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.

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  If one is moody and withdrawn the other will often have little patience themselves to deal with it, and things can escalate where they normally would not.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

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