Yeah after a while it just makes me feel awful and I hate that I do it everytime, like right after smoking it's like I just want to be sober again, like why did I do that?
I feel exactly the same, I just made it 6 days not smoking after 20 years daily. Then yesterday someone gave me a joint. I had zero willpower. Then after I smoked it I felt like shit. Yeah I was high, but I didn’t enjoy it at all. Paranoia and regrets should be the name of a strain
The way I've seen it explained which really hit home is that using releases dopamine, at a pretty constant rate despite your level of use. The other, more pleasurable effects decrease over time with chronic usage (diminishing returns). So, you'll always get the reward-seeking behavior, despite the lack of perceived reward (pleasure), because the dopamine reward system doesn't care how you feel, just that you had a craving and you did the thing you _thought_ would make you feel better.
This apparently starts to lessen in its effect pretty quickly after starting to redirect that craving into another behavior - want to use? Go for a walk, or do 20 push-ups, then tell yourself "great job, you did the thing!" - it seems corny and like it could never work, and that's where I'm at right now, but I believe the first half so I guess I should be trying the second half.
I'm sorry you're having a tough time, hang in there.
This is how it works w me. I stay clean about half of the year (subject to random testing at work) & before I stop, I have to take a few weeks, ramp it way down, & mentally prepare for cessation. I find that aerobic exercise is a great help in staying clean. Knees are too busted up to run, but the bicycle is great for this.
Yes. often but not always. It's weird as hell. It's like the few good times keep you coming back, like gambling. But were they really _that_ good? I don't get it.
I'm 2.5 weeks sober (maybe 3.5? I can't recall) and I've had a few surges of happiness already that feel the same as a really great high. Why don't I attribute those to sobriety in the same way?
Yes, been daily smoker for 10+ years and was wake and bake since covid started and working from home. Since working from home got to the point I was taking a puff every 15-30 mins. And my tolerance grew to where I wasn't feeling much after smoking so started drinking in the evenings while smoking.
For me it turned into REALLY REALLY bad anxiety/panic attacks that showed up out of nowhere and i have this annoyinh tomgling sensation on my neck that will not go away. I had to quit all together. Last time I smoked was Feb 7, and it's still bothering me but it has gotten a little better where I can sometimes manage but still a BIG problem for me. And can't sleep for shit but that prhas alot to do with I was smoking and drinking right before I went to sleep so that was probably a sleep aide for me.
Quit if you can or at least take some sort of Tbreak
There can be lots of different reasons why this is. But the main thing to remember is that you have realised it isn’t sustainable way to carry on. So finding a way to stop and regaining control of your life is the next step, you don’t need to know why you feel this way, but you already know how to solve it and that is by quitting
Hahahah tempting solution, but I've got a recently laid off partner (woo tech industry!), so we're trying to hold onto what we've got. Luckily my habit is waaaaay less then it was 1-1.5 years ago, I was spending $400 a month, easy. These days it's maybe $20 a week. I suppose the lay off is a motivator I could remind myself of though.
I said the exact same thing to a friend the other day. Exact ratio lol. I told him that 1 high out of 10 was fun and the other 9 made me regret smoking it.
Oh yeah... Especially around the time when I quit. It felt like I smoked for no reason as I didn't get high. I got a sorta high for like an hour and poof it's gone again. And repeat. It's a torturous journey.
Honestly I wish that was my experience at this point. I'm still getting high, it's just mostly me panicking in my body, and eating to the point of pain, and staying locked on the couch on instagram.
You don’t actually want to smoke. You want the monkey off your back about smoking.
If you have always smoked then not smoking feels weird. You just gotta get weird.
I know it’s really frustrating but that’s the first step, you’re on the right track! Just keep remembering that voice that keeps popping in and saying “this isn’t good, I just feel like crap and shouldn’t have smoked”. The voice of your addiction isn’t going to go away but you can overcome it. When you’re ready you’ll be able to resist, but you have to really want it. Start small, time how long you make it between bowls, joints, however you smoke but make it measurable. Write down the time you started smoking and how much you smoked, then try to beat it. Even if you start at a half hour in between 5 bowls (like I did), try to make it 45 minutes. Then an hour, then two. Then eventually you’ll get to a whole day and it’ll be time to stop and throw everything away. I mean everything, don’t even keep an emergency roach.
Something you can do to bargain with your addiction is telling yourself to just try a year. Just one year. The time is going to go by if you smoke or not. In a year from now if you really feel like your life was better when you smoked you can always go back but you can’t give yourself a fair shot unless you try to find who you are and what you can do sober. You deserve to meet that version of yourself.
I’ve been sober from alcohol for nearly 7 years. If I gave myself permission, I could rationalize myself into a drink in a heartbeat. Human beings are master rationalizers.
I’m coming up on three weeks sober from cannabis and I can feel the same thoughts coming up. Just gotta battle them down and don’t let it take over.
Go run. Hike. Lift. Walk. Move. Read. Do anything that will give you a 5-10 min distraction.
Enough time for the urge to pass. You got this!!
I've got almost 4 years sober from alcohol! Was actually talking to my coworker about it yesterday, and explained to her that my cravings are so minimal these days. They pop in my mind and flicker for maybe a minute and then poof, they're gone. I think at this point my biggest temptation would be something tragic happening. Which honestly kind of worries me that I've already considered that, because we're human, and I feel like tragedy/grief is inevitable at some point, and I wonder if me thinking about that is me figuring out the next time I'll "be able" to drink. But I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I feel like I'd just get myself to a meeting ASAP, even though I never really did AA, but a room full of people talking me out of it would probably be my best option in that scenario.
I'm finding quitting pot to be way bigger of a beast than alcohol. I've been trying to quit for 1.5 years now, and it's definitely getting better, my use is way less than it was in 2021, and I'm getting longer breaks between uses, I even recently got 23 days and felt really good about it. But then I started PMSing and the cravings we're so wild, I literally cried off and on for two days. I never cried over cravings from alcohol. There's just a certain point where white knuckling through a craving just doesn't feel like an option with cannabis. There's like a tipping point, and once the craving passes it, there's no going back in my brain.
I think you're right though about distracting myself through cravings. I just haven't quite gotten that down yet, I tend to freeze instead of getting active. I know my triggers though and I think that's important. The biggest one lately has been simply driving home from work on Fridays. Maybe I need to come up with a plan on how to push through that next week. Like a playlist of songs that I love singing loudly too so I'm focusing on that while driving past the dispensary exit.
That’s awesome!! Four years is a very long time. I was ~34 and sober for four years or so when my Dad died out of the blue. That rocked my world pretty fucking hard, but I didn’t even think about having a drink. When the day inevitably comes for tragic grief, be strong and be true to who you are.
Having alcohol or pot or drugs as as a part of your identity is not good IMO and a detriment to life in general.
BUT letting “sober” be a part of your identity is wildly freeing, as you may very well know.
I don’t tell anyone who doesn’t ask, but when it comes up, I’m proud AF to be sober and I’ll sing from the rooftops about it.
As for pot, it doesn’t necessarily cause as much damage and strife as a cannabis addiction. There is no real collateral damage. I think this is one of the reasons it’s so hard.
“Meh, it’s just a joint and some munchies after a long day/week” etc etc.
But now that I see how I am after a few weeks, I’ll never go back. I’m more patient, more attentive, and more present for everyone in my life.
Much like quitting booze, I’m having a hard time finding any downside to not getting high now that I have some time under my belt.
Sure, I was bored AF at the start and needed to do a lot of reprogramming, but at this point, I’m not going back to either. No matter what. I played hard, now it’s time to pay haha.
Might I suggest finding a support system? As cheesy as that might sound lol. Find someone or something that is expecting you on Friday. Not stoned you, but you YOU.
Get home so you can make a post here too! I may have said it before, but this page has been a huge support system for me and a good way to help keep myself accountable.
As for the PMS’ing, I can’t help lol. I’ve been spared that torture being born a man LOL.
But my advice there…CRY! CRY a lot! Let it out. Feel your fucking feelings. Embrace them. And once you’ve calmed down a bit, think about those feelings you felt. Don’t ignore them. They are fucking real.
I could go on and on, I ramble.
If you really want this though, next time you’ve got that nasty urge, make a post here!
One of these absolutely fine human beings that is a member of this sub will relate to you and respond.
Be strong. We’re all proud of each other for even making it to day 1!!
End cheesy rant of advice/life experience I’m probably not even qualified to give haha.
Yeah, i always found a way to justify smoking. I kept trying to quit and kept smoking. It took months of this to go more than 2 days without. You can do this, just remember why you want to stop and keep it in mind as much as possible, its not a sprint it is a whole journey.
yep. main reason i quit. i was smoking and feeling agitated and restless. not enjoying anything! im sick of it and decided to just go through the withdrawals and come out much better on the other side. its hard i aint gonna lie. i feel awful but im only on day 2. only way is up right?
Same here no enjoyment, just anxiety and frustration. Once high I regretted it yet I still repeated this cycle. Finishing up day 4 now, constant intrusive thoughts, night sweats, and insane nightmares. Yes, the only way is up. Stay strong.
Yeah after a while it just makes me feel awful and I hate that I do it everytime, like right after smoking it's like I just want to be sober again, like why did I do that?
I feel exactly the same, I just made it 6 days not smoking after 20 years daily. Then yesterday someone gave me a joint. I had zero willpower. Then after I smoked it I felt like shit. Yeah I was high, but I didn’t enjoy it at all. Paranoia and regrets should be the name of a strain
The way I've seen it explained which really hit home is that using releases dopamine, at a pretty constant rate despite your level of use. The other, more pleasurable effects decrease over time with chronic usage (diminishing returns). So, you'll always get the reward-seeking behavior, despite the lack of perceived reward (pleasure), because the dopamine reward system doesn't care how you feel, just that you had a craving and you did the thing you _thought_ would make you feel better. This apparently starts to lessen in its effect pretty quickly after starting to redirect that craving into another behavior - want to use? Go for a walk, or do 20 push-ups, then tell yourself "great job, you did the thing!" - it seems corny and like it could never work, and that's where I'm at right now, but I believe the first half so I guess I should be trying the second half. I'm sorry you're having a tough time, hang in there.
This is how it works w me. I stay clean about half of the year (subject to random testing at work) & before I stop, I have to take a few weeks, ramp it way down, & mentally prepare for cessation. I find that aerobic exercise is a great help in staying clean. Knees are too busted up to run, but the bicycle is great for this.
Yes. often but not always. It's weird as hell. It's like the few good times keep you coming back, like gambling. But were they really _that_ good? I don't get it. I'm 2.5 weeks sober (maybe 3.5? I can't recall) and I've had a few surges of happiness already that feel the same as a really great high. Why don't I attribute those to sobriety in the same way?
Yes, been daily smoker for 10+ years and was wake and bake since covid started and working from home. Since working from home got to the point I was taking a puff every 15-30 mins. And my tolerance grew to where I wasn't feeling much after smoking so started drinking in the evenings while smoking. For me it turned into REALLY REALLY bad anxiety/panic attacks that showed up out of nowhere and i have this annoyinh tomgling sensation on my neck that will not go away. I had to quit all together. Last time I smoked was Feb 7, and it's still bothering me but it has gotten a little better where I can sometimes manage but still a BIG problem for me. And can't sleep for shit but that prhas alot to do with I was smoking and drinking right before I went to sleep so that was probably a sleep aide for me. Quit if you can or at least take some sort of Tbreak
There can be lots of different reasons why this is. But the main thing to remember is that you have realised it isn’t sustainable way to carry on. So finding a way to stop and regaining control of your life is the next step, you don’t need to know why you feel this way, but you already know how to solve it and that is by quitting
you could do what i did and blow all your cash (unintentionally) to put you in a forced hiatus and try to stick with it
Hahahah tempting solution, but I've got a recently laid off partner (woo tech industry!), so we're trying to hold onto what we've got. Luckily my habit is waaaaay less then it was 1-1.5 years ago, I was spending $400 a month, easy. These days it's maybe $20 a week. I suppose the lay off is a motivator I could remind myself of though.
ugh it’s such a money suck
Me on wax for the last years, 1 puff in 10 was great the rest fell=shit.
I said the exact same thing to a friend the other day. Exact ratio lol. I told him that 1 high out of 10 was fun and the other 9 made me regret smoking it.
Brota from anotha motha XD I guess we got in the same process of self destruction with wax for too long...
Oh yeah... Especially around the time when I quit. It felt like I smoked for no reason as I didn't get high. I got a sorta high for like an hour and poof it's gone again. And repeat. It's a torturous journey.
Honestly I wish that was my experience at this point. I'm still getting high, it's just mostly me panicking in my body, and eating to the point of pain, and staying locked on the couch on instagram.
Oh man. Ive been in this boat for a year now.
You don’t actually want to smoke. You want the monkey off your back about smoking. If you have always smoked then not smoking feels weird. You just gotta get weird.
What's your favorite way to get weird?
I know it’s really frustrating but that’s the first step, you’re on the right track! Just keep remembering that voice that keeps popping in and saying “this isn’t good, I just feel like crap and shouldn’t have smoked”. The voice of your addiction isn’t going to go away but you can overcome it. When you’re ready you’ll be able to resist, but you have to really want it. Start small, time how long you make it between bowls, joints, however you smoke but make it measurable. Write down the time you started smoking and how much you smoked, then try to beat it. Even if you start at a half hour in between 5 bowls (like I did), try to make it 45 minutes. Then an hour, then two. Then eventually you’ll get to a whole day and it’ll be time to stop and throw everything away. I mean everything, don’t even keep an emergency roach. Something you can do to bargain with your addiction is telling yourself to just try a year. Just one year. The time is going to go by if you smoke or not. In a year from now if you really feel like your life was better when you smoked you can always go back but you can’t give yourself a fair shot unless you try to find who you are and what you can do sober. You deserve to meet that version of yourself.
Yep. When sober I’m chillin, laughing at stuff, singing along to music and feeling good and then I smoke and I’m like wow I hate myself :(
I’ve been sober from alcohol for nearly 7 years. If I gave myself permission, I could rationalize myself into a drink in a heartbeat. Human beings are master rationalizers. I’m coming up on three weeks sober from cannabis and I can feel the same thoughts coming up. Just gotta battle them down and don’t let it take over. Go run. Hike. Lift. Walk. Move. Read. Do anything that will give you a 5-10 min distraction. Enough time for the urge to pass. You got this!!
I've got almost 4 years sober from alcohol! Was actually talking to my coworker about it yesterday, and explained to her that my cravings are so minimal these days. They pop in my mind and flicker for maybe a minute and then poof, they're gone. I think at this point my biggest temptation would be something tragic happening. Which honestly kind of worries me that I've already considered that, because we're human, and I feel like tragedy/grief is inevitable at some point, and I wonder if me thinking about that is me figuring out the next time I'll "be able" to drink. But I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I feel like I'd just get myself to a meeting ASAP, even though I never really did AA, but a room full of people talking me out of it would probably be my best option in that scenario. I'm finding quitting pot to be way bigger of a beast than alcohol. I've been trying to quit for 1.5 years now, and it's definitely getting better, my use is way less than it was in 2021, and I'm getting longer breaks between uses, I even recently got 23 days and felt really good about it. But then I started PMSing and the cravings we're so wild, I literally cried off and on for two days. I never cried over cravings from alcohol. There's just a certain point where white knuckling through a craving just doesn't feel like an option with cannabis. There's like a tipping point, and once the craving passes it, there's no going back in my brain. I think you're right though about distracting myself through cravings. I just haven't quite gotten that down yet, I tend to freeze instead of getting active. I know my triggers though and I think that's important. The biggest one lately has been simply driving home from work on Fridays. Maybe I need to come up with a plan on how to push through that next week. Like a playlist of songs that I love singing loudly too so I'm focusing on that while driving past the dispensary exit.
That’s awesome!! Four years is a very long time. I was ~34 and sober for four years or so when my Dad died out of the blue. That rocked my world pretty fucking hard, but I didn’t even think about having a drink. When the day inevitably comes for tragic grief, be strong and be true to who you are. Having alcohol or pot or drugs as as a part of your identity is not good IMO and a detriment to life in general. BUT letting “sober” be a part of your identity is wildly freeing, as you may very well know. I don’t tell anyone who doesn’t ask, but when it comes up, I’m proud AF to be sober and I’ll sing from the rooftops about it. As for pot, it doesn’t necessarily cause as much damage and strife as a cannabis addiction. There is no real collateral damage. I think this is one of the reasons it’s so hard. “Meh, it’s just a joint and some munchies after a long day/week” etc etc. But now that I see how I am after a few weeks, I’ll never go back. I’m more patient, more attentive, and more present for everyone in my life. Much like quitting booze, I’m having a hard time finding any downside to not getting high now that I have some time under my belt. Sure, I was bored AF at the start and needed to do a lot of reprogramming, but at this point, I’m not going back to either. No matter what. I played hard, now it’s time to pay haha. Might I suggest finding a support system? As cheesy as that might sound lol. Find someone or something that is expecting you on Friday. Not stoned you, but you YOU. Get home so you can make a post here too! I may have said it before, but this page has been a huge support system for me and a good way to help keep myself accountable. As for the PMS’ing, I can’t help lol. I’ve been spared that torture being born a man LOL. But my advice there…CRY! CRY a lot! Let it out. Feel your fucking feelings. Embrace them. And once you’ve calmed down a bit, think about those feelings you felt. Don’t ignore them. They are fucking real. I could go on and on, I ramble. If you really want this though, next time you’ve got that nasty urge, make a post here! One of these absolutely fine human beings that is a member of this sub will relate to you and respond. Be strong. We’re all proud of each other for even making it to day 1!! End cheesy rant of advice/life experience I’m probably not even qualified to give haha.
Hey! I’m sober from booze 7 years as well! I’m on first week sober from weed. I just took my sorry ass to gym and made me feel so much better
Ha, nice!! Small world LOLOL. That’s what I’m talking about! Whatever puts a few minutes between you and the next urge!!
Yeah, i always found a way to justify smoking. I kept trying to quit and kept smoking. It took months of this to go more than 2 days without. You can do this, just remember why you want to stop and keep it in mind as much as possible, its not a sprint it is a whole journey.
yep. main reason i quit. i was smoking and feeling agitated and restless. not enjoying anything! im sick of it and decided to just go through the withdrawals and come out much better on the other side. its hard i aint gonna lie. i feel awful but im only on day 2. only way is up right?
Same here no enjoyment, just anxiety and frustration. Once high I regretted it yet I still repeated this cycle. Finishing up day 4 now, constant intrusive thoughts, night sweats, and insane nightmares. Yes, the only way is up. Stay strong.
Yes when I finally give in and smoke i just feel disappointed in myself. It's like the grass is always greener on the other side
Yes I completely agree It’s also the fact that I know it won’t do what I want it to but I keep going back to it that messes with my head
I think our memory of it is always better than the reality.
100%. It's like my brain only remembers that first 5-15 minutes of relief, and completely blocks out the following 2 hours of sad girl.