You probably landed on this page or started reading this article because you are interested in ending your marijuana addiction. That is a good start as knowing more about it and getting help is the most effective way to fight the addiction.
You need to understand the ways to stop, what help is available to you, and what are the emotions and physical side effects that you can expect when you start to end your addiction.
Addiction to marijuana can be very damaging to your life. It will not only negatively impact your health, but it will also take a toll on your ambition, job, and your entire life.
While there are still conflicting positions with regard to the use of this drug, regular use or addiction to marijuana can become a problem if it starts to affect your personality, social life and your ability to perform well at work, and think straight. When all these happen, you are encouraged to stop being dependent on the drug.
But how can you actually stop this addiction? Where are you going to start with the withdrawal process? What is waiting for you if you do not stop now? This is some of the information that will be discussed below, which aims to help those who are addicted to marijuana realize the impact of it in their lives and how to stop it while they still can.
Marijuana makes everything around you look, feel, taste, smell and sound better. This addiction is really difficult to fight, so you need all the help that you can get from experts and support from your family members. The proven method to quit weed is to deal with your body and mind, which is why you need to try the Quit Marijuana Program.
Steps to stop the addiction
- Marijuana is known to give short term medical relief. But too much use of it on a regular basis can be toxic and can cause several side effects. The first step to stop being dependent on this drug is to know how it works and negatively impacts your health and your entire being. Awareness is very important to get help from experts who can explain the bad effects of marijuana on your life. This can be an effective eye opener and can help you decide to quit this addiction as soon as possible
- In relation to the item above, another effective way to stop your marijuana addiction is to have the will to do so. You have to make a personal and firm decision to quit and find reasons to do so. Start with yourself. If you love yourself and your future, then you will not allow marijuana to ruin your goals in life. You will not allow it to get in the way and stop you from becoming the person you want to be for yourself and your family. You have to realize that destroying yourself will impact not only yourself, but your family, friends, and everyone who cares about you. If you let marijuana rule your life and bring you down, then it will hurt everyone who believes in you
- When you want to quit something, looking back could be a good way to start. Try to evaluate when and how your addiction started. Was is triggered by a major life problem? Did your friends introduce you to it? These are some of the facts that you have to be well aware of when you have finally decided to quit your marijuana addiction. Knowing where and why it started can help you ensure that you will not be in the same situation again. It can make changing your disposition in life easier. Also, if your use started with your friends, then it is probably high time to stop hanging out with the same group of people who have become a bad influence on your life. Be with people who can introduce new activities and habits to you such as sports, hobbies and whatever you are interested in
- Be mindful of your diet. When you start to quit, it may affect your appetite, so watch what you eat as it will help you continue your battle against your addiction. Drugs such as marijuana deprive your body of the needed vitamins and minerals to stay strong and fight common diseases. Make sure to eat food rich in vitamins and minerals, specifically vitamin C, vitamin B complex, magnesium, and calcium. Living a healthy life will give you the strength to fight the addiction and face a new life
- Consider getting yourself admitted in a rehabilitation center. If your addiction is a serious one, then entering rehab may help improve your condition. This, however, is a financially demanding option and can also require a lot of time from your loved ones. While this is not one of the most common ways to stop marijuana addiction, which is not a life-threatening addiction, this can still be explored if you really needs it.
- Get medical treatment as necessary. While there is no proven medical treatment yet for marijuana addiction, getting medical assistance is still a good option. Medical experts can assess the level of your addiction and prescribe medicines that will help alleviate the side effects when you decide to quit
- Counselling is also very important in helping you quit marijuana or any type of addiction. Most of the time, patients experience depression while addicted to it and after they try to quit. Counselling will be a good way to lessen depression. Knowing that someone is listening to your needs on a regular basis can mean a lot to someone who has been dependent on marijuana for a long time.
- Ensure a strong support system from your family and friends. Quitting any type of addiction, including marijuana, is something that you cannot do on your own. You need the support of the people around you who can boost your morale and inspire you to go on, despite the difficult process of withdrawal.
- Keep yourself busy. Making sure that your mind is preoccupied can help you quit marijuana faster. This can be done by engaging in productive activities that can keep you busy on a regular basis. Play some sports, go to the gym, join a charity group, or attend a photography class. These are some of the activities you can take part in to ensure that your mind can stay away from the thought of using marijuana again
Marijuana addiction—understanding its side effects
Even though marijuana is considered by some as a natural medicine because of the medical benefits or medicinal uses, it is still considered illegal in most parts of the world as it can endanger the lives of many when it is abused.
Many believe that marijuana is totally safe and using it has no adverse effect on someone’s health and mental condition. This is a misconception just like the idea that it is not addictive at all.
To further understand marijuana and its side effects due to addiction, we have listed below some of the side effects a user may experience when the drug is abused.
Memory loss
Marijuana is known to affect someone’s memory and mental condition, especially if it is abused. Its components can actually prevent the brain from functioning normally, which eventually leads to memory loss
Concentration problem
As mentioned in the first item, marijuana can alter your normal brain function. And because of this, users may experience difficulty in concentrating or analyzing. This is one of the reasons why abuse of marijuana also affects someone’s ability to finish school
Anxiety
Marijuana is known to affect someone’s mood because of its components. It can stimulate happiness or calmness. If used in really high dosage, marijuana can make you feel anxious and paranoid
Distorted or inaccurate perception
As previously mentioned, marijuana abuse can alter the brain’s ability to function normally. This prevents a person from concentrating or focusing. And because of this, users are noted to have inaccurate or distorted insights about everything around them
Learning problems
Since marijuana often causes memory loss and prevents someone from focusing, slow learning capacity has also been noted with a lot of users
Poor motor skills
Marijuana abuse can also lead to the impairment of someone’s motor skills; this can lead to injuries and can negatively affect a person’s ability to drive or do his normal activities
Accelerated heart rate
Use of marijuana can lead to an increased heart rate by 20% to 100%. This obviously is a health issue as it increases risk of heart attack
Respiratory health problems
Marijuana is also often linked to lung problems such as severe cough and bronchitis
Mental disorder
For extreme cases, serious mental disorders or psychosis is possible, especially for highly vulnerable persons
Setting your expectations: What happens when you stop smoking weed?
Knowing the side effects of quitting marijuana will help you a lot in the overall withdrawal process. You have to understand that the more addicted you are or the longer you have been using weed, the likelihood that you will experience the withdrawal symptoms below is higher.
Below are some of them for your reference.
- Quitting marijuana and any type of addiction is not easy. There will be challenges along the way that will test your willingness and determination to end your addiction. One of the challenges here is the risk of experiencing mental symptoms due to the withdrawal. Those symptoms will make quitting marijuana difficult as you may experience sleeping difficulty, irritability, depression, and even loss of appetite. In more serious cases, you may experience fatigue and anxiety attacks
- Other symptoms when you quit marijuana may involve physical or flu-like symptoms such as having night sweats, stomach pain, fever, shakiness, chills, and headache
Ways to quit gradually or cold turkey
When you have finally decided to fight your marijuana addiction, having the will power to do so is going to make you really successful. Careful planning must be done as well in order to fully quit and start a new life. There are two ways to quit—gradual and cold turkey. Below are the details for your review.
Gradual withdrawal
The timeline involved here is just within a month or two, not years. As much as possible, give yourself a shorter timeline so you can really push yourself and test your limits. Do not extend it, and just stick to the time frame as much as possible. If there are really challenges, then come up with a new target and firmly work on it.
Below are some of the tips for you in case you decide to quit immediately:
- Be organized—This method of quitting requires planning and careful assessment of the current situation. This is where you decide how much weed you are going to still use on a daily basis. Slowly decrease the amount as each day passes by until you are not entirely addicted to it anymore.
- Keep yourself busy—When you want to quit gradually, it is important to keep yourself pre-occupied. Otherwise, the calling of addiction may become stronger and more difficult to battle.
- Surround yourself with positive and happy people—Make sure to move away from your old ways that triggered your marijuana addiction including your friends. Gain new friends, especially those who will be a good influence on you
Quitting cold turkey
This is the harder way to withdraw from any type of addiction and even smoking.
- Throw away everything at once—Quitting cold turkey means not using weed immediately—not even a small amount of it. As such, it is important in this method to throw everything away or destroy whatever weed you still have. Throw away all the accessories, as well, that you need when you smoke weed.
- Inform your family about it—Quitting cold turkey requires a lot of help. Tell your family about your plan to quit
- Engage in a productive activity—It is important to keep yourself preoccupied all the time
Possible remedy for marijuana withdrawal symptoms
After stopping the use of marijuana, you may start to encounter withdrawal symptoms after 1 day or a couple of days, and they will last up to 2 weeks, depending on the symptoms identified.
For sleeping difficulty, for example, it could run for more than a month, and will really cause a lot of inconvenience on your part. Defuse your physical addiction by trying the Quit Marijuana Program.
Understanding what you will experience when you start to quit marijuana will be of great help. Unfortunately, all you can do for now is make yourself aware of the withdrawal symptoms, but there is not yet any proven medication or treatment to prevent the symptoms.
While some patients can easily go through the withdrawal process on their own, most find it difficult and will need help to succeed in their goal to stop using weed.
Some become successful, while others fail and go back to their old habit. Because of this, there are some strategies or support mechanisms that may alleviate the effects of the withdrawal and help you go through the symptoms more comfortably. Below are some of them.
Medication
While there are no proven or clinically approved medications yet to treat some of the marijuana withdrawal symptoms, there are some medicines like antidepressant drugs that can be given to someone who is experiencing severe depression and acute mental health problems. Sleep aid drugs can also be a remedy for insomnia, which is one of the symptoms of marijuana withdrawal.
Psychotherapy
This is believed to be an effective strategy to treat marijuana addiction.
Motivational or enhancement therapy
This type of therapy can be given to patients who are lacking the drive or desire to totally quit marijuana. The therapy aims to lessen the inconsistency and uncertainty on the side of the user and replace it with trust and confidence to continue to quit and change for the better.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
This type of therapy aims to understand the link between what the patients think, feel, and behave and their marijuana addiction. With this strategy, the therapist will be able to teach patients coping mechanisms, skills, and other strategies that may help users more efficiently overcome the addiction.
Reward therapy or strategy
This strategy targets instilling a positive disposition in the patients. Therapists use rewards to motivate patients to continue to stop the use of marijuana and ultimately end their addiction.
Social assistance
This is very important to someone who has been addicted to marijuana or any type of drugs. Patients need to feel that they belong in a loving and accepting society to encourage them to continue to quit their addiction. The support system patients get from their family and friends will be a great inspiration to be a better person each day.
