i feel you guys...

[Hempitout]

I am now a senior in highschool and since the 10th grade I had been smoking pot. sometime over the summer going in to my senior year i choose to detox and get serious with my life instead of bs'ing all the time. The last time i smoked was in June of 2009 so its been 6 months now....when i first quit it was hard with the cravings but then it got easier, now its rediculous like i have dreams about marijuana, I am craving for it so unbeliveably bad, and I feel as though I will start again in my freshman year of college. I made a promise to my deceased grandfather and my lord (i am very spiritual) that I would quit for good and i wouldn't go back. Lord knows I'm trying but the temptations are becoming overwhelming....hopefully somebody can give me advice. ps my withdrawl symptoms include-- major anxiety, panic attacks, paranoia and loss of sleep. Can anybody give me some advice/help

[ajh151h]

It is interesting that you are experiencing worse symptoms now than you were six months ago when you first quit. Have there been any major changes in your diet/exercise that might be affecting your moods? For example, did you start drinking coffee all of a sudden, or have you been drinking alcohol more frequently?

If you aren't getting regular exercise, start, and if you are consuming substances like caffeine or nicotine, I would stop. If you drink alcohol on a regular basis, it might help to slow down or stop drinking altogether for awhile. Also, check out the post on L-Theanine, as that could certainly be useful to you as well.

If all else fails, I would invest some time and money in a professional psychologist. The knowledge that a good psychologist possesses far surpasses any of the information we can give you on this forum.

[Cannabis Rehab Admin]

Hi Hempitout and welcome to the forum.

It’s funny how the detox from and craving for marijuana can affect us all very differently, some find it much harder earlier on others find it doesn’t hit them until a lot later. Anxiety and loss of sleep are very common symptoms from discontinuing marijuana, but most do find after a couple of months they do start to ease, although I have heard of people suffering from these type of “psychological” symptoms for much longer, in some extreme cases even up to a year and a half later, some people do find that marijuana use and or detox can really mess with their minds and it sometimes take a good while for the brain to readjust and calm down. If you are really suffering to an extent that you feel warrants it, it may be best like ajh151h says to get some professional help, preferably from a psychologist who knows a lot about the effects of marijuana use and withdrawal, some do know much more about the subject than others, a lot of the doctors I have seen in the past have known very little indeed, so if you can afford it try to make sure you get someone who knows all about it. You could also try the amino acid theanine, a lot of people here have said they find it very helpful.

Take care and please keep us posted on how it goes.