stopped smoking marijuana, withdrawals?

Research has shown that there are withdrawals from long-term marijuana use. Withdrawal symptoms to marijuana can be somewhat characterized as the opposite to the intoxicating effects of the drug…instead of hunger, a loss of appetite, and instead of drowsiness, an inability to sleep.

Some additional symptoms of marijuana withdrawal can include headache, nausea, anxiety (common) paranoia and even irritability or aggression.

Exercise is very commonly promoted as an effective way to reduce the severity of experienced withdrawal symptoms, and as well as a way to keep yourself busy enough to reduce the cravings back to use. Exercise can help fatigue your body making sleep easier, may stimulate your appetite, and can also release endorphins that can help with some of the feelings of irritability and lethargy.

Some drug treatment professionals advocate saunas as a way to rid the body of metabolites of the drug, although there is no clear consensus on the real efficacy of this routine. It can't hurt though, and it may make you feel better. If symptoms persist, you should definately seek medical attention.

i to am going through withdrawal seven days now seven year stoner! every day about four hundred to five hundred dollars a month! i have been having severe withdrawal symptoms! i can say scuide was a thought for the first two days but me being a christian and scared of going to hell i would never do that. im too afraid to die! anxiety depression loss of appetite. loss of sleep. irritablity all of them! i just want it to be over all ready! i havent really had any cravings. yes i would like to smoke so all of this would go away but i know in the long run i will just have to go through this again!! its not fun and its really hard. i have friends that are laughing saying weed withdrawals. . . no such thing. but if you have been dependant on something for so long to make you happy then you will. i want to find someone who is going through the same thing so i dont feel so crazy. sometimes i feel i am losing my mind!!!!! i am an addict and always will be i love weed but when the drug starts using you its not fun anymore. i coudnt do anything without smoking a bowl or joint first. before i left the house i would smoke, when i got home i would smoke! wake and bake oh yeah!!! couldnt sleep without getting high first! i would smoke a bowl and say"im not where i wannna be yet" and smoke more!! i just cant believe i let my world revolve around pot that bad! my husban would see me withdrawaling and not really know what was going on, and say go smoke a bowl if your gonnna be like this!! i hope i can get through this. it makes it that much worse when my dad is a stoner and has been for the last twenty years, i feel i am disappointing him by quiting cause thats what makes us so close!!! im rambling on and on!! like i said i just want it to be over with already!its exhuasting! tired of feeling like a crazy person! im taking xanex for the anxiety its not really helping but at least it takes the edge off a bit!!well if any one can help me give me some support so i can get through this it would much appreciated!!! and i know if i can make it this far with my love of weed anyone can!i just wanna be able to say i havent smoked for six months and im fine!!! i found a new addiction herbal teas there great

Hi, i've been going through a very similar set of withdrawal symptoms. So, after smoking fairly heavily (3 0r 4 an evening almost every day for 5 years,) i cut down to one or two. Apart from 2 crazy highs resulting in a panic attack within those 5 years i have never suffered from 'anxiety' or panic attacks. However, i should have taken them as a sign for whats to come.

Right, so when i really cut down to a tiny tiny bit before bed (barely a joint) i started to get anxiety. My breathing was screwed, it felt like my heart was racing bla bla all the usual anxious stuff. So, i went completely cold turkey, also quitting the tobacco us English use in joints. This, in retrospect was a terrible idea. I had 4 or 5 panic attacks a day for the first 2 months, then..almost instantly i stopped thinking about being anxious...and it went away!! hurrah!! i have always been a regular drinker, but i rarely binge.

Here came the next problem, after feeling f*****g fantastic (and i will point out however amazing weed is, it's never the same if you smoke it often) i was going out and having a great time. Even alone i never once became properly anxious, went to work as normal etc...

Then BOOM! after a particularly heavy drinking session i stupidly stupidly had 2 tokes on a joint, and it all came flooding back, only this time i was having less panic attacks but feelig constantly anxious and dizzy, almost vertigo-in ilk. That was 7 days ago, i'm still feeling very unbalanced especially when moving around.

Has anyone else suffered from this dizzy sensation? i checked the old blood pressure and sugar levels and they're fine. I did have a cold or virus when i went out drinking, has anyone had a virus that makes you feel vertigo for several days??

Anyway, if you've never smoked marajuana regularly...DONT, because once you do the choices are 1.) smoke it constantly for the rest of your life and hope for the best or 2> it will catch up with you, especially when you take a break or decide to quit.

p.s. If like me you smoked for a long period of time and quit, the good thing is that you become very emotional and can once again cry and laugh like you could before you were addicted. It's fantastic.

Im going through this now, 4 days in. Heavy for about 4 years! And trust me i feel everything everyone is going though. Its horrible it really is. But guess what! everything willl be over. You are not crazy trust me not at all. Dont tell yourself your crazy cause you really arent no matter what u think no matter what anyone tells you. Ive researched into this alot after quitting. and researching and finding answers believe it or not helps ALOT! just google ur questions and theres TONS of info out there! Once you see that theres soooo many people feeling like us it relieves your mind. Ur still guna feel like sh*t as i am as i type this. We can all make it! We can all do it. Everything in the end will get sorted it out. Goodluck everyone its a battle we can win though!

So I thought I was bugging...being a pothead for over 14 years without ceasing until almost 6 days ago. I swear I've been going through withdrawal... I've had the craziest stomach pains since, I don't eat nearly as much as I did while I was smoking...I've just been in so much pain ever since and I don't understand!!! So I can relate to the prior posts cuz I loved loved loved weed and I did it every single day for years and I did depend on it and now that I don't want to anymore...I am definitely paying a price. I don't care what anybody say...Weed withdrawal is real!!!! But I will get through this and it will all be worth it...Good Luck all!!

FINALLY!!!!!! I honestly thought i was going freaking crazy!! I have been smoking weed for over the last 18 to 20 years and just stopped 4 days ago. My lungs were hit from the constant smoking, and i had to otherwise i probably wouldn't have. i plan on returning to school in a nursing program and that forced me to stop too. i live in Texas so getting Dro was a snap. I always had awesome weed and i loved loved loved to burn it. The money aspect was staggering after i estimated how much i had spent over those years on pot. i wont even mention how much, its f*****g embarrassing. ( could have bought a home)I had to do everything stoned, wake n bake, then like a prescription every 2 to 3 hrs, bowl after bowl. im not exaggerating when i tell you everything i did i did while stoned. Now comes the withdrawal, and f**k ya is it real, very very real. My head constantly hurts, im dizzy all damn day, vertigo is a b***h. not just a dizzy feeling , it hurts too! my head has been pounding since i quit! not hungry much either. i cant sleep for sh*t anymore, toss and turn all night. not getting panic attacks but my stomach is always messed up now, nauseous after i eat. i feel confused, and am finding it really hard to concentrate. tried to lay ceramic tile today at my house today and i was so irritated, dizzy and in pain that i couldn't finish. this was beginning to scare me, but after reading some of these posts i see that these screwed withdrawals are par for the course. im glad that eventually they will go away. my plan is exercise that sh*t out of my body, hopefully that will expedite the process of withdrawal. i have been a slave to weed for almost 20 YEARS. I want myself back. if you are thinking about quitting, here is the truth, its very tough but it can be accomplished.

I am soon to turn 62 and have been using pot for a very long time. Sometimes I put it down for a week or two but always got more. In retrospect, I was a pretty chronic user. This was not helped very much when I was in my 30's and 40's - my wife at the time had a brother who was a big drug dealer and on about three occasions we received gifts of black lawn bags FULL of Columbian! I was by far the main user. So I have pretty much constantly been smoking dope for decades. I have lived in Florida for the past four years - where the really fabulous stuff is readily available - and hugely expensivo. My girlfriend of the last four years was as much of a "party-er" as me (we recently broke up) - but I also have mostly worked at home all these years - so it was literally from morning till night. When we broke up - about 6-7 weeks ago, I decided to quit "cold turkey." What has happened is:
- I began not sleeping very well at all; I am someone who never had problems getting to sleep and staying asleep. I have taken Tylenol PM a few times, but am also pretty determined not to start taking drugs to sleep. So if I am lying in bed awake at 3:00 in the morning, I will get up and read for a couple of hours and then fall asleep again. This is not helping my sleep patterns very much...fortunately, I am self employed and have some flexibility with how I spend my time.
- I began to have pretty bad headaches - especially in the morning.
- I had two really bad nightmare a few weeks ago. Both of them had me tied up in chains by some monsters. In both dreams i opened my mouth to scream or yell, but I couldn't get any sound out - kind of like what happens after someone has a stroke - yikes.
- I have also noticed that if I have a beer, glass of wine, or a drink - it makes my sleeping and headaches worse.
It feels to me as if my body has been reacting not just to marijuana withdrawal, but to the years and decades that I was a maniac about smoking dope. I suspect, then, that my symptoms of withdrawal could last a while longer. And, I am glad to finally have put it down. I have strong genes and could still be around another 30-40 years. It's time that I really got a LIFE. And, it's entirely possible that - hopefully a few decades from now - when my body starts to really break down, I will get my very good dealer (and friend) on the phone for more (if he's still around, that is).
In the meantime, I have started working out almost every day and have finally dropped about 15-20 pounds - and am about to start getting into yoga. I look very young for my 61 years despite all the usage.

I have been smoking on and off for the past 6 years. I previously quit in June thinking I could smoke one time and I would be fine but I was wrong that one time never stopped. I remember back in July everytime I would smoke I kept saying this is the last time. But it wasn't until august 6th when my boyfriend gave me an ultimatum did I really decide to quit. It's been 15 days and very recently problay the last week has my sleep been bad. Unlike most people weed didn't make me hungry. So now when ever I want to get high I eat food is my anti drug. I'm moody sometimes sad . I deleted my weed man number in avoided the people who would risk my sobriety. I would be a liar if I said I didn't want to do it but I won't becAuse I know how hard it is to stop. Plus I'm so proud to be at this point I don't want to start over. I want the dreams to stop I hate them they are weird and annoying.

i have been a smoker for ten years straight, smoking a few spots at least 3 x a day, everyday. i've never smoked cigarettes, and i eat healthily and excercise everyday. i quit 24 days ago, for many reasons. For health reasons, financial reasons and purely for the fact that i wasn't getting anything out of it anymore. I know that I am ready to quit and haven't had any cravings whatsoever. What I noticed the 1st week was the dreams i was having. Vivid dreams, and the inability to sleep. That wasn't so bad, but by the second week I noticed I was starting to become anxious in situations where I wouldn't normally be anxious. It started to terrify me. I'm naturally a very positive person, but by week 3 I had become a nervous, emotional wreck, letting things that wouldn't normally get to me, get to me. Im at day 24 and I feel a bit better, but I still feel a little seedy. In the past I have had post natal depression and I hope this doesn't cause a relapse in depression as I have just read about withdrawal symptoms from marijuana leading to depression. I'm not turning back now though. I'm wondering if this will pass, and how long will it take. I don't want to quit marijuana just to to on other drugs such as anti-depressants. I think I may have to take up running.

I have been smoking weed on and off for 3 years straight, the first 2 times i quit, I could not eat much for a few days, had diarrahea, felt kinda naseua, felt really depress, but after the 1st week i started feeling back to normal, once i hit the 1 month mark i felt totally fine and like my normal self again. People told me I was like my normal self again and looked normal again. My eyes use to be sucked in with dark circles underneath but it went away in a month. Then I got back into it started smoking again for a whole year straight and was looking like the old pot head that I once was. It started to take over me again i decided its time to quit once again. This time it was a little different, the 1st day i couldnt eat much had dirrahea, but the second and third day my appetite increase! I found my self eating like if i had the munchies but I didnt smoke anything, but i found a solution for the depression problem. Work out and talk to a girl that you like. Cuz that makes you really happy and surpress the depression. Talking to chick is like another drug.

I smoked weed for over 15 years every day more or less every hour after 12 but before 12 the odd one or two maybe 6 ,,
giving up was hard and something i wanted to do for a long time,,at first smoking was great but then became just something to do most of the time.
I had a women come stay with me for 5 months in my time of stopping which helped me ,,in fact if it wasnt for her being here i would not have done it ,,as she didnt smoke or understand weed the last thing i wanted was too be stoned around her,,once i was and she was looking at me strange ,,when she went bed i was up and loaded a kill splif that made me nearly have a whitey ,,the next day i decided thats it and flushed the remaining stuff down the loo,,
I had dreams like never before and sweats ,,that was the hardest ,,i craved also but put up with it ,,,
Years i smoked and alot of the times had sh*t loads of leaves and bud from a friend who grew the stuff so was always in the weed so to speak ,,but looking now at the price of the stuff and the quality on the street and other ppl who use it i see ppl who need to put weight on and money wasted,,so all in all i am glad i stopped.
The devils lettuce it truly is and even tho i enjoyed it in the start ,,i just think its pretty pathetic now....
all those who say its not a problem are clearly not at that stage yet but they will...
its over rated and just because in mainstream culture appears so it isnt ,,,
there are benefits to the right ppl who use it those that are ill etc but as a recreational drug of the masses not good,,
I have tried coke ,ecstasy,speed,,and once my fav Acid in comparison to those weed is not so bad i guess but long term it will take its toll on you ...
If you do stop i promise that a year from then you will look back and say i am glad i did stop...stop being a slave to it that is ...
you will get better as time will go on ,,

Question... can you get slight constipation as a symptom of withdrawal as well? Or that could just be because I was barely able to force food down my throat for 2 days and I stopped smoking due to the acid reflux I was developing from smoking roughly 10 times a day every day for over 2 years. I quit cold turkey 2 days ago. All symptoms mentioned in this article persist. 

Hi im 26 and smoked almost everyday since i was 13.All of a sudden everytime i smoked the stuff i became a little paranoid.Then the next time i got more paranoid and so on till the point when everytime i smoked it i was a paranoid wreck and acted extremally different.But i still didnt stop.after that i started to lose grip on reality.Like everything didnt feel real.I started talking nonsense which made some people not like me.My whole face changed as did the look in my eye.I wake up with a really bad feeling in my head.Now it takes me ages to fully wake up.I'm on my second day now of quitting and omfg i'm paranoid/anxious/basicly skitzed out.I get the same feeling when i drink now.Definetly not smoking again ever!!I am at a very young point in my life for this to be happening.I'm so annoyied it happened to me as i see people who smoked the same time as me and they are fine.

I've smoked all day, everyday for the last 11 years (considerably less frequently before that). I stopped cold turkey 3 weeks ago and while I am definitely experiencing withdrawal it is nowhere near as severe as what is being described by folks here.

The insomnia only lasted two or three days, no biggie.

The vivid dreams are an absolute blast as I have either not dreamed or been unable to remember my dreams for the last ten years.

The lack of appetite lasted for several days but has now mostly normalized.

The primary negative symptom I am experiencing is lethargy. I when using I would only experience this in the morning or when it had been a few hours since my last toke. Marijuana would increase my heart rate and make me feel like I had energy and motivation.

I've been working out almost daily for an hour, getting up a strong sweat after which I feel fine but have to rely on a couple strong coffees to get me moving. Essentially substituting one drug for another.

What I'm reading on this page is magnitudes more serious than anything I have experienced even though some of you smoked less than I did for a shorter period of time. I also only smoked whatever the best was available and never cared about paying a premium for the best bud around.

Anyway, I just wanted to add my experiences to the brain trust in hopes of helping others.

GOOD LUCK