Marijuana Withdrawals, Quitting Smoking

I'm doing the same thing. This response comes about 10 or 11 days after quitting. I've been daily and multiple times per day for almost 10 years. There is only one way, just quit. It is hard, one thing I have considered is getting a prescription to Zyban or something similar to reduce the anxiety. I'm not irritable, but I do get the hot flashes, jitters, loss of appetite (lost 10 lbs already), and loss of sleep, so far I've slept about 12 hours over the last ten or eleven days.

The most difficult thing for you is that you are on a college campus, very easy to find and I would guess your friends are also smokers. So far I have destroyed all my pieces, threw out my papers, and deleted the numbers of all contacts I had.

You can also contact marijuana anonymous: http://www.marijuana-anonymous.org

Best of luck, I'm sure you can do it. Plus you save yourself the trouble of doing it for 10 years then trying to quit.

I have been smoking on and off for about 15 years. First you must really want to quite. I have quite before. The best way is to slowly take yourself off it. Go with the flow of loss of sleep, it will only last a week with sweats and increased appetite will follow. Yes you will have a hollow feeling in you stomach, like no matter what you eat you just can't get full. I suggest, rent movies, turn off the phone and lay low for about 4 days or a week. You will then notice it's not so bad. Take up a new hobbie. Internet, video games, working out is good. THC(Found in Pot) is not that pyhically addctive. Not as bad as nicotine. Takes 3 days to get over the physical side FX the rest is mental. However THC can be stored in you fat cells for months so it's best you sweat . Go enjoy a Hot tub or sauna or just simply workout or have sex. You'll be fine. You can do it. If you are having alot of trouble sleeping try having a drink. Like wine. It'll take the edge. :-P

There is no such thing as physical dependence on cannabis.

Any symptoms you find are psychological, you think, hey I have been using this drug heavily for a long time now, I can't just go cold turkey without side-effects. Well thats the thing with weed, you can.

Guest wrote:

Dr. Danco wrote:

I am a heavy smoker. I've only been smoking pot excessively for about a year now, but it has now gotten to the point where I am physically dependent on it. I am afraid to quit just yet because I am a college student and I think if I were to quit I would be sick for some time and I would fall behind in school and work. When I don't have marijuana for even ONE day I experience insomnia, extreme nausea, loss of apetite, hot flashes, extreme anxiety, and an overall bad mood. I'm downright unpleasant to be around when I'm not high, but when I am high the symptoms disappear almost immediatly. Anyone have any suggestions. Smoking less and less and eventually none: is that a good way to do it?

There is no such thing as physical dependence on cannabis.
Any symptoms you find are psychological, you think, hey I have been using this drug heavily for a long time now, I can't just go cold turkey without side-effects. Well thats the thing with weed, you can.

The guy that wrote this is wrong.

 

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Yes he is very wrong. I am quitting right now and I have quit smoking cigarettes in the past (going on 5 years this year) and for me it is MUCH MUCH harder to quit smoking pot than cigs. I know quite a few people who have gone to rehab to get through over this drug and have talked to many people over the internet who are ALL going through the SAME symptoms. I think telling people that there are no marijuana withdrawal symptoms is also adding to the idea that cannabis doesn't have any long term affects, which doesn't help the people out there trying to quit as they will use those excuses to justify the continued use of the drug. I am on day 3, haven't slept much, EXTREMELY irritable and food down right grosses me out (lost 4 pounds in 3 days). Don't let people like that get you down and keep trying, eventually you will get through it.

I have been a heavy smoker for 6 years. I have tried unsuccessfully to quit before. I have gone through 2 pregnancies stoned out of my mind. You do not want that. QUIT COLD TURKEY. it is the only way. If you just cut back you will be tricking yourself and you will eventually go back to the drug. 10 days to feeling better isn't a lot. It took you at least a month to get used to doing the drug. Remember how weird and not yourself your felt the first time you got high. Well that is how you will feel maybe even worse the first day you quit weed. Stay strong and do not go back. PLAN FOR YOUR SUCCESS AND CUTTING BACK IS NOT SUCCESS.

Ok... first of all I have been a CONSISTANT WEED SMOKER 4 OVER 10 years.... the only time I stopped smoking was when I was pregnant with my son... right now I am on my 32nd day of sobriety.... ONLY BECAUSE I WANTED TO.... ther is no such thing as a physical dependence on weed... NO MATTER WHAT PPL R GOIN THRU... if ur ready stop smokin then u can stop... HOWEVER I will say that since I have stopped smokin weed I have had serious insomnia.... other then that there are no SERIOUS SIDE EFFECTS.... and to the really "smart" person who figures it is harder to stop smoking cigs then weed.... BABY THAT'S JUST U... I have been a cigarette smoker for the past 12 years and I CANNOT STOP CIGS.... its not happening..... no matter how bad I want to.... the THC in weed is totally different then the nicotine in cigs.... do some research...... I am the biggest fan of weed and even though I have made a decision to stop smoking there are still some things that are being said that just ARE NOT TRUE.... go do some homework... weed is psycological.... NOT physical.... its not crack or heroin or meth.... its WEED....

Anyone saying that Cannabis is physically addictive at all is quite simply put, a fool. I smoked almost every day for well over a year and When I need to quit for any period of time... it is simple, you just don't smoke. There is no physical addiction to Marijuana, you are simply promoting propaganda against Marijuana if you say otherwise.

For anyone who says that there are no physical effects from smoking weed, but then says they are going through some level of insomnia needs to read their comment before posting. If you are going through insomnia (which I am going through right now), well, isn't that a physical side effect? When you don't sleep, you become irritable, then you can't eat, you are rude to EVERYONE, etc... I call that physical side effects, but I do agree that the only way to quit is by wanting to quit, and also remember that everyone is different, you may not go through any symptoms, for me cigs WERE easier to quit then weed. I smoked for about 13 years and when you go that long with anything, it's hard to quit. Right now I average around 3 hours sleep a night and it's been that way for the past 2 months. I hear people saying 10 days and that may be the case for a casual smoker, but if you are dedicated to it, then it will take some time to train your body to live without weed again. Like I said, you can only quit if you want to and it will be hard, but it's better than continuing to smoke and not accomplish anything in life, except eating a LOT of fast food and LOTS of procrastination( not sure on spelling).

Well I quit smoking pot and it wasn't a problem at all i had little to no side effects. I was a daily smoker when I quit, and i just did it cold turkey haven't smoked in about three years. I just deleted all my phone contacts of pot dealers (I had a list of around 20) and then also stopped associating with people that smoked pot. Many of these people were my best buds, who i smoked with every week, this was probably harder than the physical process of quitting. Eventually, after a month or so, I had a new group of friends who were drug free. I still think about my old friends, but I don't want to smoke pot, therefore it was worth breaking it off with them. I know everyone needs to be attached to other people both intimately and casually, but everyone needs to understand that you can break off attachments and burn bridges, leave people behind when they don't do anything good for you. Fire them from your life - there is literally hundreds of millions of other people out there.

I was a heavy pot smoker (heavy as in, everyday all day. sometimes through extreme devices like 6' bongs and gravity bongs made of 5 gallon water containers!!!) for almost 20 years. I am 34 now. For many, many years pot relaxed me. It made me a little focused (yes, I have A.D.D.). It definitely helped me sleep. And it just took the edge off stress overall. Somewhere in my late 20's to early 30's, I started having anxiety from time to time. Then it worsened. For no reason, my heart would just start pounding out of my chest and I thought I would have a heart attack. Sometimes to the point of panic (not sure if I ever experienced a full blown panic attack... I am not educated in that area). But I got used to it. I didn't know where is what coming from and really didn't research it. I accepted it as it became a daily thing, and when the anxiety would come I would just stay calm and turn my focus to something else until it subsided. A few months ago, I was traveling and had no access to pot for a whole week for the first time since I started smoking daily at 15. Insomnia was not a factor as it was a partying trip and I was just drinking myself to sleep nightly. When I got access to it again (I rejoiced of course), I took a few tokes and immediately my heart began beating out of my chest (worse than I ever remembered). At that moment I finally made the connection. I hadn't realized it, but I hadn't had a moment of anxiety or heavy heart pounding for that week that I was off the pot. For a few weeks, I battled with trying to quit as it had been a daily regiment of mine almost my whole life. Finally, about 40 days ago, I quit and I know I will never smoke it again. Any time my mind tries to tempt me, my heart starts to race a little and the thought of having anxiety and my heart pounding out of my chest far outweigh the want for the high. Anyway, as far as side effect go... Yes, I have had extreme insomnia since I quit. And I have extremely bothersome, lucid nightmares. At first I thought it was a side effect of the pot withdrawal. But then I realized that when I was young (before I began smoking pot) I had very lucid nightmares all the time and I was an insomniac. So, my hypothesis is this: I have a sleep disorder. And marijuana (for me) was the cure for many years. But now that pot effects other parts of me negatively, I need to find a new cure for my sleeping disorder. My position is: I don't really think there are any real side effects when quitting marijuana. And for anyone that is thinking about quitting. Its really not as hard as you think. It may have been easier for me because I noticed some negative effects that it had on me. But really... there was fun in life before pot. And there is fun in life after it as well...

ive just quit smoking weed and ive got heaps of anxiety and insomnea. ive been a everyday smoker for about 1 year and weekend smoke for about 4 years before that... anyone know how long these withdrawls would last? im going mental!! and really cant afford to keep smoking

Marijuana withdrawal has a physical component along with the psychological manifestations. A purely psychological addiction would be something like video game or Internet addiction. You do not ingest your PS3 or laptop, but may miss the activity when you draw down time spent. Pot like alcohol, crack, heroin, ambien or virtually any drug you introduce to your system in the form of habitual use can become as much of a physical dependence. The anectodal stories of people quitting cold turkey posted here are simply that: subjective testimony. Quitting marijuana for the first 10 to 14 days presents acute symptoms in the form of insomnia, iritability, brain fog, etc. This isn't propaganda, it's fact. Because a substance will cause withdrawal symptoms when cessation begins has no bearing on the debatable benign category some pot fans have endorsed in this thread. Especially the people who continually make claims that something they routinely put in their body will produce no adverse results when they quit. The poster who called us all fools should smoke every day until the sh*t kills him or her.

marijuana is not addicting. it does not have any ingridients which can make it addicting. it is only a psychological thing. there is no medical proof of any physical additives. so before you start saying ppl are wrong research your stuff first :-)