Too much of anything can be a bad thing. And I can certainly speak out of experience that this is the case for weed. I've been smoking for about 10 years and while it used to be at "acceptable" levels, I do feel it's gotten a bit out of hand. So the goal of this thread is to get some tips to smoking at acceptable levels and also perhaps trying to figure out how dire my situation is.
What is "acceptable levels of smoking"? In short, your smoking should not:
I would love to be able to go back to the days where I only smoked 1 a day or less. But I've tried numerous times and I can't. This is where the addiction part comes in. In the last 10 years, the longest I stopped for was 6 months. But I missed smoking after 6 months and started again. If I could stop and then start but keep my smoking down to a minimum, then I'd be fine. But that never happens. My problem is that while day 1 might start with good intentions and I might only smoke 1 or 2, it will only be a few days where I am back to just smoking as much as I want to for as long as I want to. Often resulting in me skipping out on social events because I'd rather smoke than go hang out with people.
Other problems with my smoking:
I am considering just manning the hell up and forcing myself to not smoke til after 5. I've tried this before, but after day 2 I am back to waking and baking again. So I need to find a way to control myself. Because this option easily turns into torture. Everything I do is easily distracted by the thought that I can smoke again in a few hours. I dont think you are really truly living your life, if your head is occupied of thoughts of when you are going to smoke next. That's surely very bad. So I am not sure if this is going to work for me.
Any suggestions or tips? Anyone else had it this bad and got to acceptable smoking levels? Or is it time for me to seriously call it quits for a couple of months/years?
(It's important for me to get a grip on this, because cultivation is now legal in my country, meaning I am never going to run out of my own personal supply ever again)
What is "acceptable levels of smoking"? In short, your smoking should not:
- Affect your social life (in a negative way)
- Cripple you financially
- Mess with your head (or affect your overall mental health)
I would love to be able to go back to the days where I only smoked 1 a day or less. But I've tried numerous times and I can't. This is where the addiction part comes in. In the last 10 years, the longest I stopped for was 6 months. But I missed smoking after 6 months and started again. If I could stop and then start but keep my smoking down to a minimum, then I'd be fine. But that never happens. My problem is that while day 1 might start with good intentions and I might only smoke 1 or 2, it will only be a few days where I am back to just smoking as much as I want to for as long as I want to. Often resulting in me skipping out on social events because I'd rather smoke than go hang out with people.
Other problems with my smoking:
- Whether or not I can smoke plays a big role in me deciding where I go on holiday
- My throat hurts sometimes. If this happened when I was a regular cigarette smoker, I would simply not smoke for a few days. I am unable to do this with weed. I will smoke even if my throat is sore (which is most likely due to the numbing effect weed has, meaning I'm probably giving my throat a hard time)
- The only time I stop smoking weed, is if I run out. And that's only for a day or two until I get more.
- The first day is usually really really bad for everyone. I'm beyond rude and irritated. Often picking fights and very much regretting it afterwards. These fights have had serious negative effects on some relationships.
- My energy levels are gone. I can easily fall asleep at 1 in the afternoon, wake up at 5, function for an hour and then fall asleep again til the next morning. And mornings I easily sleep late because there isn't that first smoke to look forward to.
- If I don't smoke, I can easily lose 3 to 8kgs in a week from not eating. When I stop smoking, food makes me seriously nauseous and my appetite is gone. It takes anything between 1 week and 3 weeks for my appetite to get back to normal.
- I find myself drinking more alcohol when I stop smoking. That combined with low appetite means that I've gotten sloshed very quickly at a few occasions which also went South because alcohol + a bad temper = chaos. I'm not going to elaborate on this, but I am actually avoiding booze overall because it just isn't good for me. The "low" from not smoking weed combined with alcohol always gets me in trouble. And it's taken as little as a single beer to trigger the initial negative state of mind, which quickly escalates into arguments about the dumbest things.
- Even after 3 weeks of not smoking, I'm still not really the normal happy guy I usually find myself being. I would assume that it will probably take me 3 - 6 months to really get 'over' smoking. And last time I got to month 6, I thought to myself, surely I am strong enough not to get beat by a plant. But sadly, that was 3 years ago.
I am considering just manning the hell up and forcing myself to not smoke til after 5. I've tried this before, but after day 2 I am back to waking and baking again. So I need to find a way to control myself. Because this option easily turns into torture. Everything I do is easily distracted by the thought that I can smoke again in a few hours. I dont think you are really truly living your life, if your head is occupied of thoughts of when you are going to smoke next. That's surely very bad. So I am not sure if this is going to work for me.
Any suggestions or tips? Anyone else had it this bad and got to acceptable smoking levels? Or is it time for me to seriously call it quits for a couple of months/years?
(It's important for me to get a grip on this, because cultivation is now legal in my country, meaning I am never going to run out of my own personal supply ever again)