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.

The Art of Deep Breathing

This is my first post on this weeks topic of relaxation. Stress management is an important part of the marijuana addiction recovery process.

Many people, myself included, do not breathe properly, and hold tension in their body while breathing. Nerves and anxiety are often the cause of this. We want to be breathing full, deep breaths from our lower abdomen. An icon of the buddha with a fat belly, is a symbol of his breathing techniques among other things.

If you feel nervous, anxious, or catch yourself breathing high in the chest, you can follow this simple 4 step technique to “vacuum your lungs” and reset your diaphragm back to a deep breathing pattern.

Resetting your Diaphragm

1. Exhale completely, blow out every single bit of air from your lungs as best you can.

2. Bend over. I like to fold my arms in front of my stomach when I bend to get that extra little bit of air out. Bending over expels the last bits of air from your lungs. When you’re totally out of air make sure you hold you breath, so you don’t accidentally let any air in.

3. Stand up while holding your breath. This increases lung volume, so air will want to flow into your lungs, but don’t breathe. Wait about 10 seconds until your body really needs a breath.

4. Then, when you can’t take much more, Breathe! Your body will have moved over from your normal, everyday breathing to unregulated, autonomic “response breathing.” You should feel your breathing has switched to deep and rhythmic breathing.

That’s all there is to it. Once you let your body take that unregulated breath in step 4, your nervous system reboots your lungs, and your previous tense and anxious breath becomes a thing of the past.

I recommend performing this technique, then breathing deeply for a couple of minutes to ingrain the positive feeling of breathing deeply and fully. Hope this helps.

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.

I wanted to know exactly how long it will be before I am ‘clean’ of marijuana after quitting. This means not just using, but also, having no traces of it in my body.

I discovered that every individual is different. Marijuana can stay in a persons system anywhere from 3 to 90 days!

Factors include:

• body weight
• metabolism
• fluid intake
• amount of consumption or exposure

The THC in marijuana is fat soluble, so the more you smoke, the longer it can take to flush it out completely. That being said, I will be be closer to the 90 day range due to the amount and length of time I have smoked. One day at a time, I will get clean!

I found the following online and filled it out.

A Self-test For Pot Addiction

These 12 questions can help you find out if you have an addiction problem with marijuana (pot). If you answered yes to any one of the above questions, you may have a problem with marijuana.

1. Has smoking pot stopped being fun?

Not always. Sometimes when I binge it is very depressing. I feel like I have to finish it all so that I can quit, then I go buy more and the cycle repeats.

2. Do you plan your life around you smoking marijuana?

Yes. I plan when I can get high, when I need to be sober, and marijuana plays a role in many of my social relationships.

3. Do you ever get high by yourself?

I would guess I get high by myself 95% of the time.

4. When your pot supply is almost gone, are you worried about how to get more?

Yes. I hide roaches, search for crumbs, call everyone I know, scrape bowls, etc etc.

5. Do you smoke pot to help you deal with you feelings?

I would say I smoke pot to NOT deal with my feelings. Naturally, this makes me feel worse. You become what you ignore.

6. Is it hard for you to think about your life without marijuana?

Yes. As I write this, I have a slight craving. It has been a big part of 1/3 of my life.

7. Do you find that you choose your friends based on your marijuana use?

Yes. Most friends are / were smokers.

8. Do you smoke marijuana to avoid facing your problems?

Yes. I use it as a procrastination tool – I avoid problems, responsibilities and commitments.

9. Has your use of marijuana caused problems with your memory, concentration, or motivation?

Yes. My short term memory is poor, concentration isn’t much better and I am so lazy. I really need to change.

10. Does your marijuana use let you live in a privately defined world?

Yes. But it is my world, and I define it, it is safe and I like it there.

11. Have you ever not kept promises you made to yourself to cut down or control your pot smoking?

Yes. This is the reason I started this blog. I need to explore these feelings more and keep myself honest.

12. Have your friends or relatives ever complained that your pot smoking is causing problems with your relationship with them?

Only one friend has ever mentioned it. I keep it very discrete and really do exist in a private world.

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If you answered yes to any one of the above questions, you may have a problem with marijuana.

What happens if I answer yes to all 12? I guess I am in big trouble then. This was a good task and forces me to accept that I am addicted to cannabis. I am a drug addict. Damn, that is pretty heavy. I have hardly admitted it to myself over the last 5 years, let alone written it down.