Advice on how to control weed usage?

[sunnycidal]

Hey guys, this might be a long post but please bare with me:

I have been smoking weed for about 3-4 years, I started when I was around 19 years old. I enjoyed smoking it regularly with friends and occasionally when I was alone at night, but nothing too excessive. Fast forward a couple of years later to when my life took a turn for the worst: I was having severe issues with relationships, with the law and with myself - to the point where I became "addicted" to weed, i.e., was smoking weed by myself all day everyday for months. I became depressed, cut out a lot of good people unintentionally from my life and basically stopped smoking with other people, I would only smoke insane amounts by myself (my life was a mess). I would wake up, smoke a joint and just go through 4-5 joints to myself all throughout the day, going through work and school stoned as ****.

Fast forward to recent aka this year, I managed to break myself out of the daily habit and get myself back on track with school and life. I've gone long periods of several months without smoking weed. However, recently, I've gotten in contact with a new dealer and began buying occasionally. My issue now is that despite going months without smoking weed, it seems every time I buy I have NO WILL POWER WHATSOEVER. It doesn't matter what commitments I have the next day or what I'm doing, if I have weed at home/on me, it seems I will always go out of my way to smoke some weed by myself.

I just have no control over myself, I guess this is what addiction is. I guess with my past it is to be expected, but I kind of wish I can go back to the old days where I can have a bag of weed on me and only smoke it on weekends or a little bit by myself. Now if I have a bag, the thought of smoking a .5 joint to myself at night always seems like such a great idea and before I know it, I've burnt through an entire set by myself in less than a week. It'll start out as a joint per day at night and slowly progress to smoking first thing in the morning all through the day until I've run out. The thing is, I'll finish the bag I bought and go back to being ~sober and functional~ and all about school for weeks on end, but the moment I buy weed again, it's like I fall back into my state of addiction where I just have to be stoned all the time because the weed is there. I've also noticed I don't really like smoking weed with other people anymore, mainly just stoning myself into oblivion by myself.

I really do love weed and I want to get to a place where I can have weed on me and be able to have enough self-control to smoke occasionally, perhaps only on weekends. I was just wondering if anyone can give any advice? I know the obvious answer is to abstain permanently, but I'm wonder if anyone has gone through anything similar and can pass on some insight or tips on how to moderate my usage.

Thanks for the help

 

[Mafioso]

hey sunnycidal, I don't have any answers for you but I can relate to what you are going through. My story is pretty similar, I started when I was 19 and when I did I was smoking until I passed out and kept smoking when I woke up and here I am about 6 years later. I've lost a lot of friends just by being too stoned to either want to socialize and leave my house or too stoned to be very social. For a good while I didn't really care to even be around people who didn't smoke. I've quit smoking cigarettes after a 6 year habit, and quit opiates after a little over a 2 year stint, and always told myself that I'll be able to cut down to amount that I smoke to a minimal level and control and maintain it. I still have yet to be successful on that promise to myself. I will make it for a while only smoking at night but as soon as something doesn't go right I'm right back to where I was.

I've come to realize that I'm probably going to have to deal with it just like I have my other addictions- which is total abstinence and being careful to abstain from things that will put you back in the same habits. For a long time- actually the whole time from the very beginning, I always told myself I was going to only pop pills on the weekend. Before I finally got off the pills, I was sneaking to the bathroom at work to re dose. Needless to say things got out of hand very quick. I was able to get some control over my opiate use, but only enough so that I would not be over using some days and getting sick on others. It is similar with my weed use. When I first get a new sack I will stay up late chain smoking until I start to get low, and if I don't have funds to get more, I will ration it out to last. Even if that means only taking a few hits at night on for a few days. Granted there is a difference between the two addictions, I think I can use it to understand myself and behavior with weed for it seems very similar. With weed I don't get sick but every stoner knows it sucks to not have weed. Over the years I've learned to manage my addiction but not control it. Every time I buy more I will tell myself that I am going to ration it and smoke as only as much as I did the last few days(very little). As soon as I get home, I roll a fat joint usually followed by another and so the cycle continues.

The only time I really have control is when I know I don't have money to buy more and can't get more for a while. Even then it is very hard and takes constantly reminding myself I want to save it for later. I've noticed the longer I wait(i.e. not in the morning) the easier it becomes. I've gone some days without smoking at all, then smoke an eighth in the matter of hours before bed.

I think you have to know your limits, and know when your beat. I still crave opiates but its been over a year since I've done them, minus a maybe a handful of vicodin. When they are not in my house or immediate reach I have control. IF there was a bag full of oxys in my drawer right now, it would be an entirely different story.

I don't think you have to quit smoking weed, but maybe quit keeping it in your possession. Hopefully you have a friend that you can drop a few bucks and get a few rips here and there, that way you can smoke on occasion but don't have to tempt yourself on a daily basis. Or you can do it like my older brother, who will quit smoking for a while then start again for a few months then quit again when you start smoking too much. Rinse and repeat lol.

I've met some people who can control their habits much better and it seems it involves realizing your limits of self-control... if that makes sense. Like don't carry it on you at work and school if you don't think it wise to smoke at work or school. You can't smoke it if you don't have it, and sometimes if you have to go out of your way to get it you can see how ridiculous you are being and ignore the craving/impulse. Also, make habits of smoking and doing an activity rather than just smoking until you feel stoned.

 

[mabzie55]

I had a very similar experience with pot, eventually I came to learn that the only way I could control my smoking was by quitting.

I tried to cut down many times, and would succeed often, but after a period of time I'd be back to before.
Like you said, no control.

Now maybe you can control it, idk.
But after 3+ years of trying to control it and failing I realized that as a drug addict I could just do it "once in awhile".

 

[DrGreenthumb]

You're not addicted, just learn a bit of self control. It's not that hard. Smoking every morning isn't great if you don't want to be stoned all day & build up a habit, stop doing that, have some caffeine or something & save the weed as a reward for after you've done your work.

 

[mabzie55]

You're not addicted, just learn a bit of self control. It's not that hard. Smoking every morning isn't great if you don't want to be stoned all day & build up a habit, stop doing that, have some caffeine or something & save the weed as a reward for after you've done your work.

Yeah, I don't think any of us are in a position to say whether someone is addicted or not.

If someone thinks they are addicted, they probably are.
But it's up to that person to figure that out.

And an addicted individual doesn't really have self control... That's kinda the whole problem.
So if he is, I don't think your advice is going to help much.

 

[DrGreenthumb]

By addicted, I mean physical withdrawal symptoms. It can be habit forming, like anything else you enjoy doing regularly. Nothing bad is going to happen if he doesn't smoke a joint first thing in the morning, just needs to learn not to do that if there's something more important to do, like work or school. Self control is an important life skill that you can learn. If you're smoking over 2g a day of strong weed for months on end then there's a chance of some mild symptoms like nausea & insomnia, but it's very easy to avoid by tapering quickly.

 

[Jibult]

[EDIT: Never mind, I appear to have been mistaken. I'm chalking that up to the update from DSM-IV to DSM-V.

If no one knows what I'm talking about, good, because that means none of you saw my ignorant post. ^_^]

 

[mabzie55]

By addicted, I mean physical withdrawal symptoms. It can be habit forming, like anything else you enjoy doing regularly. Nothing bad is going to happen if he doesn't smoke a joint first thing in the morning, just needs to learn not to do that if there's something more important to do, like work or school. Self control is an important life skill that you can learn. If you're smoking over 2g a day of strong weed for months on end then there's a chance of some mild symptoms like nausea & insomnia, but it's very easy to avoid by tapering quickly.

I understand what you're saying. But addiction is far more than just physical addiction.

If it were just physical, getting off dope and other shit would've been a comparative cake-walk.

 

[Shaal]

I am kind of like you. I also found out that I'm somewhat addicted to comsuption. E.g. I took the habit to smoke weed while playing the computer. Now even if I have no weed, I'll want to smoke a cigarette so much, because i've got a strong habit of smoking while playing.

To avoid that, I just try to replace my comsuption of weed / cigarette by something else. For example an infusion. That way I have somehting to consume and I feel better.

Also, I know that if I stay home, I'm gonna smoke. I'm gonna resist for maybe an hour or two, but I'll crack eventually. And then my productivity will be ruined for the day. To avoid that, I go work outside (public librairies, university librairies, even mac donald's... also I work much better surrounded by people than alone at home). Then I come back home and smoke that deserved joint.