I think it depends on the person. Most people I've talked to about it says it helps them, but for me, I can't smoke weed anymore, shit I can't even drink a beer anymore. I been straight edge 3 months now, had one beer last night and instantly felt sick and regretted drinking it, but as for weed I used to be able to toke up all the time. Fuck it was a blast, made everything in life better. Primo BC bud, sooooo good. But then out of the blue it started giving me bad paranoia and anxiety and I continued to use it for like 3 years even after it started giving me those symptoms. (Usually I would hit it then the first 1-2 hours I would panic excessively, then start to chill out and enjoy the high) But yea now I can't do anything, but to answer your question, my view onnit is that it depends on the person, but majority of people will tell you it helps with stress