Quitting pot and feeling awesome

[springtime]

Day 6....
Yesterday I was feeling awesome, almost euphoric about quitting. I was sure my life would turn around....and I still am, but of course it's going to take time.
Insomnia walloped me last night, woke up after 4 hours sleep or so, and I've been irritable all day due to an accumulation of days when I didn't get enough sleep.
No cravings. Just a big hole in my life where the pot used to be. So far my favorite way to fill it is social dinners....dates, my parents, anyone who doesn't suck. I'm going to have to get some new hobbies!

[Cannabis Rehab Admin]

Hi springtime and welcome to the forum.

I hope you don’t mind but I have moved your post and gave it a title so that you have your own thread just to keep things tidier. That’s great to hear you are doing so well! Symptoms like insomnia are very common when quitting pot, unfortunately it’s just something you often have to go through but it should pass. I think your strategy is absolutely great, filling your time with new and positive things is often the key to succeeding, so I think you have got your plan spot on. The fact that you are not finding it too hard probably means that you are not that addicted which is great and certainly makes it a lot easier, I bet many here wish they quit before they got as hooked as they did, I know I do, the sooner is usually the better when it comes to quitting drugs, but anyway it’s really is good to hear it is going so well.

Take care, thanks for posting and please keep us posted on how it goes.

All the best

[springtime]

I realize I've been wanting to detox for a long time. I was always really careful not to ramp up from the 1/8 a week, although I couldn't get it any lower, either. So I'm glad I never graduated to the 1/4 a week that a lot of people here talk about.
I smoked a lot of really powerful the drug in college. As a result, I didn't make any friends except for one who was an ex-boyfriend. I dated and got good grades but did nothing else other than get high. I really regret not taking better advantage of my college, doing more career prep, and having a social life. I went to my own graduation high as a kite and when my parents took me out for lunch that day I was disengaged and just wanted to get home and smoke pot.
I kept smoking pot and for a few years, I had a circle of stoner friends. At first it was fun but after a while, I got tired of the way they would never take anything seriously and their lives were going nowhere. I moved out of the neighborhood and stopped hanging out with them. I didn't quit the pot, though....I kept on, except now I had more the drug for myself, because I didn't have to share with the unemployed stoners (after getting "laid off" from several jobs at least in part for coming to work high, I finally found a job I could hold down, with a lot of out of office work). My best friend, who had introduced me to pot, had moved far away. So I was spending most of my free time getting high alone. I was depressed, and my social life faded away over a period of over 2 years. From that period to this my love life has been either non-existent or disasterous, and I'm sure the pot is to blame. I went on a date a few days ago, clean, and I could really hear the difference in myself. My personality is lively, but I'd been burying it under the drug all the time. I'm much more interesting now to myself and others, and men have shown a lot more interest in me than in the last 3-4 years.
I remember a time over a year ago when I flushed almost a complete 1/8 down the toilet. My determination to detox didn't last more than a few days. I didn't make another attempt for a while. My New Year's resolution this year was to cut my the drug intake by 50%. This proved very hard to do and I never did better than 9 days or so before buying the next bag. I would feel the little headaches of craving the drug sometimes, or just get anxious and desperate to get high, especially if I was off work. For me, cold turkey has been both easier and a lot more effective at turning my life around. It's only been a week, but already I look and feel better. I've been reconnecting with my friends. It's America, so people move a lot and several of the friends I had in my early twenties moved away and were never replaced. There are some others whose friendship I never put much importance on because I was too busy getting high. Over the last few days I've reached out to them.
Yesterday was like a social whirlwind; I reconnected with an old roommate, we walked around town together, dropped in on this guy in a bookshop that we've both flirted with in the past and he asked me for my number (it's been forever since a guy asked for my number!) Then we dropped in unannounced at another friend's house, who I also hadn't seen in a long time. We had a great time gossiping and laughing for hours. Afterward, I took my ex-roommate home and was driving home when another friend, who is struggling to get out of a toxic relationship, invited me back out, back across town, in an area I never go to. In the old days I would have said no. But yesterday, I said yes. I met a nice friend of his and we had a great conversation. I realize that from his perspective, I have my life together because I have a job and know how to support myself. It's funny being viewed that way, when you've gotten used to thinking of yourself as a wreck.
The day I decided to quit, I bought a piece of gold jewelry online. It was expensive, but then again in 2 months of not smoking the drug I'll recoup the money. Leave it to me to put the reward first! But it's a symbol of the value of my life without weed, and the slight guilt of having spent that money reinforces my decision not to go back.
The only disappointment is that my best friend, who loves pot although she's never been addicted, was not as supportive as I hoped when I said I was quitting. She hasn't been around the last few years to really see what I've gone through, but it's also that "cult" thing. It's "common knowledge" that pot is not physically addictive. Come to think of it, she did not support me when I quit smoking butts a few years ago, either. When I was still struggling with it, she would insist that I accompany her outside in the cold to smoke cigarettes and then offer me one. When you're in that situation, you're either smoking or freezing your ass off watching someone else smoke. I accepted a cigarette and relapsed, but I finally managed to detox later. Later still, I went back to "chipping" a cigarette or two a week, and I've been at that level for a year or two. Now that I've quit pot, I've started smoking about 1 cigarette a day. I'm not happy about this, but I'm not beating myself up about it either, and I'm going to be careful to keep it to a low enough level that I can go back to occasional smoker status once the dust from quitting pot has cleared a bit.

[SilverMaze]

to get over insomnia, i suggest working out, you will sleep much better when your body is tired and you will be much less irritable because sports causes the release of pleasure hormones, the same hormones that were used to get the drug to release. going with family and friends who don't suck is the best thing you do, you will get back to the normal sober life and enjoy it. i have found all addicts to be depressed and caused me collateral depression when i was around. actually when you start getting used to the new life, you will find that you have so much things to do in life that you don't even have time for them all. life is full of good things, when you were stoned all day you lost motivation to do them but you will get it all back in no time. for me it was 9 days before i felt almost perfectly normal again, and in a month, i had gained the new habit of going to the gym, it's now hard for me to skip it, it's an addiction, but a very positive one my girl is also one of my favorite remedies too, i go to see her almost daily, spend great time with her, i get cared for, sometimes i feel pampered around her lol sometimes i feel like she's more than i deserve, but then again, we deserve to have the good fruits of life if we seek and earn them. have a great sober life and keep us posted on how it's going!

[springtime]

how much self-control can one woman have???

I was talking to my dad, I told him I had quit pot and I hadn't told him what a problem I had with it bc I hadn't wanted to worry him (in general, we have a close relationship). He then told me that his friend had given him "an ounce" of homegrown weed! This from a man who probably hasn't smoked for several presidential administrations. I'm at home now, and I couldn't help myself from sneaking a few nugs of the drug from his dresser drawer. I'm embarrassed.....feel like a teenager. I told myself it's to smoke with my best friend, who will be in town on Sunday. God, the irony.

[Cannabis Rehab Admin]

Hi springtime

I am sorry to hear about your relapse. It is a tough one when someone else brings dope into the house, it will make your recovery a whole lot harder and as you have found out already too much temptation to resist, to be honest I think you need to explain the nature of your situation to your dad, I think it’s safe to say the only reason he has brought drugs into the house and allowed you to be in this situation of temptation is because he doesn’t realize how much of a problem it has become for you, so the bottom line is I think you have got to tell him exactly how much of a problem you feel you have with it. I know you don’t want to worry him but I am sure he would much rather you come clean with him so that he isn’t doing something that is enabling you to continue using the drug, I am sure that once you have told him he will be glad you did and not only will it help to prevent situations like this but will allow him to support you in all the other ways you are going to need and I am sure he would want to do that, quitting drugs isn’t something you have to do alone and I think the more support you have the better, I am almost certain that after you have told him you will both be glad you did.

Anyway that’s just my take on it, but as always you will have to decide for yourself what it is you want to do.

Take care and please keep us posted

Good luck

[SilverMaze]

don't sweat it too much springtime you are lucky to have an open minded dad so just communicate more with him, he obviously has experience with the drug so he'll understand, will not be very worried rather he will be helpful. it's ok to slip when the floor is slippery, there is too much temptation and you slipped, it's always good as long as you stand back up. good luck

[Cannabis Rehab Guest]

Re: quitting pot and feeling awesome

Take up a musical instrument, something you can jam around on it's fun.. I just quit weed and am also feeling awesome.. I just got lost on the piano and singing for about 5 hours or so.. And felt awesome.. That never would have happened when I was imbibing the herb.. I have been smoking weed heavily for about 5 years and it feels like waking up from a dream.. Don't know where the last five years went though.. I think the last 2 years I spent on the couch watching download movies.. Such a waste.. I alienated myself form my friends family terrible, wasn't much company for my wife either.. This is great wow like waking up from a coma.. But I've aged like 5 years!! Shame about that but on the other hand pretty excited about what's coming..

The possibilities are endless really when you can actually do stuff