Quit Smoking Weed

Weed Addiction is Real

2009-03-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

A lot of people do not consider weed addiction to be a real thing and that can be a serious problem for those who get hooked on the stuff.

It is not so much a physical addiction, as there is really no withdrawal symptoms when coming off of weed, but it is more a psychological addiction. This is very real and it can overtake your life, regardless of whether or not you believe weed addiction to be real or not.

When you smoke weed every day, you create a psychological dependency of sorts. What you are really doing is escaping from reality and medicating your feelings. If something comes up in your life and you have to deal with it and it makes you uncomfortable, smoking weed allows you to NOT FEEL for a while. It is similar to getting drunk or medicating with other hard drugs. If you smoke weed you can avoid reality for a while.

This is an immature way to live, really. Sure it might be pleasurable to get high every once in a while for some people, but the person who develops addiction will start smoking weed every day and they will use it to medicate all of their feelings. If they are depressed, if they don't like something about themselves, if they have problems with relationships in their lives--this can all be medicated by smoking weed.

So if you are under the impression that weed is not a real addiction then you need to think again. Anyone who is in the habit of smoking it every day is avoiding reality and they are caught up in a cycle of real addiction. It might not be as life threatening as the alcoholic who is drunk driving or the crack addict who blows up their heart from smoking too much dope, but it is a real addiction nonetheless and it can destroy a person's life.

Just ask anyone who is doing jail time over the drug and they will confirm this for you. The consequences are still real even if you think the drug is harmless....

3 No-Fail Ways to Quit Smoking Weed

2009-03-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

Have you tried to quit smoking weed but failed to do so? Here are 3 sure fire ways that will not let you down:

1) Get a cop for a roommate.

2) Be committed to a mental ward.

3) Go to prison.

Seriously though, folks, there is no sure fire method to beat any addiction, regardless of what drug we are talking about. If you are still walking free out in the world then you are fully capable of using whatever drugs you choose to put into your body. The choice will always be yours.

Given that, what can you do if you really want to quit? Here are 3 ways you can go about, though I must admit none of these methods are guaranteed at all:

1) Immerse yourself in a 12 step program - such as NA or AA.

2) Go to long term treatment.

3) Create a new life for yourself that does not involve drugs or alcohol.

There are no sure fire answers for recovery but there are things you can do that will help immensely. Any of those 3 options above are going to give you a solid foundation for a new life in recovery if you actively pursue it.

If you want to know how to quit smoking weed, then sorry! - there are no easy answers. It takes hard work on your part.

Smoking Weed Takes Away Your Dreams

2009-03-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

That might sound like a cheesy line from an anti-drug commercial, but smoking weed really does remove your ambitions.

Anyone who gets hooked on pot will tell you the same story. They used to have a real goal in life, a career that they wanted to pursue, or some other dream that they wished to attain. But if they get caught up in the lifestyle of being stoned every day, those dreams simply fade to the background. Some people will quit smoking weed at this point but others will be seduced by the lifestyle of getting high. It doesn't seem like a huge deal at the time because the person is so wrapped up in the new lifestyle of getting high every day.

In fact, it is the lifestyle that hooks people. It is the camaraderie that you get from smoking weed with other people that really gets people addicted. Weed is not a very physically addictive drug and some would argue that it as zero potential for physical addiction. But this doesn't really matter as the drug will still steal your ambitions from you as you slowly give up on all of your dreams.

Getting high with your friends becomes the most important thing in your life. So it is not like weed devastates your life the way alcohol or crack cocaine can devastate your life. But in some ways it is more insidious than those "harder" drugs because it seems so innocent. It's just weed, right? Well before you know it, you'll be looking back at the last 20 years of your life and wondering why you never became a veterinarian like you always wanted to be.

Weed steals your dreams.

How to Quit Smoking Weed for Young People

2009-03-03T09:22:00.000-08:00

No doubt about it, it is really tough for younger people to quit smoking weed. Here is my number one suggestion for the situation:

Encourage long term treatment - I know this might sound ridiculous because weed is not exactly a life-shattering kind of drug. Alcoholics might be running over people in the streets and crack addicts might be dropping dead from smoking too much but there is this image we have of pot heads that they are sort of harmless and innocent and that the drug is not so devastating.

Well of course smoking weed can be devastating and if you are sitting in a jail cell for it then you know exactly what I mean. Others have been shot and killed over the drug. And still others have died from lung cancer from smoking the stuff. So don't rationalize it away, the drug is harmful on many levels. If you really want to know how to quit smoking weed then you are going to have to get past this harmless stereotype that we have towards the drug.

As such long term treatment is a great option, especially for younger people. What this will do for them is to replace their social network with a new positive network of people in recovery. Because friendships are so important to younger people, this really is one of the only ways to make for sustainable recovery.

How to Quit Smoking Weed by Method of Substitution

2009-03-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

This has been tried over and over again by many people I am sure. Essentially it is a good idea and it also has the potential to produce decent short term results, but I think the strategy masks a deeper problem in general.

If you want to know how to quit smoking weed then you might try substituting something else for your smoking. In some cases this might be either cigarettes or cigars. Now this sounds a bit ridiculous but some people have made it work for them in the short run. Realize that smoking weed is illegal while smoking cigarettes and cigars is not. As far as the health issues goes, all smoking is bad for you and can produce lung cancer eventually.

Then there is the other idea of replacing the weed smoking with another drug, such as alcohol or cocaine. This is a really bad idea on a number of levels. Simply switching from one drug to another is masking the deeper problem of addiction and does not really solve anything. It makes no sense to compare weed to the other options and argue that one is more harmful or another drug is much better for you and so on. The bottom line is that if you are addicted to any of them then you are masking your feelings through self medicating every day and thus not really living up to your full potential.

As such you might experiment with quitting weed by substituting other things, but realize that this technique is basically flawed and cannot be sustainable in the long run. At best it can get you off the pot temporarily and then you might have a chance to formulate a real plan for recovery.

Should You Quit Smoking Weed?

2009-03-02T05:52:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure anybody really wants to quit smoking weed...at least not with all their heart. For most people smoking weed has gotten in their way; it is holding them back in some way and they want to be free of the addiction.

Some people get challenged with a new relationship in their life and someone else does not approve of smoking weed. Others might realize that they are living with a mental fog that prevents them from achieving their goals in life. And yet some other people might realize that they truly have lost some level of motivation to do new things or to even set and meet new goals in their life due to their habit.

At any rate, if you are toying with idea of quitting weed, then here are some things to consider that might help you with the decision:

Treat it like a real addiction

First of all, smoking weed is a real addiction. Many people brush this off because there is no physical withdrawal from weed like there is with other drugs. Don't buy into this logic though, as their is still a strong level of addiction due to the ongoing dependence on the substance. If you want to know how to quit smoking weed then you're going to have to get honest with yourself. Look back at your patterns of use: did you use every day? Did you use weed consistently over a long period of time? How is that not an addiction? If it is controlling your behavior then the substance has power over you.

Others might argue that smoking weed is not an addiction because they do not go to extreme measures in order to get the drug. They rationalize that it can't be that bad of an addiction because they do not go out and steal money or commit crimes in order to get more of it. This is another logic trap that you don't want to fall into. The addiction still has a hold on your behavior and it still saps your motivation, so don't rationalize that it is not that bad.

Bottom line: smoking weed is a real addiction and you should treat it as such.