Best anxiety killer? Heroin, without a doubt.

@1 The real best is death, so...

Thank you for posting this Sarah. I think it's important for people to understand you can use marijuana without being a stoner (not that there's anything wrong with being a stoner). Also, it's so much healthier for you than drinking, despite your grandpap's old age when he passed.

2, Hey Death Warden,
Let me borrow from you - "i think it's important for people to understand you can use heroin without being a junkie."

A good read.

Extra sharp cheddar slices smeared with sour cherry jam. Try it sometime.

Nice writing. :)
Hey what's the name of that Joe Wenderoth poem, it sounds awesome.

It's interesting to see this particular experience of how anxiety interacts with booze and weed.
I've got pathological anxiety and I handle alcohol very well; it mellows me out, damps down my thoughts a bit. I even came close to self-medicating with it (before I knew that I had an anxiety disorder), downing half a bottle of wine before doing any work on whatever paper I had to write for class.
Marijuana I don't touch and don't intend to. Not only do I find the smell disgusting, I suspect that it may badly affect my mental state. I'm tightly wound, high-strung, full of nervous energy, and I make it work! My worry is that the influence of cannabis could unleash things I keep stored away, aggravate my hypersensitivity to sound and color, or possibly even ratchet my anxiety up into full-blown paranoia.

I do heartily agree, though, that cheese is delicious and eating it is a commendable delight. I second dwightmoodyforgetsthings's suggestion of sharp cheddar with tangy jam. It makes a very nice sandwich on soft whole wheat bread.

What people have to say about their recreational chemical use is about as edifying as people telling you about their dreams.

Mixing weed and tobacco is just dumb.

It kills my appetite for alcohol, like nothing else, personally. Which is great because when I drink I drink a lot, and I can't even afford to drink a lot, but do anyway when drinking. When I get high, I dash my plans to drink later on because drinking just sounds stupid / very unappetizing when high. So maybe alcoholics should give pot a shot, as something to curb their alcoholism. If it works that could be huge because alcoholism is very tough to fight

I discovered two things in graduate school:
—the poetry of Marian Tsvetaeva is indeed awesome, especially in the original;
—weed gives me not only cotton mouth, but cotton everything else. I tell mainstream folks I stopped because that was the year I started wearing soft contact lenses, and my eyes became too dry when I got high to wear contacts comfortably. That much is true, but it's not the whole story: cotton mouth, cotton eyes, cotton cunt. And there was no such thing as cherry-flavored Astroglide when I was a Russian graduate student. Something had to go. Haven't used weed since.

I, too, am interested in the Wenderoth poem. Title and book?

I was going to comment, but #12 mostly nailed it - mostly. Worse is when you can afford it. Who, working class and age 19, imagines a world where fine booze is essentially free?

Everyone's chemistry is different—so awesome it worked for you—but I might be careful about recommending weed as an anxiety reducer, as THC can also (and commonly does) act as an anxiety trigger.
So it may still be worth a shot since a panic attack won't kill anyone, and for the destructive drinker, weed is certainly a bit safer, but weed = anxiety reducer? Not exactly.

The Wenderoth poem is "May 30th, 1997" from Letters to Wendy's. Re-reading it, it's a bit darker than I remembered, though I think you'll see why I was reminded of it in a positive way in that context. ;)

@17 - Holy shit I love that book.

I also have high anxiety. I also was prescribed Xanax to cope. I also could outdrank the beefiest men to their surprise. And I also dropped all that to happily embrace weed. It's great. The best medicine honestly. I hated how Xanax made me feel, I love the way that weed makes me happily devour PB&Js and experience wonderful orgasms. I found this article a perfect description of all the pros and cons of each thing involved. Great job! Twas' hilarious. Look forward to reading more from you.