Are you trying to quit and going through Marijuana withdrawal?
You are not alone. Many heavy weed smokers go through some form of withdrawal when they haven’t smoked recently. This page describes the physical and psychological symptoms of withdrawal from marijuana. I should know – I smoked weed for close to 10 years before I learned how to kick my addiction to marijuana. Knowing what to expect will help you succeed!
How Long Does Marijuana Withdrawal Take?
Most people who experience marijuana withdrawal symptoms get them between the second and tenth day of quitting weed. Symptoms can last for up to a month in some people. The most intense withdrawal period will be the first week to ten days after you quit smoking marijuana. Different symptoms will resolve themselves at different rates.
Remember that each day the negative symptoms will decrease until you are physically and mentally free from THC! When you know what to expect, you will be well equipped to deal with it!
Marijuana Withdrawal Anxiety
The most common symptom of withdrawal is a low grade anxiety. Although not severe, this feeling is not easily remedied by through distraction or just thinking happy thoughts. In my opinion, the anxiety felt when detoxing from weed is a combination of fear of being sober, and desire to return to a stoned state of mind. It’s almost like your mind is saying “Things aren’t normal, I don’t like this new state”. As you become accustomed to not smoking and the new state of mind, the anxiety will fade.\
Insomnia, Sleeping, and Dreaming
Whenever I quit smoking weed, I would always have disturbances in my sleep. In the beginning the insomnia can be quite severe. The worst for me was about 4 hours sleep in 60 hours. I have heard of some people sleeping less than 5 hours every night, but the worst of the insomnia symptoms tend to disappear about a week after quitting.
The dreams that you experience during marijuana withdrawal can be very intense and vivid, and many people (myself included) have had crazy end-of-the-world nightmares. When you smoke a lot of pot, you tend not to dream as much, or at least not remember them, so getting used to dreaming and interpreting dreams takes some time. I have found that my dreams stabilize after about a month, and the bad dreams subside within the first couple weeks.
Change of Appetite and Weight Loss
Another common marijuana detox symptom is the lack of an appetite. I have met a couple people who need to smoke before they eat. When they quit smoking, they don’t have the desire to eat. It’s almost like they needed the munchies to eat food.Let’s face it, marijuana withdrawal stresses the body out, and when you get stressed, you can lose your appetite and lose weight. The weight loss has got to be the best benefit of detox!
Cures for Marijuana Withdrawal Symptoms
The best cure for Marijuana Withdrawal Symptoms is time and patience. Having a plan to get through the withdrawal and avoid relapse is also one the keys in learning how to quit smoking marijuana. One thing that really helped me get through the withdrawal and cravings was the Cannabis Coach Easy Quit Audio series by Gary Evans. It guided me through first couple of weeks and gave me exercises to remove some of the stress from quitting.
Another busy and productive day today, with a good sleep last night. Last night was the first night that I had vivid dreams after quitting marijuana. The majority of the weed addicts that I know don’t recall their dreams, or have fewer dreams than non smokers. I have heard that it is pretty common to have ‘end of the world’ nightmares when quitting weed. In my previous attempts to quit, I have had some crazy nightmares.
This dream was definitely strange – and I got stoned in my dream…This doesn’t count as relapse right . The Dream: So I was outside on the main drag of a town with my colleagues, and a bunch of them were up ahead in a circle. One woman came up to me and said something along the lines of “I smoke, but don’t tell anyone”, and joined the circle. I followed behind her, and next thing I new, I was passed a joint. This was the end of the dream as I remember it. Shitty description, but dreams are hard to describe.
One of the reasons that I wanted to quit is because I didn’t want colleagues to find out about my marijuana habit. I am sure some of them know and don’t say anything to me. Weed made me paranoid so I always wondered if they DID know.
‘Til Tomorrow – which will be double digits sober! Wooohooo!
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.
When I woke up today, I felt great. After quitting marijuana for 6 days, my morning energy and mindset is improving. My mind is much clearer than a week ago! I used to smoke weed primarily at night, and it is almost a guarantee that I would fall asleep stoned or burnt out…..That seems to carry over into a mediocre sleep and a tough wakeup in the morning. My marijuana hangovers rob me of energy and a positive attitude in the morning. Sometimes my eyes looked stony, even if it had been hours.
When I take in a full breath, the top of my lungs hurt a little bit, I don’t know if that is from quitting pot, being more aware of my body, or from the exercise I have been doing in the past couple of days. Maybe they are being cleaned out.
Starting a couple of days ago, I was experiencing significant anxiety and nervousness…This hasn’t happened to me before when trying to end my marijuana addiction. I have had a very stressed out 2 weeks, so I think the marijuana withdrawal played a small role in this overall mental state.
I haven’t had any major cravings yet. In my case, those don’t start for a little while. I have stayed away from the pubs and thus the party. It is a lot easier to quit when you aren’t surrounded by it.
It’s been a weird couple of days. I have had all sorts of nervous energy and anxiety…I don’t want to call them panic attacks, but rather feelings of intense dread for no reason. Sometimes my mind races. It kind of feels like a ball of energy heating up at my center and moving up the top of my body. I think this nervous energy is the cause of my insomnia as well.
I notice that I have been ‘holding’ my breath a lot and have been tense or fidgety for no reason. I have been doing some of the stress relaxation techniques and deep breathing drills which are actually working ! I haven’t experienced the marijuana withdrawal anxiety before to this severity. Usually it was only mental, but the physical withdrawal symptoms from cannabis are discomforting. I need to bleed off more stress during this beginning transition phase. With the right stress management program, the stress and anxiety from marijuana withdrawal can be minimized.
Quitting Marijuana can cause anxiety in some people, but I don’t know how long it is supposed to last, and what to expect. Needless to say, the last couple of days have NOT been fun. I got about 6 hours of solid sleep. Normally I wake up a lot during the night, but this was a nice uninterrupted rest.
Only one dream of note so far, all I remember is being hit in the liver by something, then someone I knew (don’t know who) hitting me in the same spot.
This is the last post in this weeks series of posts on relaxation techniques for helping cope with the stress associated with marijuana withdrawal. A couple commentators, Meggers and Tani, have both recommended yoga for stress relief and a great nights sleep.
Yoga is an ancient path to spiritual growth, and originates out of India where hinduism is practiced. The practice and goal of yoga dates back to the Upanishads, written between 1000-5000 BC.
I have only performed one type of Yoga sequence before, and I think it is perfect for beginners. The Sun Salutation is a sequence of 12 movements that can be performed quickly whenever you need a boost. I just did a set to try it out – I like it. It feels more physically demanding than the moving meditation relaxation technique and gets the blood flowing quickly.
I came across deep relaxation audio tape that I liked and thought I should share it. The first few days of withdrawal from smoking weed are always the hardest for me, so I am building up a nice list of relaxation and distraction techniques to help me get through the cravings and other marijuana withdrawal symptoms.
You will need RealPlayer to play the files. One of the files is 6 minutes, and the other is 20 minutes.
Todays relaxation technique is one that I learned from an old roommate of mine, he used to perform this technique when he couldn’t fall asleep. This is a great exercise for marijuana withdrawal when you have insomnia. I struggle with insomnia when during the first couple days that I stop smoking weed.
The exercise is called “Muscle Tension and Relaxation”. It is very easy to do – you simply tense up, then relax certain muscle groups in your body.
If you practice this regularly, you will get to know your body better and have a good understanding what tension and relaxation feel like in your body. Relaxing your body also helps to relax your mind. You can combine this exercise with deep breathing to get rid of any more stress.
I like to start at the feet, then work their way up to the face. The exercise is the same for each body part
Instructions:
Get comfortable.
Take a moment to relax, breathing in and out in slow, deep breaths.
Once relaxed, shift your attention to your right foot. Feel your awareness in your foot then slowly tense the muscles. Squeeze as tightly as you can while counting to 10.
Relax your right foot. Feel the tension flowing away from your foot as it becomes limp, loose and relaxed.
Take a deep breath and continue to relax your foot.
Follow the same sequence for your left foot.
Starting from the feet, move slowly up each muscle group in your body. Here is an example pattern:
Right / Left Foot
Right calf / Left calf
Right thigh /Left thigh
Hips and buttocks
Stomach / Abdominals
Lower Back
Chest
Upper Back and Trapezoids
Right / Left Arm and Hand
Neck and shoulders
Face
I hope you enjoy this exercise and it helps you get to sleep when you are going through marijuana withdrawal. Insomnia is very common when you quit, so remember you are not alone and you can be proactive when dealing with insomnia, anxiety, or other weed withdrawal issues.
Today started off a little slow, I am not a morning person, so morning didn’t come until about 11:00 AM today. I hate getting out of bed, but am happy to be up once I make the initial effort.
I didn’t smoke any weed today but I had two major cravings, both occurred under the same circumstances. Pretty much every time I come home, the first thing I do is pee, and the second thing I do is smoke weed. This can be a trip where I am away for a couple hours, or a couple days, the routine is always the same. Go home, and get high. Since I went out and was social today, I came home twice, and both times I really wanted to smoke badly. The first craving went away after about 5 minutes, and I am working through the second one right now. I had a great evening, I went out and had dinner with great friends, then as I was walking to my place, thought about how great the evening had been, and how much better it would be if I had something to smoke to ‘finish off the night’. These are thought processes that need to change and be replaced by something more productive.
This is the second marijuana smoking trend I have identified in myself, the first being smoking with friends I meet at the pub. So, I have to keep myself busy when I first get home and no hanging out at the pub for the rest of the week. I have a feeling my house will be very clean by Friday.
This is my second post in this weeks series of relaxation techniques to help bleed off some of the stress associated with quitting weed. We will be looking at a chi-kung technique from the falun-dafa school in China. I have practiced this technique and found that the more I practiced and ‘knew’ the exercise, the more relaxing and rejuvenating it became.
This video clip is about 8 minutes long and guides you through the moving meditation called “Buddha Showing 1000 Hands”.
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I will be performing this exercise daily. I recommend doing three complete sets of the exercise once per day. You will get the most benefit out of this technique by going slowly, and really learning the steps and body movement. Even though you aren’t moving much, there is good chance you will sweat a lot….You are sweating out your stress and toxins, so enjoy it!For more information on these and other Falun Dafu exercises, visit the Falun Dafa website
. The Dream: So I was outside on the main drag of a town with my colleagues, and a bunch of them were up ahead in a circle. One woman came up to me and said something along the lines of “I smoke, but don’t tell anyone”, and joined the circle. I followed behind her, and next thing I new, I was passed a joint. This was the end of the dream as I remember it. Shitty description, but dreams are hard to describe.
This is the last post in this weeks series of posts on relaxation techniques for helping cope with the stress associated with marijuana withdrawal. A couple commentators, Meggers and Tani, have both recommended yoga for stress relief and a great nights sleep.
I came across deep relaxation audio tape that I liked and thought I should share it. The first few days of withdrawal from smoking weed are always the hardest for me, so I am building up a nice list of relaxation and distraction techniques to help me get through the cravings and other marijuana withdrawal symptoms.
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