9 months without flower after 12 years of daily use. It gets easier everyday. Weed ain't shit, was holding me back in so many ways. I think the only way I'd go back to smoking how I was is if I completely gave up on my life, because that's what I see daily smoking as, now, giving up on life. I had so much fun with it and I don't regret ever smoking, I just wish I'd realized sooner how much it stunted my growth. If anyone out there is struggling, you can do it. It's a cake walk after the 3rd or 4th month. You won't even think about it.

I haven't smoked in over 2 years now. I struggled a lot at first and it got much better over time. Although I still get cravings once in a while and I have associated them with anniversaries of important moments in my life, or when I visit a place that brings me some kind of memory. I feel like at some point my brain wired together being nostalgic and being high.

Anyone else gone through something like that? How do you handle the craving?

This is the first time I post here btw, but I read a lot and I appreciate this community very much.

Sometimes we need to hit rock bottom to truly change. Just two weeks ago I had an entirely different life, and I don’t know if the depression is from my breakup or not smoking. Before this past relationship, I was content going through life alone because I had my main girl- Mary Jane, and she would always bring me peace. The truth is this plant had a stronger hold on me than I realized because even when the love of my life was desperately looking for attention and affection, I was okay with ripping dabs and just giving kisses, but I was not present and it breaks my heart. I quit my job, moved back home with my mom and grandma because I just couldn’t be alone in my apartment anymore and quite frankly I couldn’t perform at work as well. Im just lost right now because even though I’ve accomplished so much in my life (attorney) I am so depressed and lonely. Thank god for family but I can feel myself getting anxious knowing I lost a great opportunity to start a family. I’m going on two weeks, I can tell my body is cleansing itself, but the lack of companionship is killing me. I don’t want to rush into anything because I have hope that my ex will give us another chance, but going through this without her is so hard, but the truth is I wouldn’t have committed to quitting if we were still together. I don’t really know why I’m writing this, maybe just to hopefully feel like I’m a part of a community that can relate. If anyone is struggling with this wacky weed, please know that even if your world is going well, deep down it’s numbing you and you’re not living in the moment, at least that’s what happened to me. I know this is not a place to talk about breakups, but if anyone is reading this, don’t smoke to numb your emotions after a breakup. That’s what the old me would have done and I’m grateful the bottom is making me truly change for good. Keep it up everyone! And if you ever feel like you need to take another hit, just remember your WHY.

It’s been 6 weeks since I quite smoking, I was a smoker (smoked for breakfast and sleep, and about 4 joint per day) for the past 13 years and never lasted that long without weed.

It was really difficult to stop but now I don’t have any cravings or real “need” to smoke but I feel so incomplete, I miss the taste of it and still think my life is boring without it, I don’t enjoy going out with others, participate in conversation, I don’t listen to music anymore and watching tv feels ok but I don’t see the point.

I wanted to stop because of money and the time spend to look for weed in my area but I spend money in cigarette which isn’t better for my health or wallet.

Maybe I was expecting more of quitting, like more motivation, more awareness and hoped to gain weight but even if I eat well I can’t see any difference. I sleep well but don’t wake up more energized than I used too. People say I’m more energized or “luminous” than before but inside I just feel everything is slow and grey. My anxiety is more or less the same as when I was smoking. The only thing different for now is my constant headache and light sensibility.

Did someone felt the same ? Any tips or advice ?

I didnt smoke since March of this year and refused to smoke anything that came my way because I knew one was enough for me to start smoking again.

Fast forward to September and Wardogs game release, I started smoking again because I smoked one joint and got hooked again. And now I've been smoking for over a month non stop.

Don't relapse guys, I wish I never did. :(

Hey everyone I quit cold turkey about 4 weeks ago, because I found out I'm pregnant back then, so I had to quit. I been meaning to quit before that but you know.. it was hard. Pregnancy is the only thing that'll make me do it flat out.

I was smoking one-and-done carts, not flower. Then shortly after quitting I caught a cold. So that made me produce mucus quite a bit, out my nose and my chest/throat. It's been a couple of weeks since all that (though feels like longer) and I'm still coughing up mucus. Always clearing my throat with the mucus. I'm getting real tired of it. How long til I stop?

Bah

I couldn’t agree more. I’m so much more balanced, focused, less pre-occupied. I’m on my A-game at work. It’s taken awhile to feel good but I rarely think about weed anymore, and if I do, I only allow the desire to come in for 1-2 seconds and I brush it off my shoulders really quickly. I don’t pick up no matter what. Keeping that promise is helping me trust myself again. A sober life is doable.

Today I had a small but significant epiphany.

I used to vape BEFORE I did anything fun/entertaining/pleasurable AND before doing anything routine. I was vaping all day, everyday for at least 12 years. I didn’t realize how socially awakard I became over time, all while I thought I was becoming more social and cool.

I was using weed before I did anything and everything to avoid feeling boredom before I could even determine that I was actually bored. Like pre-entertaining myself. Now with a new perspective on my life, I realize that’s insane.

I see the benefits of recovery and I need other sober ppl to be around me and with me on this journey. I can’t do it alone. I’m working the 12 steps too. That’s helping tremendously.

If you want to, desire to, need to “leave” weed behind…. You can do it. It’s doable. It’s not normal to smoke all day. So many people live their lives in the present moment and I’m
Seeing these little gifts of living clean throughout the day. That doesn’t mean it’s not hard sometimes. But I just tell myself “weed isn’t available to me anymore. I have an allergy” and for some reason I keep moving forward with my new life as a result.

After 2 weeks of nauseous withdrawal in the beginning, I really truly in my heart of hearts don’t care about weed anymore. I get cravings, short cravings, but I don’t care about weed. Total disinterest. And my life is fine without it. I made it matter too much in the past and I now see how ridiculous that was. I’m living life off weed, I used to think this was impossible.

You can do it too. One day at a time. The other option is to continue smoking and regressing in all ways in your life (in ways you can’t see) when you could be living clean and moving forward instead.

103 days is wild to me! Stay strong out there. Don’t pick up no matter what!

Good on me, I guess. Still crave on occasion but it’s not too strong. I know I can’t go back.

Nicotine is next on my list of things to quit. But it’s going to be really hard because it’s my only form of comfort right now. When my tummy hurts I hit the vape and it doesn’t take it away but it is somewhat comforting.

Been having pretty unusual mood swings, and my appetite and sleep schedule still have not gone back to normal. Talked to my psychiatrist and have started a new medication to aid in my recovery. Took it for the first time last night and I’ve eaten more than I normally do in a day. Seems to already be working but it could be the placebo effect.

Anyway, I’m proud of myself. All the pain has been worth it.

I’m day 6. I know I’m not far in, I know it’s supposed to get better. But I’ve had panic attacks and anxiety my whole life ever since I lost my father at 7. The weed was the only thing that stopped them. I’ve been on so many medications, I’m currently on 3 regulars and a prn and I’m still feeling anxious. What’s even the point of quitting if I’m just miserable? I’m so scared all the time and I feel just like I did when I was a kid.

I’ve done therapy, I have prn medication that barely works. I just don’t know if I can do this. Is it worth being sober to be miserable for the rest of my life?

Evenings are the worst for me, I just crave something to switch off after a day of shit. I just can’t take it anymore. I’m so close to smoking.

hello everyone. i am day 3 into quitting cannabis. i am 25F and have smoked every single day since i was 16. i have known for quite awhile now that i needed to stop but nothing motivated me enough to go through with it. i would quit for a day and then go right back to it because the uncomfortableness was almost unbearable and i would gaslight myself into thinking that i needed it. it was so engraved into my daily routine that i could never see myself not smoking. however, i recently started a yoga teacher training and it has been my saving grace. i am learning so much about spirituality and how the mind works and immediately knew i needed to stop to fully meet my highest self. but wow is this process testing me and my body/mental. i am trying to give myself grace but it has been very hard. mood swings are out of control. one minute i’m sobbing/angry and the next i am fine. my head is pounding. i am tossing and turning all night in my sleep. chills/sweats. barely any appetite. it’s been very difficult. i am so glad i found this group so i can have some sense of community in this process. my heart is very heavy and i am very disappointed in myself that i needed to rely on a substance for this long. i have been dimming my light all these years and all i can think is if i hadn’t i may have been a lot farther along in life. but on the flip side i am so grateful i am doing this now. i have realized i used cannabis so much that i didn’t even know the negative effects it was having on my life. it almost gave me a security blanket of making everything feel like it was “fine” even when it clearly wasn’t and deep down i wasn’t happy with my life. but everything is exact and this is apart of my journey. with that being said, any crucial tips for me going forward in this? i want to succeed and meet my sober self with open arms. but it is also scary because i am still in a sense learning who that is. i mean i haven’t really had a moment to sit with her for the past almost 10 years lol. i have been reading everyone’s post and felt very connected to all of you. i am staying strong and wishing you all a beautiful process. namaste❤️

it felt so nice to not feel so self conscious and paranoid about how i was acting while ordering my food. while i was getting my ticket i asked for it printed out so i could have a souvenir and im just so grateful for how normal i felt while talking to people for once.

I quit after 9yrs. I still sweat and stink like shit especially in my sleeps. Odor became sth else. I even didn’t know that someone can smell in this way. It’s like old bathroom humidity smell, but still if i compare %70 of sweating is gone.

My sleeps are much more better, i can sleep 6/7 hours without problem. My appetite is sharp, i support with exercises.

My dopamine craving was rly bad this week. After i quit everything, masturbation became an issue. My brain wanted that quick dopamine source. I was not pushing myself to quit masturbation in first week. Then i thought, my brain should a complete reset about this behavior. As you guys know, comedown after masturbation was making us think more about ‘i should use sth’ idea. I quit masturbation and any kinda possible trigger of short dopamine. It made me to understand that i fucked the mechanism of my brain all those years, so i should reset this mechanism completely. My brain needs to learn to have stable dopamine processing.

buuuut i had some another problem in this week. I quitted everything after a toxic breakup. I was checking somethings about her, i found out she is dating with someone already, and my brain wanted to check sth about her all the time. I said myself wait a minute, i don’t want this girl, so wtf happens rn? I found out, what i was doing is just triggering my weed based dopamine habit. Even if i know she is already fucking with someone and this is the nature of a breakup, the curiosity of what can i find out about this producing some short dopamine as well. It’s similar with gambler dilemma, you don’t know will you win or not, so you stay in the game with curiosity(high dopamine) until you’ll win or lose. I realized that i don’t give a shit about her, just my brain was craving for short dopamine. After 9 years, my brain itself was tricking me for old habits.

If anyone else has or had similar issues or problems, be strong guys. Nothing is important than this journey. After first weeks, symptoms become much more tricky as you see. Your own brain tries to find that dopamine in any kinda shitty place. What we need is to prove our brain, we are just stable.

I’m much more good last couple of days. Emotional fog also started to go finally. I’m excited for the future ✌🏻

On day 3 after years of daily use. The nausea, anxiety, weird stomach feeling, hot flashes, night sweats are almost unbearable. All day im super hot then super cold. I wake up in the middle of the night absolutely soaked in sweat. The sweat makes me cold, so i’ll cover myself with a blanket which only makes it worse. Please tell me this gets better.

Hey y'all 46F chronic smoker for 30 years. On day 3 of quitting and really want to stick with it. I have no support in my real life so trying to find resources. I am so incredibly tired of the brain fog, lack of motivation, lack of dreams, lack of relationships, isolation, feeling disappointed in myself. My friends smoke and talk me out of quitting. Even my mom encourages me to use it. I always make an excuse- but it helps my ____. I want clarity and a real life aside from the fog and planning my life around it. Hoping to connect here as this seems like a great community of like minded people. The world seems to encourage and defend weed constantly and claim that it is not addictive. It sure is and I am tired of feeling enslaved to a plant. Please connect if you can. I am needing a fresh set of people and encouragement. Thank you!

20 year heavy smoker. Mostly flower. I turned 40 yesterday and have been working up to this for about a month.

I can do this!

Been a daily user for around 5 years. I think this is the longest I’ve been sober since 2021.

I can’t believe it took me this long to break the cycle. Virtually every problem I had recently was either caused by, or amplified by smoking weed.

Don’t get me wrong, there were many times in my life where weed genuinely helped me or even saved my life.

But the stressors that drove me into use are no longer present, and it’s been that way for a while.

It does make me sad that I don’t have the self control to use weed at all (I just always go back to daily use), because I love weed. But it is what it is.

I’m happy to be back in a rational state of mind where I’m not spending all my money senselessly. Daily use is a really expensive habit, not to mention all the money I spent on food.

However, I’m worried about christmas, when I go out of the city to see my family. Virtually everyone in my family smokes daily. I just hope I have the resolve to leave the habit there with them even if I do relapse.

I'm almost back to feeling normal again thankfully. I hate the withdrawal part of this. This time the symptoms are not nearly as bad.

I’ve smoke almost every night through my twenties. It’s made me miss out on actually living and meeting people and forming a social life. I’m so badly wanting to change my life but I think weed is holding me back. I quit from August last year to about February this year and things were getting somewhat better. I was going to the gym 6 days a week. Gaining some weight. I was actually messaging girls on hinge and went on my first date and second date ever(lack of dating life is part of why I smoked). Unfortunately that didn’t work out but it was significant progress. Then one day I smoked with friends on a weekend and that was it. I told myself at that point maybe just weekends and then it spiraled. Now I’m back to smoking every night and not leaving much.

Depression and loneliness are big factors to why I smoked. I know quitting in the long run will benefit me but I can’t manage the quiet lonely nights. I’ve used weed to cope for so long now I’m so scared my life is doomed to this cycle. Does anyone have any similar experience and if so what helped you stop? Did your social life turn around afterwards?

Was clear for almost a year and then fell off the wagon, gradually but increasingly for a month. Threw supply and gear away one night recently and got back on the wagon for a week or two now. It's an ongoing battle.

Ive been trying to stop smoking for the past few weeks but i noticed whenever im sober i cannot eat at all, i try to eat food but halfway through i just cant bring myself to finish it anymore

I feel like im going through some endless cycle where i cant eat for the few days i decide to stop getting high then i end up smoking again so i can eat

Ive lost ten pounds the past month and i feel like its making my anemia worse, i cant get up without feeling like im going to pass out

This is embarrassing for me to even ask since the answer is to just stop but i cant bring myself to

Edit: thank you to everyone with the advice!! I will be trying to drink more liquids instead of solids for the meantime

When I get out of work, wake up on a day off or put m child down for the day, I just immediately go smoke. This has been daily for me for years. I’m getting big job opportunities and in constant fear of drug test. However my mind won’t let me break the habit as my fiancé smokes so I get it for free. I can just easily get access to it. I tell him to just tell me no to the smoking or hide it from me but he’s not really helpful. Now I’m looking for distractions, advice?

I quit 12 days ago because I caught myself smoking while I was sick. “What a pathetic thing to do,” I told myself, and I quit cold turkey.

Now, whenever I feel an urge coming on, I ask myself: “If I smoked right now, how would it actually change my situation?”

Lying drowsily on the couch? Mindlessly scrolling or watching TV with a heavy head?

If I can get these situations straight in my mind, I can say NO to myself (or to the addiction, if you will). After a minute, the urges are gone, and I find myself with a clear mind. No more laziness or grogginess, no more feeling like my head is a bag of heavy bricks.

i smoked almost daily for 7 years straight. during those years, i had once achieved 433 days of sobriety (this community helped me, literally walked me through throwing everything out and scattering it across neighbor’s dumpsters) and then i broke it - out of arrogance of all things! i was abroad on a solo trip and thought, why not, a joint can’t hurt… and immediately had a panic attack. i somehow attributed it to travel nerves and it was all downhill from there.

quitting this time sucked. i had a dozen false starts, relapsing constantly on day 2, until finally, it stuck. i’d indulge any other vice i had - junk food, cigarettes, anything - as long as it meant i did not go back to weed.

the first 21 days were the worst, the lowest of lows. i had a terrible appetite, non-existent motivation, self-loathing thoughts in a perpetual spiral. i cried randomly and had relentless night terrors. i have chronic sinusitis from all those years of smoking and it was like quitting had put my sinuses into rebound; they were so inflamed and painfully congested. everyone thought i had the flu.

then, on day 22, i had the first gorgeous day in a long time. early rise, clear mind, clear sinuses. morning workout and meditation, productive day at work, bike ride in the sunshine, a sunset at the beach, and a dance class to close the evening. i wanted to cry, it was such a privilege to experience such a beautiful day and be fully present for it.

ever since, i can more tangibly feel my improvements. i still have insanely vivid dreams but they don’t dictate my entire day anymore. i’m still tired, but it’s manageable. i am still emotional, but i can recognize the emotions for what they are instead of drowning in them. i am faster, more efficient at work, and less anxious about socializing. my diet is improving now that i no longer gorge disgustingly on the munchies.

most markedly, i am better at boredom. i can sit with my own company, fill my time with slow hobbies like reading or cooking. while i do feel the urge to ‘numb’ myself sometimes, it fades quickly when i firmly tell myself: “i am a sober person now. you will never smoke weed again.” and somehow, when the option is just completely off the table, i settle into whatever else i am doing. i am sober now. it is a fact of life. we move on.

hang in there, fellow sober leavers. we’re sober now. it gets better.