A woman who has opened up about her long-term cannabis use has shared the severe symptoms of her ‘scromiting’ disorder.
As of 2023, approximately 17 percent of Americans have admitted to using marijuana, which isn’t surprising given that 24 states have legalized it for recreational purposes.
However, medical professionals are cautioning about a new side effect emerging among chronic users who consume cannabis daily or almost daily. Emergency rooms are experiencing an influx of patients with abdominal pain and severe or prolonged vomiting.
Recently, a young woman has come forward about her struggles with this debilitating condition.
Sydni Collins, 23, shared with The New Post that she first experimented with marijuana as a teenager and has been using her weed pen regularly since she was 16.
Her years of cannabis use have taken a significant toll on her health, causing her to experience intense bouts of nausea and vomiting. One memorable incident involved vomiting throughout an entire flight during her senior year spring break.
“There were some days when it lasted until noon, and I would not go to school because of how bad it was,” Sydni explained to the outlet.
“I would be puking all morning. I would let out yells or cries because nothing would come out. I was just dry heaving.”
Doctors eventually diagnosed her with cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), which includes a range of severe symptoms, such as ‘scromiting’ – a combination of screaming and vomiting simultaneously.
The World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases has recently acknowledged the condition on their website due to the rise in CHS cases. However, many healthcare providers are still unfamiliar with the syndrome, leading to frequent misdiagnoses.
This was the situation for Sydni for quite some time as medical professionals struggled to identify her condition.
At one point, her symptoms were so severe that she made seven trips to the hospital in a single month and required a feeding tube.
“There would be some days where I felt better than others, and I would feel fine,” she continued. “I was like, ‘I can go eat. I can go out of the house.’ And then, within hours, I would go back to vomiting and stomach pain.
“I would be in the fetal position on the bed for hours because that was the only way my stomach didn’t hurt as bad.”
Once doctors identified the cause, she had experienced significant weight loss, weighing only 87lbs (6 stone 3lbs).
Despite the feeding tube, she struggled to regain a healthy weight, and to make matters worse, CHS made food seem unappealing.
“My mom got me a bunch of nutritional supplements, and I could not bear the taste of anything, even Gatorade,” she added. “I would chew on ice cubes. I would lick the salt off pretzel rods. Cold washcloths helped.”
After abstaining from cannabis for nine months, Sydni was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, which causes inflammation in the digestive tract and can bring about chronic nausea, stomach cramps, and weight loss.
“Getting diagnosed with that made me think that’s probably what [the original symptoms] were from, and it wasn’t the weed,” she said.
This prompted her to start using her weed pen again. Three years after her ‘first big episode,’ she had another one, resulting in more weight loss and requiring another feeding tube.
“I’m not what you would think of as your typical stoner … and people outside of my friend group and close family didn’t even know I smoked,” she continued.
“The only way to figure out if [my symptoms] were from weed is if I stopped. So I did, and I got better.”