If you’re too high and want it to stop, the most important thing to know is that it will pass. Inhaled cannabis typically peaks within 30 minutes and fades within six hours. Edibles are slower and longer, peaking up to four hours after you eat them and lasting as long as 12 hours. You can’t force THC out of your system instantly, but you can make the wait significantly more comfortable.
Slow Your Breathing First
Cannabis raises your heart rate, and a racing heart feeds the anxiety loop that makes being too high feel unbearable. The fastest way to interrupt that loop is through your vagus nerve, a long nerve that runs from your brain to your gut and acts as a brake pedal for your heart rate.
The simplest technique: fill a bowl or sink with ice water and submerge your face for as long as you comfortably can. This triggers what’s called the diving reflex, an automatic response that slows your heart. If you don’t have a bowl handy, press a bag of ice or a soaking-wet cold towel against your face. Even holding a few ice cubes in your hands or against the back of your neck can help ground you physically.
Slow, deliberate breathing also works. Breathe in for four counts, hold for four, breathe out for six to eight. The longer exhale is key because it activates the same nerve pathway. Do this for two to three minutes and your heart rate should noticeably drop, which takes the edge off paranoia and the feeling that something is wrong.
Eat Something Sweet, Then Drink Water
Cannabis can interfere with how your body handles blood sugar, and some of the worst “greening out” symptoms, like dizziness, nausea, clamminess, and feeling faint, overlap with symptoms of low blood sugar. Eating something with simple sugars (juice, a piece of fruit, a handful of candy) gives your body quick fuel. Follow it with water. Dehydration worsens dry mouth, headaches, and the general foggy discomfort of being too high. Sip steadily rather than chugging, especially if your stomach feels unsettled.
A small snack with some fat and carbohydrates, like toast with peanut butter or crackers and cheese, can also help. Food won’t eliminate the high, but it stabilizes your body enough that you feel less physically miserable while the THC clears.
Try Smelling or Eating Citrus
This sounds like folk wisdom, but there’s real science behind it. A Johns Hopkins study tested d-limonene, the compound that gives lemons, limes, and oranges their smell, alongside THC in 20 healthy adults. Participants who inhaled limonene along with THC reported significantly lower ratings of feeling anxious, nervous, and paranoid compared to THC alone. The effect was dose-dependent: more limonene meant less anxiety. Importantly, the limonene didn’t dull the other effects of THC or cause any side effects of its own.
You don’t need a vaporizer. Peel an orange or lemon and breathe in the rind. Squeeze lemon into water and drink it. Even just rolling a citrus peel between your fingers and holding it near your nose puts limonene in the air around you. It’s not a cure, but if anxiety or paranoia is the worst part of your experience, it’s worth trying.
How CBD Can Take the Edge Off
If you have CBD oil, a CBD tincture, or CBD gummies available, taking some may genuinely help. CBD appears to work by changing the shape of the same receptor that THC activates in your brain. When CBD binds to this receptor, it shifts the receptor into a less active state, essentially turning down the volume on THC’s signal. This doesn’t cancel the high completely, but it can soften the intensity, particularly the anxious, racing-thoughts part.
Sublingual CBD (drops held under your tongue) absorbs faster than gummies. If you’re using it to come down, aim for a moderate dose and give it 15 to 20 minutes to start working. CBD won’t hit as fast as the breathing and cold water techniques, but it addresses the chemistry directly rather than just managing symptoms.
Change Your Environment
Your surroundings have an outsized influence on how a high feels. If you’re in a loud, crowded, or unfamiliar place, your nervous system is already on alert, and THC amplifies that. Move somewhere quieter if you can. Sit or lie down. Put on something familiar and low-key: a show you’ve seen before, calm music, a podcast with a soothing voice. Novelty and stimulation feed anxiety when you’re too high. Familiarity and comfort counteract it.
Taking a warm (not hot) shower can also reset your senses. The steady water pressure gives your brain a single, pleasant sensation to focus on instead of spiraling. If a shower isn’t an option, simply stepping outside into fresh air and focusing on the feeling of wind or temperature on your skin does something similar.
What Not to Do
Don’t drink alcohol. It increases THC absorption and almost always makes things worse. Don’t consume more cannabis, even if someone tells you a different strain will “balance it out.” Don’t drink coffee or energy drinks, as caffeine raises your heart rate and can spike anxiety further. And don’t try to fight the high by pacing, arguing with yourself about whether you’re okay, or frantically Googling symptoms. Lie down, breathe, and let time do the work.
Edibles Last Much Longer
If you ate an edible, you’re in for a longer ride than someone who smoked. Inhaled THC peaks fast and clears within a few hours. Edible THC gets processed through your liver, which converts it into a more potent form that crosses into your brain more effectively. That’s why edibles can feel stronger than smoking even at the same dose, and why the effects can linger up to 12 hours.
The hardest part with edibles is that you may not have peaked yet. If you ate the edible less than four hours ago, the high could still be building. Knowing this is actually useful: you’re not stuck at the worst point forever, but you may need to settle in and ride it out longer than you’d like. Use the techniques above, get comfortable, and try to sleep if you can. Sleep is the most effective fast-forward button available.
Signs You Need Help
Cannabis is not going to kill you, and the vast majority of “too high” experiences resolve on their own. But a small number of situations do warrant a call to Poison Control (1-800-222-1222 in the U.S.) or a trip to an emergency room. These include trouble breathing, an inability to wake someone up or keep them conscious, uncontrollable vomiting that won’t stop for hours, chest pain, or a heart rate that stays above 150 beats per minute even after trying the calming techniques above. Children who accidentally ingest edibles should be evaluated by a medical professional regardless of how mild their symptoms appear, as their reactions can escalate quickly from drowsiness to serious respiratory problems.