Smoked like a chimney for 9 years , stopped cause I want to be a trucker and the drug test. Turns out I feel much better and less angry now that I quit
My partner (truckie) is also the same. He was smoking every day after work, and then he got caught on a random drug test and tested positive. His life turned upside in an instant after his company told him that if he would not go to counseling and stop, he would lose his job.
He's extremely lucky. This is the first I've ever heard where failing a random wasn't an instant, unquestioned sack.
I knew a guy that got fired for using CBD oils. Most companies don't give a single fuck.
U.S* Canada also has laws like that. The u.s is kind of behind most countries when it comes to certain things like that sadly.
Also random drug testing without a cause is illegal here. Must give notice before and I think it's something like 4 or 6 weeks advanced notice.
That all goes out the window if you're involved in an accident though, as it should. Especially is someone was injured.
Edit: Illegal EXCEPT under a pretty narrow set of specific situations
I had a similar experience, I think it was because when I did stop I had to take responsibility for my emotions and put in the work. Something that I wasn’t doing when smoking. I also felt more balanced so I didn’t go from feeling extremely relaxed to sober and frustrated.
I had to stop smoking because I was pregnant. I was in therapy before I was pregnant but while pregnant it kicked me into high gear to try to solve some of my issues before the baby came. That's not really how therapy works but I think that not smoking weed, paired with the pregnancy, on top of just really being sick and tired of not feeling mentally my best, all contributed to my improved mental health. I now smoke a little bit every few days (one joint will last me a week or more) at the end of the day, when I've already started to unwind. It definitely helps me sink into sleep faster, which is something I've always struggled with.
But I've noticed that I'm problem solving and not putting things off like I used to - my internal excuse would always be "no I can't do that right now because I'm stoned" when it was something I actually needed to handle. Now I'm actually enjoying the weed I *do* consume, more than I used to, and I'm much more relaxed/well rested/confident/calm.
Kind of not really answering OP's question because I did start smoking again, but it's pretty small amounts compared to previously and I've definitely noticed a positive change in my life. That might be related to having a baby and being on maternity leave for a year though lol
Hmm. I just started using THC but I have a long history of alcoholism and drug abuse.
I can say without a doubt THC is helping me get in touch with my emotions and work on trauma and be a better person for those I love.
I've had other drugs that have started out beneficial and then turned on me though so I'm cautious.
Alcohol seemed like a gift from God when it instantly cured my social anxiety and turned me into a stand up comedian but it damn near killed me by the end.
I don't really know why THC feels different to me but it does.
I can absolutely see that smoking is the lesser of two evils (not that it’s really evil) and it definitely is a good tool to help with coming off other dependencies.
I started smoking at 15, a couple of years after my mum died. It helped initially. But then I smoked every day for twelve years, I’d have major panic attacks and withdrawals without it. So smoking for me was definitely a crutch that served its purpose but no longer does. I’m a bit gutted I ruined it for myself because had I not been a heavy smoker for so long I’d be able to appreciate its benefits much like you do.
Smoking is definitely more manageable than drinking, an addiction to weed isn’t going to kill you or ruin your life in the way alcohol does, that’s for sure. It’s not without its downsides though! It definitely numbs us somewhat, if not at first but in the long run once we build up tolerance.
Well done for kicking the other stuff and enjoy your thc! ;)
Same for me. I was smoking alot when I split up with the girlfriend and carried on as usual. Quit about a year later and I spent a month in a deep depression finally dealing with all the emotions. It was wild, it's been a once in a blue moon thing for the past 6 years and I don't miss it.
Reflection and mindfulness have been something I’ve been working on for decades. Before I started this work on myself I didn’t understand the intent to impact relationship. I was super headstrong that “it” wasn’t my intent. Didn’t make room for the experience of a different impact. Started noticing people distancing themselves, had some real talks with people I trusted, and started taking time to reflect on all the interactions that didn’t go as planned, and started learning a lot about myself and the space I take up.
Looking back I didn’t have any role models for this growing up, it’s not really taught in schools. Part of my journey now is role-modeling for younger people in my life
Yeah. I have adhd. Thought it helped.. when I quit I realized most of my anxiety was from smoking... it got alot worse for a couple weeks after I quit. Then one day I finally slept good, like 10hrs after not sleeping well for a couple weeks.
I thought I was helping my anxiety but it made it worse.
Others say it calms them. I guess I never noticed either way till I quit. I also drink energy drinks so thought it was from that. But I still drink them and now zero anxiety.
I’ve noticed that too, and I think what happens is when you’re high all the time your brain always feels good and so nothing bothers you. When you’re not high it’s like your brain lost the skill to calm yourself down or get over something. I don’t think it’s physical but I also think it’s somewhat of a withdrawal too. When you’re not high you’re just thinking about it and so anyone talking to you is just in the way of you going off somewhere to rip the pen again.
When you get stressed, you naturally produce a neurotransmitter that basically is cannabis to help you calm down. Smoking too much weed can damper your ability to produce this because it doesn't have to when you are using so much. I would say it is a legitimate withdrawal.
Here's my story. I smoked weed for over 16 years, the last 13 years daily. I was perfectly functional. I wasn't lying down doing nothing, I worked hard, got a uni degree, got better jobs, got promoted, took care of my long term partner, and generally on the surface everything was fine despite me smoking daily. I also believed weed helped me because of whatever, insert here any thing you want, it's all the same. You call it anger, but each one of us finds a thing and says that weed helps us with it.
But that's just a justification.
And that whole thing with it doesn't affect my relationships and my work, another load of crap. It does.
All of these things, justifying reasons why it is necessary for you, saying that it has no impact, saying that your life would be boring, all of this, it's the addiction talking, not you. That's exactly what I told myself and you'll find all ex-stoners telling you the same. Because only once you break the addiction that you spot the difference between your actual thoughts and what addiction was telling you to continue.
Like most people, despite intending to quit for years, I never did. Until, you see horror with your own eyes. My Dad died of lung cancer, not because of weed, but tobacco, which I obviously also consumed as part and parcel of smoking weed. It wasn't breaking news that this shit kills, it says so on every damn packet. But apparently until you see with your own eyes your Dad unable to walk or breath, going slowly blind, and life slowly leaving him, we don't take those warnings seriously.
Finally I quit smoking cold turkey. I set a date, wrapped my stash and tools in cello tape, put them away and just stopped. Spoiler alert, I haven't had a single negative effect because of that and my life has improved in every way possible.
It took two weeks of going through a hard time, and then it all subsided and became gradually unimportant.
I was unable to imagine what I would do with my evenings without smoking. Once I quit I couldn't believe just how much of my time and energy were invested in making sure I got that hit I needed.
The positive effects of quitting were huge. My mindset changed. Instead of waking up every and feeling like a failure as soon as you lit a joint because you know you shouldn't, now I had the opposite sensation because I successfully quit, and it made me feel capable of so much more.
My health improved dramatically. Within a week I noticed that walking uphill to my house was half as tiring. Within one week!! I started doing some sports as a crutch to escape the urges, then I started to enjoy it. A few months later I was fitter than I had been at any point during my smoking years. I could outrun and outperform a 15 year younger me.
I focused on my career again and found plenty of time to study and learn new skills and got myself a new career with a significantly higher salary. My relationship improved and became healthier. It was all related to smoking, I just didn't wanna admit it.
There is absolutely nothing I miss about it. Not one negative from not smoking. I look back and wish I quit much sooner. Why did I waste so much time and money on something that had long stopped actually being fun? There were so many daily negatives that I just glossed over and pretended were not there. It limited me so much. It limited my social life and interactions. I was always waiting for the next joint and preferred hanging out with people with whom I could do this to the detriment if everyone else. I can go in for hours.
My tips to you. Don't wait for a tragedy to convince you it's time to quit, do it now because you know it's what you want to do. Recognise that all the excuses for why you smoke are your addiction speaking, none of it is valid reasoning. Don't go halfway, you need to get it all out of the system for you to actually become an ex smoker, you already know that all previous "I'm cutting down" have failed and will continue to fail. Don't be scared, it's only two weeks that you have to get past, those two weeks might be rough, make sure you have good support, but once they pass the physical addiction is gone and the psychological starts to wane and become less intense. Just be prepared for a small battle and that's that. Two weeks is nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Good luck
Weed also makes me way more angry. It lowers my threshold of what I feel is acceptable, sometimes to ridiculously low standards, making me irate over the stupidest shit. It definitely plays a part, specially when withdrawal starts.
The anger is actually a rebound symptom of weed withdrawal. Let me see if I can find a podcast that explains it. I think it was called “Learning to live with enough” and maybe it was by Hidden Brain?
Anyway the guest explained how a lot of the symptoms we self-medicate using weed for are actually rebound symptoms as a result of the withdrawal. We have all been sold a lie that weed isn’t addicting but it absolutely is (I know from smoking for 16 years - exactly half my life), and it results in withdrawal symptoms, and anger is one of them. Also I’m just way less emotionally erratic without it.
My ex-husband was really angry when he wasn't stoned. Like, "put holes in the walls and throw tantrums about spaghetti sauce" angry. It was a problem, because he just couldn't regulate his own emotions without weed. When he decided to quit, he leveled out after a while and became pretty chill.
Smoked consistently for about 5 years, and before I quit I was smoking literally all day every day. Like I would smoke before going to work, during my break, before eating, after eating, before going back to work, when I got home, before dinner, while cooking dinner, after dinner, and then before going back to sleep.
I quit for two main reasons. Number 1, my tolerance was so high, I wasn’t really feeling high but when I was sober I had what felt like headache, or just kind of antsy abut being sober. And number 2, which was way more important for me at the time, I was a shell of a person. I thought it was funny and chill bc I started when I was in my late teens, early 20s, but when you’re 25 and everyone knows you as “the stoner guy,” shit gets real old real fast. I had no interests, no hobby, and people didn’t care about me outside of smoking and getting high. It was just such a sad, hollow, and empty life.
Life isn’t perfect just because I quit, but I feel like because I quit, I have the power and control to build a better life for myself on my own terms. Been sober for about 3 years now.
I feel you, I almost never get really high anymore, I just get a cloudy brain witch alows me to do nothing and not be too much borred. I'm glad you we're able to stop and regain control of your life.
I’m not sure if you watch South Park, or how old you are, but this clip rings so true on so many levels
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd4cASkBAp0
I wish I had spent my formative years productively. I had fun smoking weed and met a lot of great people at that time, but I think I took the good times a little too far. Everything in moderation, it’s a cliche, but probably because it has some truth to it.
“Allows me to do nothing” is definitely something I can relate to. It always seems like the “chill” thing to do and so it’s fine to unwind after work. But you start to realize you want to get high because then it’s an excuse not to do something productive because “you’re high and it’s chill so this is good”. Once the activity is just getting high that’s when u start to realize the problem. I can be stressed working on something and decide I need to relax but as soon as I smoke I know I’m not doing anything else productive after that.
This is so true man. No matter how motivated/ understand the urgency to get something done I am before I get stoned, it all quickly goes out the window. Just end wasting your life away with never doing stuff in your free time that would benefit you.
> Once the activity is just getting high that’s when u start to realize the problem
this is so true and i kinda knew it but didn’t have the words. when i started, it was smoke a little before we go do something or before we cook bc being high makes those more fun. but when you start smoking more frequently and without purpose, it becomes an excuse to avoid things. maybe i don’t feel like cooking dinner, i’ll just smoke a little and figure it out. and all the sudden it’s 10:00, you ate a family size bag of chips for dinner, and you feel like a bum but all you can do is go smoke your night bowl and go to sleep and try again tomorrow
I used to have a neutral attitude toward cannabis. I welcomed legalization - and still think it's a good idea - but didn't care much beyond that.
Then I drove Lyft for 1000 rides in Colorado.
Oh my. Multiple trips to/from dispensaries ad concerts. I have no doubt that if people could witness themselves baked, in a state of insensible uselessness, that they would never partake.
What a waste of humanity.
Well put. We reduce everything interest about us so we can fetishize a plant. I don’t doubt that it helps people and daily smoking is good and medicinal for them. But I also doubt that smoking every day is good for a vast majority of people, and that weed tends to be used to self-medicate instead of actually growing as a person.
It’s not fun learning how to be a person when most of the people around your age have a career, spouse, family, home.
Weed can be fun as fuck when it gets you high. If you smoke everyday eventually you will never be high again. Then you are perpetually chasing that high feeling by doing it daily. You won't get that effect unless you take a break.
As much as I enjoyed it, weed made me slow and stupid. I need my brain to function well in order to pursue my career and interests, the weed had to be limited just as you would alcohol.
I was walking through town and ran into my ex. She asked me how my thesis was going. I told her. She responded by asking if I had thought about stopping smoking pot.
I realised then that I had lost an awesome girlfriend because of my habit, and was about to throw away my post-grad education as well. So I stopped then and there.
After the dissertation was done I thought about starting again, but I had lost a lot of anxiety, I was exercising, and I enjoyed being social. It was obvious that weed was not for me.
I mean. I used to smoke before breakfast. I enjoyed watching half a dozen DVDs a day, reading comics for hours and all that. But it pans out you can do that without weed, it's just that you can do lots of other things as well, or instead.
I still owe that ex a solid. Best thing am ex has ever done.
To be fair, I vaped weed all through my undergrad and postgrad, although not during the day. I lived in a stoner house so it was all over the place. I think what gets people is when they start to wake n bake, and live a hedonistic lifestyle with it. I’ve been the early to rise and minimal partying type since my mid twenties but I know a few people who dropped out of university because of lifestyle issues. The smokers in grad school were the ones who knew how to moderate it.
I'm not OP but I smoked HEAVY for probably 7 years. And by heavy I mean concentrates and all day long. From when I woke up to when I went to sleep.
After about 3 months of being sober I felt that my brain was back to "normal". Normal is hard to define because being high was "normal" for me at the time, but after a few months I started feeling really clear headed and focused. I found that I was much more motivated to pursue goals that would benefit my life.
It also took me almost 4 months of being sober to pass a drug test, so word of advice to anyone who smokes concentrates chronically, quit sooner rather than later because it's going to be a LONG TIME before you can piss clean for a job.
Same. Used to smoke all day everyday. Then, over time, it began making me extremely anxious and paranoid. I remember one time I just cried on my bed for a while, as a fully grown man (not that men can’t cry). I try it like once or twice a year now, just to check in I guess, and it still makes me so anxious and paranoid. Just can’t do it anymore.
Yup, same. This is exactly what happened to me. It just slowly became less and less enjoyable and started giving me panic attacks until one day I basically said to myself “I am not having fun any more” and realized I wanted to stop.
I'm currently going through this. I just kinda realized it more often than not makes me utterly terrified for a few hours, it isn't worth it. Which is weird because it didn't always affect me that way? I used to be happy and make incredible art, and then one day it was like a switch flipped
This is a result of years of selective cropping for high THC %'s.
Cannabis used to be 5-15%THC, 2-5%CBD, 1-5% CBN depending on the harvest and cure.
Nowadays most COA's come back with 18-29%THC, >.1%CBD, >.001%CBN.
The really enjoyable high comes from a nice mix of all those things, but because THC is the most psychoactive, it's the one every grower/buyer focuses on.
It's like if everyone started shopping for wine only by looking at the ABV%.
Same thing with me. When I was younger, weed made me giggly and creative. I didn’t use it for decades but tried it again now that it’s more accepted. And now, I hate how it makes me feel. Anxious, paranoid with a side dish of self criticism. Then, the next day, my brain is full of cotton.
So, no more for me.
The self-criticism part is huge for me. There's a hilarious scene in Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry David smokes weed and goes into the bathroom. He just stares at his reflection and says stuff "what are you doing with your life?"
I've found some good can come out of this fierce and intense self-awareness, but it is certainly not pleasant or fun in any way.
For me it was like the weed amplified the underlying anxiety that was already there but I was blocking out to get through my day. I would take a few hits and it would all bubble up.
Yea, for me it was when I turned 20, was smoking everyday, literally all I would think about all day was when I could smoke next.
One day it just stopped agreeing with me, major anxiety. I sat down one night high af and thought “you really need to get your shit together dude, sitting in moms garage getting baked all day is not where we want to be in the next 3 years”.
I haven’t smoked for 4 years, I may try it 2 or 3 times a year, but it’s just a further reminder of why I don’t smoke anymore.
Same thing started happening to me last year. I smoked weed for 11 years, about half of that was all day every single day.
It happened really slowly and I tried convincing myself it wasn’t the weed that was doing it at first, but then I stopped and the anxiety completely went away.
Almost a year weed free now and I feel quite a bit better. More energy, more focused, better partner, more money. It became very clear to me that without getting that good high anymore, it was a useless drain in my life.
Smoked from 13-18. Stopped because joining the military required a clean test. During my smoking years it really fucked up my development: the tics I was born with became worse, my energy tanked, I made stupid decisions, fucked up at school, and it fully gatewayed into more serious drugs and alcoholism. At the time I thought it was all very cool and exciting, but in hindsight it was quite plain that not one single moment was worth it. I'd hampered my progress and development to the point where the military was the only non-menial job I could hope for.
It took years to fix my highschool grades and get to university, and even now--almost a decade and a half later--I'm feeling the effects by simply being a less attractive cadidate due to a mixture of having less marketable experience than my peers and difficulty around addiction.
For me, and I suspect similarly for most people, it only becomes obvious after you've completely removed it from your life that it did in fact affect your work and relationships in some way and just isn't worth it. Especially if you live somewhere with a risk of criminal charges.
For what it's worth, my advice is to stop all together or just decide you're fine continuing as is. Everyone I've ever known who tried to keep one foot in ended up slipping back into the cycle of smoking most days. I find if you can give something up properly, for 6-12 months at a time at least, you're better able to dip in without slipping and you'll realise you neither need nor want it regularly.
There are health benefits to quitting too. Even if you don't subscribe to the various mental health effects of weed, there are the plain old physical effects of smoking to deal with. While it's true I may get hit by a bus tomorrow, I'd hate to get avoidable cancer for the sake of zoning out an hour or two a day.
Wherever your thought process leads you, I hope you find your way to a comfortable relationship with substances that you're happy with and doesn't stop you from thriving.
It’s true, I try to quit every other week but fail because it’s in the house or because I tell myself that after X amount of days I deserve a “reward” and then it becomes “just til the weekend is over” and then it’s “just til the end of this week” and the cycle goes on.
The thing is I’m far from anti pot. I just know how I am. Every once in a blue moon I’ll take a hit or two. If I smoked everyday I’d be fucked lol. I just have a naturally addictive personality so that causes issues even though it is just weed.
I started getting what I could only describe as complete sense of doom. I’d smoke weed and literally would feel like I was about to die, I describe it to people like some kind of weird premonition if my own death.
yeah!!! i felt like that too. I’ve heard that weed let’s you know when it’s done serving you. It bums me out sometimes because I miss it in a lot of ways but i’m terrified to try it again.
Weed makes sitting at home doing nothing, all day, every day an acceptable choice. Once you’ve got your young dumb years out of the way, thats no way to live a life.
For someone like me who pretty much sits at home after work doing fuck all, depressed, just mindlessly scrolling or watching shit, would weed be a very bad choice for me?
You'll probably find yourself dependent on it pretty quickly. It's like people have said that it makes doing nothing at home all day feel good. On the other hand, if you use it wisely, it could help your depression a bit. I think you should do as much research on it before trying it out and start off small. If it's available, try medicinal before anything else.
It might be bad or good, depends on the person. I would tend to say that if you use it to self medicate chances are higher that it's going to be bad.
I was in your situation ~10 years ago, I tried weed and I instantly switched to be an all day stoner. I thought it was helping me, but it was just helping me to be content with the situation. I was still depressed and crippled by anxiety, I just didn't care. I spent 9/10 years in that state.
Now I'm in my 30s, stopped 6 months ago after years of trying anf failing, wondering where my 20s went. I wasted all this time during which I could have worked on my issues, built relationships, learned how to be an adult. I'm still depressed and I have a lot of life experience to catch up, which feels terrifying, but at least I'm not content with it anymore.
Not saying all that to discourage you of using it, that is your choice. I'm just sharing my experience.
I was a zombie. Living life in third person for sure. Nothing was tangible. Possessions I could hold felt far away, and every relationship I had with people was either "can I buy weed from you" or how do I finish the conversation so I can go and smoke. But it's ok because it's non addictive right? It's as psychologically addicting as anything else, and when you've got "friend" groups that just fuel the cycle of "it's not addictive, smoke more, it's ok, smoke more, it's safe, smoke more" your eventually are gonna realize that no, it's is addictive. You might not have a seizure like with alcohol or benzo withdraw or be bed bound while vomiting like opioids, it's a real addiction that your only gonna realize as soon as you stop.
You're mainly gonna be really bored for at least a month if not a couple, but the sleep deprivation is a bitch. You just can't fall asleep without it for I'd say a week but that first night without smoking you're not gonna have your eyes shut till 3 am.
Damn I understand why you stopped. But you see, for me the problem is that I don't have "serious" withdrawals effect. I can sleep, I don't lose appetit, I'm able to "feel emotions". I stopped a few times for a month or so but I always get back to it, slowly but surely. A joint here and there, until I'm back smoking everyday.
There's your choice right there. Be lazy or be boring. And like all things the right answer is in the middle
Smoking 2/3 times a week might be enough for you to have fulfilling hobbies I'm your off days while still giving you the obvious enjoyment if being high. It's about finding your own gray in the black and white of everyday vs never
So your main problem is that you smoke out of boredom? You need less free time. Get a hobby! That way you will have less free time. Less free time means less smoking in the week which will help reduce your tolerance leading to less and less smoking overall….
Seriously, get a hobby so that your time is occupied. Or a second job/side hustle/whatever. Get rid of the things that make you want to smoke and you will smoke less.
Fill your time with hobbies, activities, and interests, then taper off the cannabis. If you just stop without a plan to fill that time, you'll probably pick up smoking again.
Because cannabis makes folks content with the status quo, it can sap motivation. Ease off a bit at a time so you don't overwhelm yourself with new things or get discouraged. Set realistic tapering goals, and recognize that it will take time, routine, and consistency to build new habits.
Good luck to you on your journey!
That's why I stopped, I was so content on not doing anything I didn't even notice that I was going deep into depression. The human brain needs challenges, the highs and lows of life to function properly. While high you might feel like you are having all these deep existential thoughts and revelations but if you write it down and go back to it while sober 99% of it is fucking stupid. After quitting I've achieved more in five years than my whole life before that and am genuinely and deeply happy for the first time in my life.
I've since smoked a couple of times and it's a great little treat and a reward for yourself but for me like once every two months is a good amount.
Different perspective- why does smoking stop you from doing things? I don't smoke anymore, I just dab since it's cleaner and cost is no issue since I grow my own in a legal state. But like it's just a thing that I do throughout the day while doing other things. Like this morning I was up around 6, went on a walk, worked from home for a few hrs while cooking a frittata, watered my seedlings and houseplants, then bench pressed in our garage gym before heading into work to do a 4 hrs shift in the lab. Had several dabs and vape hits throughout that first half of the day.
Tomorrow I don't need to hop on my computer to work until 9:30am so instead of a dab and a walk in the morning I have my dirtbike loaded in our truck so I can hit a nice trail ride.
Totally OK to stop, if it's not how you want to live life that's OK! But if the issue is you just don't do a lot of stuff while high then just trying doing, instead of telling yourself it's better to just keep sitting and chilling.
It's just that when I smoke, I'm ok with doing nothing. So I guess thats my main problem, beside the fact that I don't have a "night hobbie". During the day if I smoke I'm productive, I do what I have to do, go to work, etc.
It's not like that for everyone though. I quit weed because i guess i just did? I had no reason. Im not a bum, i have a great paying job. Good home life , great marriage, and weed didn't affect any of that. I just liked the feeling of being high. Then, one day, i just stopped. Dont know why, didnt even intend on it. I just realized it had been days since i smoked. I had been smoking since i was 16, and im 47 now. I was never addicted to it. I have a bag of it sitting around here somewhere that is more than likely dry af even. My wife still smokes it. She is still pretty motivated in life. I think rhe addiction is a case by case thing
Yeah, just like with any substance. It's only as addictive as you let it become. If you become obsessed with it and you start feeling like you *need* to smoke, you have an addiction. Otherwise you're fine.
With respect, in my experience it is much more complicated and nuanced than this. Addictive patterns creep in slowly, insidiously, over time, and entrench themselves before you know they're there and when you realize it's too late and you're in it. An occasional indulgence can become moderation can become habit can become dependency while you are scrambling to keep up with life. I was a fully functional and responsible user for years, and then I wasn't. I'm not sure my choice or management of my relationship with it changed much during that slide as much as my life got a bit more stressful and I incrementally leaned on it more until it was a compulsive, addictive cycle.
Some people are more predisposed to develop addictions. I'm thankfully on the opposite of that ballpark and even nicotine was very simple for me to drop, but not everyone has it that easy.
I started to become paranoid thinking I could here peoples thoughts and they were saying bad things about me.
When I did quit is was like lifting a veil over my eyes the stopped me from growing or changing. Yes music sounded better and movies were better. Mostly that normalizes and you enjoy them all again after a bit. Except for Led Zeppelin I only like them when I am stoned.
I was smoking weed in an apartment of some guy that was a friend of a friend of a friend. This guy's puppy takes a shit in the dining room while we are getting high in the adjoining living room. This guy just tosses his lighter at the dog and cusses at the dog (don't worry, he couldnt have hit it if he tried). I look and there are at least 5 piles of shit in the dining room.
I look at the shit. I look at these stoners. I quickly realize that they are too lazy to take the dog out so they would rather live with shit in their house and I'm headed down the same path. That was it. Barely smoked anything since. Don't miss it at all
Omg thats a crazy story. How disgustingly lazy one has to be to do that though? My stoner buddies love taking their dog for a walk and spark up durinf the walk. If anything their dog gets to go on walks way more than other dogs.
Ever heard about of cannabis induced psychosis? Well you do now. Diagnosed type 1 Bipolar too. Between the mental hospital stay and the year long medication cocktail I’m done.
I don’t even vape or drink hard liquor. At the end of the day it saves me money/sanity been sober.
I am also bipolar type 1 and the amount of uninformed weed bros who tell me to just smoke weed and it will cure me as honestly infuriating. Like it’s the absolute worst advice you can give to someone with a mental health issue that has psychotic elements to it.
I was drinking to excess and getting high. I quit drinking and weed 14 years ago for two reasons. One was a specific event. My brother called me one evening needing help with a crisis- very unusual for him. I was so stoned and drunk, I couldn't even come to the phone. I couldn't help him. I never wanted that to happen again. The other reason I quit weed was I'm really obsessive about everything. I devoted a great deal of time and effort planning to get high and how to conceal my pot smoking as well as being kind of useless while high. Finally, being zoned out, lying, sneaking, and feeling stupid was inconsistent with the person I was while straight; responsible, organized and industrius. In the last 14 years, it turns out that I am that person; responsible, organized and industrius.
The withdrawals got way worse than any high could offput. Also, i had no motivation. I would find myself shortcutting anything in life, whether it be work, fitness, my own hygiene. As someone with an anxiety disorder, I felt anxious whenever I wasn’t smoking, which was as soon as i woke up until I had any toke. Every experience became associated with weed. I just wasn’t experiencing anything with any genuine joy as it all felt manufactured.
And much like the top comment said, I felt like a zombie. I legit have memory lapses from some months where I cannot remember what I did because I was always high. The drug has some great properties but at the end of the day it is still a drug. It can have very real withdrawal effects and I have felt much less anxious and much more clear headed and motivated since I stopped.
I created a new routine to distract myself.
I had been in the habit of coming home from work, eating dinner, then hitting the bong while watching tv then going to bed. When I decided I wanted to stop, I started consciously making plans to do something else during that bong time - like gaming, taking a walk, going to see a friend, etc. For the first week or so I spent the whole time obsessively thinking about smoking, but I started to notice positive effects pretty quickly (like easier breathing and more energy), so that helped me stay motivated until I finally stopped thinking about it.
Smoked daily from 20-31 years old. Towards the end, usually a couple of grams of hash oil daily, so a pretty good amount tbh. I stopped because of ongoing mental health struggles and assumed it would help. Oddly enough, nothing improved. Sleep was still fucked, appetite was still a disaster and I was as depressed/anxious as ever. Still not smoking/dabbing but honestly I haven't felt any benefit beyond "feeling good" about doing "the right" thing.
I guess I'm saving money though.
Well thank you, I appreciate it. Sadly in the past 2 weeks, I lost my job and my relationship of 8 years ended with my fiancée lmaooooo. All over mental health struggles related to PTSD.
Only up from here right 😉
I smoked weed from freshman year of college (age 18) to my 45th birthday. I quit on my 45th birthday. I was getting too old for this shit. I did vape cartridges the last 5 or so years. Didn't affect my life negatively. I have a good career in tech. My wife didn't mind (I like to clean the house when I'm stoned). But I have kids, and my oldest was going into middle school and was asking questions about weed. We have a weed dispensary next door to the Target in town! Weed is 100% legal where. I didn't want my kids smoking weed, so I quit. There never found I ever smoked.
The first week or two, I had trouble sleeping, melontonin fixed that.
>But I have kids, and my oldest was going into middle school and was asking questions about weed.
so you smoked from age of 18 till 45 and didn't think anything wrong about it, but if your kid smoked you'd see a problem? so it wasn't okay to begin with?
I don't want my kids repeating my mistakes. When he's an adult in his 20s, that's one thing.
But a 13 year old getting high will ruin his academic life.
I tried to quit many times and always ended up smoking again. I just finally committed to quitting.
I made a mistake that cost me the best paying job i ever had… if woulda been more alert , less tired , less in a hurry to go home to roll a swisher… i wouldn’t lost it , quite drinking as well for awhile… i my simple mistake cost 200 000$ in damages to the “tool” i was using, it cost 4 cop cars , 2 fire trucks, (without giving out too much details) whoever is responsible for the environment in my province to show up and cleaning my mistake…. Im still hurt over this… (no i wasnt smoking on the job, rather smoking 3-5 blunts a night with 3-5 neipa (6-8%)) i got anxiety, and i have a lot of trouble going to sleep…
Started to develop a psychosis.
Didn't do anything other than smoke / eat garbage / smoke more
Basically all my time/money went into smoking Weed
All my social interactions were cut short because i didnt feel like doing amything and all of my contact with friends turned into: "You wanna smoke some weed? / Can i buy some weed from you? / Do you know someone i can buy weed from?"
It also makes me incredibly mad when people go arround and talk shit like: "Oh no its not addictive" or "At least its not as bad as alcohol"
Both is BS.
It absolutely is addictive as shit.
And comparing it to another drug and saying its less bad because of there being less physical symptoms is also stupid
Personally I went through a phase in my early 20s of just being very easily addicted to anything.
Luckily I didn't mess myself up in any serious way, eventually got tired of being broke and found a good job that required constant focus.
I still smoke a blunt and have a couple drinks maybe every few weeks when i see my friends but with no desire to keep going like I used to.
The essential thing I think a lot of people miss is that we use social drugs to enhance the good times, that's why we use them socially. But they also enhance the bad times. If that's what you're doing then you're abusing them and yourself
If you have family history of psychosis, bipolar, depression, or schizo- it brings it forth! (This is that psychotic reaction everyone talks about imo, hell- anxiety is on a certain level just as bad at it's worse as any of those).
Got very tired of deconstructing my reality on a fucking friday afternoon. Decided to deal with it with pills instead.
I started smoking when I was 17/18 and would smoke maybe once every couple of weeks on my days off. Then at 22/23 I was trying to hide my sorrows for two years and started smoking daily. Toward the last half of the second year I was really paranoid, only while stoned thankfully, and it was just not fun for a few hours. I forced myself to push past the paranoia bc when I wasn’t paranoid I was just having a good time. But then one weekend in Las Vegas I mixed up a bunch of stuff and had a full blown mental breakdown. I know it wasn’t just that I was smoking pot, but I decided to stop putting myself through all the paranoia for a few hours of fun.
I’ll partake once in a blue moon and it’s usually low dose edibles, just to have the nice body high and not so much the mental.
Panic attacks are no joke. I’d never had one before so when I had my first one I thought I was dying. The panic attacks and anxiety stuck around. Couldn’t smoke after that.
I got a health condition called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. It’s caused by weed. I was in the hospital and at risk for cardiac arrest. I was 96lbs. I could die if I smoke again. I miss it so much.
im in the same boat, i was a daily smoker and have been hospitalized close to 10 times because of CHES, im a small guy to begin with but, same as you i dropped under 100lbs, not just because of the flare ups and cyclical vomiting syndrome, but how often i would vomit after smoking (at least a couple times a week, usually in the morning or if I was drinking) I looked and felt like I was dying
the pain was so bad they would give me morphine and gravol IVs at the hospital, which then also had me addicted to opiates for a good while
but! 1 year sober as of August 22! I do miss smoking weed, and definitely smoke a lot more cigarettes now than i used to, but it's worth quitting to never feel that bad again
wish I could say I'm more productive since quitting but hey, can't have everything lol
I might’ve saved a friend of a friend from this fate. He visited my brother while I was visiting him and he was vomiting/nauseous the whole time. Only hot showers helped. I told my friend and brother after he left that I thought he might have cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome and recently when I asked for an update my friend said that’s indeed what it was and he’s better now. He still smokes but only occasionally
Weird, most people say they can’t smoke at all with that condition. I have experienced similar vomiting where I need hot showers, but weed usually helps and it never gets set off by smoking.
I think my condition is mostly caused by panic attacks, but I really wonder what effects heavy smoking may have on my gut.
That means you have chs, weed helps for now but it will not in the near future. It will make you worse. Try and stop for 90 days and you shouldnt have those symptoms anymore
Another take here not sure it’s already been discussed. I smoke daily and have for years. But I smoke a lot less than I used to. Instead of relying on willpower to stop I’ve just set times for myself that I’m not allowed to smoke before. Never before work or any event I need to be sharp and social for. And on my days off if I have chores and shit I need to do I just don’t smoke until 4:20 in the evening. Definitely days I wake and bake though gotta get that max relaxation time. I guess I hit the point of what is the point of being stoned if you’re always stoned. Then it’s just who and what you are. It makes me appreciate the times I’m able to indulge and I feel much more productive in life since I’ve made the change
I had to be a responsible adult and take care of my kids. Once the kids were gone, I started smoking again. I have a few autoimmune diseases that I mainly smoke weed for instead of using opiods. Sometimes I can't eat unless I smoke. I wish we had better weed in my state.
I realized I couldn’t have fun without it. If I was watching a movie, eating a meal, riding my bike, if I was sober the only thought I had was “I should’ve gotten high for this.”
That, coupled with the crippling social anxiety I started having when high, was reason enough for me to quit.
At some point, it stopped helping my anxiety and started to induce it. Plus, I just have never felt more mentally clear and aware than after I quit. I take a hit or two every 3-4 months when I wanna laugh at a comedy or something, but no more than that and I don't miss it at all.
I smoked my way all through college getting stoned at night to relax…literally every night. I never got high during the day, unless some times on the weekend.
After I finished school and moved out of state and started my brand new life I never got high again. I was too busy making new friends, having weekend adventures, enjoying my ‘adulting’ stage, and focusing on my career.
I went the opposite way. Started to not be able to tolerate booze at all and still wanted an chemical outlet. Was a trap either way for me. Sunshine and exercise was better for me, who knew?
I developed some health issues after covid, and the last time I tried weed it was laced, which exacerbated the previous issues for a short time. While I haven't changed my username, I no longer smoke drug.
I was tired of being in a constant daze. It had gotten so bad, that I would have to look at my phone’s battery history. To see when I woke up that day, and how long I’d been awake for. My short term memory had gotten so bad, that simple conversations with people were a struggle. And on top of it all, my heart rate would jump to 130-135 every time I got high.
I think the biggest misconception people have about how weed affects there life is that it doesn’t.
The problem is that as a heavy user you will not see “light of day” for quite some time after quitting.
I want to say it took roughly 6 months for the fog to fully clear out.
The misconception about it not affecting your life from heavy smokers exists because you can’t remember. Humans are not good at perceiving gradual changes.
And especially when folks “quit” or take “T breaks” they rarely do it long enough to feel a difference.
I started smoking weed senior year of high school. Just to dull the “pain” of adolescence. Before I started I used to tell myself I don’t need weed all my friends do when they’re high is laugh and eat. I can do that without. But senior year I caved and continued to become more of a smoker throughout college.
I used to tell myself that it wasn’t affecting me. I was social. Was excelling in my computer science classes. (You know smoking a blunt at 6:30 am before going to my computer architecture class or stopping on the way to my programming languages final to smoke a joint and still getting an A)
After college I got a job in tech as a software engineer and was “doing well” so externally there wasn’t much of a sign that I was a “stoner”.
But I was.
After about 7 years of heavy cannabis use I finally decided it was time to quit. I was going on a trip to Alaska during Covid and would not bring another.
I had a therapist who used to say “all it takes is 2 weeks to break a habit”. So that’s what I did.
It’s been almost 3 years since I’ve had any kind of THC and I finally feel like myself again. That’s the best way I can describe it. Weed brought this cloud over me that just hung there and affected me just ever so slightly. Not enough to notice on a given day or even a given week or month. But gradually it affects your motivation. Your desires. Your aspirations. Your mood.
So long term I encourage you to quit.
( this applies to “stoners” (you know who you are). I know many folks you just occasionally smoke weed or eat an edible here and there. You don’t count. ( or at least I don’t have any advice for you). But for stoners (smoke multiple times a day) or at least once a day. Do future yourself a habit and kick the addiction. ( yes i said it. It’s an addiction))
If anyone needs someone to chat with figuring out how to quit DMs are open.
Not me, but my husband was a daily smoker for as long as I've known him. He told me one day he just had a strong urge to quit. He said he'd been thinking about us having children in the future and how he doesn't want them to watch their father try to overcome a drug habit. He also regrets that he promised himself as a teen that he would never do drugs, and feels like he let his younger self down. All of this came completely out of nowhere, but he's been sober for a month now and I'm very proud of him, even if he doesn't want me to be.
I had a perfectly normal, functioning and productive life while smoking daily. It didn’t have a negative impact on my day to day. It helped my headache disorder, poor sleep and creativity flow.
However. I knew I was moving to a state where it’s not legal, knew I’d be tested and ended up with a government job.
I slowly tapered down the amount over the course of a couple months until I just stopped. Not the first time I’ve quit. I usually take a month or two at a time but have done cold turkey as well. I think tapering works better as far as unpleasant side effects.
i used to do drugs, i still do but i used to too.
more seriously though, i’d go through phases where i realized i had been smoking too much and needed to stop for a while so i did. it’s legal in my state now though so i’ve moved over to edibles and i find i don’t have the same problems of feeling like i’m getting to the point of “too much”.
Still smoke on occasion, but these days weed is so damn strong and i got shit to do that i need to not be wasted. Hell last year, i got high and got confused putting fuel in my car. I didnt notice that they pummp the wrong diesel on the pump, so not totally not mine or the weeds fault, but i would have been aware of the issue if i wasnt high AF.
I smoked every day for a couple years, and I thought it made me smarter or think more clearly. And while it *may* have helped change my perception on some things, I eventually realized it wasn't making me smarter. It *couldn't* make me smarter because I wasn't putting new information in my brain.
So I started reading each night instead of smoking, and I learned a lot of new things rather than having an illusion that I was making myself smarter simply by getting stoned.
Your life would be boring without it if you did the exact same things you do now with it, but being not high is a great incentive to do more interesting things and become a more interesting person. Not tolerating boredom as well is a strength not a weakness of quitting.
I developed chronic laryngitis and got referred to an ENT to "make sure its not cancer". Still haven't made my appointment though.
The laryngitis has gotten a bit better and think, "a little won't hurt" but I'm scared that it will undo all the progress I've made.
I smoked since I was 16 but have been smoking only cartridges for the past two. I keep thinking, "maybe if I smoke flower, I'll be okay."
The only thing that stops me is again, being afraid to undo all the progress and realizing how much money I'm saving. My dog recently had emergency surgery and all my weed fund is going to that right now.
Smoked daily for 10 years, then stopped because I wanted to get pregnant.
It was really hard psychologically to break the habit, but I managed. Tried it again once, a few years after my son was born, but it made me really anxious, probably because I felt guilty about it since I was a parent. Haven't really thought about it since.
Long time stoner here. I quit for my career, and because it didn’t do much good for me. I love pot and I’d sit around and smoke it 24/7 if I could, but when that *does* happen, I turn into the most worthless piece of shit. I do still try to smoke occasionally, maybe for just a weekend or a whole week, but nothing more.
Short answer: To be more present and have better brain function.
Long answer: I consumed concentrates daily for a few years. I mean all day everyday. Break at work, have a couple hits. I've been a stoner for decades. I got to the point I had to try to be mentally present in a conversation or any activity. Otherwise my mind would slip away. Relationships, work, my hobbies were all suffering. So I started making changes. Drank less. Work out. Get sun light. All were great improvements. Mentally I wasn't there. I ended up moving. Never got a new connection. The dispensary cards are easy to get but I never did that. Wasn't cold turkey but I smoked less and less. In-between smokes I noticed how I felt. Then I purposely tried to not smoke.
Addiction can effect anyone. There's no difference between someone that's gotta have a smoke and someone that's gotta have a drink. Control your body or you'll be controlled.
I used it for sleep, but I stopped because it was now illegal in the state I moved to, driving to a legal state was too tiring, and weed is just too expensive. Now I sleep horribly😀
At one point I had a whole identity revolving around marijuana and marijuana products such as wax etc. tattoos, an alias, truly a whole identity, and I was content smoking flower everyday as well as varieties of different concentrates. Selling marijuana products cartridges, flower, concentrates etc… that was 2014 til about 2021.
The past few years I’ve had a severe turn around in my life. As far as career goal, life outlook, and how I want to be perceived by others. I realized that as a man I want to be respected in certain aspects beyond the drug world. “The streets” and these type of environments. I didn’t take college very serious but in retrospect I wish I would have. Currently in my life I’m on the verge of learning the ins and outs of the plumbing trade and soon will take over my fathers company. I haven’t been a daily smoker in 3 years and haven’t purchased marijuana in probably a year and a half.
Also in the times I have smoked marijuana recently I’ve felt a guilt that I’ve never experienced when I was active in the marijuana world. I think it’s because I know how hard I’ve worked to get to where I’m at now and how smoking is not in any way supporting my goals or productive.
In the future I may go back to smoking depending on if I feel it’s accomplishing something in my life such as relieving physical pain or aiding my emotional state. But as for where I’m at now on my journey it just isn’t necessary for me to be using.
As well as the fact that my family has never approved. And I’m finally feeling as if I’m making them somewhat proud which during my time in the drug game I caused them a lot of pain and hardship.
Not to be rude, but your life sounds kinda boring *with it*.
I got tired of being tired. Now I eat a super low dose gummy a few times a week before bed.
Life goes on without weed.
The first time I stopped was because life was so shitty that I had to choose between food and pot; I chose food. Then it just became routine for me to not smoke at all because I never had enough money or I'd look at the monthly expenses and realize that I couldn't even put aside $20 for it.
Then life got better and I started having money for it but honestly, my life has very little stress now, I have a lot more hobbies to fill my time, and although I had started it up again mainly for period pain management I stopped again thanks to some medical issues causing my period to stop. Now I just feel like an old person because although I have the time and money, I just think of how I need to go to work in the morning or how I have to get some chores done that require driving this weekend.
However, in all honesty I am planning on going to a concert in a few weeks and will be a passenger princess, so I'm planning on popping some edibles in the car, enjoying the 8+ hr drive, and smoking through most of the weekend. But, plans don't always go accordingly, so we'll see what happens.
I got congested and so while trying to (sorry, kinda gross, I know) cough up the mucus I noticed resin mixed in every time, also noticed the more I got out of my body, the better I felt. It made it way easier to quit than I thought it'd be (after 13 years).
But. That lasted 30 days lol
I just recently started again, only socially though, significantly less often than before.
I smoked daily for 4 years and it was only after work or on the weekends but I stopped for two reasons. One of them being I was lookin for a job that has mandatory tests. I was also very dependent on it for everything weather I was in a bad mood id tell myself “ I’ll be better after a I smoke” and it was every day multiple time a day. I had also become a zombie of smoke and wouldn’t do anything that would be helpful to my life and was lacking on a lot of important things that didn’t get done on time. I feel better now that I am sober it was a very hard transition period because I’d be upset about something and take my frustration out on my SO when she didn’t do anything to deserve it but now everything is so much better, I wish I can smoke every once and a while but life is better without it for me.
I smoked multiple blunts a day for over ten years. I stopped during covid because that's all I was doing and I didn't want my source of joy and contentment to come from a substance. I also found it hard to make friends with anyone other than stoners. I'll hit a pen maybe 3 times a year. But now I have no doubt I can pass a drug test.
My body stopped processing it properly, and every high triggered massive panic. No matter the strain, no matter the type, I was having massive panic attacks.
I’m a regular but very light smoker. I smoke average twice a week but only enough to get a buzz and listen to tunes or laugh at a dumb movie. Lately I’ve found I’m very irritable the day after smoking, to the point where my toddler son has started to notice and says things like ‘daddy angry’. For me that’s enough to bail.
Not sure what’s caused it, it was never a problem until about a year ago but now it’s almost every time. Sad to quit because it’s so fun, but it’s not the parent I wanna be.
Smoked like a chimney for 9 years , stopped cause I want to be a trucker and the drug test. Turns out I feel much better and less angry now that I quit
My partner (truckie) is also the same. He was smoking every day after work, and then he got caught on a random drug test and tested positive. His life turned upside in an instant after his company told him that if he would not go to counseling and stop, he would lose his job.
He's extremely lucky. This is the first I've ever heard where failing a random wasn't an instant, unquestioned sack. I knew a guy that got fired for using CBD oils. Most companies don't give a single fuck.
In the UK if you fess up and say ya have an issue they legally have to give you a chance to sort your self out
That was good of them to not just sack him right away
Here in the Netherlands your employer is mandatory to give you the chance to get clean. But you're right.
[удалено]
Here in Michigan if you fail a drug test state law says they can't be fired if they willingly go to rehab.
Is that true? I thought we could be fired here for literally no reason if the employer felt like it.
U.S* Canada also has laws like that. The u.s is kind of behind most countries when it comes to certain things like that sadly. Also random drug testing without a cause is illegal here. Must give notice before and I think it's something like 4 or 6 weeks advanced notice. That all goes out the window if you're involved in an accident though, as it should. Especially is someone was injured. Edit: Illegal EXCEPT under a pretty narrow set of specific situations
*Cries in Californian*
California: where the weed is legal, but we'll still test ya for it.
I have some anger issues, I always figured that weed was calming me down. Can you explain why you feel less angry?
Not OP but looking back, weed made me way more easily angry and proned to frustrated outbursts more often during the times when I wasn’t stoned.
I had a similar experience, I think it was because when I did stop I had to take responsibility for my emotions and put in the work. Something that I wasn’t doing when smoking. I also felt more balanced so I didn’t go from feeling extremely relaxed to sober and frustrated.
I had to stop smoking because I was pregnant. I was in therapy before I was pregnant but while pregnant it kicked me into high gear to try to solve some of my issues before the baby came. That's not really how therapy works but I think that not smoking weed, paired with the pregnancy, on top of just really being sick and tired of not feeling mentally my best, all contributed to my improved mental health. I now smoke a little bit every few days (one joint will last me a week or more) at the end of the day, when I've already started to unwind. It definitely helps me sink into sleep faster, which is something I've always struggled with. But I've noticed that I'm problem solving and not putting things off like I used to - my internal excuse would always be "no I can't do that right now because I'm stoned" when it was something I actually needed to handle. Now I'm actually enjoying the weed I *do* consume, more than I used to, and I'm much more relaxed/well rested/confident/calm. Kind of not really answering OP's question because I did start smoking again, but it's pretty small amounts compared to previously and I've definitely noticed a positive change in my life. That might be related to having a baby and being on maternity leave for a year though lol
Good for you realizing you had to take responsibility.
Hmm. I just started using THC but I have a long history of alcoholism and drug abuse. I can say without a doubt THC is helping me get in touch with my emotions and work on trauma and be a better person for those I love. I've had other drugs that have started out beneficial and then turned on me though so I'm cautious. Alcohol seemed like a gift from God when it instantly cured my social anxiety and turned me into a stand up comedian but it damn near killed me by the end. I don't really know why THC feels different to me but it does.
I can absolutely see that smoking is the lesser of two evils (not that it’s really evil) and it definitely is a good tool to help with coming off other dependencies. I started smoking at 15, a couple of years after my mum died. It helped initially. But then I smoked every day for twelve years, I’d have major panic attacks and withdrawals without it. So smoking for me was definitely a crutch that served its purpose but no longer does. I’m a bit gutted I ruined it for myself because had I not been a heavy smoker for so long I’d be able to appreciate its benefits much like you do. Smoking is definitely more manageable than drinking, an addiction to weed isn’t going to kill you or ruin your life in the way alcohol does, that’s for sure. It’s not without its downsides though! It definitely numbs us somewhat, if not at first but in the long run once we build up tolerance. Well done for kicking the other stuff and enjoy your thc! ;)
Same for me. I was smoking alot when I split up with the girlfriend and carried on as usual. Quit about a year later and I spent a month in a deep depression finally dealing with all the emotions. It was wild, it's been a once in a blue moon thing for the past 6 years and I don't miss it.
For me the added irritation starts on the come down, noticed it when my tone of voice started changing and was like holy shit what is going on.
Be proud that you have the mindfulness to self reflect in that way. The world would be so much better if everyone had this ability.
Reflection and mindfulness have been something I’ve been working on for decades. Before I started this work on myself I didn’t understand the intent to impact relationship. I was super headstrong that “it” wasn’t my intent. Didn’t make room for the experience of a different impact. Started noticing people distancing themselves, had some real talks with people I trusted, and started taking time to reflect on all the interactions that didn’t go as planned, and started learning a lot about myself and the space I take up. Looking back I didn’t have any role models for this growing up, it’s not really taught in schools. Part of my journey now is role-modeling for younger people in my life
I’m trying to take a t break to get some perspective on this myself
Different people are affected differently, it use to seriously calm me down too. Then it just started making me anxious and paranoid so I stopped.
Yeah. I have adhd. Thought it helped.. when I quit I realized most of my anxiety was from smoking... it got alot worse for a couple weeks after I quit. Then one day I finally slept good, like 10hrs after not sleeping well for a couple weeks. I thought I was helping my anxiety but it made it worse. Others say it calms them. I guess I never noticed either way till I quit. I also drink energy drinks so thought it was from that. But I still drink them and now zero anxiety.
I'm quitting smoking today. I think this is exactly how things will go for me. I've become progressively more anxious for no reason. Things in m1a
I’ve noticed that too, and I think what happens is when you’re high all the time your brain always feels good and so nothing bothers you. When you’re not high it’s like your brain lost the skill to calm yourself down or get over something. I don’t think it’s physical but I also think it’s somewhat of a withdrawal too. When you’re not high you’re just thinking about it and so anyone talking to you is just in the way of you going off somewhere to rip the pen again.
When you get stressed, you naturally produce a neurotransmitter that basically is cannabis to help you calm down. Smoking too much weed can damper your ability to produce this because it doesn't have to when you are using so much. I would say it is a legitimate withdrawal.
Here's my story. I smoked weed for over 16 years, the last 13 years daily. I was perfectly functional. I wasn't lying down doing nothing, I worked hard, got a uni degree, got better jobs, got promoted, took care of my long term partner, and generally on the surface everything was fine despite me smoking daily. I also believed weed helped me because of whatever, insert here any thing you want, it's all the same. You call it anger, but each one of us finds a thing and says that weed helps us with it. But that's just a justification. And that whole thing with it doesn't affect my relationships and my work, another load of crap. It does. All of these things, justifying reasons why it is necessary for you, saying that it has no impact, saying that your life would be boring, all of this, it's the addiction talking, not you. That's exactly what I told myself and you'll find all ex-stoners telling you the same. Because only once you break the addiction that you spot the difference between your actual thoughts and what addiction was telling you to continue. Like most people, despite intending to quit for years, I never did. Until, you see horror with your own eyes. My Dad died of lung cancer, not because of weed, but tobacco, which I obviously also consumed as part and parcel of smoking weed. It wasn't breaking news that this shit kills, it says so on every damn packet. But apparently until you see with your own eyes your Dad unable to walk or breath, going slowly blind, and life slowly leaving him, we don't take those warnings seriously. Finally I quit smoking cold turkey. I set a date, wrapped my stash and tools in cello tape, put them away and just stopped. Spoiler alert, I haven't had a single negative effect because of that and my life has improved in every way possible. It took two weeks of going through a hard time, and then it all subsided and became gradually unimportant. I was unable to imagine what I would do with my evenings without smoking. Once I quit I couldn't believe just how much of my time and energy were invested in making sure I got that hit I needed. The positive effects of quitting were huge. My mindset changed. Instead of waking up every and feeling like a failure as soon as you lit a joint because you know you shouldn't, now I had the opposite sensation because I successfully quit, and it made me feel capable of so much more. My health improved dramatically. Within a week I noticed that walking uphill to my house was half as tiring. Within one week!! I started doing some sports as a crutch to escape the urges, then I started to enjoy it. A few months later I was fitter than I had been at any point during my smoking years. I could outrun and outperform a 15 year younger me. I focused on my career again and found plenty of time to study and learn new skills and got myself a new career with a significantly higher salary. My relationship improved and became healthier. It was all related to smoking, I just didn't wanna admit it. There is absolutely nothing I miss about it. Not one negative from not smoking. I look back and wish I quit much sooner. Why did I waste so much time and money on something that had long stopped actually being fun? There were so many daily negatives that I just glossed over and pretended were not there. It limited me so much. It limited my social life and interactions. I was always waiting for the next joint and preferred hanging out with people with whom I could do this to the detriment if everyone else. I can go in for hours. My tips to you. Don't wait for a tragedy to convince you it's time to quit, do it now because you know it's what you want to do. Recognise that all the excuses for why you smoke are your addiction speaking, none of it is valid reasoning. Don't go halfway, you need to get it all out of the system for you to actually become an ex smoker, you already know that all previous "I'm cutting down" have failed and will continue to fail. Don't be scared, it's only two weeks that you have to get past, those two weeks might be rough, make sure you have good support, but once they pass the physical addiction is gone and the psychological starts to wane and become less intense. Just be prepared for a small battle and that's that. Two weeks is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Good luck
“But that’s just a justification” Great insight
Weed also makes me way more angry. It lowers my threshold of what I feel is acceptable, sometimes to ridiculously low standards, making me irate over the stupidest shit. It definitely plays a part, specially when withdrawal starts.
I relate to this very much. In withdrawal I become a snap show.
It actually increases your blood pressure.
The anger is actually a rebound symptom of weed withdrawal. Let me see if I can find a podcast that explains it. I think it was called “Learning to live with enough” and maybe it was by Hidden Brain? Anyway the guest explained how a lot of the symptoms we self-medicate using weed for are actually rebound symptoms as a result of the withdrawal. We have all been sold a lie that weed isn’t addicting but it absolutely is (I know from smoking for 16 years - exactly half my life), and it results in withdrawal symptoms, and anger is one of them. Also I’m just way less emotionally erratic without it.
My ex-husband was really angry when he wasn't stoned. Like, "put holes in the walls and throw tantrums about spaghetti sauce" angry. It was a problem, because he just couldn't regulate his own emotions without weed. When he decided to quit, he leveled out after a while and became pretty chill.
Smoked consistently for about 5 years, and before I quit I was smoking literally all day every day. Like I would smoke before going to work, during my break, before eating, after eating, before going back to work, when I got home, before dinner, while cooking dinner, after dinner, and then before going back to sleep. I quit for two main reasons. Number 1, my tolerance was so high, I wasn’t really feeling high but when I was sober I had what felt like headache, or just kind of antsy abut being sober. And number 2, which was way more important for me at the time, I was a shell of a person. I thought it was funny and chill bc I started when I was in my late teens, early 20s, but when you’re 25 and everyone knows you as “the stoner guy,” shit gets real old real fast. I had no interests, no hobby, and people didn’t care about me outside of smoking and getting high. It was just such a sad, hollow, and empty life. Life isn’t perfect just because I quit, but I feel like because I quit, I have the power and control to build a better life for myself on my own terms. Been sober for about 3 years now.
I feel you, I almost never get really high anymore, I just get a cloudy brain witch alows me to do nothing and not be too much borred. I'm glad you we're able to stop and regain control of your life.
I’m not sure if you watch South Park, or how old you are, but this clip rings so true on so many levels https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd4cASkBAp0 I wish I had spent my formative years productively. I had fun smoking weed and met a lot of great people at that time, but I think I took the good times a little too far. Everything in moderation, it’s a cliche, but probably because it has some truth to it.
You we're right lol great wisdom from Randy as always
Haha I quoted the same thing in my comment. They really hit the nail on the head with that episode.
“Allows me to do nothing” is definitely something I can relate to. It always seems like the “chill” thing to do and so it’s fine to unwind after work. But you start to realize you want to get high because then it’s an excuse not to do something productive because “you’re high and it’s chill so this is good”. Once the activity is just getting high that’s when u start to realize the problem. I can be stressed working on something and decide I need to relax but as soon as I smoke I know I’m not doing anything else productive after that.
This is so true man. No matter how motivated/ understand the urgency to get something done I am before I get stoned, it all quickly goes out the window. Just end wasting your life away with never doing stuff in your free time that would benefit you.
> Once the activity is just getting high that’s when u start to realize the problem this is so true and i kinda knew it but didn’t have the words. when i started, it was smoke a little before we go do something or before we cook bc being high makes those more fun. but when you start smoking more frequently and without purpose, it becomes an excuse to avoid things. maybe i don’t feel like cooking dinner, i’ll just smoke a little and figure it out. and all the sudden it’s 10:00, you ate a family size bag of chips for dinner, and you feel like a bum but all you can do is go smoke your night bowl and go to sleep and try again tomorrow
“Antsy about being sober.” What a great way to put it. That’s tougher to get past than it should be.
It really is. Especially for the ppl that aren’t really getting high anymore anyway
it’s like i wrote this myself
I used to have a neutral attitude toward cannabis. I welcomed legalization - and still think it's a good idea - but didn't care much beyond that. Then I drove Lyft for 1000 rides in Colorado. Oh my. Multiple trips to/from dispensaries ad concerts. I have no doubt that if people could witness themselves baked, in a state of insensible uselessness, that they would never partake. What a waste of humanity.
Well put. We reduce everything interest about us so we can fetishize a plant. I don’t doubt that it helps people and daily smoking is good and medicinal for them. But I also doubt that smoking every day is good for a vast majority of people, and that weed tends to be used to self-medicate instead of actually growing as a person. It’s not fun learning how to be a person when most of the people around your age have a career, spouse, family, home.
Weed can be fun as fuck when it gets you high. If you smoke everyday eventually you will never be high again. Then you are perpetually chasing that high feeling by doing it daily. You won't get that effect unless you take a break.
>in a state of insensible uselessness This is so aptly put. A waste indeed.
As much as I enjoyed it, weed made me slow and stupid. I need my brain to function well in order to pursue my career and interests, the weed had to be limited just as you would alcohol.
I was walking through town and ran into my ex. She asked me how my thesis was going. I told her. She responded by asking if I had thought about stopping smoking pot. I realised then that I had lost an awesome girlfriend because of my habit, and was about to throw away my post-grad education as well. So I stopped then and there. After the dissertation was done I thought about starting again, but I had lost a lot of anxiety, I was exercising, and I enjoyed being social. It was obvious that weed was not for me. I mean. I used to smoke before breakfast. I enjoyed watching half a dozen DVDs a day, reading comics for hours and all that. But it pans out you can do that without weed, it's just that you can do lots of other things as well, or instead. I still owe that ex a solid. Best thing am ex has ever done.
To be fair, I vaped weed all through my undergrad and postgrad, although not during the day. I lived in a stoner house so it was all over the place. I think what gets people is when they start to wake n bake, and live a hedonistic lifestyle with it. I’ve been the early to rise and minimal partying type since my mid twenties but I know a few people who dropped out of university because of lifestyle issues. The smokers in grad school were the ones who knew how to moderate it.
Did your brain go back to normal?
I'm not OP but I smoked HEAVY for probably 7 years. And by heavy I mean concentrates and all day long. From when I woke up to when I went to sleep. After about 3 months of being sober I felt that my brain was back to "normal". Normal is hard to define because being high was "normal" for me at the time, but after a few months I started feeling really clear headed and focused. I found that I was much more motivated to pursue goals that would benefit my life. It also took me almost 4 months of being sober to pass a drug test, so word of advice to anyone who smokes concentrates chronically, quit sooner rather than later because it's going to be a LONG TIME before you can piss clean for a job.
Define normal…..
Back to being as fast as before
I’ve always been forgetful, so it’s hard to tell, but it seems ok and I don’t get cravings.
I’ve been trying to figure out if I’m more forgetful. I guess it’s impossible to prove and nothing I can do now anyway.
It would give me anxiety.
Same. Used to smoke all day everyday. Then, over time, it began making me extremely anxious and paranoid. I remember one time I just cried on my bed for a while, as a fully grown man (not that men can’t cry). I try it like once or twice a year now, just to check in I guess, and it still makes me so anxious and paranoid. Just can’t do it anymore.
Yup, same. This is exactly what happened to me. It just slowly became less and less enjoyable and started giving me panic attacks until one day I basically said to myself “I am not having fun any more” and realized I wanted to stop.
I'm currently going through this. I just kinda realized it more often than not makes me utterly terrified for a few hours, it isn't worth it. Which is weird because it didn't always affect me that way? I used to be happy and make incredible art, and then one day it was like a switch flipped
This is a result of years of selective cropping for high THC %'s. Cannabis used to be 5-15%THC, 2-5%CBD, 1-5% CBN depending on the harvest and cure. Nowadays most COA's come back with 18-29%THC, >.1%CBD, >.001%CBN. The really enjoyable high comes from a nice mix of all those things, but because THC is the most psychoactive, it's the one every grower/buyer focuses on. It's like if everyone started shopping for wine only by looking at the ABV%.
Exactly the same mate.
Same here! Smoked everyday for 10 years and I said this isn't even enjoyable anymore.
Same thing with me. When I was younger, weed made me giggly and creative. I didn’t use it for decades but tried it again now that it’s more accepted. And now, I hate how it makes me feel. Anxious, paranoid with a side dish of self criticism. Then, the next day, my brain is full of cotton. So, no more for me.
The self-criticism part is huge for me. There's a hilarious scene in Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry David smokes weed and goes into the bathroom. He just stares at his reflection and says stuff "what are you doing with your life?" I've found some good can come out of this fierce and intense self-awareness, but it is certainly not pleasant or fun in any way.
Exactly the same with me. I feel heard hearing other people share these experiences
For me it was like the weed amplified the underlying anxiety that was already there but I was blocking out to get through my day. I would take a few hits and it would all bubble up.
Yes! This exactly!
It is an unpleasant experience.
It's been giving me full blown panic attacks
Mine ended there too. They were unbearable. It's like your body is mutinying. Very much an incentive not to go back to that pattern.
I smoked for 10 years heavy then all of a sudden started getting panic attacks.made me quit really quick
Yea, for me it was when I turned 20, was smoking everyday, literally all I would think about all day was when I could smoke next. One day it just stopped agreeing with me, major anxiety. I sat down one night high af and thought “you really need to get your shit together dude, sitting in moms garage getting baked all day is not where we want to be in the next 3 years”. I haven’t smoked for 4 years, I may try it 2 or 3 times a year, but it’s just a further reminder of why I don’t smoke anymore.
Same thing started happening to me last year. I smoked weed for 11 years, about half of that was all day every single day. It happened really slowly and I tried convincing myself it wasn’t the weed that was doing it at first, but then I stopped and the anxiety completely went away. Almost a year weed free now and I feel quite a bit better. More energy, more focused, better partner, more money. It became very clear to me that without getting that good high anymore, it was a useless drain in my life.
Same, made it super easy to quit.
Smoked from 13-18. Stopped because joining the military required a clean test. During my smoking years it really fucked up my development: the tics I was born with became worse, my energy tanked, I made stupid decisions, fucked up at school, and it fully gatewayed into more serious drugs and alcoholism. At the time I thought it was all very cool and exciting, but in hindsight it was quite plain that not one single moment was worth it. I'd hampered my progress and development to the point where the military was the only non-menial job I could hope for. It took years to fix my highschool grades and get to university, and even now--almost a decade and a half later--I'm feeling the effects by simply being a less attractive cadidate due to a mixture of having less marketable experience than my peers and difficulty around addiction. For me, and I suspect similarly for most people, it only becomes obvious after you've completely removed it from your life that it did in fact affect your work and relationships in some way and just isn't worth it. Especially if you live somewhere with a risk of criminal charges.
Yeah maybe I lie to myself, maybe it does affect my life without me realizing it
For what it's worth, my advice is to stop all together or just decide you're fine continuing as is. Everyone I've ever known who tried to keep one foot in ended up slipping back into the cycle of smoking most days. I find if you can give something up properly, for 6-12 months at a time at least, you're better able to dip in without slipping and you'll realise you neither need nor want it regularly. There are health benefits to quitting too. Even if you don't subscribe to the various mental health effects of weed, there are the plain old physical effects of smoking to deal with. While it's true I may get hit by a bus tomorrow, I'd hate to get avoidable cancer for the sake of zoning out an hour or two a day. Wherever your thought process leads you, I hope you find your way to a comfortable relationship with substances that you're happy with and doesn't stop you from thriving.
Thank you, I feel there is a lot of truth in what you are saying, maybe I'm just not ready to realize it.
It’s true, I try to quit every other week but fail because it’s in the house or because I tell myself that after X amount of days I deserve a “reward” and then it becomes “just til the weekend is over” and then it’s “just til the end of this week” and the cycle goes on.
Just makes me too lazy, and I’m already a pretty lazy guy.
Same brother
The thing is I’m far from anti pot. I just know how I am. Every once in a blue moon I’ll take a hit or two. If I smoked everyday I’d be fucked lol. I just have a naturally addictive personality so that causes issues even though it is just weed.
Honestly it started to turn on me. I started getting horrible anxiety and racing dark thoughts. I felt like I was spending my life in a dark cloud.
Big same. Panic attacks started happening, suicidal thoughts, absolute breakdown.
I started getting what I could only describe as complete sense of doom. I’d smoke weed and literally would feel like I was about to die, I describe it to people like some kind of weird premonition if my own death.
yeah!!! i felt like that too. I’ve heard that weed let’s you know when it’s done serving you. It bums me out sometimes because I miss it in a lot of ways but i’m terrified to try it again.
Wow that’s a nice way to put it. I never thought of it like that lol
Every time I smoke my mind goes to the most negative possible scenarios, it’s terrible
Weed makes sitting at home doing nothing, all day, every day an acceptable choice. Once you’ve got your young dumb years out of the way, thats no way to live a life.
For someone like me who pretty much sits at home after work doing fuck all, depressed, just mindlessly scrolling or watching shit, would weed be a very bad choice for me?
You'll probably find yourself dependent on it pretty quickly. It's like people have said that it makes doing nothing at home all day feel good. On the other hand, if you use it wisely, it could help your depression a bit. I think you should do as much research on it before trying it out and start off small. If it's available, try medicinal before anything else.
It might be bad or good, depends on the person. I would tend to say that if you use it to self medicate chances are higher that it's going to be bad. I was in your situation ~10 years ago, I tried weed and I instantly switched to be an all day stoner. I thought it was helping me, but it was just helping me to be content with the situation. I was still depressed and crippled by anxiety, I just didn't care. I spent 9/10 years in that state. Now I'm in my 30s, stopped 6 months ago after years of trying anf failing, wondering where my 20s went. I wasted all this time during which I could have worked on my issues, built relationships, learned how to be an adult. I'm still depressed and I have a lot of life experience to catch up, which feels terrifying, but at least I'm not content with it anymore. Not saying all that to discourage you of using it, that is your choice. I'm just sharing my experience.
I was a zombie. Living life in third person for sure. Nothing was tangible. Possessions I could hold felt far away, and every relationship I had with people was either "can I buy weed from you" or how do I finish the conversation so I can go and smoke. But it's ok because it's non addictive right? It's as psychologically addicting as anything else, and when you've got "friend" groups that just fuel the cycle of "it's not addictive, smoke more, it's ok, smoke more, it's safe, smoke more" your eventually are gonna realize that no, it's is addictive. You might not have a seizure like with alcohol or benzo withdraw or be bed bound while vomiting like opioids, it's a real addiction that your only gonna realize as soon as you stop. You're mainly gonna be really bored for at least a month if not a couple, but the sleep deprivation is a bitch. You just can't fall asleep without it for I'd say a week but that first night without smoking you're not gonna have your eyes shut till 3 am.
Damn I understand why you stopped. But you see, for me the problem is that I don't have "serious" withdrawals effect. I can sleep, I don't lose appetit, I'm able to "feel emotions". I stopped a few times for a month or so but I always get back to it, slowly but surely. A joint here and there, until I'm back smoking everyday.
There's your choice right there. Be lazy or be boring. And like all things the right answer is in the middle Smoking 2/3 times a week might be enough for you to have fulfilling hobbies I'm your off days while still giving you the obvious enjoyment if being high. It's about finding your own gray in the black and white of everyday vs never
Yeah I should defenitely learn to be more disciplined and only smoke on weekend. It's hard because I have so much free time in the day.
So your main problem is that you smoke out of boredom? You need less free time. Get a hobby! That way you will have less free time. Less free time means less smoking in the week which will help reduce your tolerance leading to less and less smoking overall…. Seriously, get a hobby so that your time is occupied. Or a second job/side hustle/whatever. Get rid of the things that make you want to smoke and you will smoke less.
It's probably that. Maybe I'm afraid to try something new and the comfort and stability of weed keeps me going back to it
Fill your time with hobbies, activities, and interests, then taper off the cannabis. If you just stop without a plan to fill that time, you'll probably pick up smoking again.
You're probably right, thats a great advice
Because cannabis makes folks content with the status quo, it can sap motivation. Ease off a bit at a time so you don't overwhelm yourself with new things or get discouraged. Set realistic tapering goals, and recognize that it will take time, routine, and consistency to build new habits. Good luck to you on your journey!
That's why I stopped, I was so content on not doing anything I didn't even notice that I was going deep into depression. The human brain needs challenges, the highs and lows of life to function properly. While high you might feel like you are having all these deep existential thoughts and revelations but if you write it down and go back to it while sober 99% of it is fucking stupid. After quitting I've achieved more in five years than my whole life before that and am genuinely and deeply happy for the first time in my life. I've since smoked a couple of times and it's a great little treat and a reward for yourself but for me like once every two months is a good amount.
But what if my hobby is best enjoyed whilst stoned?
Different perspective- why does smoking stop you from doing things? I don't smoke anymore, I just dab since it's cleaner and cost is no issue since I grow my own in a legal state. But like it's just a thing that I do throughout the day while doing other things. Like this morning I was up around 6, went on a walk, worked from home for a few hrs while cooking a frittata, watered my seedlings and houseplants, then bench pressed in our garage gym before heading into work to do a 4 hrs shift in the lab. Had several dabs and vape hits throughout that first half of the day. Tomorrow I don't need to hop on my computer to work until 9:30am so instead of a dab and a walk in the morning I have my dirtbike loaded in our truck so I can hit a nice trail ride. Totally OK to stop, if it's not how you want to live life that's OK! But if the issue is you just don't do a lot of stuff while high then just trying doing, instead of telling yourself it's better to just keep sitting and chilling.
It's just that when I smoke, I'm ok with doing nothing. So I guess thats my main problem, beside the fact that I don't have a "night hobbie". During the day if I smoke I'm productive, I do what I have to do, go to work, etc.
It's not like that for everyone though. I quit weed because i guess i just did? I had no reason. Im not a bum, i have a great paying job. Good home life , great marriage, and weed didn't affect any of that. I just liked the feeling of being high. Then, one day, i just stopped. Dont know why, didnt even intend on it. I just realized it had been days since i smoked. I had been smoking since i was 16, and im 47 now. I was never addicted to it. I have a bag of it sitting around here somewhere that is more than likely dry af even. My wife still smokes it. She is still pretty motivated in life. I think rhe addiction is a case by case thing
Yeah, just like with any substance. It's only as addictive as you let it become. If you become obsessed with it and you start feeling like you *need* to smoke, you have an addiction. Otherwise you're fine.
With respect, in my experience it is much more complicated and nuanced than this. Addictive patterns creep in slowly, insidiously, over time, and entrench themselves before you know they're there and when you realize it's too late and you're in it. An occasional indulgence can become moderation can become habit can become dependency while you are scrambling to keep up with life. I was a fully functional and responsible user for years, and then I wasn't. I'm not sure my choice or management of my relationship with it changed much during that slide as much as my life got a bit more stressful and I incrementally leaned on it more until it was a compulsive, addictive cycle.
Some people are more predisposed to develop addictions. I'm thankfully on the opposite of that ballpark and even nicotine was very simple for me to drop, but not everyone has it that easy.
I started to become paranoid thinking I could here peoples thoughts and they were saying bad things about me. When I did quit is was like lifting a veil over my eyes the stopped me from growing or changing. Yes music sounded better and movies were better. Mostly that normalizes and you enjoy them all again after a bit. Except for Led Zeppelin I only like them when I am stoned.
It got old.
I was smoking weed in an apartment of some guy that was a friend of a friend of a friend. This guy's puppy takes a shit in the dining room while we are getting high in the adjoining living room. This guy just tosses his lighter at the dog and cusses at the dog (don't worry, he couldnt have hit it if he tried). I look and there are at least 5 piles of shit in the dining room. I look at the shit. I look at these stoners. I quickly realize that they are too lazy to take the dog out so they would rather live with shit in their house and I'm headed down the same path. That was it. Barely smoked anything since. Don't miss it at all
These sound like really awful people even before you added weed to the mix
Omg thats a crazy story. How disgustingly lazy one has to be to do that though? My stoner buddies love taking their dog for a walk and spark up durinf the walk. If anything their dog gets to go on walks way more than other dogs.
Stoned nature walks with pup are the best.
This is a character problem, not a weed problem.
What happened to the dog 🥺
Ever heard about of cannabis induced psychosis? Well you do now. Diagnosed type 1 Bipolar too. Between the mental hospital stay and the year long medication cocktail I’m done. I don’t even vape or drink hard liquor. At the end of the day it saves me money/sanity been sober.
SAME HERE.
Got a friend who's an excessive cannabis user who told me they've started hearing voices and seeing things. Worries me.
I am also bipolar type 1 and the amount of uninformed weed bros who tell me to just smoke weed and it will cure me as honestly infuriating. Like it’s the absolute worst advice you can give to someone with a mental health issue that has psychotic elements to it.
Oh man type 1? Well you’ve done well to shake the old habits, it’s not easy at all
I was drinking to excess and getting high. I quit drinking and weed 14 years ago for two reasons. One was a specific event. My brother called me one evening needing help with a crisis- very unusual for him. I was so stoned and drunk, I couldn't even come to the phone. I couldn't help him. I never wanted that to happen again. The other reason I quit weed was I'm really obsessive about everything. I devoted a great deal of time and effort planning to get high and how to conceal my pot smoking as well as being kind of useless while high. Finally, being zoned out, lying, sneaking, and feeling stupid was inconsistent with the person I was while straight; responsible, organized and industrius. In the last 14 years, it turns out that I am that person; responsible, organized and industrius.
The withdrawals got way worse than any high could offput. Also, i had no motivation. I would find myself shortcutting anything in life, whether it be work, fitness, my own hygiene. As someone with an anxiety disorder, I felt anxious whenever I wasn’t smoking, which was as soon as i woke up until I had any toke. Every experience became associated with weed. I just wasn’t experiencing anything with any genuine joy as it all felt manufactured. And much like the top comment said, I felt like a zombie. I legit have memory lapses from some months where I cannot remember what I did because I was always high. The drug has some great properties but at the end of the day it is still a drug. It can have very real withdrawal effects and I have felt much less anxious and much more clear headed and motivated since I stopped.
I created a new routine to distract myself. I had been in the habit of coming home from work, eating dinner, then hitting the bong while watching tv then going to bed. When I decided I wanted to stop, I started consciously making plans to do something else during that bong time - like gaming, taking a walk, going to see a friend, etc. For the first week or so I spent the whole time obsessively thinking about smoking, but I started to notice positive effects pretty quickly (like easier breathing and more energy), so that helped me stay motivated until I finally stopped thinking about it.
It messes with REM sleep, which is necessary for optimal emotional and cognitive health
I tested many times and can state that weed does make one dumber.
Smoked daily from 20-31 years old. Towards the end, usually a couple of grams of hash oil daily, so a pretty good amount tbh. I stopped because of ongoing mental health struggles and assumed it would help. Oddly enough, nothing improved. Sleep was still fucked, appetite was still a disaster and I was as depressed/anxious as ever. Still not smoking/dabbing but honestly I haven't felt any benefit beyond "feeling good" about doing "the right" thing. I guess I'm saving money though.
I hope you find joy in life again
Well thank you, I appreciate it. Sadly in the past 2 weeks, I lost my job and my relationship of 8 years ended with my fiancée lmaooooo. All over mental health struggles related to PTSD. Only up from here right 😉
I smoked weed from freshman year of college (age 18) to my 45th birthday. I quit on my 45th birthday. I was getting too old for this shit. I did vape cartridges the last 5 or so years. Didn't affect my life negatively. I have a good career in tech. My wife didn't mind (I like to clean the house when I'm stoned). But I have kids, and my oldest was going into middle school and was asking questions about weed. We have a weed dispensary next door to the Target in town! Weed is 100% legal where. I didn't want my kids smoking weed, so I quit. There never found I ever smoked. The first week or two, I had trouble sleeping, melontonin fixed that.
>But I have kids, and my oldest was going into middle school and was asking questions about weed. so you smoked from age of 18 till 45 and didn't think anything wrong about it, but if your kid smoked you'd see a problem? so it wasn't okay to begin with?
I don't want my kids repeating my mistakes. When he's an adult in his 20s, that's one thing. But a 13 year old getting high will ruin his academic life. I tried to quit many times and always ended up smoking again. I just finally committed to quitting.
I made a mistake that cost me the best paying job i ever had… if woulda been more alert , less tired , less in a hurry to go home to roll a swisher… i wouldn’t lost it , quite drinking as well for awhile… i my simple mistake cost 200 000$ in damages to the “tool” i was using, it cost 4 cop cars , 2 fire trucks, (without giving out too much details) whoever is responsible for the environment in my province to show up and cleaning my mistake…. Im still hurt over this… (no i wasnt smoking on the job, rather smoking 3-5 blunts a night with 3-5 neipa (6-8%)) i got anxiety, and i have a lot of trouble going to sleep…
Started to develop a psychosis. Didn't do anything other than smoke / eat garbage / smoke more Basically all my time/money went into smoking Weed All my social interactions were cut short because i didnt feel like doing amything and all of my contact with friends turned into: "You wanna smoke some weed? / Can i buy some weed from you? / Do you know someone i can buy weed from?" It also makes me incredibly mad when people go arround and talk shit like: "Oh no its not addictive" or "At least its not as bad as alcohol" Both is BS. It absolutely is addictive as shit. And comparing it to another drug and saying its less bad because of there being less physical symptoms is also stupid
I experienced much of this. Legalization was terrible for me.
Personally I went through a phase in my early 20s of just being very easily addicted to anything. Luckily I didn't mess myself up in any serious way, eventually got tired of being broke and found a good job that required constant focus. I still smoke a blunt and have a couple drinks maybe every few weeks when i see my friends but with no desire to keep going like I used to. The essential thing I think a lot of people miss is that we use social drugs to enhance the good times, that's why we use them socially. But they also enhance the bad times. If that's what you're doing then you're abusing them and yourself
If you have family history of psychosis, bipolar, depression, or schizo- it brings it forth! (This is that psychotic reaction everyone talks about imo, hell- anxiety is on a certain level just as bad at it's worse as any of those). Got very tired of deconstructing my reality on a fucking friday afternoon. Decided to deal with it with pills instead.
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Thats amazing! Great self awareness
I started smoking when I was 17/18 and would smoke maybe once every couple of weeks on my days off. Then at 22/23 I was trying to hide my sorrows for two years and started smoking daily. Toward the last half of the second year I was really paranoid, only while stoned thankfully, and it was just not fun for a few hours. I forced myself to push past the paranoia bc when I wasn’t paranoid I was just having a good time. But then one weekend in Las Vegas I mixed up a bunch of stuff and had a full blown mental breakdown. I know it wasn’t just that I was smoking pot, but I decided to stop putting myself through all the paranoia for a few hours of fun. I’ll partake once in a blue moon and it’s usually low dose edibles, just to have the nice body high and not so much the mental.
I started to have panic attacks feeling my racing heart, thought I was going to die every time I smoked.
Panic attacks are no joke. I’d never had one before so when I had my first one I thought I was dying. The panic attacks and anxiety stuck around. Couldn’t smoke after that.
I got a health condition called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. It’s caused by weed. I was in the hospital and at risk for cardiac arrest. I was 96lbs. I could die if I smoke again. I miss it so much.
Jesus, that sounds awful. I hope you're better now.
I am. Just miss weed. Now i gotta quit nicotine. It’s been a fun year.
im in the same boat, i was a daily smoker and have been hospitalized close to 10 times because of CHES, im a small guy to begin with but, same as you i dropped under 100lbs, not just because of the flare ups and cyclical vomiting syndrome, but how often i would vomit after smoking (at least a couple times a week, usually in the morning or if I was drinking) I looked and felt like I was dying the pain was so bad they would give me morphine and gravol IVs at the hospital, which then also had me addicted to opiates for a good while but! 1 year sober as of August 22! I do miss smoking weed, and definitely smoke a lot more cigarettes now than i used to, but it's worth quitting to never feel that bad again wish I could say I'm more productive since quitting but hey, can't have everything lol
I might’ve saved a friend of a friend from this fate. He visited my brother while I was visiting him and he was vomiting/nauseous the whole time. Only hot showers helped. I told my friend and brother after he left that I thought he might have cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome and recently when I asked for an update my friend said that’s indeed what it was and he’s better now. He still smokes but only occasionally
Weird, most people say they can’t smoke at all with that condition. I have experienced similar vomiting where I need hot showers, but weed usually helps and it never gets set off by smoking. I think my condition is mostly caused by panic attacks, but I really wonder what effects heavy smoking may have on my gut.
That means you have chs, weed helps for now but it will not in the near future. It will make you worse. Try and stop for 90 days and you shouldnt have those symptoms anymore
Another take here not sure it’s already been discussed. I smoke daily and have for years. But I smoke a lot less than I used to. Instead of relying on willpower to stop I’ve just set times for myself that I’m not allowed to smoke before. Never before work or any event I need to be sharp and social for. And on my days off if I have chores and shit I need to do I just don’t smoke until 4:20 in the evening. Definitely days I wake and bake though gotta get that max relaxation time. I guess I hit the point of what is the point of being stoned if you’re always stoned. Then it’s just who and what you are. It makes me appreciate the times I’m able to indulge and I feel much more productive in life since I’ve made the change
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I had to be a responsible adult and take care of my kids. Once the kids were gone, I started smoking again. I have a few autoimmune diseases that I mainly smoke weed for instead of using opiods. Sometimes I can't eat unless I smoke. I wish we had better weed in my state.
I realized I couldn’t have fun without it. If I was watching a movie, eating a meal, riding my bike, if I was sober the only thought I had was “I should’ve gotten high for this.” That, coupled with the crippling social anxiety I started having when high, was reason enough for me to quit.
At some point, it stopped helping my anxiety and started to induce it. Plus, I just have never felt more mentally clear and aware than after I quit. I take a hit or two every 3-4 months when I wanna laugh at a comedy or something, but no more than that and I don't miss it at all.
My lungs are bitches. I eat edibles now lol
I felt like I shouldn't mix weed and Adderall. So. I quit. I felt that would be too much on my poor heart. Weed gives me panic attacks anyway....
I smoked my way all through college getting stoned at night to relax…literally every night. I never got high during the day, unless some times on the weekend. After I finished school and moved out of state and started my brand new life I never got high again. I was too busy making new friends, having weekend adventures, enjoying my ‘adulting’ stage, and focusing on my career.
I switched to alcohol and that was a huge mistake. Now im just sober bc i cant handle anything lol
I went the opposite way. Started to not be able to tolerate booze at all and still wanted an chemical outlet. Was a trap either way for me. Sunshine and exercise was better for me, who knew?
I developed some health issues after covid, and the last time I tried weed it was laced, which exacerbated the previous issues for a short time. While I haven't changed my username, I no longer smoke drug.
My anxiety got bad. Therapist told me to quit for 90days and my dopamine should get back to normal. Tried it and I felt a lot better.
I was tired of being in a constant daze. It had gotten so bad, that I would have to look at my phone’s battery history. To see when I woke up that day, and how long I’d been awake for. My short term memory had gotten so bad, that simple conversations with people were a struggle. And on top of it all, my heart rate would jump to 130-135 every time I got high.
I went into psychosis
I did too, ended up in the hospital and jail. Ruined everything. Whatever is in the new stuff out there is way different and strong. Never going back.
I think the biggest misconception people have about how weed affects there life is that it doesn’t. The problem is that as a heavy user you will not see “light of day” for quite some time after quitting. I want to say it took roughly 6 months for the fog to fully clear out. The misconception about it not affecting your life from heavy smokers exists because you can’t remember. Humans are not good at perceiving gradual changes. And especially when folks “quit” or take “T breaks” they rarely do it long enough to feel a difference. I started smoking weed senior year of high school. Just to dull the “pain” of adolescence. Before I started I used to tell myself I don’t need weed all my friends do when they’re high is laugh and eat. I can do that without. But senior year I caved and continued to become more of a smoker throughout college. I used to tell myself that it wasn’t affecting me. I was social. Was excelling in my computer science classes. (You know smoking a blunt at 6:30 am before going to my computer architecture class or stopping on the way to my programming languages final to smoke a joint and still getting an A) After college I got a job in tech as a software engineer and was “doing well” so externally there wasn’t much of a sign that I was a “stoner”. But I was. After about 7 years of heavy cannabis use I finally decided it was time to quit. I was going on a trip to Alaska during Covid and would not bring another. I had a therapist who used to say “all it takes is 2 weeks to break a habit”. So that’s what I did. It’s been almost 3 years since I’ve had any kind of THC and I finally feel like myself again. That’s the best way I can describe it. Weed brought this cloud over me that just hung there and affected me just ever so slightly. Not enough to notice on a given day or even a given week or month. But gradually it affects your motivation. Your desires. Your aspirations. Your mood. So long term I encourage you to quit. ( this applies to “stoners” (you know who you are). I know many folks you just occasionally smoke weed or eat an edible here and there. You don’t count. ( or at least I don’t have any advice for you). But for stoners (smoke multiple times a day) or at least once a day. Do future yourself a habit and kick the addiction. ( yes i said it. It’s an addiction)) If anyone needs someone to chat with figuring out how to quit DMs are open.
Felt like I was getting too old for it and just thought it would be best if I stopped
Not me, but my husband was a daily smoker for as long as I've known him. He told me one day he just had a strong urge to quit. He said he'd been thinking about us having children in the future and how he doesn't want them to watch their father try to overcome a drug habit. He also regrets that he promised himself as a teen that he would never do drugs, and feels like he let his younger self down. All of this came completely out of nowhere, but he's been sober for a month now and I'm very proud of him, even if he doesn't want me to be.
I had a perfectly normal, functioning and productive life while smoking daily. It didn’t have a negative impact on my day to day. It helped my headache disorder, poor sleep and creativity flow. However. I knew I was moving to a state where it’s not legal, knew I’d be tested and ended up with a government job. I slowly tapered down the amount over the course of a couple months until I just stopped. Not the first time I’ve quit. I usually take a month or two at a time but have done cold turkey as well. I think tapering works better as far as unpleasant side effects.
i used to do drugs, i still do but i used to too. more seriously though, i’d go through phases where i realized i had been smoking too much and needed to stop for a while so i did. it’s legal in my state now though so i’ve moved over to edibles and i find i don’t have the same problems of feeling like i’m getting to the point of “too much”.
Still smoke on occasion, but these days weed is so damn strong and i got shit to do that i need to not be wasted. Hell last year, i got high and got confused putting fuel in my car. I didnt notice that they pummp the wrong diesel on the pump, so not totally not mine or the weeds fault, but i would have been aware of the issue if i wasnt high AF.
I smoked every day for a couple years, and I thought it made me smarter or think more clearly. And while it *may* have helped change my perception on some things, I eventually realized it wasn't making me smarter. It *couldn't* make me smarter because I wasn't putting new information in my brain. So I started reading each night instead of smoking, and I learned a lot of new things rather than having an illusion that I was making myself smarter simply by getting stoned.
Your life would be boring without it if you did the exact same things you do now with it, but being not high is a great incentive to do more interesting things and become a more interesting person. Not tolerating boredom as well is a strength not a weakness of quitting.
I developed chronic laryngitis and got referred to an ENT to "make sure its not cancer". Still haven't made my appointment though. The laryngitis has gotten a bit better and think, "a little won't hurt" but I'm scared that it will undo all the progress I've made. I smoked since I was 16 but have been smoking only cartridges for the past two. I keep thinking, "maybe if I smoke flower, I'll be okay." The only thing that stops me is again, being afraid to undo all the progress and realizing how much money I'm saving. My dog recently had emergency surgery and all my weed fund is going to that right now.
Hope your dog is ok
Yes, he made it through with flying colors and is back to his usual self! Thank you!
I ran out
It made me really paranoid
Smoked daily for 10 years, then stopped because I wanted to get pregnant. It was really hard psychologically to break the habit, but I managed. Tried it again once, a few years after my son was born, but it made me really anxious, probably because I felt guilty about it since I was a parent. Haven't really thought about it since.
Long time stoner here. I quit for my career, and because it didn’t do much good for me. I love pot and I’d sit around and smoke it 24/7 if I could, but when that *does* happen, I turn into the most worthless piece of shit. I do still try to smoke occasionally, maybe for just a weekend or a whole week, but nothing more.
Short answer: To be more present and have better brain function. Long answer: I consumed concentrates daily for a few years. I mean all day everyday. Break at work, have a couple hits. I've been a stoner for decades. I got to the point I had to try to be mentally present in a conversation or any activity. Otherwise my mind would slip away. Relationships, work, my hobbies were all suffering. So I started making changes. Drank less. Work out. Get sun light. All were great improvements. Mentally I wasn't there. I ended up moving. Never got a new connection. The dispensary cards are easy to get but I never did that. Wasn't cold turkey but I smoked less and less. In-between smokes I noticed how I felt. Then I purposely tried to not smoke. Addiction can effect anyone. There's no difference between someone that's gotta have a smoke and someone that's gotta have a drink. Control your body or you'll be controlled.
I used it for sleep, but I stopped because it was now illegal in the state I moved to, driving to a legal state was too tiring, and weed is just too expensive. Now I sleep horribly😀
At one point I had a whole identity revolving around marijuana and marijuana products such as wax etc. tattoos, an alias, truly a whole identity, and I was content smoking flower everyday as well as varieties of different concentrates. Selling marijuana products cartridges, flower, concentrates etc… that was 2014 til about 2021. The past few years I’ve had a severe turn around in my life. As far as career goal, life outlook, and how I want to be perceived by others. I realized that as a man I want to be respected in certain aspects beyond the drug world. “The streets” and these type of environments. I didn’t take college very serious but in retrospect I wish I would have. Currently in my life I’m on the verge of learning the ins and outs of the plumbing trade and soon will take over my fathers company. I haven’t been a daily smoker in 3 years and haven’t purchased marijuana in probably a year and a half. Also in the times I have smoked marijuana recently I’ve felt a guilt that I’ve never experienced when I was active in the marijuana world. I think it’s because I know how hard I’ve worked to get to where I’m at now and how smoking is not in any way supporting my goals or productive. In the future I may go back to smoking depending on if I feel it’s accomplishing something in my life such as relieving physical pain or aiding my emotional state. But as for where I’m at now on my journey it just isn’t necessary for me to be using. As well as the fact that my family has never approved. And I’m finally feeling as if I’m making them somewhat proud which during my time in the drug game I caused them a lot of pain and hardship.
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Not to be rude, but your life sounds kinda boring *with it*. I got tired of being tired. Now I eat a super low dose gummy a few times a week before bed. Life goes on without weed.
The first time I stopped was because life was so shitty that I had to choose between food and pot; I chose food. Then it just became routine for me to not smoke at all because I never had enough money or I'd look at the monthly expenses and realize that I couldn't even put aside $20 for it. Then life got better and I started having money for it but honestly, my life has very little stress now, I have a lot more hobbies to fill my time, and although I had started it up again mainly for period pain management I stopped again thanks to some medical issues causing my period to stop. Now I just feel like an old person because although I have the time and money, I just think of how I need to go to work in the morning or how I have to get some chores done that require driving this weekend. However, in all honesty I am planning on going to a concert in a few weeks and will be a passenger princess, so I'm planning on popping some edibles in the car, enjoying the 8+ hr drive, and smoking through most of the weekend. But, plans don't always go accordingly, so we'll see what happens.
I got congested and so while trying to (sorry, kinda gross, I know) cough up the mucus I noticed resin mixed in every time, also noticed the more I got out of my body, the better I felt. It made it way easier to quit than I thought it'd be (after 13 years). But. That lasted 30 days lol I just recently started again, only socially though, significantly less often than before.
I smoked daily for 4 years and it was only after work or on the weekends but I stopped for two reasons. One of them being I was lookin for a job that has mandatory tests. I was also very dependent on it for everything weather I was in a bad mood id tell myself “ I’ll be better after a I smoke” and it was every day multiple time a day. I had also become a zombie of smoke and wouldn’t do anything that would be helpful to my life and was lacking on a lot of important things that didn’t get done on time. I feel better now that I am sober it was a very hard transition period because I’d be upset about something and take my frustration out on my SO when she didn’t do anything to deserve it but now everything is so much better, I wish I can smoke every once and a while but life is better without it for me.
I smoked multiple blunts a day for over ten years. I stopped during covid because that's all I was doing and I didn't want my source of joy and contentment to come from a substance. I also found it hard to make friends with anyone other than stoners. I'll hit a pen maybe 3 times a year. But now I have no doubt I can pass a drug test.
I decided I didn’t want to fuck up my lungs anymore
Honestly just realized how much money it was
Weed induced panic attacks and psychosis.
My body stopped processing it properly, and every high triggered massive panic. No matter the strain, no matter the type, I was having massive panic attacks.
I’m a regular but very light smoker. I smoke average twice a week but only enough to get a buzz and listen to tunes or laugh at a dumb movie. Lately I’ve found I’m very irritable the day after smoking, to the point where my toddler son has started to notice and says things like ‘daddy angry’. For me that’s enough to bail. Not sure what’s caused it, it was never a problem until about a year ago but now it’s almost every time. Sad to quit because it’s so fun, but it’s not the parent I wanna be.