The Anxious Lemonade

Dear Mom,

Have you ever found yourself rocking back and forth in a corner, debating on calling an ambulance after drinking some "harmless" lemonade?

Probably not. But I have kept this secret from you for quite some time now.

I wanted to share an embarrassing experience with THC infused products that occurred last summer in the middle of June. You probably thought I was having a normal day with friends, instead of being a "wild" young adult.

But, I digress.

It was a bright warm day, my brain was in a good mood, and I wanted to visit "Wake n Bakery" in Chicago. Due to my anxiety disorder, I normally do not have it in me to try THC without CBD. I'm throwing in a lot of terms here, but basically they help me relax behind the scenes. You probably don't even know I take this from time to time, but now you do.

Normally, I just get a large rose tea from this place with some extra CBD shots and call it a day. That is, until I made the grave mistake of trying out my friend's drink.

When my friend emerged from the shop with two drinks in hand, I happily began to sip on mine. I was eyeballing the pretty colors of their lemonade, with no intention of stumbling upon a night filled with doom from this short glance over. First of all, it looked SO GOOD. They had a fruity and floral lemonade with bright colors that swirled around the glistening ice cubes in their cup. This elixir was AESTHETIC. The presentation was immaculate!

My tastebuds began to water. This looked way better than my order!

Without even thinking about any of the side effects, I told myself that I had to try it.

After all, it was hot out and my own drink was depleting quickly.

Maybe the THC wouldn't be too bad?

Cautiously, I took a few sips of their beverage. Upon tasting the first sip, I noted how amazing this flavor was. This is when my luck turned sour, and a few sips turned into a few large gulps. Gluttony had overtaken me, and so I kept going!

sip. sip. sip.

It was extremely delicious! (I am sorry).

While enjoying its flavor, I wondered why I hadn't ordered it myself. But, there just one problem: I didn't even think to ask how much THC they had put in their drink.

With a puzzled look, my friend let out a few chuckles. At this point, I had almost downed half their lemonade! Feeling slightly embarrassed by my over indulgence and rudeness, I quickly offered to buy them another.

My friend accepted the offer, but gave me a grave warning.

"You really drank a lot there, I had added a lot of extra THC. You might be feeling that pretty soon!"

My face turned pale and I almost instantly regretted what I had done.

For the first 30 minutes post lemonade fun, I felt normal. Nothing was out of the ordinary and I resumed my walk back to their apartment. However, what I didn't anticipate was for my near departure into hell when I got settled in to my friend's living room.

After an hour of having this devilish drink in my bloodstream, things started to get...well... weird.

Being someone that has never tried edibles or even smoked heavily before, I had no idea what to expect when it came to having this sort of experience. My mouth was becoming parched, and waves of endorphins began rushing down my spine. I was getting hot, and I started to realize the utter horror in my mistake.

Like an idiot, I knew I had drank WAY too much!

The lemonade wasn't affecting me in a good way...at all. As you know, I am a very anxious person on normal days. Having something like this was kicking my system into overdrive.

For the next few hours at my friend's apartment, I struggled to fight off waves of oncoming panic attacks and the uncomfortable flashes running up and down my spinal nerves.

Nervously, I called my friend Ricky and laughed into the phone for 20 minutes attempting to piece together my story. I begged and pleaded for help, every word turning into a mushy pile of nonsense. I was unable to think, and Ricky just sat on the other end of the phone line questioning my sanity.

The foolishness didn't stop there... I know.

Trying to wash my face with cold water was when the circus really kicked into gear. I was having trouble moving, laughing to myself, and panicking at the same time. I tried talking to my friend's roommates and ended up spilling a ton of water on myself at the bathroom sink, toppling over in a sad heap.

Everyone laughed at my misfortune, cracking up as they watched me move from the bathroom back to the living room.

Don't worry though, I wanted all of this behavior to stop as much as you probably would if you saw me like this. For hours, I decided to sit on the floor behind the couch, guzzling a bottle of water and rocking myself.

Picturing this image again, it becomes more pathetic every time. When I sat on the floor, clutching my water and talking to the wall, I seriously debated on going to the hospital.

Maybe they would have given me anti anxiety meds to knock me out into a long sleep? Who knows, but the comfort of a hospital bed was very enticing to the hamster running miles on the wheel in my brain.

When my idiotic brain was finally recovering from melting onto the carpet (only 9 hours later), I couldn't do anything but swear this incident would never happen again.

While I did thank my friend for letting me stay and keeping me safe, I had to recharge after such a terrible experience. My brain wanted to choke me the next day, and I don't blame it. Some people are able to tolerate high amounts of THC and can smoke every day without issue. But if you would have seen me in this state, you would have been either really annoyed or angry.

However, I learned my lesson even though I kept this secret for so long. I now know what my body can and can't handle from this embarrassing story. It CAN'T handle a large THC lemonade, so I will just have to stick to rose tea CBD.

Sorry again, mom.