Addiction

[Benjamins12]

Hi! My friend has a problem with Cannabis addiction. He is facing problem with mood and sleep difficulties, decreased appetite, cravings,restlessness and various forms of physical discomfort that peak within the first week after quitting it and lasted up to two weeks. He just want to quit it and don’t want to go on like this anymore. Does he have to take the help of any drug treatment centre in Seattle like Edgewood Health Network for his problem? Someone please give your advice on how to quit so that I can help him before the condition gets worse.

 

[bingey]

I think the cravings are the main problem, does your friend work out? This will produce endogenous cannabinoids (especially cardio/cycling) and is the only long term alternative for better sleep and less anxiety IMO.

Short term effecs like insomnia can be taken care of with a few days supply of benzo's. Just don't take them to kill the anxiety this will lead to a new more severe addiction and they often give you benzos in drug treatment centers. Also your friend just has to find distraction , play videogames , chess , read whatever to keep your mind out of your body (don't know if that makes sense but when you are focused on an intellectually challenging activity you don't feel physical pain)

 

[badfish45]

1. Get rid of all paraphernalia and weed in your house.

2 . replace feelings of anxiety and cravings with exercise or meditation. Both work very well.

3. Don't hang out with your friends who smoke a lot, it makes willpower that much harder. Also, don't do similar activities you did stoned. For example, if you like to smoke and play video games, it may be best for you to avoid video games for the time being. Cravings go away quick once you distract yourself from them.

4. As for sleep, try waking up earlier, having more active days, and try melatonin supplements. I think insomnia is pretty temporary when it comes to quitting weed.

As for an approach to this all, weening down works fine but it might just be best to go cold turkey. Weed abuse sort of comes and goes...after some time you probably won't miss it much at all.

 

[YellowLights]

1. Get rid of all paraphernalia and weed in your house.

2 . replace feelings of anxiety and cravings with exercise or meditation. Both work very well.

3. Don't hang out with your friends who smoke a lot, it makes willpower that much harder. Also, don't do similar activities you did stoned. For example, if you like to smoke and play video games, it may be best for you to avoid video games for the time being. Cravings go away quick once you distract yourself from them.

4. As for sleep, try waking up earlier, having more active days, and try melatonin supplements. I think insomnia is pretty temporary when it comes to quitting weed.

As for an approach to this all, weening down works fine but it might just be best to go cold turkey. Weed abuse sort of comes and goes...after some time you probably won't miss it much at all.

I agree, smoking can become a release, running and workout will do the same.

Try and spend the time you would of been high, experiencing the great world around us you have been missing.

 

[christhefish]

As for an approach to this all, weening down works fine but it might just be best to go cold turkey. Weed abuse sort of comes and goes...after some time you probably won't miss it much at all.

This sounds like the sort of drivel that non addicts say, like "just quit man" and "don't be a pussy". However, with cannabis I can confirm this is absolutely true, at least in my own experience.

Cannabis was like Heroin to me, I was utterly dependent on it. When times were dry I've been known to drive 200 miles to pay double price for a couple of grams. The idea of going without terrified me.

When I actually decided to quit, despite YellowLights' advice I actually kept a little bit of green in my tin, just to avoid the fear, though this might not work for everyone. After 24 hours I felt like "this isn't so bad" and after about three days I was cursing myself for not doing it years ago. It turns out the fear of quitting was FAR outweighing the reality. About a week later I chucked the emergency supply away. In order for this to work, however, you have to want to quit full time.

One more thing - does he smoke it with tobacco? The reason I ask is because I did, but I rarely if ever smoked cigarettes without cannabis in them. I think it turned out for me that a nicotine addiction which I was in total denial about was masquerading as a cannabis addiction. Sadly this meant when I quit the weed I became a full time smoker, but I have since cut this right down and switched to e-cigs and hope to be done with them by Christmas. If your friend smokes it with tobacco, I'd say give up the weed first, then work on the tobacco separately, as nicotine is a bitch to give up.

Cannabis is a wonderfully enjoyable drug, and unlike most drugs if your friend quits the daily habit for a year or so then he might be able to go back to getting high once in a while - I know I did, I now get high once or twice a year and its very pleasant. However that's just my experience, and I apologise if that is in fact terrible advice.

Best of luck to you, I hope something in the above helps.

 

[Apurplenugfish]

1. Get rid of all paraphernalia and weed in your house.

2 . replace feelings of anxiety and cravings with exercise or meditation. Both work very well.

3. Don't hang out with your friends who smoke a lot, it makes willpower that much harder. Also, don't do similar activities you did stoned. For example, if you like to smoke and play video games, it may be best for you to avoid video games for the time being. Cravings go away quick once you distract yourself from them.

4. As for sleep, try waking up earlier, having more active days, and try melatonin supplements. I think insomnia is pretty temporary when it comes to quitting weed.

As for an approach to this all, weening down works fine but it might just be best to go cold turkey. Weed abuse sort of comes and goes...after some time you probably won't miss it much at all.

I say this is your best bet, this is what I have done with my weed addiction...now I don't have to live always getting high it's amazing. Meditation and LSD changed my life, and transformered me into a beautiful person. I don view myself as a pot head. I'm sure your buddy will be fine if he cuts back, he has to have self control I don't even think he should quit because I find weed to be a healing plant, but it sounds like he defiantly needs to cut back, and if he can't do that he needs to quit before he get in another negative cycle.

 

[ShroomySatori]

I am very understanding of the disease that you are infected with since I went through the same bullshit myself. You are asking for advice from a community of weed lovers. That's not going to get you anywhere. PM me if you'd like to discuss your serious addiction (you don't have to pretend that it's your friend and not you).

 

[Mafioso]

i don't think rehab is necessary for something like weed, but everyone is different. It may be a good break from his group of friends and other weed connections so that he is forced to go without it and go through the withdraws. There are withdraws, more so with heavier use or daily use, but they subside within a few days and are not so severe that he would have to take time off work, at least not imo. Most of it is just resisting the urge to smoke for the first few days and dealing with not being able to sleep well, low appetite, and probably a bad/low mood.

From the people I know personally who have quit, most say after a few days the urge goes away for the most part. Some still have the urge to smoke but say its much easier to resist the temptation when their mood, sleep and appetite is normal.

 

[midnitecruiser]

It's one thing being dependent on cannabis, and very unlikely. But cannabis isn't addictive like tobacco, alcohol, cocaine or heroin.

It's another thing, and in my experience much more common, that people are dependent on it just as a crutch not to face their life like they would do otherwise, or like they did before starting using.
And lots of people have this sort of addiction not so much for the substance, but for the lifestyle. It even gives them an excuse for not facing difficulties in their life because people who say "weed is SOOO difficult to quit" are acting like the enabling partner in a codependent relationship. But the problem is just that.

 

[Codeine Demon]

Cannabis addiction is as real as any other drug addiction, crack addicts aren't physically dependent to crack so have a think about that.

 

[CharlieGoesDown]

Cannabis addiction is as real as any other drug addiction, crack addicts aren't physically dependent to crack so have a think about that.

Crack Addicts can most def be physically dependent, ive known many crack heads and its extremely addictive, and can cause horrible WDs if taken for long periods of time.

 

[w01fg4ng]

I'm taking a short tolerance break and although I'm not too worried about it because it's temporary, I will share my thought process for approaching this task:

-Physical activity during down time to make sure I'm that much more tired at night.
-Working on non-pot related stuff to keep myself busy.
-Trying to keep a positive attitude by looking at the good things in my life.
-Reminding myself that this is temporary and will soon pass.
-Not going to the pot store.
-Have Kava on hand in case I get too stressed out.

 

[OneNighter]

Exercise provides your body with a natural high and if your tired enough from it you can defeat insomnia

 

[midnitecruiser]

Cannabis addiction is as real as any other drug addiction, crack addicts aren't physically dependent to crack so have a think about that.

I've definitely learned something new through this forum today: "crack addicts aren't physically dependent to crack".