Well done on making it to day 6. I'm on and off the forum and I'm still struggling to quit permanently. I always want to quit but am lacking the internal resources to really make the break. I quit for a month but have been smoking again for the last couple of weeks and it's back to every day again with the same old c**p of eating loads and feeling like sh*t! I'm finding it very hard to tolerate how miserable I am without it and I just can't muster the motivation even though every day when I wake up I think 'today is the day'.
The depressive spells will subside. I found the first week or so the worst and then after that it was more of just trying to maintain my position and trying to get a good night's sleep! I should add I'm grieving over the loss of one of my sisters at Xmas so although I won't use it as an excuse I am trying to be logical about the limits of what I'm capable of at the moment (although perhaps it is an excuse deep down).
I have a small amount (a few nights at most) left and I have resolved not to buy any more. Whether I can quit tonight, tomorrow or in a couple of days time who knows but I will get there and you will too.
If you don't mind me asking why did you smoke? Mine was recreational to start with (about a decade ago) and then progressed to smoking every day as a way to deal with sh*t in my life. Obviously weed doesn't deal with any sh*t in one's life but I was able to convince myself it did. I'm not in any denial anymore but I just can't make the permanent break.
Anyway, good to touch base with someone who is in their early stages and hopefully I will be able to post that I have had a successful first day soon.
dealing with the physical process of quitting is different from dealing with the psychological process. "they" say weed is not addictive compared to other drugs but as long as your doing it everyday and having a hard time quitting, it is an addiction, we can argue about semantics on another forum, but it is addictive, habitual, whatever. it is a challenge to quit but it is well worth it in the long run. you don't even need the mindset that you will NEVER smoke weed again, but atleast that you don't need it right now at this point in life. I can say I've had alot of fun smoking weed but like most things, this sh*t gets old. im not trying to enhance my life or anything from quitting but just need a change in scenary. good luck all.
Nice to read other peoples story so I will share mine.
Currently I'm on Day 4 and this is my first time seriously quitting. I have been smoking everyday since 16 and I'm now 26. There has been times I didn't smoke for a week or so because of vacation so it wasn't voluntary. My main reason of quitting is that I am not happy with my social life. Outside of my smoking buddies, I don't have much friends if any at all. I have tons of acquaintances but no friends that I really hang out with. My social life is so bad that I haven't had a serious girlfriend in almost 4 years. o.O I've had a couple one night stands during those 4 years but I don't find that fulfilling at all.
My people skills has really taken a hit and I'm really bad with women now. i don't know what it is. I think its that I'm so high all the time that I never really pick up on a woman's cues until after the fact. I don't enjoy being around people anymore unless its with my smoking buddies. I dislike going to parties or any social functions as I really don't want to talk or meet new people. To me, that was a lot of work while being high and I'd rather just be high. I would rather get high as can be and stay home, watch TV, play video games or surf the net. You know, loner activities. Being high all day everyday, I was content with that. Weekends come and go and I just sit at home hitting my pipe or smoking a J watching life pass me by.
Last January, I decided to improve my social life and hopefully meet a girl I could click with. Instead of facing my addiction, I took another route by deciding to lose weight. At 220lbs and around 30% body fat, I knew losing weight it would be much easier to attract women. Fast forward to present, I am much leaner standing at 175lbs. I hit the gym 5 days a week lifting heavy weights and a ton of cardio coupled with a strict diet counting every calorie. Although I am getting much more attention and getting compliments left and right, my social life is still shitty. Honestly, I still cant believe i had the discipline to clean up my diet and workout as hard as I do and lose a good amount of weight.
I've come to realize that although I have a new body, I'm still the same person mentally. I still have the same habits of getting stoned off my ass and wanting to just stay home and not be social. I'm still uncomfortable being in social situations and I would rather just be high off my ass being a loner that I am. To tell you the truth, I'm getting sick of it. Yes I am getting much more attention from women, but I dont do anything with it, or I'm just scared to make that move and ask a girl out. The bank teller at my work noticed how great I look nowadays and she flirts with me and calls me sexy whenever I come in. But I'm always high when I go and I can never pull the trigger and say "hey, we should hang out sometime, how about you give me your phone number and we'll do something this weekend?" I know shes into me and theres noway she will shoot me down but I can never get myself to go after her. I'm so effin lame!
This is the time I face my addiction in full force and get my life back! If I can change my lifestyle by eating right and lifting weights on the regular than this marijuana addiction I have should be a walk in the park. I will do anything to get myself out of my shell and if that means breaking up with mary jane, than it has to be done.
Going into Day 5 sober, I can already feel some positive effects. I have much more energy and I'm feeling a bit more social than usual. I'm still crave to light up but I know this is bigger than Mary Jane, this is my life. I cant go on living like a hermit and its time to finally let go of my best friend, Mary Jane.
I applaud you on your goal to give up the herb and sincerely wish you success, but I'm unnerved that you wish to continue throwing people in jail over it. I'm a 36 year old PhD medicinal chemist. I've smoked marijuana for the better part of my life. I'd be the first to admit that when the drug is overused it is a problem...but then what isn't? Alcohol..Nope. Cigs...Nope. Xanax..Nope. You see my point? Marijuana is only as dangerous as the person using it. You chose to use marijuana in the fashion that you did. No one else made you do it. I have also at times been a major pot head, but I've also learned to not demonize the drug when it gets out of hand because the plant hasn't changed...it's me over using it. It's also me and my ill power that brings the drug use back into allignment...even if that means taking a break for a while...and if it was a real problem to me I'd also be trying to quit.
So again. I sincerely applaud you on your efforts to quit, but how wrong is it to force your view on others? People have used this plant for thousands of years....perfectly fine.
Please rethink your position on this stance. It's not for you. We all get that and support that. Plenty of people don't drink, but we aren't out trying to make alcohol illegal just because we don't agree with it.
I also don't smoke cigs, but I don't think they should be illegal either....just food for thought!
Live and let live brother!
You don't need to respond as I only signed up on this board to respond to your post.
Texashound wrote:
breebree89 wrote:
qajaq wrote:
Our counter-culture society has protrayed the herb as something good and unjustly crimminalized. But the way I see it now is that it is a drug and hope that it is NEVER legalized!
because you're having a hard time quitting, you think its bad and should never be legalized? Nice.
qajaq wrote:Sorry for the long-winded post. I hope that all trying to get rid of the herb from their lives find success.
I have an extremely successful life and I partially thank smoking marijuana for it.
Then why don't you find a board celebrating weed smoking and sign up rather than raining contempt down on those fellow weed hounds trying to quit?
First post here. I've read most of this thread and have to say, I applaud you guys for trying to better yourselves and kick the habit. It's hard but just gotta keep going.
I started smoking 3 years ago or so. Started just smoking a few times a month, then a few times a week, then smoking nightly to wake and bake, smoking on my lunch break at work and just being high all day. I really don't like the term, but I don't have any problem in saying I'm a absolute pothead. I have a bunch of reasons on why I need to quit.
Money, so tired of giving 60-100 dollars a month to shady drug dealers. That money really adds up. And while my dealer is living large with cash falling out of his pockets, new wheels on his car and the freshest of clothes. I'm struggling to buy grocerys and make ends meet. That 100 extra dollars will be a huge help each month.
I'm a big time bicycle rider. During cycle season I ride 5-6 days a week. And while I've been a smoker and still cycled I know it absoultly has affected my performance. So with cycling season coming up in a few months I want to see what I can really do, I have a lot of potential and have to not keep letting marijuana hold me back. I want to do more races next year and know with clean lungs and a clear head I can't be stopped.
Munchies! They are a total killer, working out hard and eating right for 9 months and it can all go out the window after a month of munchie binges. I'm tired of the rollercoaster of getting in shape, being in great shape over the summer then winter comes and I add back on 10 pounds. It makes it that much harder to get back to where I was. It's much easier to ADD weight then to LOSE it. I'm tired of playing that game.
One of my last reasons is my new job. This new job as lots of potential for advancement and it really could be my ticket to a great solid future. Weed could totally mess everything up, they do random drug testing there and a serious no drug use policy. I'd lose my job without possibility of being rehired. Losing this upcomig job over weed just isnt worth it. Too important.
So I know its going to be tempting, especially cause I still have 4-5 bowls worth of green sitting in my jar at home, but I just have to keep telling myself weed, while fun, itsnt worth all the I'll effects. It's going to be difficult but I know without a doubt I can do it.
I'm going to bookmark this page and keep updating on my progress. Please keep the support flowing you guys. This site is a great tool for keeping motivated!
Skunkwerks. I read your story, and i totally understand what you are going thru. so funny how we all think soo much alike.
so yeah..
today is day 1 again.....
here we go again. FML
It's either going to take a serious health scare or a genuine realization that pot is ruling your life to quit. Cold turkey is the only logical way to do it. The concept that one will ween themself off of something is a setup for failure unless you are talking about a baby and their pacifier. You are an adult (hopefuly) and are either ready to quit or not. It may take several tries until you realize what being ready to quit really means for you, but thats what it's all about.
First of all I have been smoking off an on since I was 17 and I am 30 now, the longest I quit was about 4 years from 23 to 27-28. I have ADD and addictive personallity and I think that I might have attempted quitting a lot more than most (probably over 100 times).
The way it would work out is that I would try and pace it out so literally the last of the bag was with my head on the pillow before sleep. Then first thing in the morning I would wake up and panic hard because I was not ready to take the plunge and would call tons of people trying to get more. Then I would just get a 20 because I really just wanted like only wanted a bowl and instantly after smoking I would regret buying ANOTHER bag. I would then promptly blast through that even in 1 day so that I can attempt to quit again as soon as possible. This would cycle for MONTHS and would literally be broke by the time I managed a week or more. Then after a few months I would think that whats 1 hit gonna do, then two weeks later another hit, then next week another, then next weekend it would be Fri and Sat and soon I was back ripping through twenty sacks.It was worse even when they were like why you buying so much? If you gonna buy every other day, get a 40 sack. Well I would just smoke even more to get back to another quit attempt.
Now there are plenty of good reasons to quit on here but I have another one that I think might be the best reason of all and I have never heard anyone say it. It's a concept that I came to be aware of after successfully quitting for years or months multiple times.
A good start would be to explain that most of the time I have smoked in my life I really felt like the only time I actually enjoyed it was when smoke was deep in my lungs till about 15 min later and I would feel basically sober again and looking forward to next hit. It made things like going out with friends much less enjoyable because everything had to be planned around smoking. I would almost not go out at night since I knew most of the time I was there I would be checking time till my next bowl.
So one way to visualize this would be think of a X Y graph with a solid horizontal line up there which is your happiness level when you are sober, consistent and constant doing anything (to an extent but like everyday normal things are fun again so its like a stable base line). However think about another line that only occasionally spikes above this line but most is at a very sub par even uncontent level and those spikes above the line are when you are literally at that moment smoking up. Basically I'm saying that being high is an illlusion or even a lie since when if experience side by side to sober, weed is mostly unsatisfactory all day long compared to being sober and consistently happy. It really is like this and the euphoria of the 15 minutes just sorta makes you blind and addicted.
Now the best way in my opinion and the easiest way to quit is set a goal for 10 days (been sorta stated before on here). Thats a good number or even 7 days will work. The reason why to set that time is because if you set for a couple months or even a month before you can smoke again, It is likely you might put off the actual time for even years! Also, since its much more reasonable number, you will have an easier time actually experiencing the first 3-4 days which are the worst since by then you already are close to your goal date and this way you wont put off actually experience the first 3-4 days for years.
One more thing about quitting which greatly helps me and makes it almost easy is if you conceptualize it not as something to dread but something to anticipate and here is why. Imagine I was to say to you "I have this wonder drug here that was just discovered and the positive side effects are, greatly boosts motivation, lots more confidence with women/men, more outgoing, more endurance, more energy, smarter, better memory, thinking clearer, eating better, more alert, much more witty and better sense of humor, less anxiety, better sleep, vivid dreams, better at learning, desire to exercise, more positive and able to look more to your future and set goals and many more as well. However to try this new wonder drug you must abstain from THC since that deactivates the effects". To be honest that sounds like a more fun drug to me than weed is and it really happens that way and starts only days after you quit. (hehe the pill was saline :) )
If you think about it like that you have even less to lose than if you kept smoking because some of these things like the vivid dreams and energy and confidence and motivation really do feel like drugs in themselves. I am on day 7 now and am starting to really feel some of it and I am totally stoked even in spite of some of the negatives like appetite and sleep. I just totally stunned myself cause yesterday I felt blah and today I was like witty without even trying and cracked up my co workers which I haven't really done or cared to do in ages.
It's totally fun to experience the world from a different perspective than you normally are and the best part about this like 10 day goal is that not only did you actually start the 10 days because it was reasonable and in addition to experiencing these super improvements to your brain that get better by day which is totally a drug in itself. You really do have nothing to lose because each day you last will greatly lower your tolerance and so if you do decide to reward yourself at the end, it will be far better when you actually try it again.
However, one thing I know in the back of my mind is that when I actually make it the 10 days, I will be loving the side effects and the not living from fix to fix so much that I it will be very easy and fun to keep pushing back the date and finding out all the other positives.
The very last thing I would like to address is the common scary thought all stoners have. What on earth am I gonna do when am not smoking, I will be so bored in my day, I sit at my computer all day and I just wont have anything to make it interesting. This simply isn't scary like you think because smoking is actually what made doing nothing interesting. The reality is that concept doesn't even occur to you sober since most everything is pretty interesting and fun (remember the sober baseline?) You actually are probably bored BECAUSE your smoking weed and you're just coming down and that next fix will make it interesting again. You simply stop thinking about it altogether so being scared cause you don't know what you will do without it is pretty ridiculous.
Hope this helps
Thanks for all the posts, I've read almost all of them.
And hope some of my tips on how to conceptualize it helped.
sorry this was long :)
My story isn't as elaborate a some of the ones posted here.
Junior year in high school I became buddies with some people who I thought were my friends. They introduced me to marijuana and it was profound. Profound in the sense that it gave me an escape from my life as a minor, as a high school student, as an overweight teenager, and even as different from those who I was trying so hard to become friends with. Over time, the habit stuck with me. I began selling to smoke for free as so many people do. I started to go to school high, and became known as the kid who was a pothead. After I graduated, I was excited to go to college and was motivated to have the best start I could. I quit, worked out consistently, ate right, and spent more time not smoking weed during the summer. Then I began smoking again after college began. My first semester grades went to sh*t, so I quit for a semester and got prescribed adderall. I did really well in school, and had a good summer. Now I am living with a housemate who is a serious addict to many many drugs. Thankfully we both have singles, and are not sharing a room. Today will be my second day not smoking the reefer. 2013 will be a good pot free year so long as I can fight off the urge for the rest of the week. After that, I think I will yet again realize how it feels to work for a reward as opposed to buying it.
Smoke some herb, for the love of god.
So go to a "conventional" doctor, and he can write you some good ole pharmies with loads of side effects to conquer what the weed can already do....and its natural. Made organic by God. ?????