I quit weed too

[lugi88]

Hi all, second day without a blunt here. (minor withdrawal symptoms:sweating, low energy level, no appetite)

After much reading on personal stories about their weed addiction, I've finally built enough courage to quit this extremely unhealthy lifestyle.
Like many people, I started smoking in high school socially and casually, soon enough it turned into a full-blown everyday habbit.
I've smoked everyday from age 16 and now i'm 22 this year.



I think we all fell into the slippery road when we went from social smoking to smoking alone. When I first started, at a party, I thought it was
the best thing ever. I continued to smoke socially, until.... I started buying my own stash to keep at home. At first, I started vaporizing at
night, every night and it was just the greatest thing to end the day.

Soon enough, I was not satisfied smoking crappy low grade chronic. I became a weed snob, buying only the best tasting and the strongest kush(I'm from California).
Through all of this time, the thought of the negative side effects never even hit me once. I was so into that lifestyle I never even thought about quitting.

I was actually brainwashed by pro-marijuana garbage that it was not harming my body or mental health. I would always defend smoking weed vehemontly, thinking to
myself, there are far more unhealthy things to do than getting high, not harming anybody. But now I realized how ridiculous thinking like that is.
Sure, there are other unhealthy habbits, but that is because people abuse and overdo it. At this point, I was foolish enough that, I didn't even know I, myself had been abusing a substance.

I don't blame marijuana, only myself for abusing it. Deciding to quit almost feels like I have moved on to another stage in life.
Sadly, I have friends who still smoke and probably do not realize their addiction. Like many current users, I used to think weed was not harmful or addictive, and
that it was OKAY to smoke everyday.

I think what finally made me mad at myself was, realizing that I was so dependent on weed that doing anything without weed felt dreadful.
Realization of my addiction didn't make me quit though. I continued to smoke, and felt extremely terrible when I ran out and could not find a dealer.
I kept telling myself I would quit, only to light up again the very next day, and everytime I did I would tell myself, "my god how pathetic have I become?"
I would laugh at myself being so weak that a plant has taken a hold of me.
But to finally realize I had an addiction to pot was the first step to quitting.

I kept debating in my head,(addicted me vs me without maryjane)
why should I quit, it's not even that damaging, and it makes me happy. But the truth is.. like many of us, getting high is no longer fun when we abuse it for years.
For periods of time, all I would get from blazing was a bad headache, this would happen for a week or two, but continued to smoke.

Not sure exactly what struck me to finally decide to quit, I can't even remember due to my stoner memory. After reading all the stories here, I've realized,
its better to quit sooner than later.

I hope reading my story will help those who are currently still in the stage of deciding whether to quit or not and why should they, to finally take the plunge and quit.
There are so many reasons to quit. One most importantly being, is kicking an addiction.
An addiction is a terrible thing and it grips people in ways they can't even help themselves to get out.
I want to list all the issues that came with abusing over the years:
-sometimes i would slur, but not too badly
-my lungs, throat, teeth obviously suffered
-I no longer even dream at night, very very rarely
-sometimes I lose my train of thought, and it causes me extreme anxiety because I couldn't remember what I wanted to say(I wasn't even a nervous and anxious person before)
-I cough out nasty tar every morning and that can't be good..
-Smoking to feel normal can't be good neither..

I sincerely want to thank all those who shared their story here to help people, funny how we all banded together in the first place by pot, and now banded together by quitting pot.

[Leo]

We have virtually the same story, started when I was in high school at sixteen, am also 22. Started socially, progressed (degenerated?) to smoking alone. I especially remember my Aunt pointing this out to me years back, she said that if I was smoking with friends its o.k but now that I do it alone, I must have a problem. I brushed it off.

I also have been a victim of the pro-weed campaigners. My biggest challenge is music. I want to get into the music industry so I listen to a lot of music. I like reggae a lot, and you know how it is. Those guys can really paint a beautiful picture with their words and I know for a fact that I can be easily influenced by these guys. I haven't edited my music library yet but know I should. Even hiphop and rnb have strong pro-weed messages. I'm still mulling this over.

I'm on my day one. I last smoked yesterday even though it wasn't fun at all. I know that if I dont smoke I'll feel better with myself.

Well done to you for being on day 2 (or is it three by now?) Good job.

We need to support the sh* out of each other.

[Cath]

Hi Lugi88,
Welcome to the forum. Well done on making the huge decision to quit the weed. Your story is so familiar to me and to many people out there. You make a very interesting point about us all sticking together and in the beginning it was due to smoking pot, now its due to quitting.

The people here are really supportive and genuinely care. There are some excellent tips on how to cope with the cravings, personally I find Green Tea really helps, and hot baths. You mentioned that you do not dream anymore due to weed, well in the next few weeks you will find your dreams will return and you will have strange vivid dreams, I keep dreaming of people from my past. And you will experience hot sweats especially at night. I have been told that these will stop, (I am only on day 19 myself).

I can relate to what you say about forgetting what you are saying in the middle of a conversation, but Since i quit I have not lost my train of thought once. I find that the best thing so far about quitting the weed is that when I wake up in the morning I can get up and I don't feel groggy at all. Fresh as a daisy. I will tell you some of the downsides of quitting so that you will be prepared, I have had terrible mood swings, anger, depression and i have been very emotional, but even after a few weeks this seems to be getting better.

I wish you all the luck in the world, you sound very determined which is great, anytime you are struggling I find that it helps to come here and tell people or read posts from others. We are all feeling or have felt like you at some point and we all want to help each other. So keep going you re doing really well..

Together we can do it

[lugi88]

Thanks guys!
I made it to day 4, phew who would have guessed, not me haha
im doing surprisingly well, the craving dont seem too horrible, as i have been enrolling in college to become a Veterinary Technician(yes i love animals and dogs)

You are definitely right on point about mood swings Cath, one minute i find myself calm, next thing you know my temper explodes at the slightest things.
But that isn't too hard to control, I just relax and take a deep breath and do something else.

As for sleeping, I think I've got a total of 10 hours of sleep in the past 4 days, and last night I got so irritated about not being able to sleep I almost cried haha
It really sucks to lay on the bed throughout the night and today was the first day college started.

Loss of appetite also caused me to drop a few pounds, I will eat like a pig once I get back to normal though. I think I've lost more water weight than anything else, I toss and turn all night long and sweat, extremely uncomfortable. I also notice I sweat more walking my dog too, I walk my dogs every night.

But all of these withdrawal symptoms are just enforcing my decision to quit for good, I absolutely do not want to smoke 10 or 20 more years down the road and THEN suffer the real consequences. I don't think I'll ever smoke again. The one good thing that smoking marijuana is, that it has kept me off tobacco, a lot of my friends who are non-potheads are ridiculously addicted to cigarettes.

As for how my dreams go, my first night, I had a really horrible dream, I was witnessing animal cruelty that was so terrifying I don't think I'll go in details here.
My second night, I actually dreamed about smoking pot, and I was so disappointed, thank God that was just a dream.
Not much since then though, like I said, not much hours of sleeping = no time to dream.

@Leo, Hey bro, I know what you mean, I brushed off the very same advice about not getting stoned alone. I think that's what so dangerous about marijuana. There is so much pro-mj crap out there, it really convince us young people that there is nothing wrong with smoking weed. Sure there probably not much damage when you smoke occasionally, but somehow we all start to abuse it and not even realize that we're doing it, at least for me it was. How I got the idea about abusing alcohol/tobacco/anything else is bad, but abusing weed is okay, is just baffling.
I really went down the hill with the habit when I started to incorporate all my daily activities with Weed.

Good luck everyone who is quitting, though luck has nothing to do with it, all about determination and willingness to quit. We can do it!

[Hummer]

hey lugi,

well done for quitting, it's not easy to break the cycle - smoking everyday for so long gets to the point where the prospect of a day without it seems scary

the sooner you quit the better, because the longer you smoke the more of your life you're missing out on/wasting - i honestly never thought i'd feel this way

I'm about 9 weeks off the weed, smoked for about 10 years. It hasn't been easy, the first month was really long and boring - but i promise you that if you stick it out during the first tought few weeks you'll soon begin to feel the benefits and realise that you don't need to have weed in your life

don't get me wrong, i'd ****ing love a joint - and i think i'll always have that niggling little thought in the back of my mind (i guess that shows the strength of the addiction!) but as much as i'd like to be stoned i can see now how much better life is without it and the pleasure i'd get from smoking is not worth jeopardising all the benefits that i'm now feeling!

this site has been the difference for me, having people to talk to who are going through the same thing helped so much -

keep us posted on how you get on!

[BFB]

Hi lugi88 and welcome to the forum.

We have all battled with the justification of our habit, I too was extremely pro marijuana and like yourself a bit of a weed snob, my favourite strains were the purple ones, I particularly liked blueberry based ones. But eventually I had to face that no matter how tasty the strain it was doing me far more harm than good. I too became slurred, had sore lungs, was coughing up a lot of shit, suffering with anxiety and depression, the list went on, I should have quit well before I did and ended up in a right mess. Anyway well done on your decision to quit, it sounds like you have some pretty good reasons.

You are right it is amazing just how pro the use of the drug has become with some, if they used any other drug in the same way they would consider it bad, but somehow weed is the only drug that none of those things applies to.

Well done on the four day mark, it can be quite a roller coaster emotionally/psychologically and you can find yourself really losing it at times and the dreams can be pretty freaky, but it will pass. Anyway hang in there and stay strong I am sure you can do it, remember it won’t be like this forever.

Take care, thanks for sharing and please keep us posted on how it goes.

[lugi88]

thanks BFB, we all owe you for creating such a warm and welcoming atmosphere for those struggling to quit.
I'm currently on my day 5, doing quite well, finally got a few extra hours of sleep last night, i'm still sweating like crazy at night. My appetite is slowly coming back, but I still can't manage to eat for breakfast(I loved waking up, get high and eat), I've been settling with a glass of milk.

[lugi88]

day 9
withdrawal symptoms are still here and so are the cravings.
i think insomnia is the worst, last night i think i fell asleep at around 5am, absolutely awful.

[BFB]

The insomnia can be really shit when you quit any drug that helps you sleep, the brain gets lazy and starts to rely on them, but it does readjust, unfortunately it’s just something you have to go through. Hang in there Lugi88, I know you can do it.

Take care and thanks for keeping us posted.

[Hummer]

day 9
withdrawal symptoms are still here and so are the cravings.
i think insomnia is the worst, last night i think i fell asleep at around 5am, absolutely awful.

do you have an mp3 player?

when i quit and couldn't sleep i'd just lay in bed listening to quiet relaxing music, i found it helped,