Quitting Cannabis After 18 Years - Life Is Much Better Than Before
Jul 27, 2006
I am a 42 year old man. I smoked cannabis almost continuously for 18 years until 18 days ago (scope the symmetry!). For about three quarters of that period I knew it was messing me up badly: gone were the giggles and the intellectual intensity, replaced by paranoia, reclusiveness, depression, mania and aggression, associated police trouble, self-harm, chest pains, erectile disfunction, etc etc et cetera. Although fully aware of all this more than substantial downside, nevertheless towards the end, I was spending £50pw on toxic-grade skunk, and it was driving me completely crazy.
Three or four weeks ago, I decided I was going to quit at the end of the world cup. And I did. I've been 18 days clean so far, and my life has changed dramatically. I've replaced talking with mad levels of exercise: going to the gym 3 days a week, swimming, walking everywhere, 2 hours of 5-a-side football once a week with a bunch of 25 yr olds. I've become a confident and witty social animal. I'm enjoying my phd studies. I've even acquired a lover, the delicate problem alluded to above being already a thing of the past!
There is life after weed; a damn sight better than the one I lived during weed.
Two caveats: I'm not sleeping well, tho' that may be due in part to the heatwave. And I'm drinking a little bit more. Previously my drinking was slightly below HMG's recommended limit; now it's probably slightly above - something I should keep an eye on, especially given that it's a symptom of my newfound enjoyment of life. Hopefully it'll settle down again quite quickly.
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I am a 28 year old male that as smoked cannabis on an of for pretty much 13/14 years the last 6 bein skunk and every single day am on day 4 and have not smoked a single bit last night I had a really good sleep for the first time in 3 nights I feel so much more alert and like I can take anything on and conquer it was before I was worried about my next bong I can honestly say I will never smoke again it ruined my life and cost me thousands and thousands of pounds of my wages over the years av also just woke up and realised i'm hungry haha anybody now how long till i'm fully clean please with being a heavy smoker am prob 6ft3 and just under 13.
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I having been a cannabis smoker since the age of 15, I feel compelled to write my comments here and hope someone learns a little if not a lot! I am now 31 and stopped smoking cannabis 7 weeks ago - I have been an habitual smoker for 16 years. I always thought (in my ignorance) that the drug helped to 'calm' me that it gave me a more 'peaceful' life when in actual fact it stopped me from relating to others, helped me to disconnect and run away from myself. As a teenager (late teens) even my parents used to say that it stopped me from being so 'fiery'! But as the years have rolled on and the cannabis became a bigger part of my life it became the one thing for me to rely on, my friend and it would never fail to be there for me. From the age of 17 I was smoking it everyday and would struggle to have a day without it. In the mornings I would always still be 'stoned' from the night before and was rolling a 'joint' for breakfast which would turn into to up to 10 or so 'joints' per day. As I reached my early 20's (looking back now I understand - I didn't at the time) cannabis was the biggest part of my life and was ruining every part of me. Being a successful human being was not part of my agenda, getting 'stoned' was the most important thing. At the age of 18 i started going to 'raves' and started taking ecstasy, cocaine, amphetamines and various others, but never heroin....that frightened me! Drugs were a bigger part of my life than anything else, I have always managed to hold down a job and had good jobs, often managerial positions and I worked hard. Life went on like this until I hit 26 and felt that life had finally caught up with me - I felt suicidal and very depressed (obviously wasn't blaming the drugs!) life was all too much for me and I didn't know which way to turn. My relationship with my parents had deteriorated so badly and they didn't understand, so I went to the doctors to ask for help. I was prescribed the antidepressants that she had been trying to prescribe to me for the past 2 years and I didn't want to take them, but felt that I had no option. I guess they did help to numb me and to stop the deep depressive states, but now I was on prescribed drugs and still smoking enormous amounts of 'pot'. Six months later I was not in any better space and my father's comment of 'you need professional help' got me thinking maybe he was right. I found a private psychotherapist that advertised in my doctor's surgery and have now been in therapy for nearly five years and it was the best thing I have ever done for myself. She has helped me to understand the 'why's' that I never could have found for myself - I have just finished a two year college course and will be starting another one in September - I am a 'drug addict' and always will be.....after 7 weeks of not smoking 'pot' I have clarity in my life again. I don't feel paranoid, edgy, vacant, detached or different.....it has been hard and yes, I have smoked through my college course and I feel sure that it would have come easier to me had I not smoked. I also now understand that I smoked it to escape unhappy memories of my childhood - therapy has helped me to discuss, deal with and understand that unhappy little girl that turned to drugs because she was lost and sad - I have spent nearly £10,000 pounds (which has been hard money to find, but I have done it on my own) on my therapy and finally I can see a light at the end of the tunnel - I feel good about myself, I have great relationships with my friends and in the last 7 weeks life is not so scary and I don't feel the need to get 'stoned' to be able to cope. I am sure I still have a journey to travel and some days I have felt a little low and had the urge to get 'stoned' but know that there is so much to embrace about life that I don't want to keep squashing myself - I no longer want to be insignificant, I have so much to give to the world! I guess that sounds a little 'cheesy' but I am embracing life with both hands and trying hard to hold on - it's hard but very empowering. In my opinion cannabis use is so very harmful....its so misunderstood and I believe it is as harmful as alcohol....I do mean taken on a daily basis to excess. I am currently watching one of my closest friends go through a 'hell' of a time - she too has been smoking since we were in school and she smokes 'weed/grass' only. She suffers with serious paranoia, recently lost her job and is generally detached from the world - she sadly will not go into therapy and also takes a high dosage of anti depressants, I cannot help her, she can only help herself and she is well aware that the cannabis holds her back, clouds her life, stops her relating and generally makes her life a misery - I love her and can do nothing to help her she has to want to help herself. I am fortunate for being able to embrace my deepest and innermost fears, anxieties and what made me turn to drugs for escapism. When I look around me, anyone I know that smokes cannabis doesn't have a great life, they don't live life to their fullest potential, they don't relate to friends, family and society in general as others that do not smoke do. This is a powerful drug and believe me when I say it is addictive, because I struggle (a little less every day) daily...... I now want a drug free life, that is so important to me, for all the years I have held myself back I now want to soar - I'm scared of being successful which is why I smoked 'pot' but I will go back to college in september and I will pass my next course and I will become successful in my chosen career and cannabis will not be a part of that.
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I wa with my gf for the first time last night. I'm 27 and I have been smoking weed for about 11 years (i quit as a new year resolution, 8 months ago) and I couldn't keep an erection and I am now incredibly worried that this problem might be permanent. I feel bad for my gf, because she was turning me on in a big way but i just couldn't stay erec. What can I do?
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I've been a smoker for 10 years for anxiety & manic depression i find it gives me the ability to socialise & be happy , now it's made me depend on it for sleep & other things i wish i could just get it out of my life . cost is one thing but being tired all time . feeling un well, & having to risk my lisence when i drive is why i want to quit, any ideas on best way to go about stopping , it affects my emotions bad wen i dont smoke.
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I have been smoking cannabis since i was 14 and am now nearly 19. even though i have not smoked for as many years as others here i can relate to a lot of the points they are making. Cannabis is a great drug when you first start smoking it but in later years i have found myself on edge whenever i haven't had a spliff. However i find after 3 days of going without a spliff it gets much easier.
Since starting university this year i have met a lot of people that do not smoke cannabis and never would, this has opened my mind in a huge way as before i came here i was in a group of friends where everyone smoked it. These days i do feel that cannabis detaches me from the world and it doesn't help in social situations at all. finding a girlfriend is becoming increasing difficult as i spend few hours of my life not stoned. The problem is i do need some escapism from this reality and i can't find it at the bottom of a bottle. For some people drinking is great but i would choose weed any day over alcohol. Friends of mine that have given up cannabis have become full blown alcoholics, i don't think i could face going down that route. Cannabis use does concern me a lot and i think i am on the way to giving it up altogether. Besides the effects are so insignificant these days compared to what it use to be when i was 14. Its always hard though when you know your friend downstairs has just picked up a fresh eighth. I am making a committed effort to give it up altogether as my chemistry course is too difficult for me to go on smoking daily. Lets just hope my tobacco consumption doesn't double as a result.
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So I been smoking marijuana for 5 years heavily everyday since I was 15 I am 20 turning 21 smoking Mostly blunts & papers I been sober for 9 days and I had my first anxiety attack after smoking a bowl for the first time in four days . I been depressed not been hanging out with my friends playing ball just feeling disconnected with the world . When I was smoking I was a out going energized playing basketball all the time living life carefree but every since I stopped I been over thinking everything mind racing . Checking my heart just been thinking something is wrong because I don't know what being sober feels like any more . I don't know if I'm just not used to being sober or what's going on ? Can someone shed light on this pls
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The last time I smoked marijuana was around the 13th of January, but I still have the feeling of laziness and like I'm almost looking through some kind of film or something. Like I feel when I'm high. Is this normal this long after quitting? Or is this "hazy" feeling potentially due to a medical cause. My sight isn't really impaired, but my sight is like I'm high still, like I'm looking through a haze.
I smoked multiple times a day for about a year and a half. It doesn't go away, and it hasn't gotten any better over the time since I've quit.
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For the past 3-4 months, I have smoked pot ONCE (depending on mood 1-3 joints) every night to help me go to sleep faster. I've never had insomnia problems or addiction problems before these few months (smoked 2-3 times a week for 6 months prior; and once or twice a month for 5 years before that). Now I find it extremely difficult to go to sleep. My body feels warm everywhere and even if I manage to fall asleep eventually, I never managed to fall into deep sleep and normally wake up within 4 hours feeling unrested. Any advice or similar experiences?
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quit 2 weeks ago or so which i'm well chuffed about but just wanted to know if other people have had racing thoughts or thoughts being jumbled up like really hard to focus on job at hand? either near the end of their smoking habit or when coming off it.
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i've started smoking weed at age 11 and i've quit for awhile then started again in 6th grade and smoked throughout the 8th grade and im in 9th now it feels like life isn't real i've been acting different i looked it up its called derealization is there any way to fix this or is it just in my head i really need help i never felt like this before its been happening for a while.
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I totally agree- cannabis IS addictive. My 17 year old daughter has been using cannabis since she was 14. She was continually being suspended from school, lost her place at college, has been in trouble with the police for fraud/theft and is currently awaiting a court appearance for assault on members of her own family. Her behaviour when she is coming down from the drug, or can't get any is atrocious. She has been extremely aggressive and violent. She gets the shakes, sweats and is extremely volatile when she doesn't have the drug.She has stolen from her own family, money, jewellery, mobile phones, anything that can be sold to raise money to buy the drug. She is working at present and is having great difficulty hiding her craving for the drug while at work. Her physical appearance is awful, she is covered in spots and has lost quite a bit of weight. I have been asked many times if she is on anything else but have never found any evidence to support that. She is spending in excess of £300.00 per month on cannabis- apparently skunk- Can anyone tell me if this is a normal amount to be using? She has now left the family home due to the assaults on her family and is currently staying with her brother and his family. Her relationships with the rest of the family have broken down completely and she is fast losing her friends. I am now at a loss as to how to help her. She has tried several times to give up but it only lasts a few weeks at most and when she is back on the drug she insists she hasn't got a problem with it at all. I think the worst thing the government could do would be to legalise this drug. Youngsters have already got the impression that it is harmless and it is anything but.The effects of this drug on my family are breaking my heart and I suspect I am not the only parent in this position. I have seen my daughter, one of my sons and two of my brothers almost ruin their lives because of this drug.In my opinion the bigwigs that sit there making these decisions about cannabis need to live in the real world.
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I've been a smoker for 17 years now. I've tried everything and still can't quit. Any methods anyone can recommend that helped you?
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I'm 19 years old . First time I ever smoked hash was when i was 17 years old i didn't like it very much as my life was perfect and enjoyed and absolutely loved being normal . i did not smoke again the rest of the year and then started smoking with m cousins occasionally for 2 - 3 months usually once in a week or once in 2 weeks then we all decided not to smoke and we all quit but this year had been a complete mess i smoked a joint when it was my best friends birthday 23rd january this year and from that moment on wards is smoked alot started from once a week and ended up smoking every day in summers for about 2 months with some unexpected gaps such as on a family vacation any ways for a month or so i have successfully cut back on the use by noting down the frequency of the use and now i take 3 to 4 puffs a week i have noticed that it did not cause any major problems for me besides i fell my memory is slightly of and the attention is a little weak but the most prominent problem is i'm not as energized as i used to be . i want hash to be completely gone from my life and how long it takes to my brain be completely back to normal and secondly it affected my skin badly its pale now and the youth seemed to be succked out of it with dark circles around my eyes and its making me depressed please just give me a timeline or just an idea of how long it will take me to recover from this so i can keep my self motivated.
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I have just been diagnosed with stage 2 copd (emphysema). I have smoked for 48 years. I am 65 and told I have lungs of a 95 year old. I am struggling to stop smoking. If I cannot how fast will my progression be.
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can anyone tell me which way they found the best, i don't really want to go on patches etc and i've heard bad reports on champix. I,ve tried acupuncture and found i cut down, but we all know what happens, creep back to full smoking again.
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I'm 15 years old... and i've been smoking since i was 12.. i am quitting, but since yesterday i have had this really bad pain in my throat, it feels like there is a lump of some sort, that won't go away, but then today, i woke up with the same throat pain (but worse) it hurts to breath in, it also hurts my left shoulder blade/ arm when i breath in, my nose, and occasionally my chest.. I am having a really hard time breathing, and i'm really scared. help?
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I'm 19 years old and since having a baby I have suffered with anxiety. Standing in queues makes me feel like I'm going to pass out and even going out on my own worries me. After seeing a psychic a few months ago she told me to go for a smear. Well that set me off worrying even more! Even though everything she told me was wrong that really plays on my mind and it's stopping me from sleeping as even though I have no symptoms in convinced I have cancer! I don't know what to do and I am too embarrassed to talk to partner I case he thinks I'm being silly!
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I am 25 and have been smoking cannabis almost every day for the past 10 years. The last 8 years this has been entirely skunk, and it's normal for me to spend anywhere between £50 and £70 a week on it. I do smoke it with tobacco but have managed to give up cigarettes a year ago.
Despite this I have passed college and got myself a degree - and I now have a well paid respectable job.
However, I have noticed that my memory is pretty lousy and its really affecting my work. I also get chest tightness and pains which is why I really want to give up (as well as the money). I am pretty unmotivated hence I rarely cook meals or exercise. My social skills are also poor and can only strike up a conversation with somebody if I've had a few drinks. When I am stoned, I find it difficult to hold a conversation - simply cos I don't want to - and most evenings consist of staring at the TV all evening not even noticing what I am watching.
2 years ago i split up with my fiance (and baby) as she could no longer put up with my smoking and mood swings (which can be really bad for no apparent reason). (i chose weed over them as I didn't see why I should change - however we were no longer in love so I suppose it was inevitable)
I gave up for about 10 days a few months back - the first 3 days were really hard (lack of sleep, agitation)and I vowed not to go back to it. However, I live in a small town and ALL my friends smoke weed (including my brother who I live with)so was soon back into the swing of things. Almost all my friends and brothers friends do the usual Crack, Coke Pills MDMA Base etc on a regular basis but I've always been able to control my use of these. I'm up to my eyeballs in debt (mainly from drink and drugs) so cannot afford to move to a flat of my own. I feel I can't get away from it despite remembering how much better I felt when i gave up.
I agree there should be more help, but I still don't think its necessarily a bad thing. I know some people who can take it or leave it so why should it be illegal just because some people take it too far. I think a large risk at the moment is highly pollutes "soap bar" and skunk pumped full of chemicals, glass filings (to increase weight), and flavourings. If it were legal to grow for your own use, I'm sure many people would have less of a problem with it.
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I have been smoking cannabis for the past 35 years. I have spent most of that time resisting the idea that cannabis is addictive, even though I have tried giving up and cutting down many many times, always without success. I have found it much easier to resist tobacco addiction - and wouldn't smoke tobacco at all if it wasn't for needing it to roll a joint. I am more addicted to cannabis than any of my friends, even though many of them have also smoked cannabis, some for many years. Most drug addiction services are aimed at people with heroin, crack cocaine or alcohol addictions and, by comparison, cannabis addiction is seen as `soft' and not-terribly-problematic. But neither do NHS smoking cessation services include cannabis cessation. So it is not easy to access support for tackling this addiction. My ideal outcome would be for me to be able to smoke cannabis in a controlled way, on an occasional basis. But my reluctance to give up this ideal has meant that I have, in fact, remained addicted to regular,heavy use. Increasingly, I have been able to give up for a month at a time, but I am always sucked back in, especially in response to stress at work. So I have reluctantly come to recognise that there is only one answer - giving it up for the rest of my life. I have found that acupuncture (as practiced by SMART UK - normally used for the treatment of heroin addiction) has recently helped me to give up for weeks at a time. And I am going to go back for another boost in my slow journey towards saying good-bye forever to what has been a very good friend. But one with whom I have developed a very unhealthy obsession and dependence. I believe that Dr. Susan Blackmore has recently said that cannabis use has enabled her to think more creatively and, as an academic myself, I have also found that my thinking is better synthesised and I am able to see solutions to academic problems more easily when my brain has absorbed a dose of
cannabis. If cannabis wasn't such a mentally stimulating experience (hence all the chatting and laughing amongst a group of stoned friends), it would be so EASY to give up!
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I was 17 when I started smoking cannabis daily and smoked quite a lot a day, I'm now 27 I never missed a day in that 10 years that I didn't smoke... I gave up smoking it 6 months ago and I still can't remember what happens the day before and am always having fights with my girlfriend cause I'm always not bothered about anything and seem to have a massive lack of emotion. I don't want to be like this and was the main reason I gave up, I was never like this before I smoked and thought that it was just the fact I was smoking that made me like it, now I've quit for 6 months and don't feel any different, I still feel light headed at times have blurred vision and can't concentrate on anything longer than 5 mins and forget important things all the time, I really feel like I have screwed my brain up and I'm scared I will never get back to normal, i so wish I never smoked in the first place... I was like everyone else and thought the entire time that cannabis was harmless and that I'm just lazy and emotionless because I was still smoking and that if I stopped it would all go back to normal, well It hasn't so far!!! About 3 months ago I found out my sister had breast cancer my parents and everyone were shocked and scared for her, I didn't feel anything and knew this isn't right and it scared me, I love my sister but I just can't seem to feel any emotions... So I guess what I'm asking is has anyone ever gone through this and eventually it does all go back to normal or have I screwed my life up and now i'm an emotionless zombie?
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