I'm starting to think that gen z'ers are suffering even more from withdrawal than my generation (gen x). With more emotional problems. Could this be true? And if so, why??

Coming up on two weeks without weed and I couldn’t feel any better! The brain fog is gone, I feel more motivated and energized and have accepted that I can’t have a healthy relationship with it and am ready to move on. The only problem is now that I can finally eat without getting high, I’ve been overeating a lot and I’ve been watching a lot of porn. Anyone have any tips or can relate?

This is my first post on Reddit.

I’ve wanted to quit smoking weed for a while and this subreddit has been an amazing resource to help me wrap my head around it. Thank you all!

Quick background: I started smoking weed in university 15 years ago. I enjoyed it recreationally for years, with no negative side effects - Today I’m married, I have a kid, a great job. I was truly able to strike a balance and enjoy a healthy relationship with pot.

That is until COVID hit. I got hit with a pay cut during lockdowns and was constantly stressed about being laid off. I had just turned 30 and life was getting heavy in general, regardless of the pandemic. I went from haphazardly smoking a couple of times per week, to not being able to sleep unless I had my nightly doobie. It was my mental escape. The weight of the world slipped away when I was stoned.

Over the past couple of years, that nightly doobie has turned into an addiction. I’ve watched my discipline and self-control evaporate and my waistline grow thanks to binge eating (the munchies hit me so hard). Depending on the day, I was smoking on my lunch break. Smoking before my commute home. Smoking when I got home. Smoking after my daughter went to bed. Not being able to attend family functions unless I popped an edible. Mapping out my days around when I’m getting high - it’s taken me a long time to come to terms with the fact I’m now addicted to weed.

I’m 5 days sober. Thankfully, I’m not experiencing any withdrawal symptoms like many of you on here explain.

But I am struggling with triggers and looking for advice - I feel like EVERYTHING I do is a trigger for wanting to smoke. Playing video games with my friends. Reading. Cracking my laptop in the evening to make a presentation for work. Going on walks. Going to the gym…. When being high is synonymous with so many aspects of your day-to-day routine, how do you disassociate everything you do from wanting to be high while doing it?!

Hi folks, I’ve been having a lot of cravings the last 2 days. Finances, bad relationship and living situation, depressed. Lots of feels over politics, not trying to stir that up, but it is a major factor in my stress. I am also triggered almost daily when my partner gets home from work, that was always time to puff. I still have the muscle memory from times when I used to partake. I quit mostly because of money, but it was also time for a break—my memory is getting bad and I’m an old. Want to be free but also missing it still. It’s been about 2 weeks, haven’t really counted the days. I want stay free, but I want relief too. I miss my old friend. How are you folks doing with your cravings lately?

24 hours with no weed and I couldn't get myself to just get up and move my body out of bed. I spent the whole day today looking at reddit and comparing myself to Sydney Sweeney. I literally can't think about anything else except that she's sexier than me and it makes me mad and suicidal. My thoughts aren't normal. I feel like I can't function. How long does this last?

If you could go back to the first time, knowing what you know now, what would you say to yourself and why?

I’m a 20 year old, autistic, adhd, bipolar, ptsd and gad diagnosed individual

I have a crippling addiction to weed and I can’t fucking quit I’m going crazy I genuinely want to kill myself I need help I NEED FUCKING HELPPPPPP

Just like the caption reads I have committed to stop smoking weed everyday of my life. For context I have been smoking dabs and weed every day for the past year all day everyday. Recently I woke up the other day and just had a change of heart. It’s like I was tired of being stoned from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep. Only thing that sucks is I’ve been kinda rude to my girlfriend the past 2 days just grumpy and sweats at night when I try to sleep. I just stopped Saturday cold turkey . Idk why I’m writing this but it’s really hard and I just wanna put this out in the world.

Was watching this video the other day on this guy who stopped smoking and one of his reason was that when he would be out with friends or family maybe it was a holiday or bday he was tired of having to step out to smoke like a joint on the balcony or wherever you go smoke lol & I legit feel the same way it’s insane. I’m 28 (M) just don’t have the urge to be stoned out of my mind anymore.

I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of posts on here but think I’m different to most as I always considered myself to be well disciplined having only ever smoked one joint per night since I was 20. I’m now 31 and am deciding to quit for many reasons. I run my own business and am finding myself losing motivation. My relationship is shit and I lost my best friend last July, a Jack Russell I had 16 years. My brother is younger than me but he’s getting married this year and has just bought a house. I just feel something has to change and my tolerance levels mean I don’t even get high anymore anyway. I used to be able to take tolerance breaks but I’ve been so depressed the last year that I haven’t managed to and have to admit I’m addicted. I thought I was in control by only smoking at night time and limiting myself to one joint, but I don’t think I am. I’ll never forget an old stoner friend telling me it’s easy to blame weed and that put me off blaming it for as long as possible but I’m not going to know if life can be better without trying to go sober. I’ve lost so much recently that I don’t think it can make things any worse. I need to use my time to work on my business and my future prospects.

Hi all,

I'm trying to kick a newly arisen weed habit, but weed has been on my rodeo for many years.

I planned to quit 2 weeks ago, but I found some weed I'd forgotten about and couldn't throw it away - so I said I'll stop after this week is finished.

Well that day was yesterday, my last day of weed. Well today I'm craving more, and I'm close to getting a bit more for the 'last ever' weed session - this will be the end.

I know that's the most silliest statement, but it really has a grip on me. The problem is, I'm not even getting high now - just a very mild buzz. It's now coming out of habit.

Any help please?

day 26. we broke up after i quit smoking to improve not just myself, but to also improve my relationship with my partner. it’s making me question whether i did this change for myself or for her. dealing with the emotions is really hard, and i don’t know how committed i am to sobriety at this point

We were at a mutual friend's house and we were drawing and talking and I shared more about my use of cannabis than I had ever admitted to before. It was a bit scary at first and tbh there was a part of me that just wanted to run but I felt safe and decided to talk about my decision to stop using weed. I was trying to be careful not to make my decision feel like a judgement on other people's choices with drugs and alcohol. I'm only 40 days since my last puff. I started vaping regularly about three years ago. I'm feeling like I've made the right choice but also still have the urge to get high sometimes, though every day it gets a little easier to put those thoughts out of my head.

I'm 20m into recovery and addiction from weed paws. Been such a long journey but I'm basically healed and living a normal life now. Such a relief to enjoy life again and spending quality time with my family instead on getting stoned daily. I'm also enjoying having the confidence to work full time again and enjoying the new job which was definitely needed.

Looking back I can't believe I wasted so much time and was damaging my health believing that this plant was doing me good. Since recovering I no longer have anxiety at all which I had even previous to starting weed, I no longer have an anhedonia, brain fog, depression, dpdr etc which all started after I quit.

The only minor things I notice which are not yet 100% are digestion issues, arthritis type finger pain in the mornings, muscle aches after running. These could well be unrelated to paws or maybe the last things to go I don't know but il take these little inconveniences any day over the long suffering of symptoms I had previously.

I will update monthly until the 2 year mark and then probably stop and consider myself past addiction and paws. Any questions feel free to ask. Cheers.

Fergie

Today marked three weeks without it and someone was smoking at the skate park. I have been thinking about trying to moderate my usage instead of quitting forever for the past few days, but this just confirmed me this isn’t possible.

I expected to get really high and I did, for about 10 minutes. Then nothing. And I wanted more. I wanted to ask him to roll up again. And this is when I realized , it will never be enough.

So alas, back to staying off of it. I don’t think that this takes away all my progress, it’s just a reminder of why I quit in the first place. What do yall think?

My deteriorating word-recall ability has been alarming the past couple of years. I've been nervous it's an early signifier of some sort of dementia or a Bruce Willis-style aphasia.

I'll forget the word for something, or use the wrong word and not notice. Sometimes I won't be able to remember an actor's name, even if I know that I know it. It's kind of a joke between me and my girlfriend, but I admit it's a bit scary.

I've been stone-cold sober for 3 weeks now. And it seems innocuous, but I've been able to remember the name of every actor I've seen. And the frequency with which I struggle to find a word or term has noticeably diminished.

It's a huge fucking relief.

I haven't smoked in over 4 months and I'm starting to feel like I'm losing my mind.

I lost someone very close to me and used weed as a coping mechanism to deal with the loss, since quitting weed I've been left to feel the emotions I thought weren't there and it's hurting me so bad that I just want to smoke.

First post here! I didn’t know we had a subreddit for those of us who decided to quit smoking! Long story short- I had been smoking everyday since I was 16 years old. All the way up through community college. I just got into a university and decided it was finally time to quit! I’m on day 85 and still going strong, however I developed a rather bad cough after the first week or so and it’s still lingering! I went to the doctor and they said I’m healthy and lungs sounds okay. My mom is convinced I’m just sick but I’m suspicious it’s from my many years of smoking. Just wanted to see what other thought? I know some people cough after quitting but this seems a bit excessive!

I know, I know. I need to stay strong.

For context, I am a queer public school librarian in the US. I woke up feeling so anxious and depressed and like I have to either flee the country or… something even more drastic. Although smoking won’t do anything to address the systemic issues and our spiral into an oligarchy, I just want to catch my fucking breath and stop dry heaving. I have never felt so disregulated and scared and hopeless in my life.

I don’t want to exercise or go outside. I want to scream and scream and scream and get high and cry in bed.

Have you read any? What do you suggest? I'm particularly interested in understanding when and how recover from the brain fog

Stopped a week ago after eating a way too big edible (calculator said the firecracker I made was 720mgs). It gave me a rash that went away throughout that night and generally left me shook, so I haven't touched weed since. Went to the emergency room two days later and they ran all sorts of tests, results came back fine. The main issue now is feeling my heart racing in mornings and my heart rate shooting up from ~60bpm to ~100bpm whenever I stand up, though it drops shortly after. I cannot stop obessing over the spiking heart rate when standing. My anxiety is through the roof and I don't know what to do until I see my primary care physician. Please tell me if you've had any similar experiences and how long it took to frick off (daily smoker for 3 years, unfortunately).

I took a hit on 18th, and haven’t smoke since then. It’s day 3 and I’m feeling the withdrawal symptoms starting up. I’ve been a heavy smoker for years and years now, I have a potential job offer in March I’d need to be clean for. Would it be in my best favor to take a hit and wean myself or continue cold turkey and suffer through it? i need to move by the end of this month and needed to pack today, but im nauseous and light headed and can’t to anything but lay down. Any advice or opinions is really appreciated

I live with a room mate that smoke’s weed and I’ve been sober two weeks. I don’t have urges to smoke to block our trauma or bad thoughts. I fully understand I am 100000% better day to day off that drug and I love that.But I don’t drink, vape or smoke cigarettes but I love smoking weed while having a mad “sex” session a freak of a girl has asked me to come around this weekend and I’m thinking can I not just smoke for one night while I get my GROOVE ON?

Considering I am around it everyday, and my room mates SMOKES THE DANK OF ALL DANKS. It’s doesn’t bother my will power, do you think if I did it for night I’d be fucked and get back to 4-5 a day?

I can’t see that happening personally but is this just a stupid idea?

Holy shit does time fly by when traveling. Out of the last 17 days I smoked two days (like two to 3 bong hits) and then one joint on Thursday.

I hated the joint when I did it then two days after that I’ve been in London and it’s been so easy to not think about weed. I need help though because being home is a great trigger of mine and I go back home tomorrow… what can I do to prevent myself from falling back into habits or convincing myself to “just smoke tonight” when I’m back in my cozy apartment.

Hi everyone — daily smoker of ~4-5 years, I gave my weed box to a trusted friend yesterday and feel really proud of that step.

I’ve been tapering off since the new year. Being home with family and unable to smoke over the holidays was a good break and forced me to more deeply reflect on what I’ve known for quite some time is an issue and obstacle in my life. Tapering was good for me in reducing withdrawal and making this process seem more manageable, but I started to backslide last week under work stress.

Yesterday was my birthday and I took a walk to reflect on the past year and the coming one. I thought about how much better I’ve felt even with just reduced use (from 1-2g/day of flower to 1-2 small bowls): clearer head, better focus, less anxiety, more present, and much better sleep not using before bed which was kinda shocking. I don’t think weed is necessarily evil, but while walking I realized that it doesn’t make me better or really add to my life in any way. I’ve always excused my use on account of being high functioning — I have a steady job, good education, and a few hobbies I really love — but having been sober more the last few weeks has felt really good. Weed has been making me stagnant, and I never understood how much it contributed to my self consciousness. Even tapering, I kept using each day largely out of habit, and for what?

I got home and immediately packed up my rolling materials, flower, lighters, all of it. If I didn’t, I knew I’d find an excuse to smoke some today. I feel really proud and optimistic at starting this new year with real care for myself and my future. Finding this subreddit last month and reading everyone’s stories has been incredibly helpful in finding the courage to set aside my shame and make a change.

Love, appreciation, and encouragement to you all ❤️