September 7th, I was feeling a little better, but I still was experiencing bad symptoms. I was very depressed. I felt like I physically and spiritually had lost my ability to play music. I weaned myself off the drugs they gave me because I had an underlying belief that medicine was bad. I soon went back into psychosis. At this point, I had my diagnosis of cannabis-induced psychosis, but I did not make the connection that cannabis had caused my psychosis, and I felt that it was a personal shortcoming that had caused my situation.
October 1st to October 7th, my mom rented an Airbnb in a town where they had an outpatient partial hospitalization program that my aunt had found for us. Every morning, my mom woke up with me and drove me to the program. I was struggling with paranoia. I remember one incident where I was afraid to use a knife. I forced myself to use the knife to cut up some chicken, which helped my fear but showed how much I was struggling mentally.
During the outpatient group therapy, I was experiencing delusions and paranoia. I believed that another patient was out to get me, and I was finding special meaning in everything that person and the other people did. An example is that I thought if people in the group crossed their legs, then they were on the side of the person who had her legs crossed, and if they had their legs in the position I had my legs in, then they were on my side. I thought this regardless of the content of their words. I was not very self aware at the time. It did not cross my mind that perhaps I was delusional. I ended up calling a friend and asking him what I should do if I found myself in the presence of an enemy. The staffers at the outpatient program heard me and decided to involuntarily commit me to their inpatient program.
On October 8th, I was involuntarily admitted. I initially decided to wait the three days needed to see a judge. I associated this time with Christ’s three days in the tomb. While I was in this phase, I tried to act like nothing was wrong with me and that I was just waiting for my three days to be up. I told the doctor that I was going to fight the commitment in court, and he told me it would be up to the judge, then. He also told me that my brain was currently in a toxic state and that if I did not accept treatment, I would be causing permanent brain damage.
I waited around until October 9th in this state, but I wasn’t getting any better, so I asked God for a sign. I asked God that if I should trust the doctors and accept treatment, then please show me a sign, and God did, so I accepted treatment. Again, I found myself in the best possible place I could be. The doctors at the psych ward got me started on Xyprexa and Prozac, and simply agreeing to treatment, made me feel a lot better. My doctors told me I should not smoke weed again. The doctor said that counterfeit weed was especially dangerous.
October 15th I wanted to get out so I asked if I could and they said yes. I stepped down to a partial hospitalization program. This was still a difficult time for me, but not as difficult because I was on medication.
October 16th-20th, the people at the partial hospitalization program started to tell me I was looking better. My paranoid thinking turned into milder suspicious thinking. I started to believe that perhaps I could recover. It seems that medicine, rest, and therapy nursed me out of psychosis and into recovery.
It has been 4 months since I got released from the outpatient program after my psychosis subsided. At first, daily tasks like showering and deciding what to do with my day were difficult, and I was socially anxious. On February 13th, I felt noticeably better, as if my depression was lifting and psychosis was completely gone. My mom and the rest of my family have helped me get better. Hearing stories of other’s cannabis-induced psychosis on the Internet has been a big help to me because I’ve learned that I’m not the only one who this has affected. I hope my story will help someone else who is struggling!
Currently, I am still on Prozac and Xyprexa. I have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I’m enrolled in classes at my city’s university, and I’m working 20 hours per week. I plan on majoring in trumpet performance next fall. I also plan to be a summer camp counselor this summer.
Moving forward, I believe I need to keep working and work on my education, and I really need to work with a therapist. I can tell that I have unresolved issues from my dad’s dying, and with my general anxiety and depression. I hope to continue engaging with friends at the music program at my school and continue finding my place in my family. I am an uncle, son, and brother. I certainly will not smoke weed again, although at the same time, I am tempted to. It was nice to be a stoner. It gave me something to be.
Now I see others struggling with mental health, and I hope to be able to be a guide to them so that they can make it through their struggles.
The biggest advice I have for young people and people in general is stay away from drugs and alcohol until you are 21. You should not drink in high school. You should not smoke in high school. Stay away from industrialized THC, which is especially dangerous. Stay away from bongs, which are especially dangerous. If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or actions, call 988 and reach out to anyone. Wait to die. Reach out! Please.
Parker Jackson, 23 years old.
