How do we navigate the cycles of withdrawal to make this worthwhile?

[farawaymusic]

I am not a savvy user of cannabis. I find strains that seem interesting and vape at home, away from other people. If the conditions are right, the effect will be a loosening of the grip between ego and its objects, and when it has loosened enough I can temporarily 'experience' egolessness. That's all I'll say about that. It is the best thing in my life; not even 'in' my life, it is a revelation of the unchanging background of what I call my life.

It only happens when there has not been a steady intake for a few days. So, the natural strategy might be to do it on a schedule. Four days in between sessions. Yet, this is not workable for me. My system expects cannabis after a day goes by, and when I don't use it, I become despondent, agitated, irritable, and all the rest. To ward these symptoms off, I usually end up using it more, which exacerbates the withdrawal.

I become trapped in a cycle that includes shame (nobody in my circle knows that I use cannabis) and feels like being pulled in multiple directions. Enough about my problems, though.

My question is: are there useful rules of thumb for tapering, scheduling, or other tips to navigate the withdrawal days? I can't use this every single day, nor do I want to. But I want to keep using it without feeling miserable when I stop. What can I do?

 

[foodcrisis]

kind of part of using drugs the whole having a tolerance and getting better highs when you don't use for a while.

personally i like to smoke every day and stay burnt out. i'm not really looking to trip from weed even though i do.. i pretty much just smoke weed to stay on a sleep schedule... i don't really know what to tell you if you are looking for a specific high that you can only achieve every so often, but want to use every day...

actually edibles supposedly have a different tolerance, so maybe take low dose edibles for a few days and then smoke. it should be pretty different responses tolerance wise from smoking. something about delta 9 v.s. delta 11 being broken down in the body. i'm not too sure. you could read about it.. edibles are usually pretty relaxing and then like i said if you smoke infrequently you'll probably get a good high... worth a shot.

 

[foodcrisis]

oh i'm reading you don't want to use every day...

idk.. exercise is the only other only other solution i have... just do something productive when you don't feel good...

idk, might just be worth not using for you... i really have no idea... the edibles schedule is the only real solution i have and that would be using every day... like maybe edibles every other day? lol

 

[cnnka]

You just want to use it that’s how it goes with every drug. Once the bad side effects start to outweigh the positives, most people eventually jump off the wagon.

I smoked daily for 15 years, and one day I just quit cold turkey because I’d had enough the negatives were greater than the positives.

Weed withdrawal is definitely real, even for short-term users, but it’s more about mental gymnastics and the discipline you bring to it.

 

[Allylbenzene]

You can use Agmatine and Theanine to prevent withdrawals, both OTC. They'll also reduce your tolerances.
They're both common supplements.

On the days when you're not using cannabis, you can use the plants theraputic (psychoactive) terpene oils.
Conveniently these are sold as essential oils. I recommend theraputic grade steam-distilled oils.
When people vape, smoke or eat cannabis flowers/resin/rosin/RSO they are vaping, smoking or eating cannabis essential oils.
You can also dilute the oils and use them topically (skin).

Choose the oils depending on what kind of theraputic (psychoactive) effects you want.

Terpenes, which are the basic constituents of essential oils found in many plants, have been used for thousands of years for therapeutic purposes.

 

[farawaymusic]

oh i'm reading you don't want to use every day...

idk.. exercise is the only other only other solution i have... just do something productive when you don't feel good...

idk, might just be worth not using for you... i really have no idea... the edibles schedule is the only real solution i have and that would be using every day... like maybe edibles every other day? lol

That could actually work, if they didn't make me tolerant to the vaping route like you said. Just a way to get a small dose to keep me from feeling like I want to die, but without getting me high or even buzzed... like microdosing between macro doses. That could be an interesting experiment, thanks

 

[farawaymusic]

You can use Agmatine and Theanine to prevent withdrawals, both OTC. They'll also reduce your tolerances.
They're both common supplements.

On the days when you're not using cannabis, you can use the plants theraputic (psychoactive) terpene oils.
Conveniently these are sold as essential oils. I recommend theraputic grade steam-distilled oils.
When people vape, smoke or eat cannabis flowers/resin/rosin/RSO they are vaping, smoking or eating cannabis essential oils.
You can also dilute the oils and use them topically (skin).

Choose the oils depending on what kind of theraputic (psychoactive) effects you want.

Excellent reply, thank you thank you! Do you have any recommended sources or specific products for either the supplements or oils? This may be exactly what I'm looking for.

 

[Allylbenzene]

Alternatively there are other CB1-active cannabinoids like magnolol & honokiol (magnolia bark) or CBG (OTC). Both are quite potent.
As for cannabimimetic terpenes, (the most well-known one is Beta Caryophyllene @ CB2) ... there are others:

Cannabis sativa terpenes are cannabimimetic and selectively enhance cannabinoid activity
We found that the terpenes α-humulene, geraniol, linalool, and β-pinene produced cannabinoid tetrad behaviors in mice, suggesting cannabimimetic activity.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-87740-8

Excellent reply, thank you thank you! Do you have any recommended sources or specific products for either the supplements or oils? This may be exactly what I'm looking for.

I don't know any specific sources but you basically want pure powdered Agmatine and Theanine (or capsules if you don't have scales).
Many places sell Magnolia bark extract (I saw some Swanson capsules with 90% active ingredients). And pure CBG crystals, oil or flower is also widely available. The flower is usually ~20% CBG with smaller amounts of CBD and usually near zero THC. What little THC is there is covered up by the CBG and CBD.

As for the oils, you want theraputic grade steam-distilled essential oils. There are hundreds of essential oil shops!
Some online shops have a certificate of analysis for their current batch of oil. That's useful if you want to know whats in the oil before buying.
Lemon, orange and lime oil is pretty much always the same, but lavender oil can have 20-40% linalool. Ho wood oil is usually 97% linalool.

Please find a proper online guide on how to use oils.
In brief, dilute them in olive oil before use. Don't use pure oils!
Don't put them on sensitive areas of skin (like face).
You can put small doses of diluted oils in capsules and use them with food. When someone eats a cannabis RSO edible they might be eating the equivalent of ~2-5 drops of cannabis essential oil.

As for choosing oils, you can stick to the regular ones like lemon, lavender, pine, peppermint or be more adventurous like myrrh, cumin, frankincense, sandalwood etc.
Be careful with oils like cinnamon, lemongrass, clove, black pepper as these are fairly strong.

 

[Coffeeshroom]

I personally don't really exp wd's do to speak as a physical effect but as mentioned more of a mental thing. Cannabis helps me a lot with BP and mood swings but can't say im addicted that if I go without I will go mad, no lol.

Atm I can't smoke so I'm only using RSO and edibles and they doing a good job, it just lacks that instant smack on the forehead and knowing you stoned now but with my current regime having me taking 105mg thc RSO and between 40-80mg in thc edibles and also ordered a 1:1 thc/cbd tincture that's 50mg/ml ( 25mg of each ).

Maybe look into those to lower tolerance and also taking breaks helps.
Like for me if I go 3 days max without any thc and I smoke a j, it smacks around the room like a ping pong ball lol.

But if you wanna does everyday and still try lower tolerance I would go with edibles and just workout the rough amount you smoke into grams and then dose the edibles at half your normal intake and keep dropping day after day, say for a week where you end up only needing 20mg thc edible to get by for the day then when you do decide to go balls to the wall then it will be worth it.

This is from my own experience and experiments I have done with my own body and also knowing it well. So takes this with a pinch of salt as we not all the same but just a rough guideline I think you can take.

 

[Innerpeace]

I ecco l theanine helping through withdrawals, relaxing you. You could try oral consumption of cannabis, but I would try it separate than smoking, if you are on a schedule to not consume cannabis every day.

I've gone a week and a half then smoked three or four bowls then ate a good bit before sleep. The next day felt so different but the following days were not fun, is an understatement. I understand waiting a while then smoking a lot, I would rather wait a little less and only smoke a bowl or bowl and a half

It could have been other factors but lesson learned when wanting to limit cannabis consumption or quit it, which hasn't worked out for years

Now I accept it seems to provide my brain something that exercise, which is amazing, just can not do . I'm guessing I'm addicted . Can I quit and use l theanine ? Sure. But do I really want to if it seems to make life get and feel much better, especially my if used once a week

As far as I know it helps shrink cancer, and there's a lot of negative propaganda that the govt and state institutions make up that are there to scare

Basically from what I understand once THC changes the pre frontal cortex , the only way to get that feeling is THC, or scaling back, which can take time since it wasn't from rmed all at once, it took time to make those connections

It used to take years according to a THC researcher back when stuff was five percent or lower, it would take that time for the pre frontal cortex to change. Now with THC common at fifteen to thirty percent, it happens much faster to get dependent ,according the her. I don't know if she's correct, she specializes in addiction, she also works for a health county agency. I posted her video in another thread earlier today

 

[helpingout]

You need to taper off using CBD weed. Just buy an eight of regular and CBD weed. Gradually decrease regular weed and increase CBD weed and eventually you’re off. Then you jump from the CBD when you’re stable.

 

[Esperighanto]

Just out of curiosity, why do you care if others know you use cannabis? An adult has bodily autonomy, I assume you're an adult, so therefore you have bodily autonomy.

 

[emkee_reinvented]

I am not a savvy user of cannabis. I find strains that seem interesting and vape at home, away from other people. If the conditions are right, the effect will be a loosening of the grip between ego and its objects, and when it has loosened enough I can temporarily 'experience' egolessness. That's all I'll say about that. It is the best thing in my life; not even 'in' my life, it is a revelation of the unchanging background of what I call my life.

Bizarre how much different facet s it has, i use i mainly as doping.
Against procrastinating, works better then my prescribed dextro-Amphetamine,
but they synergize good. To get things done.

It only happens when there has not been a steady intake for a few days. So, the natural strategy might be to do it on a schedule. Four days in between sessions. Yet, this is not workable for me. My system expects cannabis after a day goes by, and when I don't use it, I become despondent, agitated, irritable, and all the rest. To ward these symptoms off, I usually end up using it more, which exacerbates the withdrawal.

If i quit one day my tolerance is almost back to 0. So seems logically/

If that is he effect you after you should keep 1/ 2 day pauses.
Wish i could, but it seems i have to take daily. Or accept doing nothing.

What Esperighanto wrote about shame, wisdom.
Or is it really stigmatised where you recede @farawaymusic

 

[Egzoset]

I want to keep using it without feeling miserable...

Then learn to use it in a way which doesn't require to T-Break.

 

[Blowmonkey]

I'm on day 3 of quitting now, after 25 years of daily chainsmoking weed I've finally made the decision to quit. I relapsed yesterday though, couldn't sleep and tried to smoke a little. It gave me the same experience you had, it wasn't pleasurable, it wasn't a relief anymore, it just made me feel more anxious. More incentive to quit even.

I've been taking agmatine sulfate and l-theanine as well for the last 3 weeks of me quitting benzo's, perhaps it might've even helped me along in the decision to quit smoking weed. I knew agmatine was touted as some kind of miracle supplement that will help you quit all kinds of drugs, I still remain skeptical though. It's more willpower than anything. The withdrawals are pretty bad, but compared to benzo's this is peanuts.

If you want to keep smoking I suggest to just go for lower percentage thc weed strains, have some cbd in there, don't reach for the good stuff, lower your dosages, sounds like you're just taking too much.

 

[NullVoidXIII]

I used to alternate it with drinking when my tolerance for weed would get too high.
I never really had cravings or any kind of addiction symptoms though, nor have I experienced any withdrawals myself, and I've bought in half ounces just for myself in the past.

Part of how to keep your tolerance low is just stop when the feeling hits, instead of keeping going.
It'll stretch out your supply better, and save you money on re-ups later.

Both drinking and smoking took me 6+ months to drop my tolerance for.
I drank much more frequently than I smoked weed though so, it took me substantially longer to kick the bottle.

But yeah if you can get through 6 months to a year on low or no smoking cannabis by either abstaining entirely or switching to something that you can substitute, it'll help your tolerance drop.

Thanks to that one Irish girl who taught me how to switch off between drinking and smoking to keep my tolerance low in my college years.

Taping would require kind of stringing along your fix.
Meaning abstaining until the withdrawals start to really kick your ass, and then use a little for the withdrawals to stop, and then again going back to abstaining for a long period of time. And this will gradually, albeit somewhat painfully, walk you back off of it.

I personally have never really experienced cannabis withdrawal, but I have heard of people who have.
For me it's more of a psychological pull, which I can fight off without too much of an issue.

 

[Innerpeace]

If you want to keep smoking I suggest to just go for lower percentage thc weed strains, have some cbd in there, don't reach for the good stuff, lower your dosages, sounds like you're just taking too much.

I'm stocked up on five different blends and have a lot of each. Fifteen may be the lowest and twenty seven percent the highest so can try the lower one

I stopped three days then eod on days not using THC, CBD only. It still provides relaxation as it increases gaba. Many other drugs do as well

The last time I saw mid grade weed was 2020 and the taste and smell don't compare to the higher percent THC. High grade is worlds better

How is the scaling back process going for you?

 

[BadBoy377]

It's good to mix the cbd weed with the high grade sometimes. Tweak the stone. I just grudge paying near on same price for CBD as hg. Still if you want nice things...

 

[FuckinAcidMan]

CBD really does help with the sharp rush and restless offset that THC by itself has.

THC alone is moreish and slightly more addictive in my experience than when there is any amount of CBD present in the flower, or mixed in via CBD flower with a high THC strain.

I'm at this point pretty tolerant to THC again, but I've had periods where I ONLY used CBD flower for a year or two and that is seriously interesting, it's a completely different experience.

 

[Deleted member 554582]

Never ever experienced withdrawal from weed even after years of heavy use of good stuff...yes psychological dependence exist,but is a way more weak than nicotine one...physical symptoms non existing at all.this new day"modern"weed doesn't seems like weed anymore