Shiggs,
I have to thank you for this thread in a BIG BIG way. I have read every single page, all posts related to the topic and I learned what google could NOT provide me on searches I've done in the past. I just read through it again, because I want to absorb more of the information that everyone has provided.
I hit a really hard panic attack after vaping one of my hybrid Indica dominant strains a few months ago, and I tried chewing on some peppercorns per suggestions by people on the net. They were awful, and despite trying it several times during the attack...it did absolutely nothing for me besides taste terrible and I actually got one piece stuck in my throat. Not to mention spitting out pieces of pepper shell for a while afterwards.
Last night I had another one after an unusually large (for me) dinner of infused items....I knew better...but I did it anyway. I went overkill on things because I had something for lunch that had canna infusion to it as well. (newfound freedom to use my cannabis after a long awaited drug test at work was finally done)
THIS time I remembered this thread, and I ground up some fresh peppercorns and went to "sniffing". Yeah...the sneezing was there, and it took a few times before I finally started feeling the panic dissolve. Before I tried the pepper I couldn't even lay down on the bed, the minute I tried, my racing heart and head took over and I was right back up. I was pacing back and forth across the house, shaking from seemingly every inch of my body and trying desperately to keep my mind redirected to quelle the panic. "Stop here, stare at that...what's on the TV?....redirect...redirect." I think I wore a path in the carpeting.Although, at the time this was not funny in the least. I can't even tell you what the panic was about, it was just a general feeling that something is about to come crashing down and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It's hard to explain. Feeling, and literally hearing my heart pound. ARG!
I, like so many others here, will now keep that pepper grinder very very handy. I do not believe it was a placebo effect, I could physically feel the changes my body was taking when it started working. For me, it was about 20 minutes as a whole before I could lay down in that bed and feel calm and relaxed with enough concentration to watch some tv and giggle at some toons on adult swim channel. I slept calmly the rest of the night. But I do NOT want to go through that again.
The future fix is certainly to limit myself with my consumption of cannabis foods, but knowing that there is something to help just in case...is so soothing to the mindset.
I will certainly be offering this suggestion to others...now that I have tested it first hand and can say with confidence that it worked for me.
Did you get your anti freak-out potion/lotion concocted yet?
Great post Cannafan. The best non-pepper related thing about this thread is meeting fellow paranoia attack sufferers. Wonderful description. Been there and done that oh so many times.