I’ve smoked so much weed in the years since legalization. I was a regular smoker before, too, but my consumption habits spiked after - especially during the COVID years. As in heavy, chronic, daily use.
I started cutting down drastically late last year, and I’m quitting for good now. Cannabis hasn’t had a positive effect on my mental health.
Chronic and heavy use have definitions, for anyone who doesn’t know. Regularly consuming cannabis twice or more per week is considered Chronic use. Heavy use is anything more than two times per week or ten times per month. Almost all of my friends are heavy, chronic users.
Would you be willing to elaborate on the negative effects you observed that led to your decision to drop it? I gave up alcohol this year - I’ve slowly been adding in cannabis lately and want to watch for issues with overuse and such.
It’s complex, and subjective, and maybe a bit sad, but here’s my best shot at describing my decision.
Cannabis enhances most forms of passive entertainment and makes menial tasks less dull, which is great, but that also makes it habit forming. It tends to affect you in one of two ways, depending on your body chemistry and the strain you’re using. You’re either going to be comfortably immobile, or pleasantly flighty, in either case it becomes difficult to focus on complex tasks or plan ahead and makes your problems feel distant.
This combination of effects, in my experience, creates a feedback loop. The habit of smoking to enjoy tasks you wouldn’t otherwise combined with a decrease in drive to perform complex tasks that are both harder to do and less likely to be thought of when stoned and a distance from your troubles, results in more time spent blissfully drifting through life.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I had clearly enjoyed it for years. But it became difficult to do much of anything. I was stuck in this loop that I didn’t even see. I lost friends during COVID (not to the disease, they’re still alive just not my friends) and I allowed my life to shrink so much… My circle of friends, my chosen activities and the locations I physically inhabited all became limited and static during and after. It was a slow process, and I can’t blame it all on cannabis, but smoking weed dulled the pain as I slowly became less and less of myself. When I smoke weed I am less apt to focus on my ills and if I can’t focus on them, I can’t change them.
Being stoned left me more apt to just chill out and let my life continue rolling along the same dissatisfying course. Imagine a snowball rolling downhill, but instead of picking up snow as it goes, it leaves it behind. Shrinking and shrinking, until it stops. Momentum no longer able to carry it along.
This diminishing of myself was leaving me more and more depressed. Months would pass where I only left my apartment to walk my dog or buy groceries. I lost interest in the activities I enjoyed. I lost interest in my partner. I lost interest in my self, because why would I be interested in someone who was nothing and did nothing. I was on the edge of losing myself, to myself. I spent more time imagining my own death than imagining a life I wanted to live.
I took a hard look at how I spent my days, and saw that one thing took the place of all of those others that I used to love. I was spending my days stoned and alone and unhappy. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think an addiction to weed pushed anything out of my life - I wasn’t seeking weed at anything’s expense and I never started until after working hours so I kept a semblance of a life - it just filled the holes all those people, places, activities and things I lost left behind and made it much harder to recognize the decline of my well-being.
So I cut down, and started calling my family more. Then I did some research. I looked at the physiological effects of cannabis - the way THC interacts with your endogenous cannabinoid receptors, which are in every part of your body from your brain and your eyes to your gut and your gonads, and it floods them with a molecule thousands of times more potent than they would otherwise have. It disrupts the neurological feedback system that your brain uses to reinforce synaptic routes. It overrides your guidance system, not through dopamine release causing seeking behavior like most drugs, but by effectively telling you to just relax by making everything you do feel equally as rewarding as anything else.
I was starting to feel better after just cutting down and reaching out, so I looked at what I got from THC and what I wanted from my life, and I decided to leave it behind entirely.
Thanks so much, this is exactly what I was looking for.
I also know exactly what you mean - weirdly, maybe the most potentially harmful thing about cannabis is the way it makes doing nothing tolerable and even enjoyable. I think overuse does lead to a lot of very stunted life trajectories and ultimately unfulfilling time spent on earth for many people. Certainly did for me in my youth. Of course there are the rare folks like my buddy who smokes daily for decades on end and does more stuff than I do.
In myself I’ve noticed that it makes me much more shy and less willing to engage with others when under the influence. Oddly enough I can sometimes be more productive with it, though, because the right dose tends to quiet my otherwise kind of scattered attention and I’ll work on just one thing rather than 4 at once (badly). I write software for a living and a small dose actually helps me just grind out some boring code that needs to get written. But like you said it limits depth so it’s not good for thinking about project structure and decision making. And at higher doses it does leave me very content with doing very little - at least in the moment.
Anyway. I’ll keep my eye on it, thanks for relating your experience!
Even as a non-medical user, sleep is a hard adjustment. When I stopped using, I stopped sleeping through the night.
I do have to say that I feel less groggy when I wake up now, after an adjustment period, than I ever did while I smoked heavily. Though I think I’m just generally more alert - I’m still not sleeping well.
Pain is tough. I hope you find a solution that works for you. ❤️
As with alcohol, I think it really depends on the individual.
For me, I find that too much regular pot puts me in a dim, slightly dissociated place. But it might also be that in the past I may have smoked too much cannabis at times when I was already headed for dim dissociation, so bit of a chicken and egg situation maybe. Meanwhile I have friends who swear that cannabis has saved their life, helping them cope with anxiety, OCD, etc.
Either way, if I had to choose between a pot or alcohol abuse problem, I’d def choose the former. It’s not ideal, but it’s far less likely to kill you or ruin your life.
I’ve smoked so much weed in the years since legalization. I was a regular smoker before, too, but my consumption habits spiked after - especially during the COVID years. As in heavy, chronic, daily use.
I started cutting down drastically late last year, and I’m quitting for good now. Cannabis hasn’t had a positive effect on my mental health.
Chronic and heavy use have definitions, for anyone who doesn’t know. Regularly consuming cannabis twice or more per week is considered Chronic use. Heavy use is anything more than two times per week or ten times per month. Almost all of my friends are heavy, chronic users.
Would you be willing to elaborate on the negative effects you observed that led to your decision to drop it? I gave up alcohol this year - I’ve slowly been adding in cannabis lately and want to watch for issues with overuse and such.
It’s complex, and subjective, and maybe a bit sad, but here’s my best shot at describing my decision.
Cannabis enhances most forms of passive entertainment and makes menial tasks less dull, which is great, but that also makes it habit forming. It tends to affect you in one of two ways, depending on your body chemistry and the strain you’re using. You’re either going to be comfortably immobile, or pleasantly flighty, in either case it becomes difficult to focus on complex tasks or plan ahead and makes your problems feel distant.
This combination of effects, in my experience, creates a feedback loop. The habit of smoking to enjoy tasks you wouldn’t otherwise combined with a decrease in drive to perform complex tasks that are both harder to do and less likely to be thought of when stoned and a distance from your troubles, results in more time spent blissfully drifting through life.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I had clearly enjoyed it for years. But it became difficult to do much of anything. I was stuck in this loop that I didn’t even see. I lost friends during COVID (not to the disease, they’re still alive just not my friends) and I allowed my life to shrink so much… My circle of friends, my chosen activities and the locations I physically inhabited all became limited and static during and after. It was a slow process, and I can’t blame it all on cannabis, but smoking weed dulled the pain as I slowly became less and less of myself. When I smoke weed I am less apt to focus on my ills and if I can’t focus on them, I can’t change them.
Being stoned left me more apt to just chill out and let my life continue rolling along the same dissatisfying course. Imagine a snowball rolling downhill, but instead of picking up snow as it goes, it leaves it behind. Shrinking and shrinking, until it stops. Momentum no longer able to carry it along.
This diminishing of myself was leaving me more and more depressed. Months would pass where I only left my apartment to walk my dog or buy groceries. I lost interest in the activities I enjoyed. I lost interest in my partner. I lost interest in my self, because why would I be interested in someone who was nothing and did nothing. I was on the edge of losing myself, to myself. I spent more time imagining my own death than imagining a life I wanted to live.
I took a hard look at how I spent my days, and saw that one thing took the place of all of those others that I used to love. I was spending my days stoned and alone and unhappy. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think an addiction to weed pushed anything out of my life - I wasn’t seeking weed at anything’s expense and I never started until after working hours so I kept a semblance of a life - it just filled the holes all those people, places, activities and things I lost left behind and made it much harder to recognize the decline of my well-being.
So I cut down, and started calling my family more. Then I did some research. I looked at the physiological effects of cannabis - the way THC interacts with your endogenous cannabinoid receptors, which are in every part of your body from your brain and your eyes to your gut and your gonads, and it floods them with a molecule thousands of times more potent than they would otherwise have. It disrupts the neurological feedback system that your brain uses to reinforce synaptic routes. It overrides your guidance system, not through dopamine release causing seeking behavior like most drugs, but by effectively telling you to just relax by making everything you do feel equally as rewarding as anything else.
I was starting to feel better after just cutting down and reaching out, so I looked at what I got from THC and what I wanted from my life, and I decided to leave it behind entirely.
Just wanted to say thank you for the honesty and vulnerability of writing that up.
I’m in the heavy chronic stage and have been for a lot of years, but I resonate with the “blissfully drifting through life”
Hope you get the results you’ve worked hard for ❤️
Thanks so much, this is exactly what I was looking for.
I also know exactly what you mean - weirdly, maybe the most potentially harmful thing about cannabis is the way it makes doing nothing tolerable and even enjoyable. I think overuse does lead to a lot of very stunted life trajectories and ultimately unfulfilling time spent on earth for many people. Certainly did for me in my youth. Of course there are the rare folks like my buddy who smokes daily for decades on end and does more stuff than I do.
In myself I’ve noticed that it makes me much more shy and less willing to engage with others when under the influence. Oddly enough I can sometimes be more productive with it, though, because the right dose tends to quiet my otherwise kind of scattered attention and I’ll work on just one thing rather than 4 at once (badly). I write software for a living and a small dose actually helps me just grind out some boring code that needs to get written. But like you said it limits depth so it’s not good for thinking about project structure and decision making. And at higher doses it does leave me very content with doing very little - at least in the moment.
Anyway. I’ll keep my eye on it, thanks for relating your experience!
Kind of just hit this point. Weed is medical for me but at the same time it’s become so what you’ve said as well
Sunday was my last smoke so far.
Been smoked for almost 30 years now. The hard part I’m struggling with is replacement for the medicated part. Weed cured my insomnia and pain issues.
Even as a non-medical user, sleep is a hard adjustment. When I stopped using, I stopped sleeping through the night.
I do have to say that I feel less groggy when I wake up now, after an adjustment period, than I ever did while I smoked heavily. Though I think I’m just generally more alert - I’m still not sleeping well.
Pain is tough. I hope you find a solution that works for you. ❤️
Thank you
Today was rough. Been bed ridden since mid day and had to abandon work early cause of pain
The thing that scares me is potentially needing to replace cannabis with pharmaceuticals to deal with the pain, and I’m not sure that’s better
But this is a conversation to have with my doctor
As with alcohol, I think it really depends on the individual.
For me, I find that too much regular pot puts me in a dim, slightly dissociated place. But it might also be that in the past I may have smoked too much cannabis at times when I was already headed for dim dissociation, so bit of a chicken and egg situation maybe. Meanwhile I have friends who swear that cannabis has saved their life, helping them cope with anxiety, OCD, etc.
Either way, if I had to choose between a pot or alcohol abuse problem, I’d def choose the former. It’s not ideal, but it’s far less likely to kill you or ruin your life.