For Some Users, Cannabis Can Be Fiercely Addictive.
(Note: more than 1200 comments below)
See Also:
Is Marijuana Addictive? (>143 posts)
Marijuana Withdrawal Revisited. (>108posts).
Feds Fund Study of Marijuana Withdrawal. (>39 posts)
For a minority of marijuana users, commonly estimated at 10 per cent, the use of pot can become uncontrollable, as with any other addictive drug. Addiction to marijuana is frequently submerged in the welter of polyaddictions common to active addicts. The withdrawal rigors of, say, alcohol or heroin tend to drown out the subtler, more psychological manifestations of cannabis withdrawal.
What has emerged in the past ten years is a profile of marijuana withdrawal, where none existed before. The syndrome is marked by irritability, restlessness, generalized anxiety, hostility, depression, difficulty sleeping, excessive sweating, loose stools, loss of appetite, and a general “blah” feeling. Many patients complain of feeling like they have a low-grade flu, and they describe a psychological state of existential uncertainty—“inner unrest,” as one researcher calls it.
The most common marijuana withdrawal symptom is low-grade anxiety. Anxiety of this sort has a firm biochemical substrate, produced by withdrawal, craving, and detoxification from almost all drugs of abuse. It is not the kind of anxiety that can be deflected by forcibly thinking “happy thoughts,” or staying busy all the time.
A peptide known as corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) is linked to this kind of anxiety. Neurologists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, noting that anxiety is the universal keynote symptom of drug and alcohol withdrawal, started looking at the release of CRF in the amygdala. After documenting elevated CRF levels in rat brains during alcohol, heroin, and cocaine withdrawal, the researchers injected synthetic THC into 50 rats once a day for two weeks. (For better or worse, this is how many of the animal models simulate heavy, long-term pot use in humans). Then they gave the rats a THC agonist that bound to the THC receptors without activating them. The result: The rats exhibited withdrawal symptoms such as compulsive grooming and teeth chattering—the kinds of stress behaviors rats engage in when they are kicking the habit. In the end, when the scientists measured CRF levels in the amygdalas of the animals, they found three times as much CRF, compared to animal control groups.
While subtler and more drawn out, the process of kicking marijuana can now be demonstrated as a neurochemical fact. It appears that marijuana increases dopamine and serotonin levels through the intermediary activation of opiate and GABA receptors. Drugs like naloxone, which block heroin, might have a role to play in marijuana detoxification.
As Dr. DeChiara of the Italian research team suggested in Science, “this overlap in the effects of THC and opiates on the reward pathway may provide a biological basis for the controversial ‘gateway hypothesis,’ in which smoking marijuana is thought to cause some people to abuse harder drugs.” America's second favorite drug, De Chiara suggests, may prime the brain to seek substances like heroin. In rebuttal, marijuana experts Lester Grinspoon and James Bakalar of Harvard Medical school have protested this resumed interest in the gateway theory, pointing out that if substances that boost dopamine in the reward pathways are gateways to heroin use, than we had better add chocolate, sex, and alcohol to the list.
In the end, what surprised many observers was simply that the idea of treatment for marijuana dependence seemed to appeal to such a large number of people. The Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto has reported that even brief interventions, in the form of support group sessions, can be useful for addicted pot smokers.
In 2005, an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry concluded that, for patients recently out of rehab, “Postdischarge cannabis use substantially and significantly increased the hazard of first use of any substance and strongly reduced the likelihood of stable remission from use of any substance.”
A selected bibliography of science journal references can be found HERE.
See also:
Marijuana Withdrawal Rivals Nicotine
Marijuana Withdrawal Revisited
Feds Fund Study of Marijuana Withdrawal
NOTE: THERE ARE MORE THAN 1, 200 COMMENTS BELOW. CLICK "NEWER" FOR ADDITIONAL COMMENT PAGES, OR "NEWEST" FOR THE LATEST POSTS.
addiction 
drugs
medical marijuana
1,257 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 401 – 600 of 1257 Newer› Newest»You will get through this instead of going to jail because you will slowly regain your interest in the things you used to enjoy. Allow yourself the discovery of doing things straight that you only used to do high--just do it, and the pleasure will return.
I make it sound easy, and of course it's not. It might be the hardest thing you'll ever do.
MR HANSON, thank very much on your web site, Doctors know very little about marijuana addiction, I read your post everyday looking for that reminder that I'm not alone,this is my 3 post and I'm on day 2.for those who cant cope with the withdrawal try group therapy, being around people who are suffering same as you gives you some relief,i wish i could control my mj ergs like in the beginning when i smoked only on weekends,If you don't smoke don't start, and thanks for your reply,and please keep up the research and keep us informed i will post every 7 days to explain how I'm recovering, mean time by reading almost all the posts past 2 weeks helped and will help others,like everyone the worst part is the anxiety and that helpless feeling,i should quit cigarettes also but it will be to much to handle all at once, and to top things off the economy at its worst in my life time and I'm 48 been a smoker for 30years with a 5 year 0ff mj 1990 to 95 it was a week long suffering then now, it seems so much harder, i will keep posting, and please keep up the terrific job sir.
Thanks Dirks, this is really going to help I think.
Few points I would like to make about 30 years of toking.
% body fat seems to have significant effect on withdrawal intensity from THC.
Consumption of fats, particularly ones mixed with sugar seem to exaggerate withdrawal symptoms.
St. John's Wort, in half bag doses before bed seems to help with sleep without over saturating the body so you can use it again the next night.
Limited libido seems largely mental, I find that even if I don’t feel like it, do it anyway and it goes OK.
Pot varies widely in strength and composition and as such so do withdrawals. Some growers go as far as adding extras.
Hey everyone. I've been reading this blog and associated comments for the past few days and its scary yet comforting how common the symptoms are. I've been a pot smoker since I was about 18 or 19 (26 now) I sat and tried to work it out but I've definitely been smoking hardcore for at least the last 5 years. I guess i've had no more than a 2 month period off in those 5 years, (usually because I couldn't get any) but in the last 3 years its been more like every day. In that time I've flunked Uni, pissed off countless people, messed up loads of relationships but had a real good time at the same time. Probably like most people, I get really withdrawn on weed and I only ever needed weed and me. Everything else was peripheral. Like I said it was a good ride but recently and probably deep down for a while I was resenting the fact I had a habit and what it was doing to my state of my mind.
I stopped at the start of February, actually quit smoking cigarettes at the same time (which after 6 years turned out to be a piece of piss!) The weed not so easy. For two weeks I went to shit, couldn't relax, all I wanted was a joint. I got the rage real bad, couldnt concentrate at work and was super depressed. It seemed like all of the bad shit I'd done was haunting me and I couldn't get more than an hours sleep. I've tried to stop before, loads of times (one time even for about 5 or 6 weeks but it was half hearted and only lasted until I found a new contact in the new city I moved too) but this time was bad news. It was the crazy dreams, not sleeping and the cravings that made me snap. So I told myself its ok to buy some and just smoke less and I would be ok....So I did....It didnt feel the same, it was almost like my mind was getting used to not having it and I was getting heavy paranoia like really heavy. Not sure if it was me psyching myself up to do it and then going back but I thought deep down I could really do it. So I gave up again.
That was 11 days ago. Now these last 11 days have been a fucking nightmare!! I have every symptom i've ever come across, paranoia, anxiety, crazy rage, panic attacks, crazy thoughts, mood swings, severe depression, cant eat, cant sleep, sweats....everything!!! The constant worst thing is like my brain is in some kind of loop. Sometimes I cant stop thinking other times I feel so spaced out i dont even know what day it is. I feel numb and most of the time I cant feel any emotion, nothing registers then BANG I want to start crying my eyes out.
I have a highly skilled job and the cracks are starting to appear, people are asking questions. I'm exhausted from the constant fight going on in my head just to feel stable, even just for 5 minutes. The crazy thing is I have pretty much no cravings and I never ever want to smoke weed again. Dunno why that is? Maybe my mind just knows i've had enough? Who knows. I dont care why. But I think stopping then starting has made things so much worse.
Sometimes it gets too much and I think i'll never be normal ever again, I was even saying to my flatmate the other day that I think i've done some serious damage but then my mind would clear and I would see its just the withdrawals. Does anyone else get in such a state that you lose sight of whats right in front of you? Its like your brain is scrambled and then decoded without warning. Like a lot of people on here, I just have this dread, this feeling that something is not right. Its scary as hell
I feel like I'm rambling and going off on one but in a way I feel kinda better for getting it all out. I just wanted to say to Dirk and everyone who has posted (I mean everyone because I've read every post!) thank you for your input because I would be going insane if no-one else was going through what I am. I really hope that my input will help someone else because people need to know this shit happens, some worse than others.
Today was a bad day....hopefully tomorrow will be better. Peace.
Michael
It will get better. Those negative tape loops in the brain are associated with depression and anxiety, the common withdrawal symptoms. If you find yourself thinking bad thoughts about yourself, seeing only the negative, try to recognize that reaction as a symptom of detox rather than any kind of genuine assessment of your state. There's this strong tendency, when battling addiction, to send yourself messages about how stupid and worthless you are. Those messages are not trustworthy when you're in heavy withdrawal.
I am grateful to have found this site. My boyfriend, I do believe, has a pot addiction. I never realized his mood swings and complete lack of sex drive might have anything to do with his pot smoking. I honestly have no idea how much he smokes; all I know is he was off pot for a month and was a completely different person: he was happy, his moods were consistent, and he was motivated. Around mid-February I noticed behavior changes again and wondered if he was smoking again. Sure enough, he said he was.
I am trying to understand all I can about pot. Not being a smoker (and not a drinker, either) I really don't understand the mood changes and the lack of sex drive (if pot even has anything to do with this). And oh, has it been extremely difficult to not take personally his moods, irritability, lack of drive (in all areas) and inability to show up for life. I love him, so I hang in there, but I don't know for how much longer. It's the loneliest kind of lonely to be with someone so disengaged in life and in relationships.
I have felt crazy for a long time now, but the more I read about people who smoke, the more it makes sense. The biggest thing I notice is that he doesn't seem to be able to quit.
"he doesn't seem to be able to quit."
One of the more reliable predictors of addiction to anything is not how much you take, or how often you take it--but the inability to consistently predict the outcome of any given episode of use. "I'm just going out for a beer and I'll be right back." "This is the last gram I'll buy this week." "I'm just gonna smoke this one roach this weekend." Etc.
Talking about it, if that's an option, can be helpful.
Dirk, I appreciate your response so much. My boyfriend says the pot helps him turn off the noise in his head (lots of looping and ruminating and negativity).
I've noticed he's a different person when he's completely off pot versus the progressive mood and behavioral changes when he begins smoking again. Yet when he's high he's carefree, fun, affectionate, almost sexual, talkative. Off it he's moody, always in a "funk," negative, asexual (though affectionate). Honest to God, I thought he wasn't attracted to me! He keeps saying, "it's not you!"
I think the fact he's done mushrooms and has had a coke issue in the past plays into this. I'm beginning to think he's used some kind of mood altering drug for a long time now. He's 45.
Talking about this is a good idea. I'm just so grateful I stumbled upon your blog!! I was looking everywhere for "real" information versus statistics. This site has been immensely helpful.
Hi everyone.
I'm a 39 years old male from Portugal. I started smoking joints (on weekends) when I was 17, until 19. Started again at 24, and in the last 10 years i've smoking basically everyday (mainly hash joints). I stopped about 3 weeks ago, because I wanted to cut the expense, and also because it was bothering me for social, legal and personal reasons. I was unaware of the withdrawal problem.
In the first 15 days I noticed sleeping problems, which i expected. Then I started to have nightmares , sweating etc, but didn't think much about it (I haven't had headaches, or stomach pain, though). Last week i became obsessed with politics and socialism, seeing the world almost as in the "1984" book. I was feeling increasingly depressed.
Last friday (27), that "1984" feeling became overwhelming. I start contemplating suicide, and that was the turning point. I tried to rationalize it, and convinced myself that I was having a mental issue, like a depression or so. I googled it, and noticed that depression is frequently associated to drug abuse. I follow that clue, typed "cannabis withdrawal", and found this site. WHAT A RELIEF!!!
I want to thank you all so much, specially Dirk of course. I read all your posts, and it gives me hope. It's so much easier when we know whats going on, and when we read other's experiences. I still smoke cigarettes (thats the stonger craving), but am preparing myself to quit that also.
I still think all drugs should be legalised; the problem isn't lack of repression, is lack of INFORMATION.
Life is beatiful, and there's a whole universe to contemplate. Focus on that :)
Mr. Hanson,
This is all very comforting to read. I started using marijuana heavily around December/January. I smoked practically everyday. I'm a college student so I was able to manage with my school (surprisingly) and smoke when I had free time. I started noticing these past few weeks that I could not remember quite a few things, could not concentrate as well as before, and I just felt pot was not a good thing for me. Now, I loved smoking it and the high it gave me, but in reality it really is NOT worth it. I'm a strong believer in God and believe I can make it through this tough time with him. After a day of not using, I felt that things would make me much more nervous than ever before. After the second or third day, I had an anxiety attack and was hyperventilating and had to be taken to the hospital. I didn't know what was going on and was told to follow up with a doctor.
I visited a doctor and they told me I had depression. They gave me some medication to take but I strongly refuse to take them because of their side effects. I have been feeling a constant nervousness, and really do not feel like doing much. I do not have insomnia, but do feel like sleeping much more often. My body feels tired more easily, fatigued I guess. My appetite has definitely gone down. I would really just like for all this to stop. I feel I cannot go on with my daily college life. With tests and assignments that are needed to be done, I feel overwhelmed. But with God's help and over time, I really hope these feelings go away. I hope that I can end this semester with good grades.
And it's not so much that I would like to smoke again, I honestly do not crave the drug anymore because of how it has affected me. I feel helpless because of the fact that only time can do it's working. But I know I've got to stay strong and think positive. This feeling I have makes me not want to do anything. I hope all this ends soon.
Hi everyone, I'm on day 7 and man has it been hard, the anxiety and that depressed feeling got stronger last few days, the only good thing is that I'm sleeping really good for some reason, i really look forward to that 1 hr just before i got to bed,why? because when i sleep i feel no anxiety,I have been trying most things people are doing to shake off that helpless feeling, they did not work for me, I am taking lots of vitamins and drinking lots of cranberry juice, Trying to detox my body, i hear it helps remove faster the thc,anyway i'm still having trouble doing the things i did when i smoked mj,and the restlessness is out of control, but this is all part of my recovery, i keep saying that to my self, i wake up and put a check on my calender marking the days with out mj,and my opinion is don't take prescription anxiety meds, they are addicting, and you will end up taking more then you should,I was on antidepressant med for 3 years and all they did was give me bad side effects and i actually felt better with out them, my depression was more tolerable, that's all for today,I can feel that anxiety coming on, its 8am and i'm trying to watch my first full move with out mj,LOVE and PEACE,until next week.
"i'm trying to watch my first full move with out mj."
-------------
Like a lot of people, you may even find that you prefer watching movies straight.
I remember talking to one guy who was convinced that if he stopped drinking and toking he wouldn't be able to engage in his favorite activities--"fighting, fishing and fucking." Turned out he was wrong.
hi all... just want to chime in and say thanks. It really helps (i just finished reading all the posts). I was a heavy smoker for 15 years every day and started getting paranoia/anxiety especially about my health the last 2 years. Every little thing I felt I thought I was going to die of cancer/AIDS/tumors. So I stopped. Well the anxiety is still there and my heart feels like its racing. I have night sweats, vivid dreams and anxiety through the roof. I will get through this. I am on Day 5 and can't wait for Day 6. I have been going to the chat room for MA online and will start seeing a therapist next week.
Keep it movin!
day 7... feel a little better... still have the nerves going but gets better day by day.
The MA chat rooms have been very helpful to me, too. I don't feel so alone...
what about smoking resin(is that how you spell it?) me and my husband have quit with the weed, but when we feel really stressed or sick we smoke some resin. does anyone know if you will also have withdrawls after smoking just resin? once we are out of the resin we expect to not get anymore weed. anyone in a similar situation?
Here is an issue I've not seen addressed here -- "how long" this edginess period lasts following quitting weed. My boyfriend of 6 years is age 33 and has smoked weed since age 14. He quit 3 months ago due to fear of being tested at work. Now, instead of his usual sweet and considerate (stoned) self, he has been such a jerk (aggressive, etc., blaming me for anything that is even minutely annoying to him). His ego is way up, he is super cocky, alert, suddenly interested in anything, wanting everything NOW. He gets mad at me when I "call him" on being a jerk, and the insecure side of me fears he will ditch me for some perceived better newer thing (?). How long will this ego stage last? My friends tell me there is nothing more annoying than an addict who recently cleaned up. Part of me wishes he would just smoke again (!) but another part of me is so relieved he is not using the stuff. One minute he seems to be looking for reasons to smoke again and asks me if he should, and another minute he is enjoying his newfound alert high. Is this cocky stage the true him? Has he just been stoned so long he has reverted back to teen stage? What is a dedicated girlfriend to do? How much is too much for me to endure? Will this ego stage pass, will he find equilibrium, and will our relationship survive? -- Louise
"My friends tell me there is nothing more annoying than an addict who recently cleaned up. Part of me wishes he would just smoke again"
--------
This is a fairly common reaction. It is both understandable and unfair. Understandable in the sense that the irritation and anger of an extended withdrawal is difficult for others. Unfair in the sense that wishing for the return of the old funny stoner guy does him no favors.
In my opinion, your best strategy is to remember (and this is really hard) not to take it personally, even when he blames you for everything. He's lashing out at whoever is nearest and dearest, and if not you, it would be someone (or everyone) else. You might remind him that YOU didn't threaten him with drug testing.
The fact that he's still suffering withdrawal symptoms weeks or months down the road is pretty good evidence that he had an addictive relationship with pot.
Dirk, thanks for your response. Everything you said makes sense. Actually everybody at his office was told they might be tested (he wasn't singled out). I will just take deep breaths and hope for the best. I will also hope this time will pass! On a similar note, another friend of mine who quit smoking could not take the "edginess" and has now been addicted to the nic gum -- for like 20 years! But, her doc said, hey, if you need to chew the gum for life, do it. It's better than inhaling the cig smoke. I don't smoke anything, so is hard to understand. I certainly don't want to encourage my boyfriend to return to smoking weed. THANKS! Any other comments are welcomed.
..."what_to_do" that was a fantastic post, so much of what you said could have come straight from me. I've experienced so much of what you wrote and I understand what you're going through.
My story is similar except after quitting for 6 weeks I smoked last week and now I can't seem to stop...I just can't get enough and I'm smoking just as much as I ever could, but like you it feels different somehow, like I know that I don't need to do this anymore. Now I've got to go through all that withdrawal and detoxing shit again, in a way I know I'm avoiding all the irritabilities associated with detoxing but it was so hard that first 1 or 2 weeks. I should have never started again after having none for 6 weeks, the longest straightest 6 weeks in years.
What I'm doing now is preparing myself for the coming withdrawal. This time around I feel a little wiser and I understand that the battle of addiction is a long one. Symptoms do fade in time but being constantly aware of the triggers that cause relapse requires vigilance and honesty.
Your line "...but then my mind would clear and I would see its just the withdrawals" is a great one to remember. I recently experienced moments when my thoughts were so scattered I couldn't think straight for 1 minute then all of a sudden, the clouds parted and sunlight struck my head and I could see exactly what was going on and exactly what I needed to do.
Getting off grass is surely one of the hardest things I've ever experienced but it is possible and can be done...and will be done...good luck stay positive
Stu
I am so glad I found this site. It has explained everything and given me hope it is a only a matter of time before I start feeling better and thinking clearer.
I'm 55 and I've been smoking pot off and on for the last 30 years. Sometimes more often than others. The last nine years every day. And since being laid off 2/2/09 several times a day.I was smoking about an ounce per month. Usually purchased 1/2 lb at a time so I only had two buys a year.
I quit last week because I ran out of pot. I have no connections anymore and I'm just not willing to take the chance of purchasing weed from a stranger. Last thing I need is to end up in jail.
At least now I know in 30-45 days I can apply for a job and not be scared to death they will ask for a urine test.
I had no idea of the withdrawl I would experience. Two days in I thought for sure I had some dreaded disease. One minute I would be freezing, the next sweating. The loss of appetite doesn't bother me because pot always helped me keep on an extra 5-10lbs from the munchies and sweet tooth.
Not sure how long it will take, but I do look forward to the day when this has all passed.
I am a 34 year old that has been smoking pot everday, every chance I got. It has only been 2 days since my last puff. I love smoking it and personally think that smoking pot is soooo much better than the legal stuff(alcohol). But... I found a pipe and a bag in my 17 year old son's pocket the other night. He said he knew I did it and he wanted to try it. I have thought about quitting before,but now,I feel I must because how can I tell my son not to do it if I do??? I have had problems sleeping and wonder what's to come. Before if I couldn't smoke I would become very irritable. So,everyone else in this boat, let's just hang in there. Thanks so much for this article.
You're most welcome.
Short-term irritability, sometimes pretty ferociously indistinguishable from anger, is such a common feature of the whole detox process for pot.
Ken Kesey used to give out the sage advice to walk slow and drink lots of water. Some days I'm hard pressed to improve upon that.
Hey everyone. I posted on this site about 2 weeks ago, around 3 weeks into stopping after 6 or 7 years. I came back on as I wanted to read a bit more about it.
A lot of the posts I've read are about people following up so thought I would have a go, hopefully to be of help but also as a release.
I'm coming up to 5 weeks after stopping and I have to say i'm still fucked up. I thought after a month I would be ok but i still feel broken. Its pissing me off because at the start I was fucked but couldn't rationalise at all. I knew it was the weed causing all the bad shit but I was convincing myself that there was something wrong with to the point thats all I could think about. What I've seen in the last week and a half is that the depression and anxiety hasn't been as constant. Its now more a feeling of unfulfillment, a bit of anger and I still have this loop playing in my head (to the point of driving me crazy although it now subsides slightly when i'm busy), however, I did have 3 days of feeling semi normal and thought I was fine and then BANG!!! Out of nowhere I was fucked again.
When my head clears I can see that its likely there is more and more weed leaving my system hence the symptoms becoming less frequent. Problem is when i'm in a serious paranoid, anxious state (still about 5 - 10 times a day, with varying durations and intensity) I keep forgetting i'm in a serious detox!!! I think everyone has different timescales, i've seen a month to 6 months but I've given up on putting a timescale on it. The crazy very real dreams i've been having, I've heard can last 6 months (not looking forward to that!!) But the symptoms are getting more sporadic but it could take me months to get back to normal.
For me those 3 days of almost normality were like a gift from above and it was like my bastard mind was taking the piss when I crashed again. Slowly but surely I'll get there. I have a craving once every few days, (even if that) so i've been lucky on that front. Guess what I want to say to everyone is PLEASE PLEASE dont give up. I wouldn't wish what i've been through and what i'm still going through on anyone but guys and girls you can get through it!!!! Just take one day at a time!! I try to imagine it like when you were a kid trying to climb a tree. It was always so hard to get to those first branches.....almost impossible.....you kept slipping and falling......but you got there in the end and you started climing onwards and upwards.......just imagine how good the view will be when you reach the top.
I will hopefully post again sometime soon as I feel so much better for posting today.
Peace, love and I hope the sun is shining on you wherever you are.
"..."what_to_do" that was a fantastic post, so much of what you said could have come straight from me. I've experienced so much of what you wrote and I understand what you're going through." Stu thanks for the kind words. I guess this site just shows how common everything we are going through actually is. I hope you are strong enough to quit again mate, I'm only hitting week 5 but you managed 6 weeks!! You will be fine, this site i'm absolutely certain will help you through it!! Keep strong man.
Michael
Hi there
What a wonderful site.
I have been smoking since I was 18 when I went to college, in the beginning it was just hash, then I as I got more money I moved on to Skunk and the occasional purple when I could get my hands on it. FOr the last 3 years though Ive moved bacj home and only had acess to regular run of the mill weed.
I decided to stop when I noticed I didnt have any motivation to do anything, my career is kind of stuck in one place and I actually hate to hear of other people soing well, probably becos I know I have not been able to achieve my potential for weed smoking. Anyway I have been quitting on and off for the last 1 year and the longest Ive gone is 2 months without it. I have had all the symptoms described by others save for the cold sweats.
The interesting thing is that after a week the symptomsn usually subside and I feel my head clearing (usually the cravings then begin).....recently I was cannabis free for about 2 months and relapsed having one hit on Friday and One hit on Saturday....by Sunday I felt I was going to kill myself. The feeling of doom and depression was so overwhelming I actually broke down and cried. My question then is why after having abtstained for a good 2 months why the bad symptoms when all I had was a 2 joints in 2 days from regular run of the mill weed?
Ive been free for almost a week now and the sadness is going away but I find myself getting so scared it will come back.
Thanks to all forsharing, the amount of info here is insane.
"My question then is why after having abtstained for a good 2 months why the bad symptoms when all I had was a 2 joints in 2 days from regular run of the mill weed?"
-------
Good question. An addicted pot smoker takes a few hits after some abstinence, and the little pilot light in the brain, representing his or her addictive propensities, turns on the furnace. You may feel good, you may feel bad, but the slip definitely got the attention of your brain. Normally, pot smokers and cigarette smokers who fall off the wagon ramp back up to their highest level of former use in a hurry, typically within 48 hours.
"Thanks to all for sharing, the amount of info here is insane."
-------
Yeah, it kind of grew like Topsy. I don't know of too many places where you can get as much concentrated information on pot withdrawal in the form of reports from the field, so to speak.
So thanks from me, as well.
First, I want to thank Dirk for this excellent forum. I have spent the last two days reading every post and am truly moved by the honesty and raw emotions expressed here.
I have smoked for 20 years, since age 14, scary just to type that really, do you ever wonder who the hell am I without being stoned??
Today is day 12 for me, and yes I feel like crap, but I also feel a great sense of discovery. When I reflect on everything and everyone I missed, I chose to miss, I want so much to show up for my life, as one person put it.
I found this amazing site after waking day 10 from one of the strangest dreams I've ever had, and in another twist, I have also started repeating dreams that I have had throughout my life. Searching, Running, Hiding, Escaping, even Flying.
As far as symptoms, the worst for me so far has been insomnia, on day nine I was awake for 28 hours, a hallucinatory experience itself.
The heart palpitations are disturbing, seem to come on mostly when I am at work. High stress job, and I have no fuse, no filter on my thoughts, I have to remind myself that I am there to provide a service, not to be popular, haha.
The temperature regulation thing is very real, I'm freezing, I'm burning , I'm sweating. Starting to get hungry once a day. Thank goodness for my green tea and vitamins, bumped up my fish oil and B vites. I'm still smoking cigs, those of you who quit both at once deserve a medal of honor, in my opinion. That's a demon I will wrestle when I feel stronger.
I want to add that I was told for years by friends and family that I was the exception that made the rule, pot was never a gateway drug for me, I was a functional addict, I met my responsibilities first, got high second. Well, this is bullshit really. I was disengaged, isolated, incomplete, preoccupied, paranoid, and selfish.
We can survive this, and I will always carry your stories , your inspiration with me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
This is an awsome report. Im strugling from a couple of symtoms myself right now!! One week in it, they are getting better but loss of appetite seems to be the worst. Depresion is kicking in but ive got the will power to beat it. In 7days i've lost 6 pounds. I used to smoke 1oz of pot per week then quit cold turkey. Anybody have any home made ideas to help my night sweats and food problem!??
Today on NPR Radio's "All Things Considered," they will run a segment about what a world with legalized marijuana might really be like, in case anybody interested. I heard the promo this morning. Thanks.
i have smoked pot for the past 5 or 6 years daily, this is probibly my first time seriously trying to kick pot,i love smoking it mostly because it puts my perception on life in a thick haze,which i loved because it blinded me from seeing how much i havn't accomplished.its been 3 days sense i lasted smoked and the withdrawls are fucking awful and overwhelming,but im determined to do something[anything] productive rather than continuing in that same old shitty cycle.having a goal has been my motivation and hearing these articles have given me a great sense of comfort knowing im not alone. thank u
Thanks Dirk for the site.
I smoked cannabis for.... to be honest I don't know anymore, I don't think it's how long you smoked just how much you needed it to function. I needed to wake in the morning and smoke before work, then I could carry out a days work, if I didn't smoke my mind was unmanagable.
I haven't smoked now for over ten months and to let everyone know I feel crap. The aniexty hasn't gone and I can not face living the house.
I have debts with the courts and they are thinking of putting me in prison so you would think that I would get of my arse and get a job, but I am so thick with fog in my head that holding a job down for longer than a few days seems impossible.
When I stop smoking I feel like I have severe depression and I believe the weed lifts it. I wish I could smoke but as in a previous post I have a son of seventeen and I worry about him smoking. I have been clean for ten months yet he still smoked two cigaretts the other night and drank a quarter bottle of vodka. I am so upset that because of this fog I can not rationalise the fact that drugs are out there. I think I'd rather he ate cannabis than smoked and drank but that day will never come, kids will always start to take drugs, we wrap them in a quilt for 16 years then we let them out into this weird world and I believe it's this that makes them take drugs, the transformation from child to adult. there dosn't seem to be any rhyme, reason or pattern to why people take drugs. there are so many kids taking them and they are rich or poor, lazy or fit, bored or fullfiled.
I wish I never started smoking weed, but I did and I am now trapped between continuing smoking or committing suicide I am begin to feel there is no other alternative.
I quit for 18 months in one of many attempts and felt the same until I become so bad I relapsed, but I just get worse and want to smoke natural weed rather than the contaminated stuff on the streets.
Thank you for read sorry I have got a good luck story for you's that are thinking to quit, but I haven't come across many successful weed quiters, so I just see doom and gloom.
I'm 35 years old, and I've been a chronic smoker for as long as I can remember. May 2nd will be 90 days marijuana free. I'm really not sure how to begin, but I'm hoping that this will help someone out there. 10 days in was tough, but the real challenge for me came around week 2. No words could describe the anxiety and depression I felt. It was unbearable. From the moment I woke up, the uneasiness began and my days were an emotional rollercoaster. After finding this site, and reading all the posts, I felt that I had really f@#@cked myself up. Some days I felt like I was getting over the hump, only to hit the wall the next day. The anxiety and hopelessness had overpowered my will to survive. Realize that our bodies are healing themselves after so many years of abuse. Although after 90 days I'm not 100%, I am feeling consistently better and able to function more. Even through the worst of it, I had to run my business and go to grad school at night. You can make it. You will get better. Sleep is important, and you need to find out what sleeping aids work best for you. Also, excercise is a must. You have to force yourself to do cardio for at least 30 minutes four days a week. It was my saving grace. Eat healthy, and don't eat late. I'm starting to realize how much quicker my mind works after quitting, and no persistent cough. I'm also realizing that most of my friendships revolved around it, and as hard as it was, I needed to develop healthier friendships that didn't tempt my urge to go back. If you're open to it, try some zen meditation techniques you can get on YouTube. Dig deep and be strong. All the best.
"and no persistent cough"
Thanks for the comments.
That persistent low-level bronchitis hack hardly ever gets mentioned here, I suspect because it's so universal as to not even merit much comment.
I am a 38 year old female who has smoked marijuana daily for about 12 years. Anywhere from 1/2-1 thru the week and 1-3 a day on the weekends. I recently tried to stop and found myself within a day smoking again. I keep telling myself I need to stop. I'm going to get caught and end up in jail. My connection went out of town for 2 weeks and I am being forced to go without. I am on day 10. The cravings have pretty much subsided but not completely. When I get bored is when it is the strongest. I have experienced the sweating, severe diarrhea, migraine headaches and sleeplessness. My health has turned for the worse in the last year and I am not working due to my illness. That is when I started smoking more heavily, got depressed, and lost around 15lbs. I wonder if all that smoking has caused my health issue and if my symptoms are from my illness or withdraw. I started having seizures last year. I would smoke to settle the nausea and to relax. I'll get to the point. Do you think the marijuana use may be the reason I started the seizures?
I'm going to keep reading these blogs. This site is the best support for me at this time. I have hidden this addiction from family for so long and it's nice to not to have to worry if someone is going to stop by and smell it and catch me. Thanks for the support and I will keep coming back.
"Do you think the marijuana use may be the reason I started the seizures?"
-------
I don't know of any evidence to suggest that is the case. Cocaine can cause seizures in healthy people, but not pot.
Calling it a "hidden addiction" is quite apt. Often, you can't even share the problem with fellow non-addicted pot smokers, who will just think you're being paranoid.
One other thought--the danger zone for all addicts when they abstain is the act of sitting there, bored, staring at the walls. Stay busy, wear yourself out with activity and exercise.
Good day my name is Joseph J Jones,I'm a 32 year ganja smoker.Now I've read a lot of the testimonies on the withdrawal symptoms.im now forty years Young started smoking at the age of eight.IM a Rastafarian so smoking is in the most a major part of my life.Now here's the catch lol,I'm in school now really trying to get my life together.Ive stopped smoking for the first time in thirty two years.I'm on week two and its living hell.Now let me explain i use to smoke between 18 to 25 joints a day,i will wake up 3am and roll a joint,first thing in the morn.ill pick up one i rolled the before i fell back to sleep,hay any one who knows me long enough call me Smokey.now Ive quit i cant eat cant sleep cant think.I get crazy night sweats insomnia dreadful pains all over my body.From the testimony I've read on this sight it was surly very useful to help me get through this struggle.I've always said i wasn't addicted,but i was only lying to myself.yes weed is addicting so if u do use it wisely please.
I have been smoking pot since I was 17, I am now 34, happily married with a child. I smoked at least once a day, up to 4 joints a day by myself. I stopped smoking a week ago because I needed a job, I need the clarity of mind and because of the posibility of a drug test but I am completly miserable, to calm me down I turned to beer which takes the edge off but does not satisfies. I know that I need to get clean for once because I am getting older and I am becoming the sandwich generation with older parents to take care of and my child; some people know me only high (some will be surprised ofmy use if I told them) and I wonder if I would be a different person sober. It is not in my heart to stop, I am always dreaming of using, I wake up in sweats and search the whole house for a roach sometimes when I am desperate but at the same time I feel proud that I have not called my dealer or visited my using friends, this time I might as well do it. I am a naturally anxious person, if my parents would have taken me to the psychologist when I was a child he might have put me in ritalin or something like it, pot calmed me down and allowed me to relax and think and I always thought that it is better that using the legal drugs, I wish it was legal but it's not.MLK
Thanks for posting,Joseph.
And thanks for documenting your level of intake--a lot of people I talk to don't seem to believe that some tokers really smoke that much per day, and it's useful for people to know it's true.
Searching the whole house for a roach hardly puts you in a class by yourself. I would venture to guess that almost everyone who posts here has done it, or something like it.
Sometimes I've heard people say,"I thought I was out, but then I found this stash I'd forgotten about..." That kind of thing rarely happens to serious smokers.
Ok. I'm not anonymous. I just posted the, "I'm 38 year's old note." My name is Laura and I have searched the house for even a fragment around day 3. Today for some reason I have been contiplating of who might stop by or where I might stop by just to get 1-2 tokes. But I think to myself, I have made it this long, why fall off the wagon now. It's Saturday night. I'm feeling crappy. I'm trying to stay busy but my body just won't let me. So I'm trying to keep my brain occupied. And honestly, my worst craving is at night. I was mostly a midnight toker and I hope I make it thru the weekend. :o[ If I do, my mom lives in Florida and just called and offered to have me come down for a week for my birthday. Timing couldn't be better. No access and around family, I don't even think about it. If I can make it thru this week and go there for a week that will make it around 3 weeks of not smoking. Hopefully out of the craving zone. What do you think?
I think that if you are headed for a situation where you don't or can't smoke, like family visits or certain vacations and travel,it takes the short-term panic out of the equation for a bit. It's not a solution but it might help.
Hello all, my name is Brad. I am 23years old and had smoked pot for about 7 years (since age 16)on a pretty regular basis.
This blog has probably been the most helpful in that I have been researching this topic since it has affected me. I want to thank Dirk and everyone else for sharing their stories.
I stopped smoking exactly 2 months ago today becasue about 3 months ago I had a bad reaction to marijuana out of the blue and left me in a panic attack (I never had to go to the hospital although I felt like I wanted to). I have never ever been prone to anxiety at all in my past and have been such an extremely confident person. I have never ever felt this awful in all of my days!!! I loved to smoke weed and it really relaxed me all the time, from morning to night. I was able to hold down jobs for years and am about to graduate from an Ivy League University. After my first panic attack I didn't even attribute it to pot, I just thought I was getting really sick, or something was wrong with me. I went to the doctors office for an appointm,ent and ran a bunch of tests, all were negative. The next day I tried smoking and felt a bit off... but no panic. I waited it out for a few days and decided to smoke again and then started to feel crappy. I decided to quit for another 2 weeks until I got to Arizona for spring break. I smoked while in Arizona and had a pretty horrible panic attack and have not smoked since (that was exactly 2 months ago). Since quitting for good I have experienced some prety awful anxiety and loss of appatite for the next few weeks. I do feel like things are getting much better but I am mainly concerned that I will never fully get back to my old confident fun loving self.
Since quitting I have slowly slowly started to feel a bit more confident and willing to do everyday activities that I ujsed to do. I didn't really feel like leaving the house when it first began but I am fnding myself wanting and willing to go out and do more things as time goes on.
I feel the severity and frequency of the anxiety has gone down dramatically over time but when it hits, I get the sensation that these spells will never go away and is something I will have to deal with forever and leaves me a tad bit worried when I will start feeling anxious again.
About 3 or 4 weeks in I started to feel close to normal for about a week and thought that the worse was over, then it started to flare back up again but not as severe as the first couple weeks and has slowly started to dissipate again. The past week really has not been too awful and things are slowly becoming more manageable and good days are starting to become more and more.
I can honestly say that there is nothing to really feel anxious about in my life but I still feel anxious from time to time and feel a bit derealized. The only thing I can really attritubte feeling anxious about is the absence of weed in my life. I am trying to stay as tough as I can and push through this phase of my life.
Sometimes when I seek for answers, I try to realize if I had underlying anxiety while was smoking all those years, but I really do not think this is the case. I have always kept my head up even in the most stressful times at school and life in general, if there was a problem to solve I was there doing it without any nervous feelings.
I guess I am just a little scared still that I will never fully recover from my addiction to pot, although things seem to be improving every week, there is always a doubt in the back of my mind that I will be like this forever!
Just as a side note... in the early weeks I was prescribed ativan from my doctor, I took it for little over a week and found that I didn't need or want to take it again. I felt like I can beat this on my own.
I guess I just have to continue to be patient with myself as I have been for the past couple months and I need to stay positive that this all will pass. For anyone else going through this hell, just know that things will get better and more manageable over time and to stay focused on getting better, do not let this thing define you and run your life.
I am open to any suggestions and other similar stories.
-Brad
Hello Dirk Hanson,
Iam a 38 heavy chronic pot smoker whois in day 2 of going clean, I would like to ask your opinion on something, first off does any type of herbal detox kits help with getting rid of these toxins in our body, also thc finds itself attached to fat cells that can be stored and bring up cravings months down the road, is this true.
So could a person sweat out toxins and also burn the fat threw exercise and help curb the cravings?and take a body detox...or am I screewdand in for a hell of a ride threw recovery...I smoked a 1/4 lb a month for 20 years...its not going to be pretty.
thanks for your valuable time
Dwayne
I know of several people, regular smokers for years, who suddenly fond that pot induced episodes of extreme anxiety. These seem to come out of the blue. They quit toking, and the problem went away. These people had never had any problems before. It's extremely puzzling, and I've never heard any explanation offered for it.
"I am mainly concerned that I will never fully get back to my old confident fun loving self. "
EVERY addicted individual who quits using ANY addictive drug, including alcohol, goes through a period of feeling this way. Not only is it untrue, it was possibly never true--I mean that what we often remember are the good times. The times you smoked pot and were NOT your old confident fun loving self don't get remembered as easily.
You're right, it's probably not gonna be pretty, but forewarned is forearmed. I don't know if herbal detox kits speed things up or not, but there is definitely some evidence that exercise does.
THC is stored in fat cells for a long time, as you say. Whether that plays a role in cravings down the road, I can't say. I do know that alcoholics and coke heads and other people addicted to fast-acting, fast-clearing drugs are not protected against occasional cravings down the road.
Thanks a bunch Dirk... Your words are encouraging. I really do think that we tend to remember the good stuff and forget about the bad. there are definately times where you don't feel your best but everyone on the globe has days like that, it is just normal. I have not had any panic attacks since that week in Arizona about 2 months ago (thank God). My anxiety and derealization are diminishing over time with some increased spells in between but I really believe the nastiest stuff is past. I guess now I just feel more nervousness/low grade anxiety than anything throughout the day. I find myself becoming more confident about future events and not being so nervous about them (i.e. starting a new job in a few weeksm graduating college and other summer functions) as I was in the first weeks when I first quit pot. I just hope that this all goes away in the next coming weeks. It surely makes me feel better knowing that I am not the only one going through this stuff. Anyone else take a few months to fully get back to normal? I will post back in the next week to update on the progress. Thanks!
-Brad
thanks Mr Hanson, I guess armed with as much strenght, being a detox kit or excercise and any other useful tool, to aid in the power of thought to combat this recovery would definetly help. I would also like to say I appreciate your input and site you have shared with many recovering addicts, god bless you all.
ive been smoking weed for about 8 years but only excessively for the past 4 years. i quit two months ago. then i started again last week. now ive quit again. i want to smoke responsibly but it doesnt work. i always end up going over the top again.1 - 2 grams a day. it gives me crazy paranoia which only goes away when i quit. then aweek or two later i always start again as soon as i start to feel like myself again
"i want to smoke responsibly but it doesnt work"
You can substitute "drink" or "snort" or "shoot" for "smoke" in the above sentence, and by doing so get a rough idea of what every addict has to go through--proving to himself or herself that the responsible use of the drug is not in option.
If it were possible for an addict to go back to responsible drug use of the addictive drug in question, everybody would know it, and everybody would do it.
I am 43 years old and have been smoking daily since I was 18 - that's 25 years. In recent years I have been mainly smoking skunk which is far, far stronger than the hash I started using when I was 18. That's progress for you!
Anyway, I have stopped for 15 days and have been suffering from the usual withdrawal symptoms - anger, irritability, lack of appetite, intense dreaming. However, I have been able to sleep quite well and I put this down to breathing exercises I do about 30 minutes before I try sleeping. I just sit in a room on my own and follow my breathe as it goes into my nose. It is really relaxing and makes me feel much calmer before going to bed. I am sure this helps me sleep better although some of my intense dreams are strong enough to wake me up.
I am definitely feeling better now than I have been and I am really hoping I am over the worst although some days (like today) I feel OK and other days I feel lousy - really tired and ragged.
I also wanted to say that this has been a really useful site as it really means a lot to me that others are also experiencing what I am even though this can be hellish at times.
There is a marvelous power in discovering you are not alone in this. That is the motive force behind groups like AA.
We haven't discussed relaxation and breathing exercises for sleep problems as much as we should. Pranayama, a yogic breathing exercise (in one nostril, out the other) also has a calming effect for many people.
I smoked weed for 8 years and i dropped it with no problem I think that maybe the weed just hid problems that ya'll had already and when you quit it brought them back up the only withdrawls i had was I didn't get the Munches witch helppee me lose wieght I slept 8 hours instead of 14 I worked harder because pot did not make me lazy I think pot withdrawls are BS and the same 10 percent the claim to have pot withdrawls are the same 10 percent the belive aliens took them to see elvis.
It is important to remember that everyone is reacts differently to smoking and marijuana withdrawal are REAL, no so much physically, but mentally. Another important thing to remember is that it sometimes becomes a big part of who you are (it's a mental addiction for cripes sake) and the way you deal with things in life. When you do not have that sense of normalcy (smoking marijuana) in your life and when you have no choice but to quit, your mental patterns can be severly thrown off, as it did for myself. So withdrawals are real to an extent and i think you are being a little insensitive when your talking about the 10 percent getting abducted by aliens... that can't be further from the truth. It has been a little over 2 months, and after 7 years of smoking daily, it was a part of my life and triggered some pretty harsh anxiety when I did quit, but as the days go by I am feeling more and more like myself and developing a new sense of normalcy and WILL even out fully. I am getting on with life without pot but it just took me some time, I never had any underlying anxiety and never was self medicating myself, I just really enjoyed being stoned. I am a bright 23 year old male who is about to graduate from and Ivy League University and seem to know my way around things pretty well. Now as I look back, school was also an added stressor that made my abstinence from marijuana a bit harder than most would go through. The fact that you say withdrawals are BS is really ignorant as you have never had to deal with it. When you are dealing with others who are, like the many people on this site, try to be a little more sensitive. With all do respect,everyone is not as lucky as you when kicking a HABIT like pot. Thanks.
-Brad
Hello again, it's Brad... as I promised, I wanted to report back after a week or so since my last post. The past week was really pretty good for me and have been experiencing minimal anxiety with a couple "burps" here and there. I feel like it is getting better but still such a slow process and I am beginning to feel like my old self again. I am more excited to get out and do things and much prefer it to just sitting around the house waiting to get better. I guess I am just still nervous and scared that marijuana has really F'd me up permanently and will have to deal with low grade anxiety forever when I had no prior anxiety in my life until I came down with a panic attack and quit pot.
Although I have made a lot progress, my optomistic side believes this will go away and I must continue to be patient. It has been 2 months and 3 days since my last toke.
The past few days have been pretty good though with feeling more normal and more like myself. Today I had a very small setback though, which doesn't really bother me too much, but enough to feel annoyed about being nervous. I guess this has been the course of action though throughout my 2 months of recovery, a good day here.... a stretch of semi-bad days, then a few more good days in a row, then a small setback again and so forth with more good days beginning to outweigh the bad. I know that the worst is long gone, but I just feel skeptical if a full blown recovery, as I said above, is possible.
Altough I am feeling much better, I would like any support to keep my recovery moving forward. Any is greatly appreciated, past experiences, etc.
Thanks!
-Brad
This comment is for Brad, who's been clean for 2 months and 3 days: ROCK ON!! Hooray for you!! I can tell you from my own personal experience that the good days WILL begin to outweigh the bad, and the more you can put your focus on gratitude (even if you don't _feel_ grateful) the better you'll feel. From someone who's had serious bouts of depression and anxiety in her life (hospitalized for it three times when I was in my 20's) I can tell you the gratitude thing works. And for me, if something doesn't work I ain't doin' it.
I think it's marvelous that you're getting out of the house to keep your focus on recovery. It will get better.
Gosh, I left a relationship recently because the man I loved just wouldn't/couldn't quit smoking. I don't think he though it affected us all that much but from everything I read on this site, it did. He was depressed, anxious, lethargic, unproductive, disengaged. And I thought it was me.
So keep on keepin' on, Brad!
Thank you so much for your comment! This is Brad again and I am glad to hear you have recovered from your dilemma with depression and anxiety as it can seriously affect your life. I will continue to smile upon my accomplishment of staying clean and realize that these symptoms have a nasty cycle, thats it!
What I believe is that I have just been scared that I will fall into a panic attack again, but I know those are long gone and never to return again, as long as I don't smoke.
I just need to realize that I have only been having anxiety because I was scared that they will come back, along with going day to day actually dealing with my problems on a constructive basis without marijuana.
Since I never even knew what anxiety really was in the past(because I never felt it before), prior to my first panic attack (a few months ago), my mind will retrain itself back into that old mode of thinking. I believe that things are going to be fine and things will continue to improve until a sense of complete normalcy is acheived once again. I just need to think of the times in the past when I wasn't always evaluating how I was feeling and just not to worry so much. The new normal will be so much better than the old normal for sure, I just need to take my time and not rush it!!!
I need to keep the optimism alive and just continue to stay positive and outgoing like I always used to be. Things will get better.
I will keep on the posting in the coming weeks. Keep this post alive people, this is really good stuff!!!
-Brad
Brad wrote: "I just need to think of the times in the past when I wasn't always evaluating how I was feeling and just not to worry so much."
One of the things involved in habituating to a new brain state is getting past the stage of constant evaluation: Do I feel better today than yesterday? Worse than this morning? How will I feel tomorrow?
For example, suffer from extreme tinnitus, ringing and roaring noises in the ear. When it first happened, as the result of an inner ear disorder, I would go into a quiet room every hour and listen fearfully to the new noise in my head and try to decide if it was better or worse than the last time I listened, or yesterday, or last week, and what will it be like tomorrow, and so on. But with time the necessity to do that fades, and you attend to it less, and just basically go about your business.
Hello all, it's Brad again... I thought I would post again although I said I would wait a week.
I have been having a string of bad days starting about 2 days ago consisting of anxiousness/cloudy head. I have been off marijuana for about 2 months and 5 days. I figured since my last final exam was thursday and I will be graduating college next week, I would have been super delighted and at ease. Granted, these feeling are not as bad as they first were in my first couple weeks of absinence, it is just extremely uncomfrotable since I thought I was almost out of the woods with these mental things.
I guess I am just feeling anxious because all of my college mates are gone away for their summer vacations and my girl friend will be working double shifts for the next couple days. My job does not start for another 12 days. I am kinda just stuck in the house with nothing to do. I have two pet ferrets that Ilike to play with and a bunch of movies I have seen so many times. I know being bored with no plans was probably the trigger for my restless thoughts, but I guess in the past, I would just be lighting up right now, and that would keep my mind entertained, nothing I liked more than to smoke marijuana and lay around the house (as I am sure many other users would agree).
I know other people have gone through this and took months to overcome after addiction, but it is just so discouraging and I am trying my best not to beat myself up about it... I have been to the doctors in the past and I am completely healthy and glad about it... but with no history of anxiety disorder in the family or in my entire lifetime up to now, I suspect that maybe I developed some sort of generalized anxiety disorder from smoking marijuana, I just find that hard to believe.
I have been seeing a therapist over the duration of me quiting too and although she offers some good advice, it is not helping as much as I would like it to. She is adding to my doubts by saying "Brad, I don't know if you will ever make a full recovery and it is hard to say, and if you don't, I don't believe you will go crazy". This is making me very depressed and nervous. I am also strongly against medication.
I feel like I still want to smoke pot and relax but I know it will lead me back into states of panic, which is why I quit in the first place. I will probably always have the distant feeling of wanting to smoke as long as I am alive due to my past addiciton to it.
I just don't know, I am trying my hardest to stay positive about making a full recovery, but these spats of bad days do a real number on my confidence level, which seems to keep me in the state I am in.
For now, I am trying to practice meditation and hopefully it will help this process along and heal my mind and thoughts. I will go out for bike rides when the weather is nice for excercise and I will play with my fuzzies to keep my mind as busy as possible.
Hopefully I will start to have a string of good days come along again. I would like to hear more of others stories and similar experiences as to what others were going through. This seems like such a rollercoaster rise to recovery. Thanks and God bless.
-Brad
Someone told me a long time ago, when I could not sit down or stop pacing the floor because I thought my head would pop off if I stopped, to "make peace with the pit."
Make peace with the pit in your gut, make friends with the loneliness and discomfort and anxiety in your stomach. Once you stop resisting and say, "Okay, I'm anxious. So what? I don't know how long I'm gonna feel this way, but I don't have to DO anything about it except resist nothing and do the next right thing."
Somehow, honoring the fact I feel like shit and it's okay that I feel like shit somehow helps dissipate the dense energy in my body.
You're used to lighting up to medicate your feelings so now you're feeling your feelings. ALL of them, including anxiety and depression.
Be gentle on yourself, Brad. The anxiety will pass and it will get better.
I do find that if I can watch something funny, laughter breaks up the dense energy in my gut.
"Somehow, honoring the fact I feel like shit and it's okay that I feel like shit somehow helps dissipate the dense energy in my body."
Well said.
Reading this article, and all of the comments from other people struggling with the same insomnia, depression, and anxiety that I am feeling has helped me very much. I only smoked for about a year, immediately following a tragic death in the family, but within a month had become a daily smoker to numb the emotional pain. I kept saying I would stop but instead found myself increasing how many times a day I smoked. I finally stopped cold turkey two weeks ago and now feel relieved that what I am experiencing is normal and that I will make it through. Thank you.
Hey it's Brad.
Thanks for the post... I think that was some good advice and it is what my therapist has been trying to pound into my head, and yes it does make sense. I just need to be accepting of the fact that it is here and now and stop trying to resist it, because it seems like it only keeps it around longer.
I think that might be anxiety's weak spot, is to become its 'friend' and be 'accepting' it.
I realize that since I have been toking for years, I always ignored or escaped everyday stress and anxiety that EVERY HUMAN BEING feels!!! I never self medicated but it was a habit and it was fun!!! I never really realized that this is what I was really doing to myself.
Since I am no longer smoking, life has felt like tidal waves crashing over me and through time those waves have gotten a bit smaller. I just need to relearn and find more constructive ways to cope with that everyday stress, just like EVERYBODY else does. I do believe that I am not an anxious person by nature and I just need to let my brain do a bit of tweaking itself and get it back on track. I'm sure all of this foggy-ness and excess anxiousness will rid itself in time.
Anyways, just got from a bike ride around Cornell University campus and it was lovely, quite a nice day outside this afternoon. It was great to get some excercise and get out of the dang house too.
I will keep posting in the next few days as it seems very nice to write and get out what I am feeling. it may (or may not) speed up my healing process, but it is worth a shot.
-Brad
I started smoking 4 years ago in college and it just snowballed. The ride was enjoyable and it didn't really derail my life (I ran track and graduated with a 3.1), although it did hold me back at times - THC makes it oh so easy to do nothing. Well last summer I stopped in order to pass the UA tests for a prospective job. Quitting for 2 months was a piece of cake, so I started again and with increased frequency until I lost my hookup. This time I was out of weed for only a month, but I was irritable, I had intense cravings, and I felt lost. Now here I am today, having "quit" a third time, but finally of my own volition. It's been 2 weeks since I vaporized my last bowl, and since then I've gotten so desperate I've been smoking resin. Last night I used rubbing alcohol to get the resin out of my bong and smoked the resin after the alcohol evaporated. It tasted awful and barely got me high, but tonight I did it again, and I was so impatient that I put the resin-alcohol solution in the oven to help it evaporate! This is how desperate I've become - I've risked burning down my house in order to get marginally high. Anyway, thank you for reassuring me that it's not all in my head, that I'm not being "weak," that there is an actual chemical process behind what I'm feeling. I just can't wait to get over it, because I don't want to need weed anymore.
Hi I am from Australia and have been reading all your posts, i have a question I am 33 years old a female and have smoked for 13 years was wondering if any one has suffered reflux while they have stopped smoking the Dr said it is the anxiety and I am pretty pissed off because I know I have a gastro problem you cant invent what I have got please give any feedback. Cheers :)
I stopped smoking pot 24 days ago after smoking for 20 years. I don't miss it & I certainly don't miss the disgusting bong I smoked from but the insomnia is hard to deal with. I'm taking Zanax or Valium to sleep when it gets really bad as I'm only sleeping 2 - 3 hrs a nite. I've stopped before but always started again due to not sleeping.It's not going to get the better of me this time. I will beat this & I will never use drugs again. Be strong everyone.
I'm 20 and at college i smoke everyday without fail (not something to brag about or something to be ashamed of i just do). I can get through the day with out it but when i get back from class (accidentally almost wrote glass- *paging Dr. Freud) i blaze. the problem is that there is no problem. i'm totally functional. I can do everything i need to do and everything i want to do socially academically etc. Not really physically though. i used a vapor genie for 6 months which is fine but at the end of the day you want a bong or a joint. something about fire. just gets you higher. Thing is i never get stoned anymore. even when i tried holding out for a week i only got higher the first smoke. by the second smoke it was just like a week before. thats really depressing. my boy in LA will throw 10 gs into a rice crispie treat and he just looks stoned. I love and hate this drug- mostly love though lets get serious.
Anyways i decided to quit for the summer and get back into fighting condition and give my lungs a break. If my lungs could talk theyd be like duuuude wtf?? (my lungs are stoners too). So for me the biggest problem with quitting is night time. I feel off balance and ill at ease. I miss stoned sleep. I used to pass out really really fast now i have to watch sleep hypnosis vids on youtube (theyre awesome btw) Also my dreams are sooo real now and there are tons of them every night. I just want to get some rest not enter a box car derby with patrick bateman and my second grade teacher.
Anyone figured out a remedy for the incessant dreaming? Its getting tiresome. ironic choice of words but it really really is.
i am 19 and have been a heavy pot smoker for about 10-12 months. I had smoked pot on occasion before that (my first time being when i was 16.) I quit smoking for three days and have experienced intense withdrawal symptoms. Now this surprised me considering I have not been smoking heavily for too long, although when i say heavy use i mean it. I basically stayed high all day until I went to bed(10 months of this). My worst withdrawal symptom is extreme night sweats, but the symptoms are not limited to this as I also experience the "flu like symptoms", some anxiety, and loss of appetite. My question was is it possible to be this addicted after only 10 months? I am going to continue smoking but try and lessen the use. Is this strategy effective or should i try to quit cold turkey? I would appreciate any response...peace
Most heavy smokers find it difficult to just cut down a bit. Whether you've been a recreational toker on a binge or a cannabis addict in the making is not for me to say, esp. since you're young. A certain amount of drug and alcohol excess is the norm in your age group, anyway, so always hard to sort things out definitively.
Anyway, I've never heard of a cure for the night sweats, which are often the first symptoms during abstinence that something is amiss.
I recently wrote an article for Brain Blogger about pot withdrawal. (http://brainblogger.com/2009/05/19/clearing-the-haze-is-marijuana-addictive/).
Among the comments was one which suggested that, yes, the symptoms were real, but what about severity? Is it really any more uncomfortable than the symptoms of, say, going without coffee? That's why I was happy to see a recent post about scraping pipes for resin and smoking black goo, etc. That hasn't been discussed much here, but I bet a lot of people would plead guilty to similar looking-for-the-crack-rock style of behavior at times. Trying to turn up one last forgotten roach somewhere...
Hi. I'm on day 5. I started smoking & it helped the days go by when I worked so much, just trying to survive. I wasn't happy & it made me so happy. Then my life
changed & I was happy, but I was already addicted, so I still smoked and loved it, my best friend. My 1st date w/ my husband, I let him know I smoked. We moved into a new house
2 yrs ago & I was excited b/c I thought I might be able to make friends w/ the neighbors. My smoking completely held me back. I smoked everyday all
day for 10 years- pretty much from the first time I tried it on. Over time what smoking did for me changed & evolved in a way. I started feeling like everything was hard. I was totally changing & didn't feel like myself anymore- I still liked some things but everything felt different. My confidence was gone. Same goes with socailizing- maybe kind of paranoid. I didn't want to be around people I didn't know, & then I didn't want to really be around anyone that didn't live in my house- not my mom or my brothers & sisters- or even my grandpa who is 81 that I love more than anything.
on to quitting- day 1: didn't really move from bed, sweaty, irritable, I tried to keep my stress to a minimum. I could express myself a little more clearly by that afternoon I felt. Day 2: still sweaty that afternoon I had my first hard craving because my husband & I were going to go out to eat &I loved to smoke before a good steak dinner (& any
other time). I got my stuff out & packed a battie & held it for a long time & finally took one drag and put it away. I then had my husband hide it. I had
no appetite, so w/ that battie I was able to eat dinner. Watched a movie that night & at one point someone was smoking in it. Ugh. Day 3: still sweaty when doing anything, like switching loads of laundry. Took 1/4 of a .5 mg xanax during the afternoon when I felt a stronger craving than the constant craving that has been there the whole time. Didn't really like how I felt but watched
tv, which I hadn't really been interested in for a long time. Have taken 1 tylenol pm each night before bed. The pm part of it is benadryl. Day 4:sweats have pretty much disappated. High level of irritablilty as the day progressed, tried to destract myself by playing brain games on the computer & took some
tylenol for a bad headache in the afternoon. Still felt pretty low. Once I got the kids in bed, I wanted to take a shower but I didn't really feel like doing anything. I sat back down at the computer but I got a feeling of total body stress & started sweating all over & felt very hot. I got off the computer & went and sat down next to my husband where I started crying hard & REALLY wanted to smoke. It was my normal routine once the kids went to bed- head to the bathroom, get my box and watch CNN to relax. I cried for a long time. Once the crying stopped, I slowly forced myself to take my shower and I felt a little better & proud of myself
for not giving in. It definately made me feel a little stronger that I was able to get through the craving without giving in. Today is Day 5: my stomach has felt terrible(weak, nausea kind of) all day & I didn't sleep very well last night- but that meant I didn't watch an 8 hour movie in my head like the other nights- only like 2 hours instead. That is really what my dreams have felt like for the past week. Thankfully no nightmares so far, but very vivid & I could tell you details for hours. Also low level
flu feeling & I think I've had a fever quite a bit. It feels so good to have feelings that I can actually put on paper so to speak. Thank you so much for this article Dirk. Over the past 5 days I have read all 472 posts before adding mine & I agree with others that it helps to read that others have & are going through the same things. The post about acknowledging & congratulating yourself has helped me along w/ anyone that said don't give up. I always wished that it would be legalized, but now I am kind of glad it isn't & I don't know if that is selfish or not. I know how easy it would be for me to start again, but I really want to be myself &
eventually shine like I know everyone here has the potental to! I will say don't give up too, b/c I think you can't hear it enough! After typing all of this, I accidently hit the back button- I thought I had erased the whole thing and that made me start to sweat pretty fast but I clicked
forward & AMAZINGLY it was still here! Good luck to everyone and I will update soon. I felt like I must contribute and maybe my post will help someone else.
Hi Dirk, the post you're referring to about resin was probably mine (May 21, 2009 8:52 PM). It's been a week now and I haven't had any objective signs of withdrawal, just symptoms like irritability and situational cravings. Being a pothead is a lifestyle, and changing any lifestyle is tough if it's all you've known for years. Although I binge drank and used cocaine in college, these never became an ongoing problem because they never seemed like a sustainable lifestyle to me - I never did them daily. Marijuana, on the other hand, did seem innocuous and healthy enough (if vaporized) to use and abuse day after day. Also, the plant also had a sort of spiritual significance to me - it was more than a cheap buzz. So Dirk, I know you've built a solid case here that marijuana is addictive based on the flood of anecdotes that people like myself have divulged, but I do think there is something to be said for self-discipline and personal responsibility. I was never trapped by marijuana; I willingly used it as an escape because I didn't want to do anything else. I've always been a pretty apathetic person and marijuana made apathy tolerable. I'm just saying, it might be a mistake to demonize marijuana because it risks convincing abusers that they are powerless victims. I was not a powerless victim. I chose to smoke every day, and now I have to face the consequences. Let me know what you think of that rant.
"Let me know what you think of that rant."
I don't try to demonize marijuana, or any other drug for that matter, since MOST people manage to use MOST drugs casually or recreationally or responsibly or however you want to say it. Well, sometimes I have a tendency to demonize alcohol, but I try not to, and in fact I am in favor of marijuana legalization.
Let me put it this way: I love cigarettes. I think they're wonderful. Loved every cigarette I ever smoked. But with the help of a lot of things, including self-discipline and personal responsibility, I managed to quit nicotine after 23 years of cigarette smoking. But I don't demonize the nicotine molecule. It's just a chemical. It's not like it was out to do me harm
Most pot smokers who think they're "addicted" have been greatly misinformed, mislead by anti-drug idiots, and misunderstand their "symptoms". Severe symptoms such as some describe are simply IMPOSSIBLE. They must have been sick in some other unrelated way, which caused those things.
Medical science PROVES that Marijuana does not create chemical dependence in it's users. It simply does not possess that property.
But because it is an enjoyable thing to do, people get mentally attached to it... THIS IS NOT ADDICTION. Our modern use of the word addiction is completely screwed up and overly broad.
The biggest problems/side-effects one might get from quitting Marijuana, is a little harder time getting to sleep for a few weeks after quitting... And some extra boredom for a while... Or a bit of short-lived depression.
These side effects are NOTHING compared to real-hard-drug chemical dependence, which can KILL YOU when you quit.
The fools who claim to have smoked pounds a month are either lying, or have MAJOR problems/addictive personalities. Normal Marijuana users NEVER use as much as the few addicts out there who can't control themselves. That is not caused by Marijuana, but rather the personal problems of the individual.
To compare Marijuana to the chemical withdrawal of hard drugs, is just absurd.
Hi Dirk, thanks for the response; I couldn't agree with you more. I guess I'm just afraid that some people will seize on this and use it to demonize the plant. As for the above commenter; get a grip. As a guy with a chem degree and a basic understanding of scientific method, I know there's no way to PROVE any substance doesn't have certain chemical effects on certain individuals. Yes, perhaps some people here have conflated outside illness with withdrawal effects. Yes, perhaps these "withdrawal" symptoms are just psychosomatic. I'm pro-legalization like you probably are, but please don't speak with authority you don't have, and don't be so rude/dismissive.
"I guess I'm just afraid that some people will seize on this and use it to demonize the plant."
-----
Me too. It's certainly a risk I considered when I started this blog. Me and Barry McCaffrey and Bill Bennett all lecturing about the evils of shooting pot or something.
But the truth is the truth, some people do get addicted to or dependent upon cannabis, and they suffer vivid and verifiable withdrawal symptoms when they quit. I can't help it, that's the way it is.
I guess I was banking on people being able to rise above simply shooting the messenger, and as anyone who reads the comments here can see, that is mostly how it has turned out. Contributors here have created a really valuable collection of data about an interesting and important pharmacological syndrome.
First I would like to give a "big" thanks to Dirk for starting and monitoring this sight. As you can tell from the comments there is a great sense of relief to know you are not alone or losing your mind. I have been running on this "tread mill" for far to long, denial has played a big part of that. All the withdraw symptoms are there and yet it is hard to admit the reality of the cause. I think first and forth most we all need to acknowledge that this IS NOT the same weed we use to smoke, the game has changed. I smoked a lot in my 20's and came across the occasional "high test" weed but for the most part it was regular pot that was smoked. When I quit for over 10 years I never experienced any of the symptoms I feel now. Now, pot has become so advanced in potency, that I am convinced it has become very addictive and obviously by what's being posted, much harder to walk away from. Having tried to quit numerous times (I'm determined to gut it out this time for sure)my advice is to not be lulled back in after you begin to feel better. I believe that is when you are most vulnerable to relapse. You need to remind yourself just how terrible you felt during the peak of your withdraw period. Thanks again for your site and your efforts.
Other than email communication, I have never posted a comment of any type before in my life. I am moved to do so tonight out of gratitude for this most excellent site. Today marks 8 long and difficult weeks since I stopped smoking - both cigarettes and pot. Although I was not a heavy cigarette smoker (5-7/day), it was regular. I have been a pot smoker since I was in college and that was quite some time ago. Except for the 10 years when I was either pregnant or nursing my babies, (and all three are now grown) I have been a smoking pot. Marijuana has been an integral part of my social life and the culture within which I live. I have had occasion to quit in the past, mostly for drug tests for the work that I do, but never found it very difficult. I suffered a few sleep deprived nights, then was just fine. I always returned as soon as it was 'safe' to do so as getting stoned was my way of relaxing, my definition of 'having fun', great as an accompaniment to almost anything (except I never liked to meet new folks when I was high, too much paranoia).
HOWEVER, for the last couple of years I have been smoking a quality of marijuana, grown by my own family in our own yard with a license that states we can legally do so, that is entirely different from anything that I smoked regularly in my past life. The recently posted comment about the change in the quality of the substance now available is, I feel hugely relevant. The quality is powerful, very, very strong. Smoking such weed every day...even though it was a small amount has proved a very difficult habit to break for me.
I know that my challenge is multiplied because I chose to quit both habits at one time, but I have read so much on this site that has been true for me that I felt moved to contribute my 'two cents'. I have had an exceedingly difficult time with sleeplessness, night sweats, negative self-talk, depression, anxiety, tearfulness, and mood swings. I feel that I am emerging (I desperately hope so), but it is definitely an up and down thing for me. The lack of sleep compounds the situation as I am a gal who needs my sleep to function well. On the bright side, when I do feel rested, I have very lucid periods, I experience dramatic clarity of thought and my energy is generally ten fold what has been my norm for some years. I might be naive, but I really do not think I wil be tempted to smoke for a very long time, if ever. I am, to be honest, scared shitless to go through what I am going through again. I am experiencing a kind of grief, on top of everything else, for a life lost. Needless to say, my change of habit is creating a fair amount of havoc in my home and I am hoping that my partner and I make it through. It is very difficult for him not to feel judged/awkward/lonely/abandoned...you name it, now that I have changed habits and he has not. We are struggling to establish a new rapport without the help of our old companion...for me, anyway.
Thank you to you all for sharing your stories! I have tried to talk with my family/peers/friends about what I am going through, but mostly they are all too invested in the marijuana culture to want to discuss it with me. You have been my community and my guides for the last couple of months. I am not at all certain I would have made it without you. Each and every one of you...even the nay-sayers who think we are silly heads and are making it all up. I appreciate the time and energy you have taken to share your stories and to read a bit about me. Warm and encouraging wishes to us all. Thank you, Dirk. I needed you!
And thanks to you for sharing your story. When you see the way similar symptoms line up for people, it gets harder and harder to deny what's going on.
I was struck by two of your comments. First, your mention of "negative self-talk" and a feeling of grief. I have listened to potheads in withdrawal telling me soberly about how bad things are and how they will only get worse and worse until everyone will finally realize the true horribleness of the world. That's a tough one, and, as you have noted, fades slowly with time.
Your other comment that caught my attention was this: "but mostly they are all too invested in the marijuana culture to want to discuss it with me." Bear in mind that the same dynamic is at work with, say, alcohol addiction. There is nothing less welcome in a group of practiced alcohol abusers than for someone to stand up and say, "I think I'm an alcoholic. I gotta quit drinking." Talk about your wet blanket.
So, yeah, unfortunately your fellow smokers are not a lot of help right now. They just want you to quit screwing around and put the lampshade back on your head. THEY aren't having any problems controlling their use. So YOUR problems must be imagined. Biological chauvinism is a live and well.
35 days with no bongs. I didn't think it was possible. How wrong was I? I feel great & can't believe I spent 20 years of my life smoking the shit. It turned my mind against me totally. It got so bad I wouldn't leave the house on weekends after getting up & smoking 8 - 9 cones in a row. The sleeping was hard at 1st but now it is fine & I feel like a totally new person. I urge anyone who is struggling with staying clean to persevere as you can do it. I was the most negative person but since stopping this has changed. It hasn't been long but I know I will never smoke again. Life is too precious to waste taking drugs. I wake up every day with a smile on my face.
Yeah, one of the problems of total pot use from wakeup till bedtime is that you tend not to want to leave the house or make any new friends.
You are past the worst of it, is my hunch. Nice work.
As the blogster of this blog, I just want to briefly point out that almost everyone who posts here does so politely and helpfully, in a spirit of mutual cooperation. I hardly ever have to trash a post because its rude or insulting or bullying or profane.
I'm able to run this site (so far) without any kind of posting or membership filter. Amazing.
I mention this because I used to head up another support blog in the health and self-help arena, and believe me, it was a different story over there. We banned dozens of people for inappropriate posts.
so anyway,
THANKS!
This site has really helped me. Dirk you are great & thanks to everyone else for sharing how they feel. The turning point for me stopping smoking happened after I tried to kill myself with a pill overdose. Something in my brain just clicked &
the urge to smoke cones went away. I get a bit bored sometimes & my sex drive has gone but it will all get better in time. :-)
Hey all it's Brad again...
It has been a couple weeks since I have posted anything and wanted to keep following up.
I recently just started my first job after I had just graduated from college and it has been a bit tough for me.
The day before I started, I caught bronchitis and only made the first day of work and took the next two off. I finished up the end of the week on thursday and friday.
I eneded up moving out of my apartment with my girlfriend (which I have been dating for over 4 years) to get better with the bronchitis. I am also seeking refuge from the anxiety and depression I am currently going through since quitting pot.
Although we miss each other so much, my very loving girlfriend is supportive of my decision to come home for some time to get a little better under the care of my mother and brothers. She will be visiting tonight so I can hardly wait!!!
...A quick recap, I quit after pot began giving me panic attacks. As soon as I quit, there was this anxiety that had begun and still remains, but I had never had a panic attack while not stoned though.
It has been about 3 months since my last toke and I feel proud to say that but I am still going through bouts of anxiety that is still making life very difficult to enjoy. I have been taking a couple ativan every 2 days or so when the anxiety becomes unbearable and they seem to help out quite a bit.
I have been trying to get out and excerise a bit and relax in the jacuzzi. I have also been joing my friends for a beer or two at the bar during the weekends, which seems to get my mind off of the anxiety temporarily. Have not been drinking in excess though, which is good.I don't want to begin to mask my problems with alcohol now.
I guess I am still feeling very frustrated in that my anxiety still seems to have me by the balls. I am so trying to jsut ride it out and let it do its thing to me, but sometimes it grinds me down so much, I can hardly ignore it. it is really making me depressed although I am still pushing and trying my best to live my life and just snap out of this!!!
I still get the feeling that this will never go away but I know I can't think like that, the thoughts just creep in my head and keep me living in fear of my anxiety. I have contemplated to go on anti-depressants temporarily to help bust this cycle and acheive a new normal state of mind. I am scared of what the anti-depressants might do to me though...
Any kinds words of wisdom and success stories are greatly needed. I need a boost of confidence, which I am trying to work on but seems to be totally lacking from me right now...
Thanks everyone!
-Brad
If you are suffering from crippling bouts of anxiety and/or depression, you really do owe it to yourself to consult your physician about possible treatment, including meds if that is deemed appropriate.
I smoked daily for 20 years. I am 40 now. I began when I was 15. I quit March 3rd, 2009 so I am about 80 days in. I had tried many times before. Always unsucessful except 3 years ago and 10 years ago I went for 6 months each time.
I can confirm all of the withdrawl symptoms reported and add one that I have yet to find on this site. Confirming irritability, insomnia, excessive phlegm, cravings, sweating, restlessness, mild anxiety, boredom, depression, and so on. The vivid and intense dreaming/nightmares (not widely reported) seem to be the main concern I have now at this stage of my withdrawl (80 days). As I understand it, pot keeps you from entering the REM stage of sleeping (the deepest level of sleep) and/or keeps you from remembering any dreaming you have done. It is because your body/mind is not used to this stage that it comes roaring back with a vengence. I am sure it does not help that I live a stressful life. Although a very "functional addict", my business causes me great stress. The dreaming is so intense, I can wake up with nervous shakes and even palpitations from the adrenaline. I also go back to sleep and right back to the same dream, many times to replay it or to find a variance of the same topics. In the dreams, I am many times aware that I am dreaming but can't wake up out of them. Very vivid, very intense, even after I wake up it takes me a little while to reconcile that they were dreams and not reality. Please comment if anybody else is experiencing this.
Most of the other symptoms have subsided entirely and did within the first 30 days. I believe the intense dreaming can last 6 months+. Exercise absolutely helps me. Fast walking daily for 45 minutes or so. This gives me some joy to go into the outdoors, makes me tired, makes me hungry, (after a good cool off period) and gives me a nice injection of natural high from the dopamine and other chemicals produed from exercise. It seems to make any depression ease and feel good about myself and life.
tim part 1
tim part 2:
As an all day pot smoker I was the most apathetic (other than my biz) person you could find. I never wanted to do anything or go anywhere unless it involved and permitted me to smoke every hour. My life revolved around it. If I traveled, I had to smuggle it and enough to get through. I spent $1000 or more a month on it. 2+ ounces of the high end stuff. Although I was motivated in business, everything else was a complete waste of time unless I could be smoking. What a sad exisitence.
I have read that your attention span is permanaently ruined after chronic smoking. Dirk, have you found this to be true? I still find it hard but less so, to want to concentrate on one thing for a long period of time. It was much worse when I was still smoking.
After the first time I quit for six months, 10 years or so ago, I just miseed it so much, life wasnt fun, I started again. The same thing happened 3 years ago or so. I was overdoing my business and neglecting everything else. I missed it, I started. Always with the "only on the weekend", or "only in the evenings" intention but us OCD-obsessive-compulsive personalities don't stand a chance. I do know people who can moderate, I can't.
So why did I quit? Health, family, try to live a "here and now" life. I was wheezing, and coughing up phlegm all the time, surely lung disease was next. My kids are 17 and 14 and I hope to find the patience and desire to spend time with them, my marriage has held on , but things are not very good. Perhaps it's too late? Either way I am on the edge, even though most of the withdrwal symtoms are gone, I still miss it, still crave it at times, especially on the weekends when I have time to kill. I am not sure if I will make it. I like saying that when I am 60, I will go back to it once I can afford to die from it and my life is played out at that point. How awful.
How do I get over the 6 month hump?
I hope what I have written here is helpful to others. I hope others can comment and give me some help.
Tim
I have copied the above sections 1 and 2 from a sub-blog on this same site, my update is below... (hope that is ok with you Dirk)
I am the Tim from the above two posts.
I am 94 days in. Still vivid dreaming/nightmares, especially on days when I do not exercise. Still some cravings when I am not kept busy. Pot was a lifestyle and i mis it and am still trying to create an alternate style. I believe this will take quite a long time, perhaps more than a year. Everybodies experience with and without cannabis is unique, I am sure of that. So just have to create a new life or commit myself to lung cancer and an early, torturous death, I have to make that choice daily.
@ Brad:
I suggest doing every other option before going to meds, if all else fails I agree with Dirk tht you should not go on suffering with anxiety or depression. but brfore meds: Keeping busy and active is the best medicine. Create stuff to do in advance, look forward to it, then do it. I saw a good movie last night with Jim Carey about this seminar he went to that taught you to say "yes" to everything. It was very motivating and funny, you should see it.
Exercise hard until you are exausted. Look for a cahritable or social service activity you can volunteer for. Read online the live MA (marijuana anonymous meetings). Find a new hobby. All easy to say, but actually doing them can make a difference.
Good luck to you and all!
-Tim
I just want to start by mentioning how helpful this site has been and how much quality information thats been added. Awesome job everybody.
First a litte information just so I can be like everyone else. I've smoked weed since I was 14, I'm 28 now. 50% of my life I've been stoned. From 2 weeks after trying my first joint until I was busted and put on probation I smoked weed from morning till night. Before, after and during work. I even looked for jobs that I could smoke weed at. While on probation I almost became an alchoholic to cover my withdrawals and I still smoked at least 1-3 times a month then, risking jail time. The day it was over I resumed my fulltime use. That was 3 years ago I've got worse since, and even worse in the last couple months since I was laid off. So I decided to quit.
What seems to have never been mentioned on this forum are my biggest problems trying to quit.
All my friends are chronics, just as bad or worse then me. My dealer is one of my best friends and my entire family on my side and the wifes smoke weed habitually.Except for my wife. By quiting smoking weed I am alienating myself from all my loved ones and close friends. This is really the hardest part. Weed had become so much a daily part of life that I just don't know what todo with myself. I don't know how to make new friends without the smoking weed common bond. I have most of the other symptoms but this is by far so much worse. I want to know what other longtime users have done to ease this.
Not that this solves the problem or anything, but it is certainly no different for alcoholics, immersed as many of them are in a family and social web of constant drinking. Once sober, most of them find a way to make their peace with it.
What a wonderful resource this is. Dirk, you and James Langton are my heroes and have been for quite some time. (I am in the UK).
You have taught me two new terms that I absolutely LOVE, biological chauvinism and neuronal plasticity. They are now my favourite words! The first so brilliantly describes the attitude of the majority who can casually or socially smoke cannabis and not end up like the estimated 10% (think that's spot-on) who become extremely dependent on this substance. I am in that awful 10% like most of the people on here and have experienced pretty much all the withdrawal symptoms described in my many many attempts at quitting. It is very difficult to listen to people who completely dismiss this enormous struggle as being 'in our minds' when we know that is not the case. As you have pointed out the huge amount of anecdotal reports from people in withdrawal must, at some point (hopefully soon) become impossible to deny. Thank you so much for fighting our corner!
Neuronal plasticity has given me the reassurance I desperately wanted that I have not permanently damaged my brain and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for those words!
I am on day 9 and not sleeping that well, experiencing night sweats and my appetite is only just slowly returning. I have cut out caffeine completely and I would recommend this to anyone reading as I am sleeping more than I normally would at this stage and think this must have an impact.
My suicidal depression has lifted to the point that I feel happy and joyful, alive and optimistic about the future. I am 35 and have been smoking for 20 years, super strength skunk for the last 10 and fully agree that the substance has changed beyond recognition over the years into something very difficult to leave behind even when your life is falling apart around you - the hallmark of addiction I am sure you will agree or have probably already said!
And yes I have indulged in that crack-like obsessive behaviour to get my high - I have thrown my stash into a public bin before, trying to quit, then left my child at home with his friend from school to go and dig through that bin a few hours later (very ashamed to admit that but would like to confirm that in my experience and opinion that behaviour definitely exists around this drug, I have seen and heard many others doing similar things). YUK! Addiction is addiction.
Feeling miles better and full of hope - thank you Dirk and everyone on here - I read all the posts in a few hours, this is a subject close to my heart and although I already knew the withdrawal is a reality it is fascinating to read all those posts confirming what I already believe. And I love learning the American equivalent language surrounding it - thanks guys!
The difference this time for me has been in getting an excellent counsellor and exploring underlying emotions surrounding my childhood and family. It was almost as if I had to start liking and believing in myself before I could do this. I know I am only on day 9 but so far so good and it feels different this time.
Good luck y'all (i'm learning lol)
Love and peace x
thanks for your post.
The story about the rubbish bin is exactly the kind of behavior that seems to me to clinch the case for addiction. A very close friend of mine, let's say, once threw the contents of a bag to the winds off a rocky cliff face, done with it forever, only to find himself 5 hours later, on hands and knees, combing up whatever crumbs hadn't managed to blow away.
PS--James Langton doing great things in the UK and we have corresponded frequently.
Is it easy to convinced marijuana users to quit using it if they seldom use it? What was the possible ways to convince them to quit in using it?
I have seen many marijuana addict and I cannot see the symptoms that they are using marijuana they acted normal, unlike when one is addict in drugs you can easily see the difference. But they are extremely crave for food so I think that's the reason why some of them are gaining weights. But I cannot see the other symptoms of marijuana withdrawal.
how long do these symptoms last if you've been on and off marijuana for over 2 years?
Hi Dirk,
I've read a couple of hundred of these posts and I really appreciate your blog. I am a 28 year old male with OCD and Tourettes yet have been virtually symptom free (or not caring about them) since I was 17. I work for a startup and have been extremely busy at work for the last year or so. I had been taking prozac since I was about 16 and quit last summer after starting to get in shape and feel great about life. I just felt like I didn't need it anymore.
I wasn't smoking pot frequently last summer and only smoked occasionally. Work started to pick up and around Christmas I was working 70 hour weeks and starting to get very irritable. I was also smoking more frequently, although not daily. My girlfriend was getting upset with me and I decided to go back on prozac. I started taking it again by march, and within 3 days I started throwing up. I was nauseous and vomiting for almost 2 weeks straight. Then I started to feel better, but anxiety and depression as well as nausea kept coming back. Oddly enough, I never experienced this from prozac before. I have also smoked marijuana regularly before while on prozac and never felt any depression or anxiety.
I also started getting the "negative loop" depression where I just can't stop thinking about all the bad things I've ever done. It's absolutely unbearable and at times I have to go into the bathroom at work just to cry.
I continue to have good days and bad, but for the last 3 months or so I have been smoking marijuana every night (and sometimes in the morning/daytime on weekends). It's the only thing that seems to get rid of the "negative loop" and ameliorate the nausea.
I've been seeing a psychiatrist for about 2 months now and I have quit drinking (which I rarely did anyway) and cut out all caffeine to try to alleviate the symptoms. I have to say that I'm not sure either of those helped. My therapist told me to try to quit smoking weed, but I protested heavily because it's the only thing capable of removing the negative loop and nausea.
Finally, I looked into Marijuana withdrawal syndrome, found your blog and decided to quit (at least temporarily). I haven't smoked for 2 days now and I feel exactly the same depression/anxiety as before. The doc said it may take a while and I may feel worse before I feel better, but I hesitate to believe that the anxiety/depression/nausea is caused/exasperated by Marijuana withdrawal considering I've had the symptoms the morning I wake up after a heavy night of smoking. The morning is always the worst for me.
Since I never smoke before work or during the work day, I was wondering if it was possible that my tolerance had grown so much that my dependency was causing withdrawals on a daily basis. Have you ever heard of anything like this? Either way, I'm confused and looking for solutions.
The oddest thing is that I have smoked daily for 6 months to a year at a time in the past and then quit cold turkey with no symptoms. I even quit for 1.5 years (ended in 2007) with no cravings / ill effects.
I'm starting to think that the combination of smoking and going back on prozac has confused my system a lot and I'm really struggling.
Any advice you can give me would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
I'm at day 44 without cones & I feel great. My sleeping patterns aren't that great. Some nights I sleep fantastic, others not so good. My negative thinking is becoming less & less. I love food so my appetite has never been affected. I gave up pot & cigarettes at the same time so my lungs are thanking me. I crave cigarettes more than cones which I find very strange. I'm having the weirdest dreams. I wake up & think WTF was that all about. I'd forgotten what is was like to dream. Life gets better every day. Be strong people.
Nice post.
I think most people quitting both weed and cigarettes at the same time, if they fell off the wagon, would go for the cigarette first.
Like you, I think part of why people often feel their dreams are so striking in withdrawal is that they have "forgotten what it was like to dream." So far as I know, use of cocaine, alcohol, other addictive drugs, don't suppress dreaming as strenuously as weed does.
And with that, this particular comment thread is now 500 posts long.
I am approaching 10 weeks without smokables, and I wish I could say that I feel great and that I have left it all behind. The process is so up and down that it can be very frustrating. Very! I will think that I am past the worst and that I can get on with life, and I hit a day like today. I've got the blues big time and I am knocking about without much direction, trying to find my groove.
I have read from some others of you that you struggle when you are bored, or have space/time on your hands, and I feel that as well. I am particularly challenged when I have completed a very busy period and find some space in my days. Generally, however, I just have days like today where I'm really struggling with the blues and wonder why I am putting myself through all this. There seems to be little rhyme or reason and I just want the day to be behind me so that I can feel better. I wish there was a group to meet with weekly to chat with back and forth. My meditation group helps a lot, but that is not directly connected to my pot issue. Zikes! Enough already!
@ Nancy...
Try MA online meetings, they are somewhat helpful. I am the Tim from above. (3.5 months in) Still bored and restless, can relate to you 100%.
Every now and then you used to see a wry AA bumper sticker that said: "Clean, sober--and bored shitless." ;-)
One of the things that often happens to addicted people when they become abstinent is that,in the early going, they suddenly discover that they have a lot of TIME on their hands.
Fools...Im forced to quite after 10 years. I got bad ass insomnia for like 3 weeks now. Some night sweats and almost no dreaming. I can only hope that it is a simple drug addiction. Everything bad with my experience is related to my sleep. Get some sleeping pills. I dont have access due to my low socioeconomic status at the time, but that would help a lot. I dont even crave getting high eventhough I love pot and am going to smoke right after this diversion course that Ive been forced into. Withdrawling from this is trivial if I can simply treat my symptoms with sleep medication for a couple weeks (hopefully). If the insomnia persists, I will be forced to spend money on health care ontop of this retarded diversion course. People need to grow up and stop making people.
Think about it. Chronic smokers love smoking. Then something makes them quite. How should someone feel when they suddenly stop being with something they love, especially if they are forced to? I am so pissed about these people that think they have the right to force people to do what they think is healthy. Why dont they put all thos McDonald junkies in rehab and threaten them with life ruining actions? Those fat bastards are far less healthy then me. Plus they are ususally stupid.
Dirk - great bumper sticker. I find that, no matter the difficulty in life, if we can find ways to laugh at our own condition (so long as the laughter is compassionate and not overly judgemental), we can do ourselves a world of good.
The time thing, too, is so true! As a stoner, right after smoking time seemed to expand. However, after the first hour or so, the reverse occured...time eclipsed and collapsed on itself. So, I did not need to do anything to fill it.
Planning helps me...it is when I find unscheduled time on my hands that I feel at loose ends that can lead to dark ruminations.
Thanks also to anonymous for the advice about MA. I shall look into it.
This is ridiculous. there is of course a change. Increased anxiety, insomnia for a few days. What did you guys expect? Now, the one guy who smoked a half pound a month (that is a waste of weed.BTW. THC does not work like that. Once it gets to a certain level more smoking is fruitless). well, he's lucky that the only thing bleeding is his rectum!
I'm a depressed guy, have been since I was a child and the migraines started at 12 yrs old. You want withdrawal symptoms? Take Proxac and Xanax for 6 months and then stop cold turkey. You will then have some personal expertise on withdrawal.
Interesting read, thank you! But do you think weed should be legal or not?
I support the legalization of marijuana.
The addictive nature of alcohol did not stop us from repealing Prohibition, and the fact that a minority of pot users get in trouble with the drug should not stand in the way of ending the Drug War and dealing with the addicted minority as a public health problem, not a law enforcement problem.
I am trying to quit and am laying it all out on the table for everyone to see. Withdrawal and addiction with regards to marijuana is definitely real. Please read along and offer advice/support and commiserate with me.
Wow. What weak people are on here. Stopping anything you like will make you more irritable. If you loved playing ping pong and played every day for 10 years and then hurt your shoulder you would be a little upset, maybe lose some sleep, and want like hell to get back to playing. I've smoked marijuana for 15 years and have quit many times for several months. Of course I still wanted to smoke but it was because I enjoyed it and not because I needed it physically. As Bob Sagat would say, "people don't suck $@*& for pot." It's all in your brain.
"It's all in your brain."
-----
Where else would it be?
Up his backside in my opinion.
If he is entitled to his opinion then I'm entitled to mine!
As you have so brilliantly written before, biological chauvinism is indeed alive and kicking....
Keep up the good work, my hero! Excellent response to the question of legality, I would expect no less from you. I admire you more and more every time you respond, ESPECIALLY the last one!!!!
Over and out!
i smoked pot when i was younger, and didn't even think about it much when i stopped. that was in my 20's. i work for a state highway garage.about 3 1/2 years ago,my good friend was run over in an accident on the highway. he bled to death in my arms. i was so in shock. i took a week off then went right back to the highway. a co-worker metioned that she got high and got me some pot. i am a 46 year old mother of 4 and so addicted to pot. it affects all of my life. i thought it was a good thing, and it did help, for a while. now 3 1/2 years later after so much denial and a few attemtps at quitting i'm trying again. for anyone who thinks pot is not addictive please think again. it is a crutch for me, one i wish i never turned to. please pray for me that i can do it this time. thank you
Often the fear of quitting is stronger and more horrible than the actual quitting. And if and when you slip, don't beat yourself up.
It's not a pleasant process, but huge numbers of people have pulled it off, and you can, too. Understanding that you are addicted to pot is a HUGE first step in getting things under control.
Donna don't give up. I will pray for you. You can be clean.
Its been 58 days since I smoked & I'm struggling alot with negative thought patterns this week but I know I have to be patient & it will get better. I've had to end it with my boyfriend as he is an alcoholic & a substance abuser. It is for the best as it was a totally TOXIC relationship.
I don't run from my emotions anymore. I feel them & it's a pleasant change to smoking my head off to try & forget about everything. The real me is so much better even on a bad day.
This site is the most informative and objective site on marijuana use I've ever found. What I find here is healthy sharing about the various effects pot has had on each person's life. It seems the effects are different for everyone yet very similar traits seem to emerge for almost everyone trying to quit: irritability, night sweats, paranoia, negativity, cravings, etc.
I could give a rat's ass about the debate on whether or not pot is physically or psychologically addictive. I tend to think it's both. I've seen its effects on far too many people I love or have loved. And I don't smoke pot.
What I do appreciate is being able to understand what pot smokers go through by reading what people share here. Your words help me. I'll leave the debate about the other stuff to everyone else.
It's amazing, the database that contributors have created here.
In my opinion, the debate about being physically addictive vs. psychologically addictive is pretty much beside the point, as you suggest. That distinction just doesn't get you very far when you're looking at the neurology of addiction.
I have not posted for a while, but do want to check in with some news. I quit smoking on April 8th of this year, and it is only in this past week that I am sleeping relatively well. It is not that I never had a night's sleep since I quit, but I would go for several nights with very little sleep, occasionally a night without any shut-eye, then crash for a night of about six hours rest. This past week, I have had six of seven nights with at least six hours of sleep. Hallelujah!
For me, since I was a child, sleep has been an essential part of my good mental health. Being sleepless has been one of the very hardest aspects of quitting marijuana smoking. Keeping a good attitude and positive energy is very difficult for me without any sleep. So, I feel I have reached another level of success with this adjustment.
Once again, thanks to all of you. Many of those sleepless nights involved reading whatever were the latest entries! Even though I don't post a comment, know that I am part of this extraordinary community.
Glad to hear you are settling into normal sleep patterns. Difficulty sleeping is such a common symptom, and such a disruptive one.
hey dudes and dudettes! i just quit smoking after 6 months of VERY heavy use (5-6 big ones per day.) i had delusional thoughts like that i had aids, i was slowly rotting from the inside and the like. in other words, it was hell. i don't know but i think my body just doesn't like the green stuff. anyway i'm in my 2nd recovery week now, it's been hard sometimes but i'm slowly but surely getting there. now to all the people saying marijuana won't f*** you up, it will, maybe not now but eventually it will come to haunt you. my advice is if you won't quit, at least reduce your use of marijuana to once every 7-14 days. that way you can still have a kick-ass time without risking going nuts one day. marijuana can be great, but in masses it can really grade you down in time. i'm glad it didn't come to that in my case, i hope you will realize it too. good day and keep it heavy!
Yea, I agree, the withdrawl symptoms can be something to go through for sure!.. Marijuana is just like any other drug though.. if you want to get off of it the best way is to reduce the amount you are smoking over time... this will reduce the withdrawl effects. This is what my doctor recommended to me. Of course, not everyone can do this and I understand that it would drive some people mad, but quitting cold turkey has that effect on people tenfold!
Yeah, that is one of the perennial questions that surrounds addiction treatment: cold turkey or taper? When it comes to alcohol, tapering doesn't have a very successful reputation,but you get varying reports for other drugs, cigarettes, weed, coffee, a few others. Does anybody ever successfully taper off methedrine or heroin?
This is really helpful. When I started it was mostly because most of my friends were smoking it...but they always assured me it was non-addictive. Yeah right, eventually I got so bad that it became the center of my life. Now it's been a week and so far so good. I've had most of the symptoms, sweats, anxiety, depression. My favorite was the vivid dreams...it's so nice to have dreams again.
I would love to know whether non-addicted regular pot smokers who quit cold notice the same dramatic changes in dream intensity and recall as addicted tokers.
Dirk, please clarify "non-addicted regular"
tim
"non-addicted regular smoker":
A person who smokes pot regularly but does not experience withdrawal or craving when abstinent. Like a social drinker.
Wow wow wow!!! All of these posts are wonderful and very useful! Thank you all and especially you Dirk!
I'm 30, and have been smoking pot on and off for the past 10 years (or less). I have gone through months of smoking and stopped with no problems at all. Usually when I stopped I would stop for anywhere from 2-6 months.
About 10months ago I started back, and pretty much have been smoking everyday. Pot is awesome but it sucks at the same time! I just go to work, come back home and smoke 2-3 bowls and fall asleep. Next day, same routine..over and over and over again. And you know the sad thing about that? I wasn't really even worried about it. I kind of felt that I'm doing a good thing because I'm staying out of trouble and saving money (not going out and drinking). Sounds dumb right? Pretty pathetic I know.
Anyway, I found this amazing job with the federal government and stopped smoking this past Friday (3 days ago) just in case I got it and needed to pass a drug test. This time however, my withdrawls are pretty severe. Like many of you, I'm sweating profusely and feel so "blah". I know its only been a couple days, but I wanted to know if I should expect to have these symptoms pass by quicker then other people since I haven't smoked as long as others. Also, as these symptons hopefully fade, does that mean my level of THC is going down? Or is this completely unrelated? I'm sorry if this sounds like a dumb question. Dirk, your response will be greatly appreciated, but if anyone wants to pitch in their thoughts then please feel free!
One last thing I want to say....to all of you...We can get through this. For me, its my 3rd day clean, and even though I feel so weird, I also feel good about myself...Its kinda like that skit on SNL that Al Franken used to do: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me."
Good Luck to all! and THANK YOU!
"its kinda like that skit on SNL that Al Franken used to do: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me."
--------
Or, as a real-life therapist once put it: "I am a good person with a bad disease."
Which also reminds me of this great line I just ran across, from a French doctor, to the effect that the addicted patient "has lost the freedom to abstain."
Both withdrawal symptoms and THC levels decline with time, but I don't know what if any relationship exists between them. Withdrawal symptoms and cravings are tough to measure, actually, kind of like pain levels.
I love this blog! It has helped me understand why I've felt the way I've felt the past couple days. I started smoking about a year ago and did it everyday since then. My girlfriend was angry at me because of this but eventually, she caught onto my habit. WE smoked EVERYDAY, atleast 4-5 times a day. We were perma high everyday. The other day, my parents caught the smell and confronted me so we stopped doing it for a few days. My gf told me she felt sick, not eating, joints hurting, sweating, vivid dreaming. I to felt the symptons. I thought the sweats was because of SUMMER weather! During the next two days after quitting, my girlfriend and I had the worse that we ever had in our relationship. I felt hopeless for our relationship. I blamed her for the fights. I was desperate and I decided to search the symptoms and came upon this website. It has helped us understand why our bodies are feeling the way it's feeling. Knowing these facts after reading this post has helped us cope with the withdrawals. Everytime we go off on eachother for a stupid reason, we know whats the REAL reason.
Thank you Dirk. Maybe you saved our relationship.
I have read some comments, but no one so far has mentioned the lifestyle. You do it, you partner does it, your friends do it.
I have been doing it so long, I just cannot function normally?? without it. I hate this addiction, but really don't want to stop, but I really do!!! When I'm out, I can't stop thinking about it. If some people, business and other associates knew I was addicted to
pot, they would be shocked. It's been 30 years and every new year, I tell myself stop, quit. But I smoke another joint and I don't care anymore. To all you who have enough determination to stop. Don't
ever smoke again and good luck!!
I haven't posted a comment since 6-1-09. I have visited this site from time to time for self encouragement. It can be a big boost when you are in one of those "low" periods, kinda like a self help AA/NA meeting. Thanks again for this great site.
I am in my 8th week of no weed. I personally expected to feel better sooner. I am just now beginning to see daylight and I still have a ways to go. To anyone out there looking for encouragement, here it is. Hang in there regardless of how you feel. I firmly believe the recovery time physically (anxiety, depression, sleep habits and feelings of hopelessness) are all case by case. Just know it will get better. Don't be afraid to pray about it!
I have to comment on the "Dipshit" that posted as Anonymous on 6-23-09. You say this isn't real and you've quit many times with no side effects. "Hello" you haven't quit if you're still smoking. Go a year and then post a comment. I'm not sure what your point was to posting that comment. I suggest until you "really quit" or unless you have something positive to say, try another site. Leave this site for the people who are really trying to be honest with themselves "and" others. Peace!
" I firmly believe the recovery time physically (anxiety, depression, sleep habits and feelings of hopelessness) are all case by case."
-------
Yep. That's why there is no easy answer to the question: "How long will it take?"
(If you were asking that question of a mystic or zen master, they might answer with something like, "It will take as long as it takes you to quit asking questions like, 'how long will it take?'")
for those of you that think withdrawal is a placebo..maybe you are right to an extend or for some circumstances but in my circumstance you are not correct. i had been smoking weed every day for the past 2 months, plus large amounts of tobacco, and drinking large amounts a few times a week. i quit all of these pretty much at once...well i quit cigarettes 2 weeks earlier tho i still laced my cones so technically still getting plenty of nicotine in my system. i was absolutely fine with quitting and taking charge of my life. it was my 21st birthday present to myself....but unfortunately about 5 days later i start getting terrible nausea, follwed by night sweats...i ignored my symptoms as something not to take seriously, i only accounted the night sweats and insomnia for the weed withdrawal...but then it got worse. i got something that felt like the flu, extreme fatigue, anxiety, cold and hots chills, forgetfulness, dizziness, loss of coordination and sense of reality, paranoia, strange body odour, yeast infections... its was hard to think this could be from marijuana! the symptoms only got worse, i felt like death. this lasted about 3 weeks, all progressively getting worse..until i had a cone...it all dissapeared except for the exhaustion due to the stress and loss of sleep i had been experiencing... i am trying to get through a nursing course atm and i am hanging by a thread, having missed alot of time off work and study. so anyway im hoping after the last few cones the pain will ease. i still feel unreal and like another person right now tho. anyway just wanted to write this as i think it is a good example of where placebo is not possible. i am not creative enough to create those symptoms on my own. i dont think i am weak minded. i love the fact i have quit but if i need a toke here and there to get through my course then thats wot i gotta do, whether i like it or not. im just glad i stopped before i lost my mind. some people may be more sensitive to drugs and i think im one of those people. i have a sensitive body which i should never have abused in the first place! live nad learn right? good luck people :)
this is absurd. Have smoked for years. Have quit for years. No kick.
Have become addicted to opiates, now that is a kick.
you should stop filling peoples heads with bull. Get a life, weed has no real kick. It is VERY minor.
Wow, insomnia for like 2 days..pffft.. try 6 months off dope.
Thanks for the post.
It's just a fact that a lot of people feel threatened by the possibility that pot is addictive for a minority of users. Therefore they decide to believe that the statements posted here are from weak and confused people suffering from various forms of mental disorders that they mistakenly attribute to cannabis withdrawal.
You know and I know that this is not true. But as a public health issue it is all tangled up with the legalization debate. To say something negative about marijiuana is to throw in your lot with the forces of darkness. Instead, we are supposed to believe that cannabis, alone among psychoactive drugs, has no downside, no adverse effects, no negatives, for anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Now that would truly be a wonder drug.
"this is absurd. Have smoked for years. Have quit for years. No kick."
-------
That's almost interesting. But what does it have to do with the subject of this thread, which is people who DO suffer from marijuana withdrawal?
I could sit here and say, "This is absurd. I have been drinking alcohol for years. Have quit for years. No prob." If I told that to an alcoholic, maybe adding the notion that his struggle to drink normally is nothing but personal weakness, that would be a pretty meaningless anecdote, yes?
I have found that ACUPUNCTURE IS HIGHLY EFFECTIVE IN TREATING WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS! Chinese physicians seem to know a lot more about the process of detoxing than Western docs.
Chinese herbs (like the 'Digestion' concoction from Turtle Dragon) can also temper the symptoms of nausea and sweating. There are even some acupoints that can help quell the most awful symptoms, that come in the first 24-72 hours. Trust me - I've been there.
If you don't know where to find a Chinese Medical practitioner - try www.acufinder.com.
Some people get addicted, some don't. We all have different brain chemistry.
Having gone through physical withdrawals more than once in my many year struggle to keep smoking at a social level (and failing spectacularly many, many, many times) - it infuriates me when someone tries to tell me it's in my head.
Great page - and a very useful resource for exactly the people that need it! Thanks Mr Hanson.
And good luck to all of us out there that know what's up...
My partner has stopped a daily marijuana habit which he had for 35 years. He began in high school, very heavy through college and daily thereafter. Stopped a few months ago. I am noticing now more and more freuently he gets depressed, lacks motivation etc. I think he probably always had a tendency toward depression, but smoking helped level things out. I was wondering since he had smoked for so many years, did he permenantly alter his brain chemistry? Should he try and SSRI to bring him back to an even keel? I didn't know if an SSRI has ever helped people who have dealt with depression due to withdrawls. Any info you have about this would be appreciated. He is definitely not the same person he was. Thanks.
I'm not a doctor by any stretch, but if he has a history of depressive episodes that precede his drug use, or if you think he suffers from depression and has been self-medicating with pot for years, then it is possible he would respond positively to an SSRI antidepressant.
As an addict myself, I've come to the conclusion that addiction is an attribute of a person rather than a substance.
Is pot addictive? Yes.
If you're an addict, anything can become addictive. Pot, junk food, TV, video games, porn... these are just a few that I have collected.
I can't quit any of these addictive patterns only because I believe I can't. I'm still wading through my self-woven webs of denial and rationalization, and trying to come to terms with my own personal mental blocks that I've constructed. It's not easy.
As far as withdrawal symptoms go, I would agree with the post that pointed out that removing a chemical from the brain which it has become accustomed to is OBVIOUSLY going to produce some side effects.
This is great, thank you, thank you! I have smoked pot since I was 17, will be turning 50 this year. That's a long time to smoke weed. I was able to put down cigarettes in 2003 with help of the patch and welbutrin. 1 year later, my son was killed in an auto accident. I started smoking weed on a daily basis after that to self medicate. I was smoking the Cronic, Skunk, Blueberry - Whatever my connection had at the time. What I thought was a great connection was only messing me up worse. Though I have never picked up another cigarette, and never will (Please don't make me ever go through cig withdrawals again) It has been a shitty 5 years after his loss, but I know that I beat the cig habit even through the worst time any parent could EVER go through. I decided a couple of days ago, this is ridiculous, I am going to quit. Thank God I found this site to understand the withdrawal symptoms. They are terrible. I feel like crap, mid-july and I'm freezing all of the time, nausea, blood pressure is excessively high-which I'm on medication but it seems quitting the weed has made it very high, and anxiousness. Thank you for this site, because a site like this helped me get through my cig withdrawals. I know that I will beat this crazy habit. I will check back in later.....Good Luck
im not an addict, im 14 and ive been smoking for aboout 5 months off and on whenever i feel like it. some weeks i smoke about everyday, others i dont smoke at all. but the times when i dont smoke for a week or more... i pass out. black out. faint. whatever you want to call it. i also tend to get get sick, shaky, and really tired. then about 2 hours after i wake up from passing out, im fine, just a little bit shaky. at first i had no idea what it was, my friends told me it was just the withdrawal and nothing to worry about. so why isnt it in this article?
ok for all you people finding it hard i have a tried and tested soultion that may work for you.
i smoked for 8 years daily and tried to stop for about 3 years of that and failed. unfornatley i have started again this last year after 2 years of not smoking, however i am ready to quit again and i will just will have try not to pick it up again during hard times.
Anyway st.johns wort from holland and barrat cheap and cheerful take it for two weeks then quit the weed, i also chucked in 30 minutes exercise a day.Within 3 months i lost 2 stone and was no longer overweight and looked and felt like a new person very focusssed at work etc and started to enjoy normal things again.
imo pople smoke weed to escape problems but it always creates a whole new trend of them :(
i will quit again and i already know what the prize is and that is enjoying life without highs.
"i wake up from passing out, im fine, just a little bit shaky. at first i had no idea what it was, my friends told me it was just the withdrawal and nothing to worry about. so why isnt it in this article?
-------
It's not here because nobody has ever mentioned it as a symptom of weed withdrawal. Perhaps it's something else?
This is the first time I've ever researched marijuana withdrawals. I just always believed what everyone was telling me that there were no withdrawals. Constantly wondering what was wrong with me and feeling like I was going crazy. I statrted smoking at the age of 15 socially here and there, during that time never feeling any withdrawals. At the age of 20 I began smoking daily until now at the age of 28. I had quit a couple times during this period and everytime I quit the withdrawals are worse this time when I wake in the morning my whole body is shaking after a restless night of about 3 hours of sleep if I'm lucky, nausea and anxiety. I have to go sit for 30 minutes to an hour and CALM myself down before I can get ready for work. The worst part about all of this is I actually almost left the man I have been in love with for over 5 years we are fixing to be married and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. While going through these withdrawals my future husband has had some extreme medical and life changing experiences. The thing that hurts the most is not being the person I want to be for him right now when he needs me the most. I have made the decision that once you quit the key is not to start again. I don't like who I am or the way I feel and if all it takes is saying "no" then count me in. I want my life back. Thank You. I now know that this is a normal part of quitting and I will be okay.
When I decided to look on the internet to see if there was even
such a thing as "marijuana withdrawal" I was glad to know that this does exist and I am not the only one going through this.
I have been smoking since my teen
years... I am now 58. I have been smoking all day and night for...
I don't remember, over 30 years.
I stopped smoking 2 days ago. I am
a bit nauseas and getting hot and cold. I found myself crying earlier today for no particular reason, or any reason I could think of. My friends are either professionals or pot smokers, I don't think I could share any of this with anyone, so I hope posting
here will help me get through this. I just feel I have smoked so much already I just need to stop. I have spent so much time stoned I figure I will need to fill up all the time with other activities, rather than smoking all the time and just enjoying the view. I appreciate the honesty
you have all posted. I can't believe after smoking all these years I didn't realize I would go through these withdrawals. Other than my pot smoking I live a very
clean life, no cigarettes, very little alcohol, organic foods. But I know 40 years of THC can't be easy to get out of my system. I
I am so glad to have found this site and really appreciate everyones openess about this problem. As I said I am on day 2.
The heart palpatations are the most bothersome so far. I suppose this is important to discuss with my doctor. Has anyone else discussed this with their doctor?
I am hoping the withdrawal doesn't get any worse. And since It is so
easy to get really good pot everywhere I just need to not get any. Reading everyones experiences
here helps to know what I may expect to go through. Thank you
everyone for your honesty. I will
let you know how this is going as the days go on. Thanks again
Montana-Heart palpitations are the reason that I really started looking at stopping weed. Blood pressure was shooting through the wall. I'd wake up and my heart would be racing like crazy. Tried so many meds to reduce BP, but nothing helped. I would go to the dr and they would say, Are you smoking? My answer would be No. I didn't smoke cigarettes so I felt that's what they meant. One day bp was so bad, I went to emergency and they admitted me. They asked me what narcotic I was taking. My answer None - In my eyes, weed was not a narcotic. They were able to find a med to lower and keep lower - But I didn't stop - Last week, My BP started spiking again so I decided to quit, FINALLY! Im now on day 7 My mind is clearer. I no longer am having heart palpitations (keeping off of the weed is allowing the bp meds to work like they are suppose to), Blood Pressure is normal - Going through all of the symptoms. Thanks for your post - I thought I was the only one with the heart issues on Weed. Good Luck
Thanks to both posters above.
The common approach to denying that some heavy smokers get hooked on weed and suffer serious withdrawal has been to say that all those symptoms existed in you before you started smoking, and of course they have now come back to haunt you since you were so foolish to stop self-medicating with Holy Herb. I have to wade through this argument over and over. You could dismiss any kind of drug withdrawal with that kind of tautology: "Oh, the heroin was helping you relax, and now without smack of course you're all tense and unhappy."
So I'll be interested in what the detractors have to say about heart palpitations. A pre-existing condition you were successfully treating with weed? Seems a bit doubtful.
Wonderful post, some very good data and testimonials here.
I've been an off again / on again smoker for years - I'll go back and forth pretty regularly, for weeks or months at a time in either direction. And it took a few spells before it occurred to me that it was actually mild withdrawal symptoms. Due to the anxiety and vertigo-like malaise, I had thought I was becoming diabetic or something!
In my personal experience, I find that as little as two weeks of daily smoking can result in a couple days of weirdness when stopping. This most recent time around I stopped after about 2 months of daily smoking, and I've had a full week of weirdness, but it's winding down. My symptoms are invariable:
- Nervousness / trouble concentrating
- Irritable / emotionally unrational behavior
- Nausea, indigestion and diarrhea
- Inability to eat, or to determine whether I'm hungry or not
- Vertigo
- Headaches
It doesn't dramatically affect my sleep, though I do toss and turn a little.
Of course, in the end I find I do like smoking, and am ultimately willing to deal with the symptoms. I do have a question however -- should I have any concern over such a pattern of repeated exposure to these symptoms, apart from the usual concerns related to addictions and substances?
Thanks, and good work.
"should I have any concern over such a pattern of repeated exposure to these symptoms, apart from the usual concerns related to addictions and substances?"
-------
Thanks for your post. I'm guessing that you are referring to the notion of permanent changes in the brain when you make reference to concerns "apart from the usual." If that is the case, the answer is no, with qualifications. Neural plasticity is a wonderful thing, but there is also the notion of "kindling," wherein the more times you bounce back onto your addictive drug of choice, the more you prime your neurocircuitry to anticipate doing it the next time.
Some researchers are convinced that regular marijuana use also primes users for episodes of psychosis in the future--but I don't find the evidence at all compelling thus far.
Few easy answers in this arena.
I've been straight now for 35 days...somehow it seens a lot longer but I marked it on the calander so I know exactly when I last got stoned...I thought I'd take a minute and share my thoughts
The thing is, if you really want to stop you can, I mean really want to stop. If you're not 100% committed to stopping you'll find some excuse to have some, I know it's taken me all this year to stop...I'm still experiencing the crazy dreams but the cravings, night sweats, the sick lost feeling has gone and now I'm starting to feel free again, I'm starting to be happy and each night I give myself a high five for going another day without it.
The bottom line is that YOU can stop smoking if you are committed and honest to yourself...beware of the bullshit your mind uses to convice you that a little bit will be alright, a little bit leads to a bit more then a bit more and before you know it your back to where you started...DON'T have anymore from this moment on and after a few rough days, maybe 7-10, you'll start to feel better, and everyday after that a bit better still...YOU CAN do it
Life is easier, happier, healthier and more exciting without the pot, I know I spent more than 10 years stoned off my face everyday...be strong and you can get through this and start living again.
My tips are...Drink lots of water, get heaps of excerise, go to bed early and find other things to do with your time.
Be strong...Good Luck
Thanks Stu.
Day 92 without pot & my head feels clearer every day. My depression has improved greatly & my self confidence is constantly increasing. I used to have anxiety attacks daily when I was stoned but they are very rare now. The change in my attitude is really amazing & my friends & family have all noticed & comment how well I'm doing.I'm grateful every day for my life & little things make me smile which I never thought was possible. I smoked for 20 years & 6 months ago all I thought of every day was killing myself to end the depression, shame & pain I felt inside. Thanks to everyone for sharing how you feel. It has helped me enormously.
I'm a 44 year old who has smoked since I was 23. I was given marijuana to help with my eating disorder because many of the synthetic preparations available I am sensitive to (allergic or whatever, too much history to go into but it's medically documented because it's so odd) and it really helped me feel better and gain a bit of weight. I was 33kg at my smallest and I am 168cm tall. So. I was always too scared to stop using it. Any time I did I lost the appetite and weight plummeted.
So.
I have had two "successful" times away from the stuff and this time, used the experiences to plan what and how I was going to do to stop for good.
I cut down. I cut my dealers out by pissing them off to the point where I can't go there anymore :-D
None of my friends use, so that's a bonus. It was "medicinal" - yeh, we tell ourselves all sorts of stuff to get through the day.
I don't want the crutch in all honesty. I don't drink or do other drugs and I just want to be CLEAN.
I get the night sweat things, but not as bad as the first time. I think this is due to me not understanding that there would be withdrawal symptoms. Now I am prepared, I can do things to help diminish the effects.
The brain is in good shape. It knows about detox and is happy to be in the throes of it.
I HATE HATE HATE the sweating stuff but I know my little body is ridding itself of toxins and that is a GOOD thing.
I believe it has to do with temperature regulation also. But, once I am through this, my body will be better able to deal with temperature anyway. It's transitory. I am prepared for the long haul.
Yeh. I feel like crap. But I'm feeling less like that as the days go on.
The mental stuff? Yes. Snappy as but I can control that. Hypersensitive to noise. Sure. But that will go away too. It's my little nervous system readjusting and again that is a GOOD thing.
I've been using Valerian Tea. Excellent stuff. I'm giving the l-theanine a go also, in the form of green tea. I also use a detox tea to help my body remove the rubbish, and drink filtered water.
Coffee is a BAD BAD BAD thing and should be avoided during withdrawal at all cost. So should COLA drinks or the soda stuff with the caffeine in it. Red Bull. Don't do it to yourself.
Eating well is helpful, but if your appetite is slow, try eating a piece of fruit which also assists with detox. If you can try cooking raw vegetables in water and blending it into a soup. No flavours or salt etc. Just as it comes.
Helps with the detox and getting your body back into a form of health.
Oh. Vitamin tablets. Can't stress this enough. Buy a good quality one with an omega3 oil. If they don't come like that where you come from, a bottle of each.
Water. Do it. It's great.
Also, try drinking in the mornings one warm water with squeeze of lemon in it or a few drops of apple cider vinegar. Good wake up and helps cleanse the insides.
Each day gone, is a day I feel a little better. Trying to keep positive is hard sometimes, but the bigger picture here is that I will be completely drug free.
I think poly drug users have a harder time of it.
I am fortunate in the respect that mowie wowie was the only drug I used.
Peace all.
"The mental stuff? Yes. Snappy as but I can control that. Hypersensitive to noise."
-----
Thanks for your comments. I'm glad you brought up noise sensitivity, because I didn't list that as a symptom, but it does get mentioned by people. Like a heightened startle reflex, in a way.
It's been 15 days. Much clearer mindset, Nicer person, less agitated, and I am not craving that sweet tasting bud any longer. It turns me into a different person. I still am having stomach problems, and the crying episodes are more frequent. Just curious why so many times in my life I quit for whatever reason, and I never went through this type of withdrawal? Many have posted about the dreams, I am still waiting on the dreams. I posted earlier anonymously about quitting cigs and then losing my son in an auto accident. My conviction to stay off cigs was strong during the grievance. I am still cig free, but now I want my dreams about him. Last week I dreamt about him for the first time since his death. It was great. I want more......
I will remain strong. I smoked weed for 30 years (Everyday for the last 6) I guess I can't expect it to be better in just a month. Yesterday was a huge struggle, today will be better.
Thanks everyone for helping me help myself.
Good article, (Harvard) Good to know we can get our minds back.
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette
/2001/10.11/marijuana.html
Thanks for the Harvard citation. I hadn't seen that one. Other studies, even on Rastas in Jamaica, have come back with the same conclusion--no long-term cognitive impairments you could blame on pot.
It's also interesting that the researchers were puzzled by the fact that after some of their test subjects quit toking, they exhibited symptoms similar to the classic symptoms of withdrawal from alcohol or heroin. Hmmmmm.... most of the posters here could have easily enlightened them on that matter...
A very helpful guide.
A guide to quitting Marijuana and Hashish
http://www.droginfo.com/pdf/guideuk.pdf
Dirk said:
"So I'll be interested in what the detractors have to say about heart palpitations. A pre-existing condition you were successfully treating with weed? Seems a bit doubtful."
I'm not a detractor- I have no doubt marijuana withdrawal is real. However, in the US when anyone over 40 is discussing heart symptoms, its safe to assume that the person may have some stage of heart disease (studies show teenagers have it beginning already...) Plus marijuana stresses the heart by increasing its rate.
Hard to imagine the weed was treating it, but anxiety is known to exacerbate all kinds of heart arrhythmia.
I agree with the posters own suggestion that he should talk to his doctor
Good point about the connection between anxiety and heart arrhythmias. Thanks.
I am the one that says weed was causing extreme heart palpitations. Of all the withdrawal symptoms I've had since I stopped, the heart issues have settled down after the 2 weeks off. HMMM...I'm still going through all of the same issues in life that I thought why I needed to self-medicate, Still anxious, but dealing with life better by not smoking anything. Now if I can only deal with the other symptoms of the withdrawal. Anxiety is definitely bad on the heart, but a lot worse coupled with the weed smoking or anything else for that matter.
hi,
I posted on aug 16, 08,
I am sad to say after 2months i fell back into my old ways.
After smoking pot and parliments for 10 months I cant wait to quit. This time i will quit pot alone then cigs.
I was smoking hydro the best on the eastcoast and it gave me anxiety bad, not as bad as my old post but enough to make me feel abit nuts. sorry for me and the people who read my post.
Hello all - I have just caught myself up on the posts after not visiting for a while. Tonight, I am home on my own, a bit bored and have not smoked marijuana for 123 days. So, I say to myself, maybe I will just try a little and see what it is like. (my partner is a big smoker, so there is always weed around the house.) However, instead I decide to visit my friends on Dirk's website and gosh oh golly, am I glad I did. I read a post by Stu and one by Mandi and you are all so wonderful in your open sharing!!!! I DO NOT want to go through any of this again. I am strong enough to turn away from the little green pot seducer jumping on my shoulder. I am experiencing so much less anxiety, I love myself more and hate myself rarely, I am steady, I feel like the air around me is clear rather than cloudy.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I will always check in before taking action and knowing that helps me to feel safe. I am deeply appreciative.
Wow I quit on sunday and have had horrible sweats, headaches and extremely weird dreams, I thought it was something wrong with me but I'm really glad to see I'm not alone and it's to be expected with quitting weed. This blog is really helpful and I feel much better about quitting now. Thank you very much.
I was smoking about once a week for 6 months, the last 7 days I smoked 4 times so that was intense for me. Now, the scary part was that after this week was over, I decided to take a break because I was starting to feel strange. Like, I can't put my finger on it but when I think about it I just feel something is wrong. When I keep active this "thing" is as gone, but as soon as I start to think, my thoughts always go to this problem that I can't put my finger on. I guess "Inner problems" would be a good description but the really scare part is that I did not smoke that much. And now it's 6 months later and I've been smoking a few joints after that, like once a month, but the problems won't go away. Right now I've been not smoking for one month but still when I think about it I feel something is wrong mentally with me. During the worst periods I feel a little like I'm in a bubble and it's hard to register emotions and things just don't feel as cool anymore.
I personally believe that most of the issues are caused by one constantly being worried, even though the problems aren't that serious. And you tell yourself like "Oh my god, am I going insane? Jesus christ something is wrong with me!". And that actually makes you think it's really worse than it actually is.
/J.J
Btw, during the end of my first month after my 6 month smoking "period" (smoking once a week), I had intense dreaming with multiple "false awakening" dreams. That was really scary, and another even more scary thing is that it happened on a trip to Spain, and usually when you go to another country you feel all different emotions and you analyze your new environment but I did feel none of those, that made me worried I had hurt my brain permanently, but luckily the brain is good at reparing itself.
So I'm so far down the list I don't know if anyone reads this, but I found a lot of comfort in these posts. I was just lying in bed just now and I started getting intensely angry at people in my life and couldn't sleep and I thought, "wow, am I going through withdrawal?"
Sure enough. It's weird because the craving itself is not that strong, but the side effects of quitting are very real. I have found that I have so much more energy (restlessness) that I am exercising constantly and it really does help!
Thanks to all, weed is a drug like caffeine and alcohol, and I would be very interested in knowing about long term effects of quitting. I imagine after a while, your body returns to normal. I read once that however long you smoke cigarettes, it takes that long after for your body to go back to normal.
Don't worry, everything gets read, even down here at the bottom. ;-)
Glad you found the posts useful. As for the perennial question--how long?--there's no single answer, it varies from person to person, and the length of time you were smoking heavily is only one of many metabolic factors involved.
This blog really does me good to know that others feel the same way all the symptoms. Man I am 53 and have not been out of smoke for 38 years but 3 weeks ago I said enough. and wow all the things they say are true. I know in the end it will be worth it getting this off my back but dam this is real.
As real as it gets.
And don't let anyone try to tell you pot cannot be "physically" addictive; that you're not really suffering, like an alcoholic or a heroin addict; and that you should just straighten up and fly right and stop giving marijuana a bad name. ;-)
30 days into this, and the dreams are crazy. I can't believe my mind can dream like this....
My "guy" called yesterday and wanted to make sure that I haven't changed my mind with the quitting. I said, thanks, but no thanks.
Dirk - You have been a huge part of my quitting and staying strong with this blog. Thank you, Thank you! Thanks to all that share your stories as well.
For those that don't believe this is all true. One of these days it will hit you too. It took me 32 years of smoking weed and serious heart palpitations for me to listen & finally rid myself of the denial factor.
This feels great!
"I said, thanks, but no thanks."
A French doctor once pointed out that the thing about drug addicts is that they have "lost the freedom to abstain." Looks like you have regained that crucial freedom. Congratulations.
Thankyou so much for your articles, they have helped me understand my gfs ordeal with trying to quit and helped her feel like she is not going through it alone and that the feelings are normal and will pass. I can get hold of benzodiazepines fairly easily and was wondering, in your opinion, if they would be a good idea to help through the harder parts of the withdrawal? As they would obviously help with the anxiety and depression, but then would run the risk of addiction themselves. Do you think they would also pose a higher risk of addiction in her or delay the onset of some of the withdrawal symptoms,(rather than masking them) being that they both act on the GABA receptor?
Thankyou!
That's a common question, and a tricky one. I'm not a doctor, so I can't answer such questions in individual cases. But I can say that benzodiazepines are sometimes used short-term for withdrawal from alcohol, cocaine, and other addictions.
Always a risk when you treat addiction with an addictive drug, but I think it all depends on individual circumstances. This is when I wish we could all talk openly to an open-minded primary care physician for medical advice on such matters.
I posted on Aug 1 - a small update for you.
I haven't gone back. My body is getting better as are sleep patterns and such. My mood is much better and my thoughts are clearer. I am not isolating from society - I didn't realise how much I HID behind a green haze.
I think I'm a nicer person. Short term memory is sharper. I am enjoying being straight.
I've thought about going back and trying it, don't get me wrong, but I don't want to undo all the good I've done in the past few weeks.
Sometimes I wake up after a vibrant dream thinking I've got back on it, but I figure since it stores itself in the fat it's releasing and leaving my body, giving me a little high?
The bad things I experience are ick, but they are part of the detoxing process. I smoked on and off for so long, my body doesn't know who it is when it's drug free. I believe the adjustment period will continue for some time.
I am actually scared of pot now. I never would have believed it's change to my physiology.
My face has "de-puffed" and the skin around my eyes looks the best it ever has. Too many good things are happening to stop what I'm doing.
Best of luck to you all who are giving quitting a go.
The empty space that is created can be filled up by taking your dog for a walk, going out, doing something you always wanted to, but didn't because being stoned was more important.
Life is for the living. For me, being "over" hiding out in a green haze has helped me to no end.
I saturated myself in the drug and now I can see that it changed who I really am and ... I actually like me better drug free.
Dirk, I thank you for creating this blog.
I believe that a bit more research should be done on the effects and withdrawal from this drug and it's people like you, who compile the evidence who will help lead it when it happens.
Pot is not harmless. However, I take full responsibility for the choice I made each time I picked up a bud. There is no Marijuana Monster that makes me smoke it.
I chose to.
Now I choose to not.
Peace.
Oz
Great post, Oz. Thanks.
30 days today...
I've smoked pot daily for 30 years and had most of the withdrawal symptoms posted here including day and night sweats, insomnia, loss of appetite, tinnitus, & strong anxiety. Most of these symptoms were much better or over after about 21 days for me.
Some things that helped me were peppermint chamomile tea, exercise 6 days a week, & staying busy.
I kept in mind an earlier post from a doctor who said that we have lost the freedom to abstain.
During the last 30 days there were various stressful situations that arose but I seemed to handle them better now than when I was smoking. I'm surprised that I look & feel better than I did just 30 days ago.
At one point my internet connection was down for a couple days and I realized how addicted I had become to going online, whether it was reading the news or shopping or paying bills. From this I learned my addiction is not just limited to smoking pot.
Looking forward to brighter days ahead.
Brad
Thanks Brad. A nice summation of what is a pretty common time line of reactions and effects. Readers should take heart and remember that the minute you stop, your brain starts to rearrange things, which is rough at first but I think most people get some definitely positive feedback within 3 weeks or so.
great help thx all.. i am quitting weed after 30 years pretty much every day smoking.. also an alcoholic.. dry for 4 months..no weed for 1 week.. my millionth attempt.. quit cigs 2 months back also.. for me i have to cut out all of these 3 mentioned because they all go together for me.. benzos should be a last resort in my opinion.. i tried them got hooked straight away..loved mixing them with alcohol and weed.. consequently experiencing bezerk violent episodes and suicidal depression.. i started thai boxing.. having the crap beaten out of me is strangely enough helping tons.. plus the instructor puts me through hell conditioning training.. i do believe that chronic addicts need a drastic change in their belief system.. like in AA.. higher power etc.. i dont believe in a personal god that listens particularly to the prayers of drug addicts.. but if you do.. then pray to it.. cut the using addicts out of your life.. or at least distance yourself.. try to be more curious about sobriety.. think about what your gaining not what your sacrificing...(drugs booze) and listen to dirk
"for me i have to cut out all of these 3 mentioned because they all go together for me.."
A very common occurrence. Some people have the alcohol-pot-cigarette axis firmly in place, and doing one leads to craving for the others. A hard situation, no doubt about it. More proof, not that you need it, that pan-addiction--one addict hooked on many drugs--is by no means an unusual situation. Take care, hang tough.
thx for the reply dirk.. it has occurred to me that maybe many people are looking at the drug or drugs of choice as being the problem.. drugs and booze are not my problem just a symptom of the problem.. this was confirmed to me tonight when i broke down in front of my lovely supportive non addicted girlfriend.. i didnt want to smoke or drink.. i just wanted to bury the the issues i have been hiding for so many years.. i believe that many of the so called "STRONG" people who post here commenting on how quitting is a breeze for them.. use for recreational purposes.. where as others medicate problems they should but cannot face up to alone..some of us come from places and situations far more extreme than others.. ours is a need.. not a want..
"Anonymous said...
15 years of chronic daily use.
Helped manage the Bi-polar.
The withdrawls are very real.
extreme. I am a threat to society.
Yesterday it was either the police station or the hospital or off the wagon.
I chose the doctor. Broke down in the bathroom for 2 hours hiding in a stall.
a compromise. finally the smart decision. for the first time ever in regards to quitting.
I could kill ANYBODY no problem.
I hate the world,even when im sober. A walking nightmare.
if i could i would kill everyone even if that meant for each death i had to die with them over and over. That was my mentality with an 1/8 of chronic a day.
Just imagine what it is now.
Pure Psycho.
Thats how bad the anger is.
Everyday i have at least 2 psychotic interactions with people.,
BUT im gonna push through.
Just no trips to the gun store.
if i could cut the anger out literally, i would. physical pain compares nothing to the withdrawls.
Being a cutter doesent even compare, it would be pointless, like poking a pin whole in a cruise ship
I was addicted to heroin, smoked a tun of crack, dip, cigarettes, inhaled cigars 5-6 a day and much worse. ANything to hurt myself badly.
with the strength of pot these days this has been the hardest drug to quit yet.
i did have some luck for 6 months 3 years ago with welbutrin. I suggest talking to your doctor about it. it was a miracle drug, no longer works for me. now its 3 grams of xanex to stay out of prison and not hurt anybody. All it takes is one slip up and your back to Zero.
Harvard grad.
Many major film credits
at least i dont drink...
trust me people im the sickest fuck there is and im doing it. so can you.
Weights for 1 hour a day, followed by a 5K, followed by 2 mile swim. Everyday the goal is to wear myself out. even after all of it I still could kill... no withdrawls???
ha
a lil note for the psychos who cant relate to the pansy bitches posting here.
"Low-level Flu like symptoms"
wow, what a pussy
try high level hatred, daily violence. black out rage.
poor grammer.
I have the animals, they are my friends
the best thing you can do is work out hard. try not to trade addictions, but make it through the day.
great message board
suck it up losers.
LIVE BETTER
What we have done is no way to live.
think:
no fake fights
no future fights
live better
and if your desire is for god to help you through this, then just kill yourself."
Well since i posted this it has almost been one year sober and no bullshit, it sucks. Im about 2 weeks from the mark.
It seems that i have made myself a dry drunk, but with weed. Its odd.
Anybody feel this way. My will powere has gotten me this far but lately all i think about is suicide.
Im open to suggestions.
Ive seen many therapists and psychiatrists, did not work out.
It would be sad to fall off the wagon after this long, yet my life is terrible, Sobriety did not improve it all.
Dear Dirk,I quit 16 days ago i was put on probation for 2 years for an incident , my first visit with my probation officer was last Friday and wouldn't you know it she told me i had to take a drug test right there , i was escorted to the bathroom were i had to pee in a cup in front of a male probation officer well 16 days was not enough i came up positive for cannabis, she told me i was to report to the jail house today at 10am so i can start serving 30 days in jail, i never been in jail before, i suffer from anxiety disorder I'm 49 years old and a grandfather of 2, How am i going to cope for 30 days in jail with murders, rapist, molesters,etc. yeah i was up all night scared and I'm going to miss my family, i cried all night i also stopped taking my anxiety meds same time i quit, i don't thank i can do this 30 days, what should i do , i know the cells are small and the food terrible, and i know i can not show fear when I'm there, thanks for your site, to everyone out there don't be in my position, i git out on the last week of September, i feel so down and my anxiety is out of control, and from what i was told they do not give anxiety meds in jail, i keep thanking who will they put in the cell with me, my hole body is shaking, my hart is pounding, my wife cried for me, I'm going to miss her hugs and kisses, we been married for 28 years and this is my first time with out her and my family, i hope i can cope and time flies fast, well for all who are suffering with the withdraws thank of me i will not be able to do nothing about it, well its 730 am here and i got 2 hrs left with my family, i will post when i git out, hang in there people you don't want Tobe in my shoes, off to jail i go, this will be the longest 30 days in my life. bye my friend lots of love.
You have my deepest sympathy. Nobody should be serving jail time because they pee positive for pot. What a barbaric system we have for dealing with cannabis use. Keep in touch.
Hi Mr Dirk let me start by saying that's my husbands post just above mine,I was Abel to see him in jail today (visiting hours) and he informed me about your site, and let me say he is having a hard time in jail he told me all about your site and asked me to log on and post his feelings, he had tears in his eyes and he tried very hard to maintain control, yes my husband used cannabis for over 30 yrs and it really kept his anxiety under control where other meds did not work for him, as a wife of 28 years i could tell when he was having a hard time dealing with job lost and the economy, it was helpful in some ways and yet he made the chose to quit, It was hard to see him in jail uniform and he looked so depressed and edgy, I miss him, our grand baby calls him grandpa goofy, we have 2 one is 3 years the other is just 1 month old he was so close to them , the 3 year old was over yesterday and asked all day for grandpa goofy, i was unable to tell tell her where and when he will be back, i truly feel it was unfair, he also told me he was in the same cell with a 17Th year old murder who killed 2 people just 2 months ago and how small his area was, he also told me he cried alot his first night and how he missed his grand babies, i read his post and i cried, and how helpful your site was on helping him quit, i feel so empty with my husband, and thanks alot for having such information , if it wasnt for your site and reading all the post he would not have been Abel to quit, now he has no chose but to suffer his withdrawals with out any help or support, as a wife and mother and a grandmother i truly thank you for helping him make a hard chose, keep up the site and excellent work sir, his release date is Sep 25, i will visit him everyday,and for those who want to quit and are going to the withdraws just hang in there and you will succeed, thanks again i will post his feelings when i can lots of thanks Mr Dirk we need more people like you who can truly understanding.
Thanks for your heartfelt post. I look forward to September 25th, and hope he will post here when he gets out so we can celebrate his release from such an unfair sentence.
IM 31 and have been smoking hasish for 10 years, and pretty hardcore the last 6 of those. Ive never though of thc as addictive but Ive allawysed felt that I needed it to feel "normal". In combination with a heavy gaming habbit it has really messed up my life. Have a master degree, but I just cant find motivation to even try to get a job. Four days since Ive quit now and I cant sleep eat, feel a pressure inside my chest and It feels like my brain is completely washed out of everything that can aspire happiness or feeling good,annyoed at everything, feeling like crap. I feel like a zombie lol
I love smoking, but its not for everyday use, cause if this isnt an addiction, what is?
"cause if this isnt an addiction, what is?"
I can't improve on that sentiment.
Hi again Mr Hanson, day 2 of my husbands incarceration,(tested positive for cannabis on his 17Th day he quit), just a short up date i saw my husband again to day (visiting him everyday day gits him out of his cell for a short time), i went out to the book store and got a copy of The Chemical Carousel for my husband to read, he still is the same down and depressed and also being incarcerated he has to quit his morning cup of coffee(they don't give you coffee in jail) something he has had the 31years i have known him and of course his cigarette (1 pack every 2 days was his habit)that i forgot to add on my last post, so much forced quitting for him all at once, must be so hard, especially when i know he starts his day with a cup of coffee, i also made copies of your post response for him to read and newer ones, hes become so fond of your research,for anyone quitting try giving up all your bad habits all at once with no one to turn to or for any support 28 days Togo to git the love of my life back cant thank you enough.
Oh wow, to the wife of the man incarcerated. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. I laid marijuana down on 7/20 and the withdrawal symptoms have gotten much better. But your husband is going through triple withdrawals, plus the environment is not the best. No cigs, No caffeine, and no THC. Tell him to hang in there. I quit cigarettes in 03, and caffeine about the same time. I didn't go through all of it at once, but still went through the horrible withdrawals each time. I lost my son in a car accident the following year, but never picked up a cigarette, but was self-medicating to numb my pain. I never want to go through what it took to quit. I think you are an awesome partner helping him along. It's going to be the hardest time of his life, but tell him that keeping busy with the reading will help. Keep those beautiful grandbabies in his thoughts. Faith helps. The best thing of all is that Time doesn't stop and 9/25 will be here soon.
I'm trying to get my b/f to quit the weed. Given my dad's past, my professional career and my own hatred of the smell and idea of it requires him to quit. The difficult part is that I have moved quite far away (15 hr drive) and he needs to work where he is until he finds something where I am. He is surrounded by potheads as he works with some, is friends with some and some are family. He says he's quitting but I know he's smoking up quite often even though he hides the fact and lies about it and it makes me feel he's not taking it seriously. I've even gone to the point of saying I won't accept a ring til he's quit. But the pot still comes before me. Need help helping him...
When does regular drug use shade into drug addiction? Some people say it's when a person starts to lie about it.
But what can I do to help him control his rubber arm?
Nothing made me quit until I was ready. The same with cigarette smoking, until one is ready to quit. Nothing anyone says will force them to quit. It's a hard addiction to give up. I wish you luck.
Great forum. Thank you Dirk!I have read every post and it has helped me cope. I am on day 11 without any weed.Quiting has been harder than I ever imagined. I quit cigarettes about 7 years ago and that was a cake-walk compared to quitting smoking pot. I have smoked weed daily for 25 years. All my close friends smoke too, so that makes it doubly difficult. Thankfully I haven't experienced all of the symptoms that some people seem to, but the insomnia is brutal. And when I do manage to fall asleep, oh, the dreams! Nightmares mostly, actually. I don't have the anxiety many others report but the depression is definitely there. I feel like I have a mild flu too. No energy and a feeling of constant malaise. And I crave it about ten times a day but so far I haven't given in. I am also experiencing the sweating and temperture fluctuations so many others seem to get. Appetite remains normal as well as libido and no stomach or bowel pains (thank God!)
Dirk, the worst of it is the depression and the dreams. How long might I expect to feel this way? I know everyone is different but what's the ballpark expectation of length of time for these withdrawal symptoms. Some days I wonder if the cure is worse than the disease but I refuse to give up since i've come this far. I guess I'm just hoping the worst is over. Thank you to everyone who posted here. It helps more than you know.
I think it's pretty similar to the generic average timeline found with cigarettes or alcohol. Most people can expect a rocky 30 days,even if the worst is often over in a week or so. Cravings can come at you long after quitting. Your mileage may vary.
Hi all, so glad I found this site, long story short. I got diagnosed with a dissasociative disorder which I'd had for the last 4 years. Its being treated (with reasonable sucess) with all sorts of combnations of anti-psychotics and SSRI's.
I recently realised I'd been trying to blot everything out with alcohol, then dope, then the two together for about 4 years solid.. Just quit about a week ago and was feeling so incredibly dead inside, snapping at my girl, blaming her for stuff, flying into random rages (I stopped my car in heavy traffic in the middle of a crowded city street to get outside and stamp my satnav to pieces. Although to be fair it had failed to get a GPS signal for 12 minutes :P ). Thanks for everyone who posted their experiences on here - knowing that hundreds of people have suffered the same and come through is so helpful and makes me know I can do it.
"flying into random rages"
This is the one that spouses, family and significant others have to suffer right along with you. It's an important and very diagnostic side effect.
Post a Comment