Yasemin’s Story: Resilience and Releaf for my Mental Health

Six months ago, Yasemin took the plunge and started on her own bespoke medical cannabis treatment plan after years of cycling through conventional treatments for PTSD, anxiety, and depression with little success.

Inspired by the hundreds of positive stories she’s heard throughout her time working in the industry, Yasemin decided to give medical cannabis a shot. Now, she feels sharing her experiences could help to inspire others. 

Read what she had to say below.

Please tell us about your health conditions, and how they affect you.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always been able to feel the effects of, what was at the time, undiagnosed PTSD, anxiety, and depression - but it wasn’t until I was 16 that I was formally diagnosed. 

I’ve never really known what it feels like to feel like how everyone else seems to feel, or at least how they act like they feel. The whole world seems to be tuning into a completely different show to the one I was getting, and I just thought that that was the norm. But I now know it's not. 

It has been really debilitating at times. I’ve felt like I’m a 90-year-old woman that's exhausted with life, but really I was 18, or 20, or 22, and that can be absolutely exhausting. I’ve had different fears in my childhood and adolescence about it, and growing into an adult has come with different fears. 

Now I have a child of my own, and I worry about how I’ll be able to assist them if they have mental health conditions, how I’ll be able to get them the support they need, or if I’ve passed anything on to them.

I feel like people have always spoken about mental health, especially during my lifetime. It’s something we’ve always been aware of, and it is being spoken about more and more, but still not to the extent that it should be, and I think a lot more could be done research wise. 

What did a ‘day in the life of Yas’ look like, before starting medical cannabis?

So, I went through a really difficult period of trying to get my pharmaceutical medication obtained. So far, I’ve tried ten different medications to help manage my mental health. I trialled them for different periods of time, and I have been to see private doctors in Turkey, and here in the UK as well, trying to find something that works.

When I was in Turkey, I had been stable when using a type of antipsychotic medication, but when I came back to the UK the doctors here wouldn’t continue the prescription. It was weeks and weeks of seeing the GP, or calling 111 crying down the phone, begging them to prescribe me my medication. I even went to A&E, but I still couldn’t get them. 

At the time, I was completely disconnected from my family, I just focused on the one thing that made me feel accomplished: my work. But, then, even that became exhausting, and I was burning out. I wasn’t aware of what I was doing to myself, or what difficult position I’d ended up in, and I didn’t know how to get out of it. 

I was experiencing side effects from the pharmaceutical medications they were prescribing me, and they’ve completely changed my life as well. I think one of the worst, was always having to be attached to that medication and having to have that security, that I know I’ll be able to function, and without that medication I’d be on the verge of completely falling to pieces. 

How did you first come across medical cannabis?

I first came across medical cannabis when my uncle, who had stage 4 cancer, started using cannabis oil to help alleviate his pain symptoms. I believe his was imported from Canada - it was before medical cannabis was legalised here in the UK, but it really, really helped him during his last moments.

I didn’t actually know medical cannabis was legal here until I started working in the industry a few years ago. Before this, I’d never considered if medical cannabis would work for me, I didn’t even know it was a treatment option for mental health conditions because I was so sure that the pharmaceutical medications had to be the answer because of how much they’d been pushed on me. 

I thought, surely, they wouldn’t let me go through some ten different medications without ever mentioning that medical cannabis could be an option, especially considering the side effects I’ve endured? It felt like I was being treated as a guinea pig being tracked to see how I respond to pharmaceutical medications. 

Can you tell us more about how your own journey with medical cannabis started?

Sure, I received my first prescription for medical cannabis flower from Releaf back in January. I was aware that medical cannabis was a trial and error situation, that it isn’t a one size fits all solution, and it doesn’t necessarily go absolutely perfectly the first time. And I’m glad I knew that, because the first cultivar prescribed to me didn't really work the best.

I’d seen so many amazing success stories, so I decided to stick with it and speak to the clinical team. The doctors are fantastic, I just spoke with them openly, and we considered the alternatives. I didn’t have to stick with something that wasn’t working for me for a prolonged period, like I had experienced when using pharmaceutical medications. 

When I got the right prescription, it was the first time in months when I had just felt like I wasn’t lost in myself, I had control of my life back and I could think straight. I felt like I had back control of not just my mind, but my body as well - it reminded me of how I felt on my antipsychotic medication, but without all the side effects.

As well as this, the fear of running out of medication wasn’t nearly as intense, I knew I wouldn’t be in as bad as a situation as I was with the pharmaceutical medications because the withdrawal symptoms with those can be so bad. 

And, how has the first six months of treatment been?

Surprisingly, I have felt a lot more in control of my own health, even considering the circumstances. 

When I was trying to obtain my pharmaceutical medication with my GP, I was going through a really tough period and I ended up in a crisis house because of how seriously my mental health had deteriorated. Thankfully, my manager Charlene, and Dr Tang managed to get me the help I needed.

I started experiencing issues with my mental health during childhood, I think since around the age of seven, and this was the worst it had ever been in almost 20 years. It was the worst I’d ever felt. 

I’ve been on prescribed medications ever since then, and when I went into the crisis house it was the first time I’d ever not been taking a tablet, or a pill, at least once a day. At the house, all my other medications had been taken off me, but they did let me have my medical cannabis flower and a prescribed cannabis oil. I was so surprised at how stable that actually kept me during the most difficult time I’ve had in my life. 

I’ve felt more confident and empowered with a natural kind of medication, because I had control over it  - instead of it having control over me. It also felt really empowering that I was allowed to continue this way, because it was working for me. 

Has your medical cannabis prescription changed what you’re able to do in a typical day?

Definitely - since starting medical cannabis, I’ve started to spend so much more time with my family. I'm a lot more interactive, and I'm a lot more productive at work because I don't have the racing thoughts that are taking me away from my daily challenges, which lessens procrastination.

I always thought that my sleep had been fine, or good even, until I started taking the medical cannabis oil, which is when I realised how much it was actually improving. It wasn’t just helping me to get more sleep, or sleep for a longer period of time, but it was so much better quality sleep too. 

I’m up for a challenge more now, and I have more willingness to do things. I can make plans for the future despite my difficulties - I see past them instead of focusing on them, and I just feel like now I finally feel how I should feel. I've also been able to reconnect to what I feel is my 'old self' and remember that life can be so much more. 

You said medical cannabis has helped you to reconnect with your old self, what do you mean by this?

I did my first scuba dive at the age of 8, and I have now trained up to become a Dive Leader. At the time, it was a great help in being a distraction method from my mental health issues, but of course, the Great British weather doesn't necessarily permit it, so I did end up decreasing my dive times and eventually, as my mental health declined, I completely lost all connection to anything that 'made me feel alive' previously. 

Scuba diving can be difficult when on pharmaceuticals, as can be many other physical activities because of side effects, health insurance and so on. But, with medicinal cannabis I have the confidence that it fits better with my life, and opens up doors that have previously been shut due to certain health conditions.

I feel I can do another 70 years of living life like this, but before, every single day felt like a challenge. It feels a lot better to just be a lot more positive and excited to just be living life a bit more. I look forward to the future now, I’m not stuck in the moment, or focusing on the negatives.

How have your family and friends reacted to you being prescribed cannabis?

My family have all been really supportive, they knew that I already worked in the sector, and so they were aware of the benefits medical cannabis can have when it is appropriately applied because it's something I’m always talking about. 

My dad’s side of the family are Turkish, and they were a little more reserved. But, when my dad saw how stable medical cannabis had managed to keep me in the crisis house, and he’s seen all throughout my life how it's been when I can’t access my medications and what side effects I’d experienced, that's when he really noticed what difference it was making, and their perspectives did change.  

Now, he’s over in Turkey raising awareness for these options! He’s always chatting to his friends about it ,and in Turkey this subject is still very taboo, so I find it really nice that he’s being open and trying, and managing, to educate people and give them the right information. 

I am still using pharmaceutical medications for support, and it's something I’m probably always going to have to do. But, I have been able to decrease the quantity of medication taken, and I’ve completely come off antipsychotics which I’d been relying on for years, and everyone can see the difference. 

And finally, what would you say to someone who's considering medical cannabis, but is nervous about taking the leap?

Often, people who are eligible for medicinal cannabis haven't had the smoothest of journeys with healthcare because it's not a first-line treatment option in the UK. For patients that have already been let down by one industry so to say, giving the opportunity to another industry to work for you, can be scary, but I’d say it’s the time to take that leap.

Because I work in this industry, I know that it’s constantly improving because of the stories patients share - and that’s why I wanted to share mine too. Patients are learning what they want, and what they need, and the industry is learning from the patients as demand grows. Of course It's very tight, and controlled and heavily regulated, but patient voices are being heard, and their input is being implemented into the journey more and more. 

At Releaf, there’s a lot of one-to-one support that’s not generalised, it's personalised. And it's a lot more specialised than people think, because the doctors take into account your specific symptoms, and situation, and then looking for the right product that offers the right concentration of cannabinoids, and a terpene profile that will work for you.

Personally, I’d say it's given me a comfort that I've never had in healthcare before, and I feel a lot more looked after and knowledgeable about the medication that I'm taking. During consultations there's a lot of discussion, and the doctors explain lots of facts, but most importantly: they listen to you, and if you say it's not working, they’ll help you find something else that does, pretty much immediately. 

The difference, truly, is remarkable.