As drug habits go, it's... pretty good! I still enjoy being high, though it feels way less special now that I indulge so often. There's been no adverse effects on my work or home life, but I got tired of spending the money and I resent the feeling of dependency – much the same reasons I gave up cigarettes decades ago. So I'm cold turkey this week after a couple years of heavy use. For me the sense of withdrawal is, unsurprisingly, far less intense than it was with cigarettes, but it still nags.
I am curious about experiences other HNers may have had in making a similar transition away from frequent cannabis use. For what it's worth, aside from staying home a lot, most of my habits are pretty healthy – I do a fair bit of exercise, eat well, drink alcohol sparingly, and on top of all that I am lucky enough to have a healthy work environment and a supportive partner at home (who doesn't use cannabis but is about as perfectly neutral on the subject as anyone I've ever met). That is all helpful and good, but leaves me with few other options for swapping in healthier habits or making other compensatory changes.
Has anyone else here had this goal of trying to cut out or at least greatly diminish their use of cannabis, where one's use has gotten rather out of hand but you're still far from feeling the need to engage with professional help or sobriety organizations? And also – where it's your last real vice, no one is forcing you to quit, and life is pretty mundane otherwise?
Good luck!
It'll help you cut down on the cost significantly too. Of course, a good vape is an upfront cost, but you can save a fortune in cannabis costs. Like you, I partake morning, noon, and night. But I go through about 10g a month. Some friends of mine would run through that in a weekend.
I just cut out cannabis a little over two weeks ago after about two years of near-daily use.
I happened to catch a cold right around the same time and felt generally miserable. My immediate reaction was "maybe I should take a hit, then I can deal with the head cold a little better."
Before quitting I found myself thinking about getting high too much, despite being in my mid thirties with a family and a business to run. It felt like too much of a crutch.
What I had to do was to get rid of everything I had, even though it killed me to throw away a handful of pre-rolls, as long as they were around I kept finding myself in a loop of "I'll just stop tomorrow"
I'm finding that playing guitar is a little less enjoyable, I've been really lethargic(sleeping in more than normal) but also more clear-headed. My short-term memory is a bit better and I'm exercising a bit more. I'm setting more goals and knocking them off my to-do list more frequently.
I immediately dropped about 6-8 lbs(205 > 197lbs) in the first week and have leveled off. It's funny, I was hanging out with some friends last night who were partaking and am glad to see I've still got the willpower to say no.
Life has a been a bit more mundane, I'm hoping to look back at the 30 day mark to see if that changes
Good luck to you!
I stopped in 2020, after about 10 years of daily use. I only smoked in the evenings, otherwise sounds similar to your usage, I functioned well. I went cold turkey with the goal of 3 months nothing, then once a month.
First week was no fun, for me what worked is to just realize and accept I feel somewhat ill. Just like having the flu; be kind to yourself and realize it will go away. Sleep was a challenge; creating the right circumstances and just accepting it did the trick for me.
The hardest part for me was the first weeks after that, especially weekends. I didn't want to drink, mildly worried to replace weed with alcohol, so I stayed fully sober. It's a challenge of finding new activities. I practiced guitar.
For me thinking "3 months" is a lot easier than "never again", it's just a much more achievable goal. After 3 months I smoked weed again, and just like I had after not smoking for months; it was truly disappointing. It tastes horrible, I had to cough, and couldn't get to the nice level of high I could before. So after that, I was good. I did a few more times, but I haven't smoked weed since May or June as I don't feel the urge nor need.
It was my last vice, and strangely enough, I don't feel like much changed. I thought it would be more boring, but it's the same level of mundane as it was before haha.
Good for you for taking this step, I'm sure you'll have time where it isn't easy, but the way you describe it it sounds like you'll manage. Quitting cigarettes is great practice, if you can quite those you can quite weed as well.
Good luck, stay strong!
I quit cold turkey after decades of daily use when I was going to become a father. It gave me real brain fog and robbed me of the desire to do anything but go to bed. So the upside for me is a clearer head, better mood, less anxiety.
Don't feel bad for having this habit if there's no downsides to it. Maybe stay sober for a as long as you need to be able to compare the "stoned you" to the "sober you" and then decide what you prefer.
I envy people who can keep enjoying the positives sides of cannabis without suffering from the negatives!
You’d have to have a look and see if there’s anything that triggers your desire to see if it’s the same for you and then try to change the routines a bit. The biggest help will be to just not have any in the house for a while. That will stop temptation and can help break the association of having X when doing Y after a while.
I’d also suggest looking up some advice online about tolerance breaks as well, as there are various tips that ought help you. Not everyone is the same, so you’ll have to shop around.
Plus a t-break will reset your sensitivity to THC which may also help reduce your intake post break.
Good luck
I decided to do this, in part, because I needed a tolerance break. I'm also looking forward to getting high and watching Dr. Strangelove again. One issue, I think, people struggle with is making things so binary. It may help you to stop now if you recognize you can start again in the future.
They certainly don’t help with any physical issues but they help with the mental side.
I’m not sure what it is but the fact that you can move them around in your mouth and gnaw on them while still lasting a while makes it feel like you’re “doing something.”
Every time I’d want to partake i would eat a life saver. They are also innocuous so there’s no guilt or anything.
And I’m sure you can replace them with whatever gives you the sensation described above. I know it’s silly but they were my secret weapon.
If you simply find your appetite to be gone, maybe it will help to exercise? This will also help with falling asleep. Remember some exercise is better than no exercise, so don’t burn yourself out going hard on your first day by getting an injury or discouraged.
For sleep I don’t have a good way to fight the REM rebound or difficulty falling aslee. IMO you should embrace the REM rebound as long as you don’t get severe nightmares or anything. It’s your body recovering from chronically low amounts of that specific phase of sleep.
If you’ve become accustomed to taking large amounts of cannabis to get “in the zone” you might want to try taking a large dose of caffeine instead. What’s large for you may depend on your tolerance. My tolerance is decently high and I would consider 300mg enough for this.
I’ve gone through this a couple times and it’s not that bad. The worst is the difficulty falling asleep which only takes a few days to fix, and the CHS which only lasts a couple days. The brain fog takes a while to fix though
Good luck on quitting!
I smoked cannabis only after work for a long time in the before time. I had tried, although without any professional help, to get that down to only weekends. But inevitably it would creep back in: I'd end up smoking on a Thursday or Monday night, in addition to the weekend, and then slowly add weeknights back until it was every day. Things got so much worse during the pandemic, I started using it 24/7, it was seemingly the only escape from the mundane. At the very least I'm glad I wasn't drinking during those times but it was far from ideal given both my shift away from drinking alcohol limited my social life and COVID obviously made that oh so much worse. Smoking and playing video games was all that I had left. I'm back to the weekends now, given it is winter with COVID restrictions in my area, it is still the driver of my social life.
I'm not coming to you with all of the answers. I'm interested in what the community comes up with myself. But here are my own tips and learnings that you might find useful: - ADD is a HUGE part of this situation. I see you mentioned it in a comment but not the main post. I didn't even know I had it until I got help for depression during the pandemic and eventually was diagnosed. ADHD makes it hard to put up with the mundane. Cannabis can make any mundane task interesting for me, although with a pretty low success rate. Taking Concerta has helped in a non-trivial way but hasn't fixed everything - Recently I've started to put more effort into smoking the right way if I do smoke. For example, if I had some exercise planned that day, I do that before smoking. (I do powerlifting so I definitely don't wanna be high for that). Or, if I do smoke and play video games, do it when some of my friends are online so it's a social activity. I end up too introverted sometimes. I'm also working on starting later in the day when I do smoke. If I start smoking at 10am, I'm dead tired by 4pm and the rest of the day is ruined. Instead if I start at 6pm, I'm dead tired around when it is time to go to bed. This isn't some trick to get myself to consume less. If anything, this is causing me to enjoy smoking more, which might be my goal
I'll probably update this comment when I think of more things. Until then, I am with you my friend, your experience is shared. I wish I had better advice but I'm not any farther along in this journey so I don't have it. In the meantime, I hope you find these ramblings useful