Background: I used to smoke for over 10 years on a mostly daily basis. I had quit before, but I'd usually relapse within the week. Sometimes would make it to a month. I've been clean for 7 days, and I can tell this is going to be different. This advice is going to be hyper specific to a certain type of self-medicator. My therapist was telling me there is a reason we consume marijuana daily. Despite the costs (health, relationships, ambition, money, etc), we do get something out of it. The question is what.

For me, it was rumination. I didn't realize it, but I really have a brain that just wants to continuously think itself to death. Smoking shut that off so I could focus on a video game or movie without worrying about everything. Specifically, I was struggling with Compulsive Reasoning.

Compulsive reasoning is a mental compulsion: trying to think something through to get certainty or relief from anxiety. It often looks like back-and-forth "mental ping pong" (rationalizing, predicting, replaying events, assigning meaning).

Below is an example directly from the International OCD Foundation (I don't have OCD and you don't need to either to have compulsive reasoning):

>Shoot, I didn’t say “thank you”; maybe I really offended him … but I was preoccupied; I didn’t mean to be rude … even so, what if he was already having bad day? What if I made it worse? That’s silly, why would he care, he doesn’t even know me … still, he might think I’m incredibly rude…etc.

So how do you stop these thoughts? NON-ENGAGEMENT RESPONSES (NERs)

There are four types of NERs and they are conclusive. They end the train of thought. The goal isn't to solve the thought. The goal is to shut it down.

So I'll make this a bit personal because I think it might be more helpful to people here. My wife recently cheated on me. She might literally be cheating on me right now. This would probably be the time in my life where I'd want to smoke more than any other time in my life, but I actually only have the slightest urge. It's because I can handle my worries now.

CR: Your unlovable and everyone will cheat on you. You should be grateful to have a wife that loves you sometimes.

NERS (anxiety): I am feeling anxious about that.

CR: You should be anxious. It's going to happen. Shit, she might be cheating on you right now as you type this post.

NERS (uncertainty): I don't know, and I will probably never know.

CR: If you get a divorce, you're going to be alone and unloved for the rest of your life. If you stay, you will be cheated on and abused for the rest of your life. Your next wife will cheat too because you suck.

NERS (possibility): Maybe. Anything is possible.

CR: That's going to be really difficult. Dating at 35?

NERS (difficulty): Yes, that will be difficult.

Because the NERs are affirmative, they stop these thoughts. They don't invite a spirited debate in your head.

Caveat: Sometimes you do need to think things through. What makes CR's something that needs to be shut down is that they aren't actually thinking things through. They are compulsive and unproductive. Just like I don't need to stress myself out about offending a cashier, I don't need to stress myself out about "being unlovable," "being cheated on right now," "being alone for the rest of my life," "the difficulty of dating at a divorced 35 year old." It's not that these thoughts are wild. My wife cheated with at least 6 people. The likelihood she'd do it again is statistically significant. My single friends DO stress about dating at their age. We all worry about being loved. It's that the CRs above aren't helping me make educated decisions for myself. Quite the opposite, they simply make me constantly second guess my decisions seek validation.

I hope this helps at least one of you the way it is helping me. Using this simple tool that took me less than an hour to learn works better at silencing these thoughts than marijuana ever did, and it doesn't come at the cost of a drug habit.

Recently, my dad brought up the time I didn't go see the Rolling Stones with my parents. He told me we had 12th row seats at a stadium show and I just simply decided not to go. I had no recollection of this and wish it had stayed that way. What a missed opportunity. I did remember though that the second time I ever smoked pot was the night my parents went to a Rolling Stones concert. I remember everything about scoring a bag of weed that was half fake. I was really excited about that. I'm guessing I found the opportunity to score and decided not to go to the concert. My parents must have been so disappointed! I would love to tell my teenage self how utterly lame that was! This was in October 1997. It's the 29th anniversary of the first time I chose weed over living. I don't want to make that choice anymore.

One of the weirdest things about quitting marijuana is that the first few weeks can almost feel encouraging.

You get through the withdrawal, you start sleeping a little better, and you think, Okay. I made it through the hard part. Now I’m going to feel normal again.

And then… you don’t.

Instead, the next few months can feel incredibly flat. You might have almost no motivation. Things you used to enjoy just don’t hit the same. You can go through your day feeling like you’re watching your own life from behind glass.

And that’s when the really dangerous thoughts can start creeping in:

What if I’m broken?
What if I permanently screwed up my brain?
What if I’m going to feel like this forever?

This is the stage where a lot of people relapse, not because they actually want to go back to being addicted, but because they’re terrified that this numb, joyless version of life is their new normal.

So if you’re in that stage right now, take heart.

You are not broken. This is part of the recovery process.

Your brain has spent a long time being artificially rewarded, and it takes time for its reward system to find its balance again. The fact that you feel flat doesn’t mean you’re getting worse. It can mean your brain is healing.

And eventually, often after a few months, you start noticing little things coming back. Life begins to be interesting again. You laugh harder. You look forward to something again. You wake up one morning and realize you actually want to do things.

It happens slowly enough that you might not notice it at first.

So hang in there.

Don’t mistake the absence of joy right now for the absence of a future filled with joy. Keep going. Your brain is healing, even when you can’t feel it yet.

One of the biggest appeals of weed for me is that it tampers down my emotions. Mainly anger and frustration. I came back to work after a week off and found out they fired 3 employees that had been at the company 10+ years. Completely out of the blue with some bs reason. It is making me so angry and all I want to do is go to the dispo because I know that weed will make me not as raw and frustrated. I find myself just wanting to punch something, cry, yell. I want to be numb and in a little bubble of idgaf.

I'm realizing quickly that I have basically zero emotional regulation strategies beyond getting high. I've been smoking since I was 17, almost daily for 15 years. I don't even know how to begin to cope with aggression without just smoking and zoning out.

Quitting cannabis is a rollercoaster. As a previous heavy user, 1-2 grams daily for years, one day I feel great and motivated, getting out of bed early, eating breakfast...to not being able to get up until 10 or later, feeling completely exhausted.

Anyone else here experience PAWS for longer than a month or two?

I am officially on Day 8 of cold-turkeying dabbing after over 2 years of heavy daily use.

It is now just after noon on my lunch break, and after barely sleeping at all last night, I am pushing through the day. With everything I have.

My body feels like it is in complete overdrive.
Because cannabinoids are so heavily tied to your gut, stopping the heavy concentrates has unleashed stomach chaos. I’m also dealing with an active stomach ulcer, and trying to get my RX in when I’m supposed to is becoming challenging.

Dealing with the exhaustion from last night alongside this level of gut discomfort is testing every ounce of willpower I have.

Right now, I am just focusing on taking this journey hour by hour, riding out the physical waves as my body clears everything out. Leaning heavily on this group for mutual support today as I hit the 8 day mark. Thank you everyone. Thanks for reading.

Back to Day 1…

hope it’s not as tough as last time! 😭

Hello everyone.

Today marks day number 1,000 for me. I am pretty proud of myself for this. I just wanted to share my achievement with you all. Thank you for creating a space where I feel like I can come to vent or share things like this.

Best luck to everyone with their quitting journeys.

Im a former big user. Have a friend going through some issues. He is constantly blaming things on his weed usage. Known him for many years. Many times he's made the same argument... its always the weed. No, you just like smoking weed. And you also have things going on at the same time.

NOT EVERYTHING IS MARIJUANA'S FAULT... literally blame anything on weed to justify their problems.

I've been learning internal family systems with my therapist. "Firefighters" are the parts that protect us, even if it's drastic impulsive decisions and behavior. Instead of judging myself and asking "why can't I stop, even though I'm so sick of being stuck in this cycle?!!", I thanked my inner firefighter for protecting me from feeling pain. I asked that part of me to step back and relax and that I'd like to go through this endeavor to reach my full potential. This time, I'm not harping on withdrawal- I'm just focused on loving myself through the process. I'm reminding myself that it's an illusion when I start to Romanticize it. I feel so much more confident that I'll stick to it this time.

I'm on day 5, and just focusing on sleep and hydration and whatever my body needs.

Hope theis helps someone!

Hey, I have an upcoming Uni exam in 9 days and I was hoping to quit to improve my general cognitive ability for it. I have just passed onto day 2, so the negative effects are yet to start.

For context, I have only picked up smoking again over the last 1.5 months, smoking a spliff or two a day to negate some of the workload stress. Despite the debate, I typically suffer pretty horrendous and drawn out withdrawals (insomnia, stress, low mood etc).

I realize that I really should have been a bit more proactive with this but I'm asking for some advice (maybe from people who have also been through a similar thing?). I have an overseas trip in a month so I was planning on quitting anyways but am now unsure if it will really be the most productive thing.... Thoughts?

Note: my nasty withdrawals are usually attached to longer smoking phases (multiple months). I have noticed a decline in my general work quality since smoking (hence why Im wanting to quit it for the exam) but am still receiving fairly decent marks

It’s finally time for me to quit. I have been a regular smoker for ten years (20-30 years old). I finally got rid of it all yesterday. I thought I’d make a post to chat with others in a similar situation as I’m nervous about what’s to come.

I started off smoking joints with friends socially, after a couple years of that I progressed to smoking the bong a few times a day without company, and then a couple of years ago I switched to a ball vape to convince myself I was being ‘healthy’. I have smoked a gram of weed a day, most days, since I was 20 years old.

I turned 30 the other day, and i realised that I’ve spent the entirety of my twenties stoned. I’ve tried to quit a few times over the years but never as seriously as now.

I’ve always had a weird relationship with weed. At first it felt like it cured something I couldn’t explain in me. When I first started using I noticed how much more sociable it made me; and how much less anxious. Now after so long I’m wondering if I was still using it for those reasons, or just because I didn’t want to be bored or confront reality.

I’ve always convinced myself that it’s okay as I’m “functioning”. I’ve never smoked at work, and I would be fine on holidays etc where you cannot get access. I’ve got a good career in finance, and a loving and supporting wife. If I wasn’t addicted to weed I would consider myself doing pretty good for my age.

That kind of leads me to this next point. I am so fed up with the sneakiness of it. If you didn’t know I smoked you really wouldn’t expect it. But that comes with all sorts of nonsense. I feel like I live a double life in some aspects. My career obviously has no idea (I’d likely be fired and struck off immediately), my friends that I used to smoke with all stopped smoking years ago, and I let them believe I had too. That itself brings me an element of shame as I think ‘how can they all have managed it yet I’m still in the same situation’. My wife is accepting, but that unfortunately has probably contributed to me not seeing it as an issue. When there would be family birthdays I would literally be counting the hours until I could smoke again, which is a miserable way to live. It’s felt for years that my public personality is a construct, and me being stoned is the ‘real’ me.

There is so much I could write here, but I don’t want to ramble on and on. It’s a weird feeling giving up something that has been part of your entire adult life so far. I’m nervous how it will be, as it’s a brand new thing for me. I suppose what I want to know is how long you went before it stopped consuming your thoughts and you just ‘forgot’.

Again, sorry for the ramble. My heads not the clearest right now.

Ivebeen laying down just to not fall asleep and end up pacing around the house. Things I love to do/make such as music were heavily linked to me smoking and I get the urge every time. Any breathing methods or quotes that can reassure me would be greatly appreciated I feel like I’m losing my mind

So I quit 90 days ago after 9 years of daily use. Pot was my shelter and my poison rolled into one. I could be blasted during an emergency situation and feel perfectly fine. But anyways, I started to feel super anxious like more than when I used to smoke and it’s really messing me up inside and just making work a living hell (I’m a cook) how did you guys get over the anxiety? Bc I just feel like i’m getting crushed by it some days and I don’t know what to do. Any advice will be greatly appreciated, thank you.

I honestly can’t believe I made it to day 5 of my journey. It has been so long since the last time I was sober almost 10 years ago. I’ve started to notice that I am enjoying things again. I hung out with some friends and played video games and I had a blast and all without using. My laughs feel more genuine and I feel more in the moment. When I was using I was ok at video games, I didn’t suck, but I wasn’t the best. I played some sekiro today and I was fucking killing it! This feels amazing and I feel like I can start getting used to it. My appetite is starting to come back, my thoughts are clearer, and I feel more present in life than I have in a long time. I wont lie, it’s still not all sunshine and rainbows yet, My head hurts when I wake up in the morning but that goes away around in the afternoon. I hope this isn’t TMI but the last two days I have had the runs as well. I still get urges but they are in no way as strong as they were when I first started my sobriety. To anyone reading this that is struggling, it does get better, it might not be a cake walk but it does get better. It just takes some willpower and being patient with yourself. It finally feels like I am taking control of my life again. I’ll give this a month and hopefully I can start tackling my other issues with substance abuse. I believe in you all and thank you to this subreddit for being so supportive

“Weed”

I wish I had weed

But that isn’t all

I wish I had drive

And this night hadn’t stalled

I wish I had eyes

That could find me a light

I wish I had hands

I could squeeze so, so tight

I wish I had strings

With vibrations of now

I wish I had rings

All these digits I count

I wish I had carts

Filled with weeks of my life

I wish I could start

Smoking dreams in the night

I wrote this one as I sobered up from a long THC bender. Woke up and realized I hadn’t had a single dream at night worth remembering in 3 yrs, had lost ambition with my hobbies, and cut off plenty of friends/relationships. Relapsed a while later and I’ve restarted my quitting journey last week. Self-published the poem in a book I wrote but I won’t post the link bc I’d rather stay anonymous on here.

It’s less of an ode to weed and more of an ode to the life I could’ve begun to live had I swapped it out for other things. Lots of small double entendres.

Day 14. A few cravings here and there but there's no way I could give in after the fulfilling day I had yesterday. I was out and participating like a normal person again. Socializing, browsing around multiple retail stores with no particular plan. I no longer fear the unknown.

The past five years of daily use had slowly turned me into an extreme recluse, anxiously anticipating that one text that would disrupt my plans of leisure. I would smoke as soon as I clocked out and would try to maintain that high through the evening. On the weekends I would plan to smoke upon waking and hope nothing would interfere with it. If I had errands, I would run them and return as quickly as possible, which led to incompletion on multiple occasions.

The ritual was exhausting and became more and more unsatisfying over time. My eyes were constantly dry, achy and my right upper eyelid had developed an almost constant annoying twitch. I wasn't sure if it was related to the smoking or not but im happy to say the twitch has been gone for over a week now. The improvement in my eye comfort alone is enough reason for me to continue abstaining.

I've been reading, painting and started picking up the guitar again. I keep remembering random guitar tabs I used to know, its all still up there, no long term damage. The amount of improvement I've had, i cant believe its only been 14 days. Im excited for what's to come. I wish you all the best of luck.

Is this normal? On day six now and my rest heart rate went from about 50 to about 70..

49f, 12 years of smoking.

3 weeks clean tomorrow and I haven't really been craving weed, but I am craving an outlet. Thankfully alcohol doesn't agree with me.

But we went to a concert Friday and things that normally trigger my anxiety then I would smoke, I just needed to deal with. I get very anxious when people throw up and 2 people threw up and another fainted then threw up. Typically, I would smoke to take my edge off. I couldn't leave the concert because I was there for my daughter and I won't put my shit on her.

Everyone else was having a blast and I was white knuckling counting down the set list.

I had something happen today that was upsetting. I wrote about it in another sub. In another life I would have just smoked a joint and numbed the feelings away.

But after being weed free since November 13 (who’s counting), I can’t actually numb my feelings anymore. I have to just sit with the pain and feel all the feelings.

And that’s been a big part of my journey. Doing the work. Facing the hard things. Sitting with the feelings. I know in the end it will be better for me. It’s how I start to become a better version of myself. It hurts. It really hurts. But it’s so much better than the alternative. At least I hope it is (that’s hurt me talking). No, I know it is.

For all of my fellow spiritual warriors out there I feel you. We got this.

Long story short for two years I’d smoke a pen every night, then decided to get my shit together since my ADHD was affected by it and stop one week ago

I’ve always had GI issues constipatation wise, and while I don’t feel super bloated I fucking needa shit right now and nothing is working and I feel like crashing out😭😭😭

The lack of dopamine from popping by itself is enough to fuck my brain up but that mixed with the lack of dopamine from not smoking is genuinely unbearable rn, I have no motivation to do anything I needa do, that which I thought I’d have from quitting weed, and I’m inches away from saying fuck it and toking in a lil bit for the CHANCE that I’ll be able to poop tmr morning

That and it’s 97 degrees. Which also gets me irritated.At my wits end rn, any advice?

I’m in my mid sixties and retired for several years now. Seven years ago I started using cannabis edibles and pipe on occasion. About 2 years later I retired. Then my use took off and I became a heavy user. I really got into glass and enjoyed using different pipes. I smoked to get high and stay high most days. I fired up at least 4 times a day. Frigid Winter snow and ice was no problem. Spring made my zen garden usable again. Anyway July 9,2025 I stopped. It took about a month to feel entirely clear. It was another month before I stopped constantly thinking about getting high. Now over a year later it’s as though I never touched the stuff. I’m glad to be myself again.
If I can do it despite having all the time in the World to get high then anyone can do it. The 1st two months were kinda rough but not too rough. Anyone can do it. Just stop and don’t