Another day without smoking pot. Today was a better day. I was extremely busy today, and did not experience any intense cannabis withdrawal symptoms. The anxiety and dread that I was feeling is definitely in recession. I know that I am only 8 days in, but I feel like the worst part of the psychological detox is past me. Now I will need to deal with sobriety on a daily basis. The physical detox will take up to 3 months for all of the fat-soluble thc to be free from my system. Only after 3 months will I consider myself ‘clean’ from weed. Clean is not the same thing as recovered!
Sleep was also better last night – I got 7 hours and only woke up once. When smoking weed, I seemed to wake up a lot more during the night. Sometimes I would even awake, smoke a roach, then head straight back to bed. It appears that marijuana makes sleep come easy, but the quality of sleep is worse than a sober sleep would be. Anyone find the same thing happening to them.
Bucking Faked requested the ability to blog on their progress. I will be configuring and opening a Marijuana Addiction Support Forum this weekend. I don’t know if it will be on this site, or on another domain…I still need to work out the logistics.
Tagged as:
Marijuana Addiction,
quit marijuana,
Quit Smoking Cannabis,
Quitting Weed,
Withdrawal from Marijuana
Today I bring you a guest post from Tani. Tani was one of the first visitors on Marijuana-Addict and I am have been glad to exchange stories and information with her. I asked Tani to describe what it was like being in a relationship with a fellow smoker, and how it affected the recovery process. Here is her post Marijuana Addiction in Relationships:
I am one smoker in a relationship with another smoker.
We have quit many times during our near 10 year long relationship, twice for 6 months at a time. Usually though we quit and go back to smoking after a couple of days. The reasons for that are varied but some of them are to do with the relationship dynamic.
When in a relationship weed alters things, you are carefree and having fun when stoned, but remember all your worries and issues when withdrawing. Often one of us will feel confident to quit, but the other feels weak. The times of having coinciding strength are far and few between.
Coping with each other’s reactions to withdrawal can be difficult as well. If one is moody and withdrawn the other will often have little patience themselves to deal with it, and things can escalate where they normally would not.
If you can be strong enough to ride out the withdrawal phase (which really only seems to last a few days in terms of extreme mood changes) then the road is easier. Often I lack this patience and crave a happy conversation and will engineer for us to smoke so we can have a nice time. I do this as I hope it will give me enough strength to last out the negative time to come. It does not seem to work though.
It truly seems most effective for us, when quitting, to actually spend that time apart so we do not do too much damage to the relationship. The trick is then not to think you can go back to occasional smoking. Both times we thought we had beaten it, we went back thinking we could smoke on certain weekends, but it always escalates.
Thanks to Tani for that great post! Are you interested in writing an post about your experience? Contact me at admin@marijuana-addict.com.
Hello Everyone,
Just checking in on Sunday night before I shut things down for the evening. I have had another good day today visiting friends and keeping them entertained. Being this busy is a natural mood lifter and because of this, I know that I can stop smoking weed!
I smoked again tonight. I gathered up the last of the bag that I had and smoked it once my company left a couple hours ago. It is hard to describe my current mood. I am disappointed about the relapses that I have faced in the previous week, but am also very optimistic about my ability to stop smoking weed. You’ll notice I put a days stoned counter on the bottom of the daily journal. This is another tool to help me keep on track.
I have noticed a huge difference in my behavior and efficiency when working on my journal in the past couple of days. A motivational behavior really kicks in when I smoke weed. Its almost like when I am stoned I slip into a passive, gathering information state, whereas when I am sober, I can gather AND disseminate information effectively. I would say I about twice as fast at blogging sober than stoned.
This week I am going to be writing about some relaxation techniques I have learned or practiced in the past. Releasing stress will be a priority this week and critical to my long term success. I want to do acupuncture, just hope that medical will cover it.
I have no more pot left, and won’t be going to out much next week. See you Monday.
Days Sober 0
Days Stoned 5
This is Part #4 of a 4 part series on my reason to quit smoking weed.
As seen in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3, I believe that it is a great idea to create an inventory of all of the reasons that I want to quit smoking weed. This servers 2 purposes: To clarify the negative effects of marijuana addiction in my life, and to use as a reference guide when I crave smoking pot, and think about relapsing.
The Negative Effects of Marijuana on my Finances:
Cost of Marijuana: My previous post on How Much my Addiction to Pot Has Cost Me, shows how expensive this habit can become. Add it up for yourself, its amazing what happens when this goes unchecked in the long term.
Paying Bills: I forget to pay my bills on time, or even open them. I always leave my banking to the last possible moment. My cell phone frequently gets disconnected. In the past, I have had TV and Phone service disconnected. Not because I didn’t have the money, just I was stoned all the time and never thought of it.
Planning Ahead: I haven’t saved anything for a house. I don’t plan well or have a budget from month to month. I tend to live in the current moment, or just far enough ahead in the future when stoned. Being in the stoned bubble really blurs the ability to look into the future.
Incidental Expenses: I eat a lot of low nutrition, high cost foods when I smoke marijuana. After smoking pot, its common to get the munchies and eat fast food. Also, I am less motivated to make my own food, or even go the grocery store to get new food. When not smoking, I eat healthier and am more conscious of my food choices.
See Also
How to Quit Smoking Marijuana
Tagged as:
cost of marijuana,
Marijuana Addiction,
money,
paying bills
Today was a pretty good day. I ended up having a puff, which is not good, but I have identified the pattern that leads to these relapses and will close off that opportunity. I have some friends coming in to town this weekend, so I will be busy with them and be able to get a couple of days under my belt.
Next week, I am not allowed to go and hang out at the local pub. I may extend this all the way through to Christmas. Each time I have messed up, it has been from meeting up with folks there. This is clearly an old habit and way of thinking that I need to change.
I did, however, sleep like a baby last night. In my first week, I went from smoking about 25 times to only 3. This is progress. Progress is all I am looking for, perfection comes later.
Days Sober 0
Tagged as:
Addiction,
Insomnia,
Marijuana,
quit smoking pot,
Relapse,
Withdrawal
This is Part #3 of a 4 part series on my reason to quit smoking weed.
As seen in Part 1, and Part 2 I believe that it is a great idea to create an inventory of all of the reasons that I want to quit smoking weed. This servers 2 purposes: To clarify the negative effects of marijuana addiction in my life, and to use as a reference guide when I crave smoking pot, and think about relapsing.
The Negative Effects of Marijuana on my Relationships:
Friendships: Most of the people I associate are stoners, or smoke pot sometimes. Because so much of my life is lived whilst stoned, it is easiest to associate with people that enable me to get high. I also turn down or spoil friendships because I don’t call people back or check my messages on a regular basis. Being stoned is a comfort bubble, as long as you exist within that bubble, the rest of the world can wait. Marijuana is the common theme of most of my friendships, very few get deeper than that.
Commitments: Because weed effects my short term memory so much, I am often late or forget about commitments that I should honor. I also do not like to commit to any regular or scheduled activity, because it may interfere with my ability to smoke pot and get high.
Girlfriends: I went through a period of hiding the fact that I smoked weed from my girlfriends. It always backfired. Every relationship I have had or attempted has been negatively affected by my smoking. For example, multiple times I have left a date early to go smoke pot alone, or have my mind on getting high rather than paying attention to the person I am with. I can also be very quiet and introverted while high on marijuana, so it makes it difficult to maintain conversations, sometimes even eye contact. Basically, I resent that a girlfriend interferes with my unrestricted access to smoking marijuana, and the mental and emotional state of being high.
Family: I am lucky to have a family that does not demonize marijuana. They are unaware of the extent of my addiction and I feel ashamed of it. I always thought that there were great expectations for me (from both family and myself) that haven’t been met because of my chronic marijuana addiction.
Conversation: I consider myself to be a well-spoken articulate person – when sober. Sometimes my memory gets so bad I forget what I was saying, the word I wanted to say, or I mispronounce a word. If I am itching for weed, my mind is elsewhere and I may space out and not pay attention to the other half of the conversation. I am not as sharp, while high, as I am when sober.
Social Anxiety and Paranoia: When I am in public and stoned, I think I hear people talking about me and laughing at me sometimes. Even though I know this not to be the case, I get quite anxious and embarrassed. I struggle to make eye contact with people when I am baked, and am more likely to introvert myself and my thoughts, body language, and actions. I would never go and chat up a group of girls while stoned – I could do it sober far more easily. I also get anxious about driving, about smelling like pot around coworkers and the general public. I also worry about coworkers, friends, and family knowing about how bad I crave pot, and how much of a stoner I am. No 6 year old says “I want to grow up to be pothead”.
See Also
How to Quit Smoking Marijuana
Part 1 Physical Reasons to Quit Marijuana
Part 2 Psychological Reasons to Quit Marijuana
Part 4 Financial Reasons to Quit Marijuana
Tagged as:
Family,
Friends,
Friendships,
Negative Effects,
Paranoia,
Relationships,
Social Anxiety
Hey All,
For those of you who are returning guests, I have changed the look of the blog. The last template I was using was not flexible enough for me. When I get some money, I may contact the original designer to see if he is willing to modify the old template for me and the additional things I need.
Things are going very well today, I found a roach in my room, and threw it away! I did so immediately before I could change my mind.
I will follow up at the end of the evening.
I quit marijuana. I am sober. Happy Thanksgiving.
Yesterday was my last day being a marijuana smoker. I ran into my ex-dealer at my local pub and he smoked me up.
I have not had anything today, and I don’t have any left. I do not smoke pot anymore. I am healthy. I am healthy. I crave health.
I have been at this stage before, but I have always relapsed. I know that this blog and support from internet community will help me achieve my goal permanently. The plan from here is to write daily journals of my progress, and more detailed posts on specific techniques or concepts that are helpful to me.
Days Sober: 1
Tagged as:
cold turkey.,
quitting pot,
sobriety
I decided to add up the amount of money I was spending on my cannabis addiction. This is a major motivational factor in helping me quit my addiction.
My Marijuana Usage
I first started buying pot about 8 years ago. Within 3 months of buying it myself, I was smoking anywhere between an eighth of an ounce, to a quarter of an ounce every 5 days. This time of my life was my heaviest usage.
A 1/4 ounce of bud cost about $60, if you think that is cheap, I WAS a regular.
I moved to another city a few years ago, the pot here is way more expensive. I would guess that I have spent roughly $10 per day over the last 3 years on smoking marijuana. I would definitely say I cut down on the amount of weed I smoke, but the fact that it is more expensive means I was not saving any money.
If you are going to smoke that much, you need something to smoke it with. I would say I spent close to $400 on smoking paraphernalia over this time period. I have had several nice glass pipes (all broken or gifted), 3 good bongs, and a tonne of rolling papers, blunt wraps, and lighters.
I also went through a period where I invested $800 to grow my own marijuana. I bought the light, hydroponics, fans, and everything. I did get once harvest out of it, but gave away all of the equipment after one grow. It was too much work.
Lets do the Math:
Years 1 to 5:
$60 per week x 48 weeks in a year x 5 years = $14,440
Years 6-Current
$10 per day x 330 days per year x 3 years = $9900
Grand Total:
- Marijuana Purchased $24300
- Paraphernalia: $500
- Grow Show: $800
Total Cost: $25600 over 8 years! I didn’t even include the amount I have spent on the munchies.
That is just disgusting to see that total. . Before writing this post, I had no real concept of how the $40 here, $60 there added up over time.
Tagged as:
cost of marijuana,
expenses of marijuana.,
marijuana usage
Well folks, I am down to the last of it, there are 2 little roaches left for me to get through. I know, I know, I thought I would be done yesterday.
The withdrawal has begun even before I am completely out of pot ! I am trying to hold on to this little bit as long as possible and postpone the inevitable. I used to hide roaches for myself, so that I could find them when I ran out! I am going to do one more check of my house, to make sure it is all gone, then throw away all of my supplies.
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