Ways CBD Helps Improve Your Mental Health

Did you know that an estimated one in five adults in the United States live with some kind of mental health illness? The type and severity of the disorder can vary from person to person, but many people will experience it at some point in their lives, either personally or with a friend or family member.

Thankfully, there are several ways to improve your mental health. Therapy and medication are the most successful, but you can also improve it by changing your diet, exercising regularly, and making sure you get a good night’s sleep every day. 

A new way to help that can be combined with all of those methods is to use premium CBD as a supplement. CBD, or cannabidiol, is a natural chemical compound found in hemp plants. New research and medical trials from the past decade have discovered that it can help improve a person’s mental health. Here’s a quick guide to how it works.

#1) Reduces Anxiety and Stress

Anxiety and stress disorders are some of the most common kinds of mental health illnesses that people will have. Stress is something most people will deal with at some points in their life, but chronic stress disorders are typically genetic. Anxiety is a natural response to stress, when you are so stressed about something that you remain fixated about the causes of your stress and worrying about it in the future.

CBD is able to reduce anxiety and stress by targeting the biological source of those emotions: serotonin, a neurotransmitter our brain emits to make us feel calm and happy. People who have stress and anxiety typically have a low amount of serotonin, which can be due to an external source (work stress) or internal (hormonal or chemical imbalance). Clinical trials found test subjects reported improvements in their level of stress and anxiety when they were given CBD.

#2) Treats Depression

Depression is another very common mental health disorder, but is different from stress and anxiety. Where the latter has to do more with being on edge and high strung, depression is the opposite. People with depression have little willingness to get out of bed, take showers, eat, or go to work, among other things.

However, depression is also characterized by a low level of serotonin. That is why it is common for someone to have both anxiety and depression, rather than just one of them. A 2000 study in New Zealand on almost 400 adults found that those who were given CBD reported reduced symptoms of depression, and were better able to function like normal in their daily lives.

#3) Improve Sleep

There is a very strong link between sleep and mental health. As a result, bad sleep and bad mental health can have a vicious cycle: getting poor sleep can cause your mental health to worsen, and poor mental health can cause you to get worse sleep. It is very common for people with diagnosed anxiety or depression — or worse — to also have a sleep disorder like insomnia. 

This is because the stress hormone, cortisol, messes with your body’s internal clock. It inhibits your circadian rhythm from sending signals that make you feel tired at night, so you have an easier time going to bed and falling asleep. There are studies that have found how CBD is able to help people with anxiety, depression, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) improve their quality of sleep. 

The best part about using CBD to help with any of the above issues is that, as a supplement, you can use it along with all of your other methods to improve your mental health. You can still have therapy, use prescription medication, exercise regularly, and so on. The CBD just helps a little bit more, so your overall mood improves that much more.