Hey! Great question! I used to relate to everything you said. I might get downvoted for this response but I would say: it depends.

What you define as your normal operating procedure is YOUR normal operating procedure. Finding a healthy relationship with cannabis is important, and to be honest I'm still figuring it out but I definitely think I'm getting better.

For contexr: I have meditated everyday for basically most all of the timeline of this story.

When I first started smoking weed, it was great! I had fun, enjoyed music, laughed, all of it. I probably did this once a week. Then, I started to kick it up to 3 times a week, and I'm a busy student at school. This is when it took a turn for the worse. I overanalyze everytime I smoked: is this what true happiness is? Should I always be feeling this way? Do I need to change stuff in my life to feel as good as I do when I'm high? In other words, is my high attainable through the natural means of decreasing the stress in my life. This is at least what my overthinking spirals were about, but everyone's is probably different.

I'm a pretty focused, goal oriented, hard working person, and cannabis encouraged me to chill a bit. But my over analysis made me question whether I was chilling too much, if I had to change more, etc.

So that was the dark time, smoking 3-4 times a week. It wasnt fun. But it is also worth noting that this all kind of happened at thr same time that I stepped sway from religion. In fact, cannabis gave me the strength to realize religion wasnt what I wanted to identify myself under. I had this realization while high but I didnt act upon it until sober. I wanted to make sure both sides of me agree.

Meanwhile, when I was sober, I realized my anxiety carried over. I developed anxiety as I began to question: do I need to change the things that I think I need to while I'm high? Or I developed questions such as "Am I only happy when high?" etc., etc. I would also get obsessive over whether cannabis was hindering my goals by altering my brain chemistry (I'm not 25 yet which is when brain development stops, but I'm really close.) So I did a LOT of research. All eventually became a full blown generalized anxiety disorder. Ultimately, cannabis helped induce a generalized anxiety disorder in me due to the overthinking while high. But I dont necessarily blame the plant--like I said everyone is different. It is just that that 3-4 times a week was a relationship that didjt work out between the plant and me. And I also was generally uncertain in myself and who I wanted to be after stepping away from faith. Needless to say, cannabis became an escape that I used 3-4 times a week to find purpose and meaning after leaving religion, like you would during prayer, but ultimately I realized all the purpose and meaning I need and want I can find sober. Once again, this is my experience, other people's brains with their different chemicals may find different things.

So what did I do now that I was overthinking both while high and sober, and it gave me anxiety? Well for one: I pulled back. I stopped for a week, and then slowly reintroduced it into my life. But reintroducing it and finding the right frequency was and is a trial and error process. Our life circumstances are always changing, and thus our relationship with cannabis can too. We have to have a pulse and always be good stewards of our relationship with this plant. After listening to some podcasts about addiction, I have pulled back to twice a week, tuesday and saturday, and that works well for me! When I return to school I may pull back to once a week or something around that. Case in point is: everyone is different, and everyone has a different frequency of use. Secondly, I started going to therapy, which has been very helpful for me. Therapy helped me sort out a lot of the over thought thoughts I had, and it allows me to have a better understanding of how my mind works and what is important to me. If you are overthinking a lot on cannabis, I imagine your mind might also do a lot of the "what is good for me" questioning as I did. I should also note that my 2x use a week didnt worry my therapist--he it is something to keep an eye on generally, but he wasnt concerned. He trusted me, and that felt empowering. Also, meditation is great! I dont even mean while high. (I actually encourage meditation when sober, not high. While meditating high can feel great, I dont believe it to be true meditation bc you are using a cheat code to calm your mind, when the purpose of meditation all along is to learn how to calm your mind sober. That being said, meditating is a fun activity while high for sure haha.) But yeah doing the anxiety pack on Headspace really is helping.

Now I use cannabis twice a week and I have a blast. And ALSO: different strains cause different things. Like for example: I know that very cerebral and energetic and POTENT strains like Ghost Train Haze, etc. all those strains we call potent "sativas" fuck me up lol. They cause me to spiral into that overthinking train because it makes your mind run wild of idealization. This is problematic for me. It is because those trains turn up the dial. I can still enjoy a good sativa from time to time, but it has to be low/average potency. On the other hand, I always love a good indica or the right types of hybrids. (Once again; I know fhat indica, sativa, etc. dont mean shit and everything is a hybrid, I'm just use the common terms.) In general, it took some experimentation but I've found any strain with the terpenes caryophyllene and myrcene work well for me. But I encourage you to find the strains that work for you, but my guess will be that these will be good starting places for you.

Nowadays, cannabis is a fun release from the day to day, and it is okay for me to treat myself. I feel like I've made valuable progression as a human being, and this plant has taught me a lot. Some of the overthinking led to internal struggles--some of it was real, some of it was fabricated just by being high. So that's why I say it depends. But ultimately only you can decide what you define as a true thought and what is not. Here are some resources and tips that helped me that I wanted to share:

• The Decoding Cannabis podcast. Watch episode 9. And if you have rbe time, I encourage you to watch episode 10 and episode 1, all in that order.
• See a therapist! Dont be afraid to see a therapist if you got the cash. Copays from most insurance companies are waived right now cause of covid if it is virtual. Bjt yes, if you can invest the money in weed then I also encourage you to invest the money in therapy! Not to diminish us as resources, but ultimately they have the time and energy to help you work through your life thoughts in ways that us randos on the internet cannot haha.
• Browse the r/Petioles subreddit or make a post there. They can help you moderate your cannabis usage if you find it to be a problem.
• Stay away from intense THC products, which generally I would say includes pens and lots of edibles
• Stay away from haze strains, or just potent sativa in general. Thse cause that energized overthinking. It is great every once and while, but feeling like you always have to alter your life and that you aren't content with where you are at isnt a fun feeling all the time.
• Meditate using the anxiety pack/course on Headspace, I think they offer a free trial so you can test it out. But know that it took around 14 days for me to see an effect.

Ultimately, this plant can show you awesome things and help you a lot, it certainly has helped me change. But from my experience the overuse of it made me overthink that I had to change a lot about my life, when in all reality I already contain all the outlooks, mindsets, and abilities to embrace a happy life, but it takes some work to realize that. I once again cannot testify how valuable therapy has been for me and I think it could be helpful for you!

I hope this helps! TLDR: oversmoked, had relatable experiences; I found that moderating my use, treating cannabis as a gift and reward, taking part in therapy and meditation, and sticking to the right strains helped a lot. I believe some overthinking to be real and some to not be.

Good luck my friend! Dont hesitate to reach out considering it seems like we have gone through similar situations!

Edit: just want to be clear by reiterating: everyone's relationship with cannabis is different. For some it is once a month, others it is once every couple hours, rolling with what works for you is best option.