Marijuana is absolutely physically addictive as much as people want to say it isnt. Mind you im someone who smokes the minute they leave work until they go to bed. So im not here to push any kind of anti-marijuana view point, but i do think we as stoners should be honest. Everyone i know who stops smoking weed has two very common side effects.
They have a lot of trouble getting to sleep
Wild/fucked up dreams.
I understand that this is a side effect of lack of REM but you cant say these aren’t physical withdrawal symptoms. Research is needed, but just because we all want it to be legal, doesn’t mean we should ignore the facts.
Marijuana is absolutely physically addictive as much as people want to say it isnt.
I mean it scientifically isn’t though. Physical addictions don’t just give you psychological withdrawals, they are physical. Your body becomes dependent on them to maintain homeostasis.
Cold turkeying drugs like opioids and benzos can kill you.
Just because the withdrawal symptoms aren’t as bad doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I said this before, research is needed. Going off of whats been said over the last 50 years of prohibition seems silly to me. And i for sure use marijuana to keep me in homeostasis. We need to stop saying psychological withdrawal doesnt have roots based in brain chemistry. I think everything we have begun to learn about mental health shows what little we actually know.
There’s withdrawal but of the four drugs i have been physically addicted to (caffeine, weed, nicotine, and SSRIs) it’s the only one I can cold turkey in under a week and feel fine.
Agreed, this isnt a lesser of two evils argument. I absolutely believe weed is easier on the body then most other happy juices we love to use. But misinformation is misinformation, and i think people who want to use weed should be informed of possible side effects. The more we understand about it, the easier it will be to get it legalized.
Current strains are a lot stronger than what I grew up with. I have no idea if that could make them physically addicting or not, or perhaps physically addicting to a greater number of people or not.
The psychological addiction though is self-evident. It can become an identity or religion or something for people. Like, any time they’re doing something fun and/or unsupervised they have to add weed to it.
Dude those “withdrawal symptoms” are a joke compared to any other drug.
That said, I don’t know a single person who identifies as a stoner that isn’t completely and utterly mentally addicted. And the drug is so subtle, stoners rarely try to stop.
Cocaine, even a 2 day bender is incredibly hard on your body. If you’re a person with any kind of responsibilities in your life, you’ll be strongly incentivized to reconsider the habit in no time.
But weed, it’s meh. Most users can restrict their use to when they’re not at work, so it’s fine.
Which makes it more dangerous.
I’ve watched so many promising futures flushed down the toilet by weed. Motivation? gone. Real hobbies? Indoors in front of a screen only. At its worst, I’ve seen friends totally withdraw from socializing almost entirely. Social anxiety combined with the escape of being high was enough to dampen and deny the very real human need to connect with others.
Every single one of these individuals went through some form of depression that was was extended and exacerbated by escapism and addiction in the form of excessive marijuana usage.
I know that’s not everyone. There are people who use it in a healthy, balanced way.
But there are also a ton of people who get heavily addicted because it dampens the pain of something they’re going through. And that pattern can make it a lot harder to make progress and work through whatever that person is dealing with.
Anyone who’s spent any time around stoners knows this is true. And yeah, for a lot of people, it’s a gateway drug. I’ve seen plenty of buddies in college jump from weed to xans to oxy. It’s ruined lives. It made my best friend drop out.
And yeah, these people clearly already had issues. But that’s how drug addiction works. It preys on people who are going through something and it makes a bad situation way worse.
Weed can do the exact same thing. Doesn’t matter if it’s not physically addicting.
This comment hit the nail on the head. It’s no big deal to spend an evening after work getting high and watching movies. But then it becomes every evening. Now you can’t deal with daily life if you don’t get to smoke between work shifts. Maybe you show up to work high to take the edge off. Now you’re high all the time and being sober feels weird. Spending all your time just sort of floating in a dream because being high is your default state now.
Everything becomes more effort so you just stop bothering. Playing an instrument? This requires too much focus. I’m gonna go lay down on the couch. Socializing? I’m too high to drive, I’ll stay home today (man I’m so freaking lonely). It really truly is a trade-off where you sacrifice a fulfilling life for an easily tolerated one. At some point you start to realize this and increase your intake to try to make those uneasy thoughts go away.
I’ve gone from every day smoking to nothing multiple times. Never had trouble getting to sleep. But I did have wildy fucked up and vivid dreams.
I have no idea what the meaning behind that is. But if my only withdraw symptoms are “vivid dreams”, is it really that bad? In the grand scheme of drug withdrawals, that’s super mild.
I believe the evidence points pretty clearly to alcohol and nicotine being more addictive than THC. I did state that my experience is anecdotal, but I wanted to chime in because you know, internet.
I can only speak anecdotally, but in my experience it was about 2 weeks for the majority of strong withdrawal symptoms to go away. By that point my appetite was starting to come back, sleep was better, and cravings were subsiding.
I lost so much freaking weight after I quit. I had zero appetite and had to force myself to eat the bit I did. It was like I was going through a depression or something. But yes, 2 weeks sounds about howblong the worst of it was for me too.
I think it varies from person to person. I use it sometimes and will stop for months at a time. The main reason I use it is to help me sleep, and it’s definitely not stopping weed that makes me not sleep since I had those sleep problems for years already while not using weed. Before it was legalized I only ever smoked at parties and had zero desire to go out of my way to find a dealer so I’d only use it very rarely and sometimes went years between using. Once it was legalized I started using lightly only for sleep and stress relief. Before I took sleeping pills instead but prefer weed because it doesn’t make me as drowsy in the morning. I think it’s a non statement to say that stopping weed makes it harder to fall asleep when one of its effects is making it easier to sleep. If the status quo is not falling asleep as well, stopping a sleep aid will of course return you to the status quo
But thats under the assumption people use weed for sleep. I never had a problem sleeping as a kid. But now as an adult, if i stop smoking I struggle to sleep.
Sleep issues become more common as a person ages. It may be that you have sleep issues now simply because you have aged since using, and the weed treated it. I use it at night because it reduces the frequency and vividness of my dreams. The dreams are a symptom of the CPTSD I suffer from being in a cult most of my life. We need to just wait for an actual scientific consensus before we assume anything from sharing our anecdotes.
I’m my case, weed increases my appetite dangerously. I’m obese and weed makes me a food monster. I don’t use it unless it’s a social situation where I can’t just clean my fridge out.
Marijuana is absolutely physically addictive as much as people want to say it isnt. Mind you im someone who smokes the minute they leave work until they go to bed. So im not here to push any kind of anti-marijuana view point, but i do think we as stoners should be honest. Everyone i know who stops smoking weed has two very common side effects.
I understand that this is a side effect of lack of REM but you cant say these aren’t physical withdrawal symptoms. Research is needed, but just because we all want it to be legal, doesn’t mean we should ignore the facts.
I mean it scientifically isn’t though. Physical addictions don’t just give you psychological withdrawals, they are physical. Your body becomes dependent on them to maintain homeostasis.
Cold turkeying drugs like opioids and benzos can kill you.
Just because the withdrawal symptoms aren’t as bad doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I said this before, research is needed. Going off of whats been said over the last 50 years of prohibition seems silly to me. And i for sure use marijuana to keep me in homeostasis. We need to stop saying psychological withdrawal doesnt have roots based in brain chemistry. I think everything we have begun to learn about mental health shows what little we actually know.
There’s withdrawal but of the four drugs i have been physically addicted to (caffeine, weed, nicotine, and SSRIs) it’s the only one I can cold turkey in under a week and feel fine.
Agreed, this isnt a lesser of two evils argument. I absolutely believe weed is easier on the body then most other happy juices we love to use. But misinformation is misinformation, and i think people who want to use weed should be informed of possible side effects. The more we understand about it, the easier it will be to get it legalized.
Bro just copy pasted his own response
“Marijuana ist a memory loss drug, so maybe they just don’t remember.”
Current strains are a lot stronger than what I grew up with. I have no idea if that could make them physically addicting or not, or perhaps physically addicting to a greater number of people or not.
The psychological addiction though is self-evident. It can become an identity or religion or something for people. Like, any time they’re doing something fun and/or unsupervised they have to add weed to it.
Dude those “withdrawal symptoms” are a joke compared to any other drug.
That said, I don’t know a single person who identifies as a stoner that isn’t completely and utterly mentally addicted. And the drug is so subtle, stoners rarely try to stop.
Cocaine, even a 2 day bender is incredibly hard on your body. If you’re a person with any kind of responsibilities in your life, you’ll be strongly incentivized to reconsider the habit in no time.
But weed, it’s meh. Most users can restrict their use to when they’re not at work, so it’s fine.
Which makes it more dangerous.
I’ve watched so many promising futures flushed down the toilet by weed. Motivation? gone. Real hobbies? Indoors in front of a screen only. At its worst, I’ve seen friends totally withdraw from socializing almost entirely. Social anxiety combined with the escape of being high was enough to dampen and deny the very real human need to connect with others.
Every single one of these individuals went through some form of depression that was was extended and exacerbated by escapism and addiction in the form of excessive marijuana usage.
I know that’s not everyone. There are people who use it in a healthy, balanced way.
But there are also a ton of people who get heavily addicted because it dampens the pain of something they’re going through. And that pattern can make it a lot harder to make progress and work through whatever that person is dealing with.
Anyone who’s spent any time around stoners knows this is true. And yeah, for a lot of people, it’s a gateway drug. I’ve seen plenty of buddies in college jump from weed to xans to oxy. It’s ruined lives. It made my best friend drop out.
And yeah, these people clearly already had issues. But that’s how drug addiction works. It preys on people who are going through something and it makes a bad situation way worse.
Weed can do the exact same thing. Doesn’t matter if it’s not physically addicting.
This comment hit the nail on the head. It’s no big deal to spend an evening after work getting high and watching movies. But then it becomes every evening. Now you can’t deal with daily life if you don’t get to smoke between work shifts. Maybe you show up to work high to take the edge off. Now you’re high all the time and being sober feels weird. Spending all your time just sort of floating in a dream because being high is your default state now.
Everything becomes more effort so you just stop bothering. Playing an instrument? This requires too much focus. I’m gonna go lay down on the couch. Socializing? I’m too high to drive, I’ll stay home today (man I’m so freaking lonely). It really truly is a trade-off where you sacrifice a fulfilling life for an easily tolerated one. At some point you start to realize this and increase your intake to try to make those uneasy thoughts go away.
Does this sound anecdotal? That’s because it is.
I’ve gone from every day smoking to nothing multiple times. Never had trouble getting to sleep. But I did have wildy fucked up and vivid dreams.
I have no idea what the meaning behind that is. But if my only withdraw symptoms are “vivid dreams”, is it really that bad? In the grand scheme of drug withdrawals, that’s super mild.
I was hopelessly addicted to cigarettes. It took torturous willpower to quit.
I can smoke weed now and then and never crave it.
But sure, my experience is anecdotal.
So what? Some people are alcoholics, some people drink in moderation.
I believe the evidence points pretty clearly to alcohol and nicotine being more addictive than THC. I did state that my experience is anecdotal, but I wanted to chime in because you know, internet.
I did state - I can’t edit for some reason
How long do they typically last?
I can only speak anecdotally, but in my experience it was about 2 weeks for the majority of strong withdrawal symptoms to go away. By that point my appetite was starting to come back, sleep was better, and cravings were subsiding.
I lost so much freaking weight after I quit. I had zero appetite and had to force myself to eat the bit I did. It was like I was going through a depression or something. But yes, 2 weeks sounds about howblong the worst of it was for me too.
I think it varies from person to person. I use it sometimes and will stop for months at a time. The main reason I use it is to help me sleep, and it’s definitely not stopping weed that makes me not sleep since I had those sleep problems for years already while not using weed. Before it was legalized I only ever smoked at parties and had zero desire to go out of my way to find a dealer so I’d only use it very rarely and sometimes went years between using. Once it was legalized I started using lightly only for sleep and stress relief. Before I took sleeping pills instead but prefer weed because it doesn’t make me as drowsy in the morning. I think it’s a non statement to say that stopping weed makes it harder to fall asleep when one of its effects is making it easier to sleep. If the status quo is not falling asleep as well, stopping a sleep aid will of course return you to the status quo
But thats under the assumption people use weed for sleep. I never had a problem sleeping as a kid. But now as an adult, if i stop smoking I struggle to sleep.
Sleep issues become more common as a person ages. It may be that you have sleep issues now simply because you have aged since using, and the weed treated it. I use it at night because it reduces the frequency and vividness of my dreams. The dreams are a symptom of the CPTSD I suffer from being in a cult most of my life. We need to just wait for an actual scientific consensus before we assume anything from sharing our anecdotes.
Good point
You forgot the nausea/lack of appetite.
I’m my case, weed increases my appetite dangerously. I’m obese and weed makes me a food monster. I don’t use it unless it’s a social situation where I can’t just clean my fridge out.
*food monster - fuck why can’t i edit my comments?