I'm sick bro. PTSD so bad it's literally like that episode of Stranger Things (Max's song) how it takes you away from everyone, everything, all at once and you just don't get to decide when it rears it's ugly head and snatches you away from where you wanted to present at that time. So growing with passion is an understatement for me. I put my complete and total self into this shit and when you zip open a tent and get slapped in the face with a 22" biscotti skunk cola off a plant standing 5'10" off the ground it brings you right back. Every. Fucking. Time. This plant is J.Diesel's song.
I don't have PTSD, but I do know from reading / watching others that do have it, that Weed has been a huge boost in improvement of the lives of people who suffer with it.
I do have OCD, and Tourrete's Syndrome, and Cannabis does affect those as well. Some strains make it worse, others make it tolerable so my own brain doesn't torture me, which, is why you may notice I get all excited over specific strains / Terpene Profiles, as some of them really do make my day easier.
I started out not caring about Weed that much years ago, as I was one of those "Weed is Weed" people, and though I'd get stoned smoking it, I didn't honestly get relief from, well, anything other than having too many cookies around (It helped make those disappear LOL) and then as I went on, I ended up with bad pain issues, and needed a lot of pain killers to get through my day.
Eventually, an ex friend told me one day while we were driving around that he wanted to stop and grab some weed from someone he knew, and that it was Blue Cheese. He said it was his all time favorite strain ever, and so I agreed and stopped. Now, when he came back out with that, the smell alone grabbed my attention instantly.
I had never cared what strain a given bag was, but after smoking a single joint of Blue Cheese with him that night, I instantly did care, and realized that strains were important and not all the same. In my mind I had worked it out like "Well THC is THC" and simply was ignorant of the Terpene Profiles, and other Cannabinoids in the plant, like CBN when you let it get some nice amber to the resin, and so I didn't think twice about me being so wrong.
After smoking Blue Cheese it was instantly my favorite strain ever, and remains so to this day. Anxiety and all the Xanax and Valium I used to take ceased to be an issue, and the overall feelings of dealing with constant severe pain, also weren't as important after that one. So I started my obsession with Cheese strains like that.
Over the years I've learned more of course, like how Chemdog and the family of strains from that also do a lot for me, and how Chem D is one of my all time favorites too. I've added more to my list of course, as I try new ones whenever I can, but I have noticed that for me at least, there's some correlation between certain smells, and relief I get. Every Cheese strain I've tried has had similar results, and the same could be said of Chemdog too. I love GMO for example, and only had the original GSC ONE time, and MAN was that one done right! I only had it back then, and it tasted like a Sugar Cookie honestly, which, normally is a "don't care" moment for me, but those effects were nice, and crossing GSC into Chem D = GMO, and after trying that and finding bag seed of it, and loving it, I grew that out this past season, and GMO has been added to my list of stuff that helps a lot.
When it comes to what I consider "bag appeal" the amount of resin I see has VERY little to do with it; I'd rather look at the trichomes and see what color I see, and smell it. At the end of the day I follow my nose, and the pungent is where I aim. Cheese, creamy, gassy, and basically any spicy peppery smells I pick up on, are what I generally will go for, as the fruity stuff doesn't seem to do much good for me a lot of the time.
Have you noticed that certain strains help your PTSD out ? Or certain Terpene Profiles? If I smell something that other people are like "WTF is that?!?!?" and it has some "stank on it" I'm probably gonna like it, as I haven't had any issue with this method of picking before, but I feel like there's something in those terpene profiles that helps do what it does.
Seriously, I've grown a lot of strains, but direct descendants of Skunk, are cola factories that Coke or Pepsi would want to litigate LOL.
