I started smoking when I was very young (13) I am 34 now.
Even after losing 2 girl-friends and 1 really nice job I couldnt stay off.
I had tried to quit over 40 times in my life and never was able to keep the willpower in check
I found that when I was off, that anytime it was offered it seemed almost as if it felt like home and I continued to smoke.
I have found that when trying to quit:
1. I would find ways to make excuses to start again, anything my significant other would do to annoy me would be amplified and completey turn me into a jerk which would end in a fight and me runnign off to get anotehr bag so I could "calm down"
Friends who smoked with me on a regular basis would be confused and come over and offer me pot, I think this is mostly due to a "I can't quit so you can't either feeling" and as most of you know, it is a culture thing. Most of my friends smoke weed 4-10 times a day just like I did. It is almost like they feel betrayed.
Friends would try to talk me out of it.
"You have a good job and a 3.8 GPA, they dont drug test so why would you want to quit smoking?"
I am ADHD as well, so I made excuses to myself:
"When Im high I'm not hyper ".
All of these things made me falter.
These are the things you have to be set on
Remember Willpower comes and goes you need to set your lifestyle up for success!
.
1. You can't quit if you tell yourself this is only for a little while. You have to know you are tired of the lifestyle and the dependency of marijuana to keep you from being mean. Otherwise, you will falter the first time someone offers you any. You have to be serious!
2. You have to tell your dealer you are done and not to contact you for a while. If yours is a friend like mine was for years, they will understand. If they don't then tell them you'll call the cops on them, that will be enough to keep them away. (I am not in favor of turning people in for something I think should be legal)
3. Don't hang out with friends who current smokers or "trying to quit". Addicts have a way of talking each other into just getting a "little bit", which will lead to you saying "well I already screwed up, I might as well go get a bag". You dont ahve to stay away forever, at least a month.
4. Let your partner know how important this is. Let them know you may be edgy and to just deal with it. If they love you they can put up with you for 2 weeks of being overly sensitive and snappy. If they can't or they antagonize you, it may be time to go to the `rents house for a few weeks or get a "by the week motel"
5. If you have trouble sleeping, take 1-2 Benedryl it is relatively harmless, is not addictive, and will make you tired. Do this about 1.5 hours before you want to sleep. (Its just an allergy medicine)
6. A glass of wine will take the edge off, this does not mean "Get drunk". Only take this route if you’re tempted to go buy a bag. Alcoholism is a much worse disease and not to be used to replace this dependency.
7. You have to cope with the fact that you will have emotional issues for 1-6 days after you quit. You HAVE to keep this in mind when dealing with others especially co-workers. Very small things will set you off.
8. Other symptoms including anxiety can last from 10-18 days. Most long term addicts hear, "Its not addictive" and wonder why they are still anxious over 2 weeks later. This makes them wonder "will this last forever" and leads to more of a defeatist look.
9. Dont try to quit smoking cigarettes at the same time. It is to much of a journey and almost doomed for failure. Quit the weed first, otherwise you will get high your resolve will fail since your high and you will start smoking cigarettes again.
10. Hypnosis helps. it will not make the withdrawals go away.
11.Make real reasons why you want to quit and keep that list in your wallet or purse. Anytime you feel like you want to give up and smoke again, read that list. Also put the people on that list that depend on you. Making this so you are doing it for more than yourself helps quite a bit. This way you can’t say. "I just wanted to quit just because". That wont get you through a "jonsin"
This is my list for success.
Quitting sucks, but within a month you will wonder how much of your life you lost while being high.
Its one of the proudest things I was able to do. I had been smoking every day for over half my life.
I’m now 74 days clean.
Thank you IfinallyQuit. I am going down the long hard road of recovery as well. To all who say weed is not addictive, obviously you guys are different then the tons of other people on this site. I thought I was unable to get addicted to THC as well, until last night when I went off on my wife over one of the most stupid reasons in the world. Not to mention my constant road rage and road paranoia.
I've been clean for a little over two weeks now and the paranoia is starting to go away a bit, I still have this little uneasiness when around alot of people, I feel like people are either looking at me judging me or are looking at me for no reason. I never had this feeling before smoking! I hate sitting at red lights with a car right next to me, I get the worse paranoia, I want to look over at the other car to see if someone is looking through my window at me, but I am so paranoid that I can't bring myself to turn my head and look, so I just sit white knuckling the steering wheel praying the light will turn green so I can speed off.
It is so crazy that I found this site, I am so happy that I did. I was starting to think something was wrong with me. The cravings for THC are amazing. All it takes is one little thing to upset you and your mind immediately tells you to go back to smoking so you can make it all "go away".
My wife and I quite smoking at the end of October but we couldn't stay sober. We argues alot, we got depressed together, she couldn't sleep, and yeah we lost a lot of friends. I decided for myself that I wanted to quit in November to start making a future for myself. My wife on the other hand has now set her new target quit date for the end of the year, and says she will ween herself off of it, I hope she can stick to that becasue her smoking in the house only tempts me even more, maybe it will make me a stronger quitter? As of now I still have paranoia, I sleep fine just really vivid dreams, I got my first headache/earache last night, I lost my hunger for dinner, I was feeling depressed for a bit, and I was feeling very unmotivated.
Too all who read this, venting really does help. Prayer helped me alot also. I wanted to smoke so badly today after I got off of work, I saw Ifinallyquit's post decided to reply and my desire to smoke has subsided. Thank you again for sharing!