How To Stop Smoking Weed

HOW TO QUIT SMOKING WEED

The positive effects of smoking weed come into the news more and more often. But despite documented benefits, there are facts that can make you think of quitting marijuana. Excessive consumption of anything is harmful. If not used properly, marijuana brings health issues similar to those caused by tobacco smoking and taking drugs.

Among the side effects of weed smoking researchers stress upon the following:

– Harm to short-term memory. Weed has been proven to impair memory abilities which bring to dangerous disorders in the future.  
– Mood changes. Drastic swings of mood, caused by weed smoking, can turn into negative psychological issues.
– Development delay. Damaging brain cells in teenagers can be followed by blocking of physical and mental development, and therefore restraining growth.
– Shortness of breath. This speaks of affecting lungs leading to deadly outcomes, like with cigarette smoking.
– Coronary issues. Elevated heart rate, blood pressure jumps and heartaches, caused by marijuana, bring you to the situation when often hospital visits become unavoidable.

In the long-term perspective ingesting marijuana on a regular basis ends up in the decrease both in mental and physical abilities as well as the general quality of life. Do these facts seem familiar to what you feel? If yes, it’s time to start thinking about how to quit smoking weed.

The problem is that weed is addictive. Or isn’t it?

According to some researchers, 30% of marijuana users develop a dependency that is close to addiction. 2.5 million of the USA citizens feel the constant need for weed. Marijuana is known as a “gateway drug” and its ability to raise addiction is more real than it may seem.

If you realize that quitting marijuana makes you feel uncomfortable, it’s time to look for some tips for quitting smoking weed.

The ways are numerous and different. In making the choice some are guided by psychological factors while others start changing life due to psychological or financial issues.

Looking for a determined way to quit smoking weed? It’s “cold turkey”!

It’s fast and effective if you have strong willpower. “Cold turkey” is halting your smoking habit. For this, you just decide to stop it and you do it. But even if you are mentally strong, there are some underwater currents like a hidden physical addiction. The chemical ingredient in marijuana is THC.

It has the ability to stay in your organism for months and feed your body with small portions of the drug daily. Because of the tolerance to the drug, you might feel a need to get more and then suffer withdrawal symptoms.

People without strong addiction can ignore such callings and go on. Although if this makes you feel too uncomfortable, it’s not a disaster. Sometimes it’s hard to beat biology with the mere power of will and you might use another way.

Medical aid –  maybe the best way to stop smoking weed

Here you get more help than with cold turkey, though it’s not as drastic as a rehab. There are different approaches and views about its effectiveness or ineffectiveness and no definite medicine to cure you of drug dependence is proven to be 100% effective.

But you’ll receive supportive medications to help with defeating symptoms and withdrawals, which will eventually help you get through the process. Also, this way suits everyone and is a smart and generally efficient strategy to take up.

Maybe 12 Step Program?

This one is the most general program for treating different kinds of addiction, although originally it was developed for treating alcoholism. They offer anonymous groups for moral support and sharing emotions, as well as sponsors who help you confront the addiction.

If you need some emotional comforting, it is something that might help. Although it hasn’t been supported officially by modern science, it proved to be quite productive for spiritual people.

Here are the 12 steps:

– Acknowledging your addiction and all that relates to it.
– Praying for help to live over your situation from some upper power.
– Pass the control over your will and life to the spiritual supreme power and let it guide you.
– Accept the responsibility for the bad things you’ve done being dependent on marijuana.
– Confess the mistakes you’ve made first to yourself and to the closest people.
– Let the higher power let you get rid of the addiction.
– Ask for help.
– Find people who were harmed during your addiction by your actions and decisions.
– Ask to forgive you for all the harm you’ve done in the time of dependence on marijuana.
– Continue listing all your bad deeds, expanding the record of people
– Pray for forgiveness and healing.
– Finish the program on the point of awareness of your new awakening and health.

This program is proved to be effective to ones who are seeking for the higher purpose of everything that happens in their lives. But it’s simplicity and openness are fitful to everyone who is ready to investigate the inner causes of addictiveness and ready to change their mentality and life values in order to get healed.

Rehab – The Way for Heavy Smokers

This one is usually the last shelter to all weed users experimenting with the ways of releasing from addiction. As it presupposes medical intervention, psychological support and a complete change of the way of life, it requires a lot of time and finance.

There are numerous centers providing rehab services and you can choose the one you like. Though it is most popular and medically approved way to get healed, being approached incorrectly in rehab, can eventually have poor results.

Counseling – The Middle Way

If you need help but changing your environment and taking the medical treatment is too time and cost consuming for you, the possible thing to go is counseling. It lets you develop a self-guided plan to quit smoking weed. Discussing your situation with a professional is the best way to deal with them without extreme changes in usual life order.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTION FOR QUITTING SMOKING WEED

Stay Away from Supplies

If you have decided to start your life over without a dependency, the first thing to do is not to buy, get or borrow marijuana. It’s easier than stop buying alcohol and tobacco present in every shop, since weed is available only for medical purposes, except for the states where recreational marijuana is legal. The only driving force on this step is willpower.

At some point, you might feel a pressing need to smoke and a desire to go to buy or borrow from a friend, but try to distract yourself. Go have some fun without getting high: spend time with a person you love or non-smoking friends, do something for relaxing or take up a new hobby. Do anything to prove your life is bright and full of live emotions without stimulants.

Get Rid of Accessories

For sure as a weed smoker you’ve piled up different tools like pipes, bongs, rolling papers, cool weed grinders, etc. Do you realize that you keep tens of triggers to make you want to get back to a usual way of relaxation? In your mind, they are not associated with the fact you have a dependency, but rather with memories of the moments when you were high and happy.

The only wise thing here is to get rid of all those. If some of the paraphernalia have sentimental value to you – it’s better to hide them if not throw away. Do everything to clean your home up for a new phase in life.

Get Control of Desire

Quitting marijuana fast, like cold turkey way, as well as dropping smoking, cold turkey has underwater currents and the withdrawal syndrome is the main one. At some point, you can find yourself feeling an increasing craving to smoke.

As mentioned above, the specific thing about marijuana is THC, that comes into cells and is stored there for a lengthy period. Unlike nicotine that leaves your body fast, THC gets released into your blood and urges cravings long after you’ve quitted ingesting it.

Some may think that nicotine replacement therapy can do fine here as well. But there is a difference: unlike nicotine dependence, that can be tempered with decreasing doses of the “drug”, small portions of marijuana act against you.

Your body is used to more and demands more. Feeding it with less brings to a riot and eventually to an assumption of higher doses than before the attempts of quitting.

So, controlling your cravings comes to the fore. There are some tips to help you deal with the desire to smoke:

– Distract – it’s perhaps the simplest and most obvious way but it’s the most effective too. Keep yourself busy with the things you love: follow your hobby or pick up a new one, make space for your dreams or finally do the things you’ve wanted long ago, but couldn’t find time for them.
– Move – be as physically active as possible. There are several reasons for this. The first one is about distraction. The second is that it burns stress and fills your body with hormones of pleasure, therefore you won’t look for satisfaction from smoking. The third reason is tuning up your health. And finally, physical activity requires organization, readiness to take action and willpower to keep on even when tired or bored. Aren’t these exactly the traits needed in fighting dependence?
– Get support – surround yourself with people who will give the motivation to stay away from marijuana in the hardest times. Sometimes having such supporters is essential.
– Act – mostly it’s the same that distract with the difference that here the main point, we would like to stress out, is to avoid idleness. Not having anything to do is the first trigger to start smoking. So active means are healthy.

HOW TO TAME WEED WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS?

Like with any other dependency, quitting marijuana can bring out quite negative physical states, in the aggregate called the withdrawal symptoms. They are:

– Irritability
– Depression
– Insomnia
– Restlessness
– Headaches

To fight with these, you generally must follow the same steps as with fighting cravings. Also, you can include this:

– Healthy food – high fiber food and leafy vegetables can do much good for your body when fighting the withdrawal symptoms.
– Clean water – drinking plenty of water will help your body clear up from THC faster.
– Coffee – caffeine proved to be an effective antidote to the sleepiness, brought by weed smoking.
– Tea – here we should stress out that you need only the sorts of tea containing high concentrations of antioxidants.

A COMPLETE PLAN OF DEALING WITH MARIJUANA WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS

So, as it was stated already, the two most important problems holding you back from quitting marijuana are withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Whatever way of getting healed you choose, these two will test your limits. Still, there are things that can really help when your body demands some new portion of the drug, and we’ve prepared a complete list for your use:

Motivation. Your friends and family can be a great source of support and inspiration for a hard period of life. They keep you from feeling lonely or depressed, as well as don’t let you go back to the rehabilitation process. Moreover, unlike doctors and psychologists, they stay around 24/7 and can give you a helping hand whenever you need.

Replacement activity. When you are used to smoking weed in certain periods of time feels like a ritual, so quitting it leaves quite a big space in your life. The best way is to fill it with something as soon as possible before the addiction knocks back at your door. Watching funny movies or speaking to positive people might be very helpful. The main thing is to take up a healthy activity. Don’t get into another “light” addiction like drinking tons of coffee. Reading books, cooking, taking long walks or going to the gym – everything will be a great substitution for a bad habit.

Changes. Try doing something new or at least different. Marijuana was a part of your daily routine as well as other stuff. Some rituals like getting back home a certain route in the evening, sitting in a chair and relaxing with weed turn into a well-learned procedure. Just excluding the drug from it may not be not sufficient. So, try changing most things in your daily routine. Try something new for breakfast, a new route to get to work or other means of transport… Whatever you do, make sure you put more of a new you into every moment of your life.

Taming urge. First days are most difficult to curb cravings and here you must be especially careful. Avoid triggers whatever or whoever they are. If these are accessories used for smoking you should get rid of them, if they are friends, try cut down on the time you spend together, and if it’s a place, leave it for a couple of days. The best thing is to go traveling. Another country or your favorite vacation spot, just not a place where the main attraction is the availability of drugs and hot parties, where you get invited to join the ranks of weed smokers again. Finally, don’t forget about healthy food, drinking water and doing exercise. That will only increase your chances of healing.

Preparation. Before you stop smoking, try reducing the amount in advance. Just take into a habit to treat it as medication, not as a recreational activity. In this way, you’ll trick your brain and minimize withdrawals.

Therapy. It sometimes happens that all the steps you take are not working. And in this case, a good way is to see a therapist. Maybe you take it as a personal failure and an end of the hope to deal with a problem yourself but getting back to weed – that’s the real failure. It’s better to find someone specializing in marijuana addiction and talk to people who are in the same position as you. Listening and talking about your problems out is taking another step to your freedom.

Eventually, you’ll get a relief from the addiction and become a free person. All you need is a decision to stop the destructing activity, finding your way and seeking support from others. With their help, you’ll start your new life. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]