the beginning of a journey - quitting marijuana addiction

[michael]

Hey, my name is Michael. I just turned 20 and i've been smoking pretty much everyday for about 3 years now and I think it's just time for me to stop. I'm just tired of my day revolving around smoking blunts and waiting for the drug and then just smoking and wasting time doing nothing staring at the TV. I feel like I'm missing out on so much because all I ever wanna do is smoke. I've become a terrible friend to some people and I never really do anything but smoke. It's like I forgot how to have fun without it. Practically all of my friends smoke also, and it's pretty much all we do. I don't think that I'll lose my friends if I stop smoking, but I'm just afraid of changing from what I've been doing for the past 3 years, I'm just so used to it and don't really know what else to do. My girlfriend hates the fact that I smoke, this should be a good enough reason for me to quit, but I always end up smoking anyway because it's turned into such a big part of my life and what I do. I always end up making excuses about why smoking isn't so bad and why its okay if I keep on doing it, but I really do want to stop. I'm just tired of waking up and feeling like a slave to a drug, I need to relearn how to live without smoking. I'm trying to detox today, from now on. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to get out of "the lifestyle", without ditching my friends that smoke? thanks.

[forever quitting]

Hey Michael

I totaly know where you are coming from. the drug has been a major part of my life for so long now and i have been trying to detox for the last 5 years at least. the drug is very time consuming, you spend most of your time trying to get it, plan things around it, spend all your cash on it, time spent smoking it - therefore not getting anything done and start to lose interest in everything else. I have isolated myself from friends and family and chose to just have nights in with just me and my weed, looking forward to our time alone together, getting to the point where i dont want to share it with friends (its so expensive and my friends only smoke solids so why share?!)

Im six weeks and four days clean now and feel great - yes it was really hard especially in the beginning - loads of physical withdrawals, sweats, difficukty sleeping, anxious, depressed, diarrhoea/upset stomach, no appetite but i am glad to say that with me it only took about 3 weeks of feeling really bad and then things have just been on the up ever since. Life is great now. You just have to be strong, really strong and 100% positive that you want to detox cos believe me if you aren't 100% ready, then you'll always fall into the old habit again - its too easy. I struggled for the past five years to-ing and fro-ing from saying 'i'll just smoke on special occasions, weekends, evenings' and eventually always fell into the daily grind of it all again. i think my success this time is due to accepting that i cant ever go back to being a social smoker, its just like any drug - i dont know any alcoholics/heroin addicts etc that can just do it socially. Anyway just keep busy and plan things to keep you distracted be it reading/exercise whatever it is you enjoy doing just to keep your mind off it. Tell your friends so they can be supportive and in the first few weeks ask them not to smoke around you and to support you.

Good luck with your quitting, you can do it.

Keep strong

FQ

[man with no name]

Great advice FQ and well done staying the course for 6 weeks 5 days! I guess you truly are forever quitting!