What Happens When You Use Synthetic Cannabis Every Day

Using synthetic cannabis once is risky enough. Using it every day changes the risk completely, because the brain and body never get a proper break. These are man-made chemicals that act on the brain’s cannabinoid receptors far more strongly than the natural compound in cannabis, and their strength varies from batch to batch. When they are taken daily, the brain starts to adapt to their constant presence. Thinking, mood, sleep and appetite all begin to shift around the drug. The day stops being organised around work, family and rest, and starts being organised around the next use. That change rarely happens all at once. It creeps in, day by day, until a daily habit feels normal, even while health and daily life are getting worse. The warning signs of daily use are often physical as well as mental, and they tend to appear in the same order. First comes the broken sleep and the heavy morning. Then the appetite becomes erratic, and meals are skipped or eaten in a rush. Then the heart races more often, the chest feels tight after use, or nausea becomes a regular part of the day. A cough that will not clear, frequent headaches, sweating for no clear reason, and a general feeling of being unwell can all follow. Each symptom on its own can be explained away. Together, they form a pattern that points in one direction, and that pattern is worth taking seriously before it becomes a medical emergency.

This article explains, in plain words, what daily use does to the body and mind. It looks at how mornings change, how focus and energy fade through the day, why tolerance climbs so quickly, what happens to mood and sleep, and how work, money and family life are affected when use becomes a daily routine. It is general information only, not advice about any one person’s situation. If you are worried about your own health, or about someone close to you, a qualified health professional is the right person to talk to.

What Daily Use Means for the Body and Mind

The first thing to understand about daily use is that the brain does not treat each day separately. It carries the effects forward. When a strong chemical is taken every day, the brain adjusts its chemistry to cope with it. It reduces the sensitivity of the receptors the drug acts on, and it changes how it produces and uses its own signalling chemicals. That adjustment is why the first few uses can feel very strong, and later uses feel weaker, even when the amount is the same. The brain has learned to expect the drug, and it works differently when the drug is present from when it is absent.

That daily cycle has a cost. Between uses, the brain is in a state of mild withdrawal, even if the person does not recognise it as such. They may feel restless, irritable, anxious or unable to concentrate, and they may not connect those feelings with the drug. They may think they are simply stressed, or tired, or in a bad mood. Then they use again, and the discomfort eases for a while. That relief feels like the drug is helping, when in fact it is only relieving a discomfort the drug itself created. Over weeks of daily use, this cycle becomes the rhythm of the day, and the person spends much of their time either under the effect of the drug or waiting for the next dose.

The body is affected in the same way. The heart rate rises after use, blood pressure can climb, and the lungs are irritated if the product is smoked. Daily use means daily strain on those systems, with no time to recover fully. Vomiting, nausea and poor appetite are common, and repeated vomiting can leave the body short of fluids. Health authorities have also reported serious problems linked to these products, including severe agitation, confusion, seizures and kidney injury. Daily use increases the chance of encountering one of those severe reactions, simply because the person is exposed more often, and because tolerance pushes them towards larger amounts.

Mornings: How the Day Starts to Change

Mornings are often where daily use shows itself first. A person who used the night before may wake up feeling groggy, heavy-headed and slow to get going. Sleep during the night may have been shallow and broken, so the morning starts with tiredness rather than rest. Some people reach for the drug first thing, to shake off that fog and feel able to face the day. Others wait until later, but spend the morning feeling restless and irritable, counting the hours until they can use again. Either way, the morning is no longer a fresh start. It is shaped by the drug, before the day has properly begun.

That change affects everything that follows. Getting ready for work or study takes longer. Simple decisions, what to wear, what to eat, what to do first, feel harder. The person may skip breakfast, or eat poorly, because appetite is already confused by the drug. They may leave the house late, or forget something they needed. At work or college, the first hour is spent trying to clear a fog that should not be there. Colleagues and teachers may notice the lateness and the slowness, even if they do not know the cause. Over weeks, the pattern becomes familiar: a difficult morning, every morning, with no clear reason the person can name, except that the drug has become part of how the day begins.

There is another morning problem that people rarely talk about, and that is the dread of a day without the drug. A daily user who wakes up and finds they have run out may feel panic. The day ahead suddenly looks unmanageable. Work, family duties, even simple errands feel too hard to face without the drug. That feeling is a sign of dependence, and it is one of the clearest signs that daily use has taken hold. A habit that was meant to make life easier has made ordinary life feel impossible without it.

Thinking and Focus Through the Day

Daily use makes clear thinking difficult in a way that builds up over the day. In the hours after using, a person may feel detached, foggy or confused. Conversations are harder to follow. Instructions need repeating. Reading a page takes longer, because the mind wanders and the words do not stick. Later in the day, as the effect wears off, focus does not return to normal. Instead, the person may feel restless and jumpy, unable to settle to one task for long. The brain is caught between two states, neither of which allows steady concentration.

Memory suffers alongside focus. Short-term memory is particularly affected, because the brain regions that form new memories are rich in the receptors these chemicals act on. A daily user may forget what they were told an hour ago, or what they went into a room to fetch, or whether they have already done a task. At work, this leads to mistakes: a missed step, a wrong order, a forgotten message. At home, it leads to frustration and arguments, as family members feel they are not being listened to. The person may insist they were paying attention, and they may genuinely believe it, because the memory of the conversation never formed properly in the first place.

Learning new things becomes harder too. Whether it is a new skill at work, a lesson at college, or simply following a recipe, the brain needs to hold information, practise it and store it. Daily use interferes with each of those steps. Over weeks and months, the person may fall behind, and the gap becomes harder to close. They may start to avoid tasks that need learning, which then limits what they can do at work and in life. It is a slow narrowing of ability, and it is easy to blame on tiredness or a lack of interest, when the real cause is the daily chemical load on the brain.

Energy, Sleep and Appetite Day After Day

Energy is one of the first things daily users notice changing, and one of the last things to return after stopping. The pattern is uneven. For a short time after using, a person may feel relaxed or even energised. Then, as the effect fades, energy drops sharply. The afternoon often feels heavy and slow. Simple physical tasks, climbing stairs, carrying bags, standing for a long shift, feel harder than they should. The person may sit down intending to rest for a few minutes and find they cannot get up again. This is not ordinary tiredness. It is the result of poor sleep, irregular eating and a brain that is not regulating energy properly.

Sleep is disrupted in a particular way by daily use. The drug may make a person drowsy, but the sleep that follows is often shallow, with less of the deep, restorative sleep the body needs. Dreams may be strange or absent, and the person may wake several times in the night. In the morning, they feel as if they have not slept at all. When they try to sleep without the drug, the opposite problem appears: vivid dreams, nightmares, sweating and restlessness. That contrast makes the drug feel necessary for sleep, even though it is the drug that has damaged sleep in the first place. Breaking that belief is one of the hardest parts of stopping, and it is why professional support can help so much.

Appetite follows a similar uneven pattern. Some days, hunger disappears almost completely, and meals are skipped without the person noticing. Other days, hunger returns in a sudden rush, and large amounts of food are eaten quickly, often sweet or fatty food, followed by nausea or a heavy, sick feeling. Over weeks, this irregular eating can lead to weight loss or weight gain, and to a body that is short of the nutrients it needs. Digestion can suffer too, with stomach pain, nausea and vomiting becoming regular features of the day. A person who vomits most days is not simply unwell. Their body is telling them, clearly, that something is wrong.

Tolerance: Why the Same Amount Stops Working

Tolerance is the reason daily use so often escalates. The brain adapts quickly to a chemical taken every day, and within weeks, the same amount produces a much weaker effect. The person may increase the amount, or use more often, to chase the feeling they had at the start. That works briefly, and then tolerance rises again. The cycle repeats, and each turn takes more of the drug, more money, and more strain on the body.

What makes this especially dangerous with synthetic cannabis is that the product itself is unpredictable. One packet may be far stronger than the last, even if it looks the same. A person who has increased their amount to overcome tolerance may suddenly take in far more active chemical than they intended, because the new batch is stronger. That is when severe reactions are most likely: intense panic, confusion, a very fast heartbeat, chest pain, vomiting, seizures or a loss of consciousness. Emergency services have seen such cases repeatedly, and they are a reminder that tolerance does not make a person safe. It makes them use more of a product whose strength they cannot judge.

There is also a quieter side to tolerance. After a while, the person may no longer feel any pleasure from the drug at all. They use it simply to avoid feeling bad without it. The day is spent moving between discomfort and brief relief, with no real enjoyment in between. That is a miserable way to live, and it is a sign that dependence has taken hold. The drug has stopped giving anything, and it is only taking. Recognising that shift is painful, but it is also useful, because it shows clearly that continuing will not bring back the early feeling. It will only deepen the dependence.

Mood and Stress When Use Is Daily

Daily use changes mood in ways that are hard to see from the inside. At first, the drug may feel relaxing. Over weeks, anxiety often grows. The person may feel on edge for much of the day, worrying about things that would not normally worry them. Small problems feel large. A disagreement, a bill, a change of plan: each one can trigger a wave of anxiety that feels out of proportion. Low mood follows, and the person may feel flat, empty or hopeless, even when nothing obviously bad has happened. Pleasure fades. Things that once brought joy, a meal with family, a walk, a hobby, feel dull and uninteresting.

In some people, daily use is linked with far more severe mental health problems. Health authorities have reported cases of prolonged confusion, paranoia and psychosis, where a person loses touch with reality, hears voices or holds beliefs that are not true. This is more likely in people who already have a vulnerability to such conditions, but it can happen to others too, especially with strong products used daily. Such symptoms need urgent professional help, and they may not clear immediately when use stops. Anyone who develops them, or whose family notices them, should seek medical help without delay.

Stress itself becomes harder to handle. The brain’s own stress system, which should help a person cope with pressure and then calm down, becomes less effective when it has relied on a strong outside chemical every day. The person may find they cannot cope with ordinary stress without the drug, and they may use it more often in stressful times, which then makes the stress system weaker still. It is a cycle that feeds itself, and it is one of the reasons daily users often describe feeling trapped. They know the drug is making things worse, but it also feels like the only thing that helps them cope.

Work, Study, Money and Family Life

Daily use does not stay in one part of life. It spreads into work and study first, because those are the places where memory, focus and reliability matter most. A daily user may arrive late, miss deadlines, make mistakes, or struggle with tasks that once came easily. They may call in sick more often, or find excuses to leave early. Colleagues notice, even if they do not know why. For a student, the effect is similar: lessons are harder to follow, homework is left undone, exams are failed. Over a term, the gap widens, and catching up feels impossible. Losing a job or failing a course is not a distant risk. It is a common outcome of daily use, and it then adds financial and emotional stress that makes stopping even harder. The risk is greater still in jobs where safety depends on clear thinking. Driving, operating machinery, working at height, caring for children or for patients: all of these need steady attention, quick reactions and good judgement. A moment of confusion or a lapse in focus in such a job can cause serious harm to the person themselves, or to someone else. Many workplaces have rules about drug use for exactly this reason, and a daily user in such a role may face not only an accident, but also disciplinary action and the loss of a licence or qualification they worked hard to gain. The drug does not stay outside the workplace. It follows the person in, in the form of poor sleep, poor memory and poor concentration, every single day.

Money is affected every single day. Daily use means daily spending, and as tolerance grows, the daily cost grows too. Money meant for food, rent, transport or children’s needs is spent on the drug instead. A person may start the month with good intentions and find, by the middle of the month, that there is nothing left. They may borrow from family or friends, or fall behind on bills, and feel ashamed about it. That shame makes it harder to ask for help, and the secrecy makes the problem worse. Over months, debts can build up quietly until they become a crisis in their own right.

Family life suffers in a way that is often the most painful part of daily use. Partners notice the change in mood, the broken promises, the money going missing, the person withdrawing from shared activities. Parents worry constantly and feel helpless. Children sense that something is wrong, even if no one explains it. Arguments increase, trust fades, and the home becomes tense. Friends drift away, because the person is less reliable and less present. The social world narrows until it consists mainly of the drug and the people who supply or share it. That narrowing is one of the saddest effects of daily use, because it removes exactly the support a person needs to stop.

What Happens When a Day Is Missed

Missing a day is often the moment a daily user realises how dependent they have become. Within hours of the last use, withdrawal symptoms can begin. These often include irritability, anxiety, restlessness, sweating, nausea, headaches and strong cravings. Sleep that night is usually poor, with vivid dreams or nightmares, and waking in the night. The next morning feels worse than usual, and the person may feel they cannot face the day without the drug. That feeling is not weakness. It is the brain reacting to the absence of a chemical it has come to expect every day.

The symptoms are usually worst in the first few days, and they often ease over one to two weeks, although sleep and mood can take longer to settle. For people who have used heavily every day for a long time, the symptoms can be severe enough to need medical support, and anyone who feels very unwell after stopping should seek professional help promptly. It is important to know that these symptoms, however unpleasant, are temporary. They are the brain readjusting, and they pass. Many people who get through the first week find that the second week is easier, and that by the end of the first month, thinking is clearer, sleep is deeper, and energy is steadier than it was during daily use.

Cravings can return long after the physical symptoms have faded. A stressful day, a familiar place, or meeting someone who still uses can bring back a sudden urge. That does not mean the person has failed. It means the brain formed strong links between the drug and certain situations, and those links take time to weaken. Having a plan for those moments, avoiding triggers where possible, and having someone to call when a craving hits, all make a real difference. Support services and counselling can help a person build those plans, and can offer practical help that willpower alone cannot provide. Recovery is not a single decision. It is a process, and it works best with support.

My Take:

I think daily use is where synthetic cannabis does its worst damage, because it never gives the brain a chance to recover. A single use is a shock. Daily use is a slow, steady pressure, day after day, that reshapes how a person thinks, sleeps, feels and lives. The brain adapts, tolerance climbs, and the person ends up using not to feel good, but to feel normal. That is a miserable bargain, and it is one that many daily users recognise only when they try to stop and discover how hard a single day without the drug feels. If a habit makes an ordinary day feel impossible, it is not helping. It is controlling.

What I find most striking about daily use is how it takes over the small things first. The morning. The first hour at work. A conversation at home. A meal. These are not dramatic events. They are the ordinary fabric of a day, and when they start to go wrong, one by one, life becomes harder in a way that is difficult to describe to someone who has not lived it. A person may not be able to say exactly what is wrong. They may just feel that everything is harder than it used to be, that they are always tired, always behind, always on edge. That feeling is real, and it is a direct result of a brain that is spending its energy managing a daily chemical load instead of managing life.

I do not think daily users are foolish, and I do not think they lack willpower. Most of them started for a reason that made sense at the time: to relax, to sleep, to escape stress, to fit in with friends. The problem is that the drug does not keep its early promise. It offers relief, and then it takes away the ability to feel relief without it. That is not a fair exchange, and it is not one most people would agree to if they could see the full cost in advance. I think the honest thing to say is that daily use is a trap, and that the trap is set by the chemistry of the drug, not by a flaw in the person. Blaming the person helps no one. Helping them find a way out does.

Tolerance is the part of this story that I wish more people understood, because it explains so much of the escalation. When the same amount stops working, the natural response is to use more. That response feels logical, and it is also dangerous, especially with a product whose strength changes from batch to batch. A person can do everything they did last week, with a packet that looks identical, and end up in hospital. That unpredictability is not a small detail. It is the central danger of these products, and it is why no amount of experience makes daily use safe. Experience cannot tell you what is in the next packet.

The effect on sleep troubles me a great deal, because sleep is the foundation of everything else. When sleep is broken night after night, thinking suffers, mood suffers, health suffers, and work suffers. Daily users often tell themselves they need the drug to sleep, and in a narrow sense they are right: without it, the first nights are rough. But the sleep the drug gives is not real rest. It is a shallow, broken imitation of sleep that leaves the person exhausted. Real sleep returns only after stopping, and it returns gradually, over weeks. I think it is important for people to hear that, because the fear of sleepless nights keeps many of them using. The nights are hard, but they pass, and what follows is better sleep than they have had in months.

I think about the families of daily users a lot, because they live with the consequences every day and often feel powerless. A partner who never knows which version of the person will come home. A parent who lies awake worrying. A child who learns not to ask for things because there is no money. These are real harms, and they deserve to be named plainly. If you are in that position, I would say that you deserve support too, and that talking to a doctor or a family support service is not disloyal. It is the most loyal thing you can do, because it is an attempt to help the person you love, and to protect yourself and your children at the same time.

Money is a part of daily use that people often hide, even from themselves. A daily habit costs money every day, and the total over a month or a year can be shocking. That money could have paid for food, rent, school costs, or savings for a better future. Instead, it disappears, day by day, into a product that leaves the person feeling worse. I have no interest in shaming anyone about money. I mention it because it is concrete, and because it can be a turning point. When a person adds up what daily use has cost them, the number often shocks them into action in a way that abstract warnings about health do not. If that number shocks you, let it. Use it as a reason to stop, not as a reason to feel ashamed.

I want to be honest about what stopping feels like, because false reassurance helps no one. The first few days without the drug are often the hardest. Cravings are strong, sleep is broken, mood is low, and concentration is poor. That is normal, and it is temporary. By the second week, most people feel the fog beginning to lift. By the end of the first month, many feel clearer, calmer and more energetic than they did during daily use. Recovery is not a straight line, and there may be difficult days, but the direction is towards improvement. Knowing that in advance, and having support through the worst days, makes it far more likely that a person will get through them.

If someone I cared about was using synthetic cannabis every day, I would not start with a lecture. I would ask them to look at an ordinary day in their life, from waking to sleeping, and to tell me honestly how many parts of that day feel harder than they did a year ago. If the answer is most of them, that is not a coincidence. That is the drug, doing what daily use does. And I would tell them that help exists, that doctors and support services have helped many people in exactly this situation, and that asking for help is not a sign of failure. It is a sign that they are ready to take their day back.

To anyone who has never tried these products, especially a young person who is offered them, I would say this plainly: do not start a daily habit. The first use may feel like nothing special, or it may feel strong and frightening. Either way, it is the start of a pattern that can take over your mornings, your work, your sleep and your relationships in a matter of weeks. There is no safe daily amount, because the product itself is not safe, and its strength cannot be judged from the packet. The simplest and safest choice is not to begin. That advice is not exciting, but it is honest, and it may save you months of slow, grinding harm.

Finally, I want to end with hope, because daily use can feel hopeless, and it is not. People do stop, every day, after months of daily use, and they do rebuild their lives. They sleep properly again. They think clearly again. They get their mornings back, their work back, their money back, and their families back. It takes time, and it takes support, and there are setbacks. A setback does not erase the progress before it. It is part of the process. If you are reading this and recognising your own daily routine in it, please take that recognition as a reason to act. Talk to a health professional, talk to a support service, talk to someone you trust. The drug took over your days one day at a time. Taking them back will happen the same way, one day at a time, starting today.

I want to be clear about one thing: stopping daily use is much easier with support than it is alone, and there is no shame in using that support. A doctor can explain what withdrawal is likely to feel like, and can advise on how to get through the worst days safely. A drug support service can offer counselling, practical plans for cravings, and help with sleep and mood. Family and friends can help by being patient, by not offering the drug, and by noticing the small improvements as they happen. None of this is a sign of weakness. It is a sign that the person understands how strong the drug is, and is using every tool available to beat it. The people who succeed are rarely the ones who try hardest in silence. They are the ones who ask for help.

Planning the first week after stopping makes a real difference, and I think it is worth describing plainly. The first three days are usually the hardest, with strong cravings, irritability and broken sleep. It helps to clear the diary where possible, to avoid places and people linked with the drug, to keep the home free of it, and to have simple food and water at hand. It helps to have someone to call when a craving hits, and a simple activity ready, such as a walk, a shower, or a phone call, to get through the worst ten minutes. By the end of the first week, cravings usually come less often and pass more quickly. By the second week, sleep often starts to improve. Having that timeline in mind does not make the week easy, but it makes it survivable, because the person knows the worst is temporary and that each day is taking them further from it.

Children deserve a special mention here, because they are the people most affected by daily use and least able to speak about it. A child who lives with a daily user may see a parent who is foggy in the morning, irritable in the afternoon, and absent in the evening, and may not understand why. They may blame themselves, or they may learn to keep quiet and not ask for things. Over time, that shapes how they feel about themselves and about home. I would say to any parent who uses daily: your children need you present, clear-headed and reliable, and they need a home that feels safe. Stopping is not only a gift to yourself. It is a gift to them, and it is one they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

One practical step I would suggest to anyone using daily is to add up the cost, honestly, over a month. Write down what is spent each day, add it up at the end of the month, and then multiply it by twelve. Many people are shocked by the total, and that shock can be useful. It turns an abstract warning about money into a concrete number that can be seen and felt. That number represents food, rent, school costs, savings, or a holiday that never happened. When use stops, that money stays, week after week, and it becomes visible in the household in a way that health improvements, which are slower, may not be at first. It is a small, weekly reward for stopping, and it helps to keep a person going through the harder days.

One last point I would make is about patience, because the first month after stopping daily use tests it more than almost anything else. A person may expect to feel better in a week, and then feel disappointed when sleep is still broken and cravings still return. That disappointment can itself become a reason to give up. I would say to that person: judge your recovery in weeks and months, not days. The brain adapted to a daily chemical over a long period, and it will adapt back over a period too. The improvement is real, even when it is slow, and it is worth waiting for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is most at risk of money draining away daily from Synthetic Cannabis?

Anyone who uses daily faces a steady financial drain, because the cost repeats every day and grows as tolerance rises. The risk is highest for people on low or irregular incomes, for whom even a modest daily cost can quickly eat into money needed for food, rent and transport. Young people, people who are out of work, and people supporting a family are especially vulnerable. The drain is not only about the amount spent. It is about what that money can no longer pay for, and how quickly debts and missed bills can follow when a daily cost becomes a fixed part of the budget.

How soon can work that suffers every day appear after using Synthetic Cannabis?

Work can start to suffer within days or weeks of daily use, because poor sleep, foggy thinking and low energy affect performance immediately. A person may arrive late, miss instructions, make mistakes, or struggle to concentrate through a shift. Over a few weeks, the pattern becomes noticeable to colleagues and managers, and over a few months, it can lead to warnings, lost shifts or losing a job. The timing varies, but daily use leaves very little room for recovery between uses, so work problems tend to appear faster than they do with occasional use.

Does freedom that quietly disappears from Synthetic Cannabis go away after stopping?

Freedom, in the sense of being able to live a day without planning it around the drug, does return after stopping, but it returns gradually. In the first days and weeks, cravings and poor sleep can make life feel harder, not freer. As the brain readjusts over weeks and months, thinking clears, sleep improves, and ordinary activities become possible again without the drug. Money stops draining away, time opens up, and choices return. Full recovery takes time, and support helps, but most people who stay stopped find that the sense of being trapped fades and is replaced by a feeling of control over their own day.

Can Synthetic Cannabis really cause freedom that quietly disappears?

Yes. Daily use can quietly take away a person’s freedom to choose how they spend their day. Mornings, work, meals and sleep all start to revolve around when the drug will be used next. Plans are made or cancelled depending on whether it is available, and a day without it can feel unmanageable. That loss of choice is not a metaphor. It is a real effect of dependence, where the brain has come to expect the drug every day and makes ordinary life feel difficult without it. Recognising that loss is often the first step towards getting that freedom back.

What should I do if Synthetic Cannabis is causing freedom that quietly disappears?

The safest step is to stop using it and to speak to a doctor or a local health service as soon as you can. Tell them honestly that you have been using daily, so they can judge what support you need for stopping and for the first difficult weeks. Support services can help with cravings, sleep and mood, and with practical plans for work and family life. If you feel very unwell, confused, or have chest pain, severe vomiting or trouble breathing, seek urgent medical help. You do not need to face this alone, and asking for help early gives you the best chance of getting your daily life back.

Is freedom that quietly disappears from Synthetic Cannabis dangerous?

Yes, it is dangerous, because it is a sign of dependence, and dependence brings wider harm with it. When a person cannot face a day without the drug, they are more likely to use larger amounts, to spend money they cannot afford, and to keep using even when their health, work and relationships are suffering. That loss of freedom also makes it harder to stop, because the drug feels necessary for ordinary life. It is not a minor side effect. It is a warning that daily use has taken control, and it is a reason to seek professional help promptly.

Sources

• National Institute on Drug Abuse — https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/synthetic-cannabinoids
• U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — https://www.dea.gov/drug-information
• Mayo Clinic, Drug addiction — https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/drug-addiction/symptoms-causes/syc-20365112
• World Health Organization, Substance abuse — https://www.who.int/health-topics/substance-abuse
• NHS, Drug addiction: getting help — https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/drug-addiction-getting-help/

This article is general information only. It is not medical advice. If you are worried about your health or about someone else, speak to a qualified health professional.