Benefits of quitting cannabis
A guide to quitting Cannabis and the benefits associated with quitting weed
Giving up cannabis forum
| Forum Home > Your Cannabis quit journal > Quitting after 20yrs heavy use. | ||
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Member Posts: 4 | Hi My wife and I decided to quit on the 1st December 2011. We have smoked for 20 years and grew our own. A few years ago we moved house and setting up a grow seemed too risky so we have had to pay stupid prices dealing with People we don't want to deal with. We are just a few days in but we have each other for support which is great. Insomnia so far is the biggest pain and strange bouts of feeling great then really lethargic and tired. The need to smoke comes in the evenings but we are trying to occupy ourselves by reading or playing guitar in my case. Things do seem easier with each passing day and both of us feel like we would be ripping ourselves off by going back to it. It might seem a little premature but we are really proud of each other for the effort so far. We havnt been a day without for 20 years so waking up not feeling fogged is a really nice feeling. We are tired because it takes ages to get to sleep (and the dreams are pretty hectic whe we do sleep) but we are chuffed to have made it this far. Our usual dealer sent me a message today telling me he had a couple ounces of AK47 ready for me and this was a huge test. God it was tempting but we resisted and are really glad we did. I am on a bit of a short fuse at the moment but again I feel that it is controllable. All in all i am looking forward to being free of it. Realise there is a way to go but definitely committed to experiencing soberness. | |
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Member Posts: 4 | I had a really tough night last night. Got to sleep around 3am. Woke up after 4 hours of weird dreams feeling grumpy and short tempered. Went to work dreading the day but the sun broke out and my mood lifted and I've felt really good all day. Pretty much the same story for my wife but she seems less grumpy with it. Not looking forward to bedtime cos I know it's going to be rough again. Was funny shopping and not bothering with the sweet aisle. I'm a bit constipated which is rare for me so I dare say it's related. The best thing is i really don't want to smoke. I have not felt a need today at all. | |
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Member Posts: 2 |
Hey man, good to hear you are still surviving. 20 years is a long time! Just thought I would comment on the sleeping thing, as I think people kinda get into their own heads about it, but obviously we are all different, and so what works for me may not work for you. I once read an article about "5 things you don't think about but are doing wrong". One of the things was sleeping. The author gave a little background on sleeping. Humans have traditionally gone to bed pretty much when it gets dark, and so the advent of electricity has changed our sleeping patterns. Most "normal" people seek to go to sleep and sleep a full 8 hours before waking up. But this is not how humans work. Humans have typically had 10 or 12 hours a night for sleep, but only require 8 hours. The sleeping pattern that has emerged as a result is roughly 4 hours of sleep, followed by an hour or two of what the author referred to as "peaceful wakefulness", followed by another 4 hours of sleep. The author stated that this time was for "smoking or boning". Funny article, but that's pretty much what humans used that time for. What the author was getting at was that when we wake up for that period of peaceful wakefulness, we often think something is wrong; we think we have insomnia. But we don't. We are supposed to wake up in the middle of the night for a few hours. But thinking that you have insomnia turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy and you can't get back to sleep because you are so worried about getting to sleep. The key to falling asleep is just to relax and stop thinking. I'm sure it's hard to do after so many years of basically knocking yourself out by carbon monoxide (or is it dioxide? I dunno) inhalation, but if you can just relax and not think too much about getting to sleep, I promise that you will fall asleep. Good luck and keep it up. | |
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Member Posts: 4 | Thanks for the shout kaypee :-) The sleep thing really was a problem to start with and in fact was the main reason I started searching the web for side effects which drew me to this site. I have a pretty demanding job and get up at 6am and don't return until about 8pm so sleep has never been a problem before. Anyway ... It's been 2 weeks since I quit so I thought it was worth an update. I cannot believe how much easier it's been to quit than I imagined. The first week was tough. My head felt like it had a tight band around it and my energy levels were all over the place. Now I just feel, well normal. I am getting a little bit more tired in the afternoons still but that's nothing really. My head feels clear in a way it hasn't for so many years. I am so happy. I don't feel like it owns me anymore. I have no craving. None at all. I just feel slightly stupid for hanging on to it for so long. I am putting the money we save into a holiday fund but first bought myself a new guitar. The financial benefits from giving up are amazing. I was spending a fortune in the end. If you are thinking of giving up just do it. It's the best thing I did! | |
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Member Posts: 24 |
Hell yeah!! The first thing I noticed was more money, I think now that we're not smoking, we have an extra $6,000 a year to spend on whatever, savings, holidays, I have been feeling super awesome, lost a bit of weight. I turns your life around, it's unbelievable the amount of time we spent smoking the crap, don't get me wrong, I still miss it as a wind down, but my body is able to relax and cope naturally, and I can now deal with life like every other sober person lol. So good to hear that you are coping well and feeling great. | |
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Member Posts: 4 |
Hey Joe, as Jimi once said, how's it going now? We quit at about the same time and smoked for a similar period too. I'm finding it a bit rough right now and I'm sure it's related to quitting. I didn't smoke every day, well I did when I could get some and was a heavy chain smoker. I could go a week or two without when I couldn't get any and so I think this is the reason I'm suffering at 4 weeks in, never gone "that" long before. How you doing now? | |
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-- Barry.
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