Why medicinal cannabis has changed retired star's life
From WWOS
Former Wallaby Drew Mitchell has opened up on how medical cannabis has helped him adjust to life after football, admitting to the damaging effects anxiety had on his way of living.
During his esteemed rugby union career, Mitchell was on a high, taking on the world and succeeding more than most.
However, in retirement, life was nothing like that.
A simple drive could lead to him pulling over on the side of the road as his mental health troubles led to a mental breakdown.
It's a common tale for many professional athletes who attempt to transition out of the sporting team environment and into an unfamiliar world.
Mitchell was no exception.
"I wasn't really sure on what that looked like or what it was I was going to get into and I think it was a period of time where you feel a little bit lost because you're chasing a new purpose and a new passion," he told Wide World of Sports.
"It's often hard because every time you look at something or start something you compare it to how I felt with what I was just doing with rugby and it always sort of paled in comparison.
"From there, I don't know, there was a bit of uncertainty and in that transitional period I started to feel anxiety coming on, it was presenting itself more in social environments."
For Mitchell, the simple practice of entering a restaurant led to significant trouble. He couldn't go in alone.
"I'd always have to wait for friends to turn up before I walked in," he said.
"It was only small to begin with and then as time went on it started to present itself in other parts of my life and then had a greater impact on my day-to-day living. I'm a bit of an over-thinker ... getting anxiety worrying about what might happen or could happen and getting stuck looking ahead as opposed to being in the moment. It started to become pretty prevalent in my day-to-day life, times were pretty bad and it got to a point where I thought I need to do something about this."
Mitchell's first plan of action was to see a therapist, and he was determined to defeat the stigma around "sitting on a lounge and opening up".
"I thought we have teachers and coaches for everything in life except for life itself ... all your life stuff you just go to your nearest and dearest and often it's the case you get bias advice from your family and friends because they always want what's best for you and not necessarily give it to you how you need to hear it and nor are they always equipped with the tools about how to actually fix the situations," he said.
"I started to speak to a therapist and in my mind got over that stigma by seeing them as a life coach. That's what initially helped me, going there and opening up because I also think there's no point going there and withholding 20 per cent of everything. If you're going to try and get help you might as well give them everything and they know what they're dealing with so that certainly helped to a degree."
Along with therapy, Mitchell was prescribed anti-anxiety and depression medication Lexapro, but admits "I didn't really like it".
There was a middle ground with the medication that meant he couldn't reach the depths of his anxiety but was also unable to enjoy the highs of life.
That's where medicinal cannabis came into his life.
Once again, he had to defeat a stigma to go ahead with it.
"Cannabis had a stigma attached to it, something that people around me through school and outside of school were delving into, not necessarily the prescribed stuff but in high school the more I was encouraged or enticed or offered marijuana, I pushed back and it kind of made me not want to do it at all and I was also just too singularly focused on being a footy player once I was finished school," he said.
"It was never something I experienced, that stigma made me a little bit hesitant to begin with and then I started to learn a bit more about it with the CBD and THC components of it and where you get the actual high from and the CBD and the capacity it can help you in.
"I met the team at Medibis and started to learn a bit more about it and through consultation with the doctors and explaining my situation and symptoms and experiences with anxiety started trialling a few different products, which for me was the oils and gummies."
Mitchell's routine now involves using CBD oil or gummies throughout the day, and if he's too overwhelmed with anxiety there might be a blend of CBD and THC.
The difference between anti-depression medication and medicinal cannabis was remarkable.
Instead of waiting a month for the effects, Mitchell can see the impact straight away.
"What I experienced from medical cannabis, there's a bit more of an immediate effect, a calming impact to where I'm at at that point, with whatever's going on, so it's actually had a pretty significant impact on my relationship with anxiety really," he said.
The use of medicinal cannabis for professional athletes has become prevalent in recent years with rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns and basketball legend Lauren Jackson prominent advocates.
Research into medicinal cannabis continues with Medibis announcing a groundbreaking clinical trial to prove its unique cannabis formulation is an effective treatment for anxiety and other symptoms associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Recent studies into medicinal cannabis produced promising results that the method reduces ASD-related anxiety without the need for conventional pharmaceuticals.
"There is some evidence on a physiological basis to show that people with brains wired differently due to ASD have lower levels of activity in an important neuro-regulatory system called the endocannabinoid system," Dr Cheyne Mitchell, one of Australia's preeminent cannabis specialists, said.
"It's been observed that this lower level of activity could explain the higher levels of anxiety typically experienced by this population. The ASD patients I have been treating with cannabis have enjoyed positive outcomes, and I'm very excited to work with Medibis on its clinical trial to verify the results I have experienced in my own medical centre and dispensary regarding ASD patients."
The upcoming clinical trial from Medibis is currently undergoing its second capital raise via the Birchal crowdfunding platform.
