Cutting WAY down on my pot use

[philosophin]

So, starting next week, I will go from smoking pot every evening and on weekends to weekends only (Friday nights and Saturdays).

It is hard to overstate just how big of a change this will be for me.  I have been a daily smoker for about three years now.  I am *hugely* psychologically dependent on weed.  It brightens my mood in the evenings, giving me a more positive, go-with-the-flow attitude.  The idea of facing most evenings sober distresses me...getting through just the day sober is enough of a struggle and I look forward to the relief that weed brings.  But it's time for me to stop using weed as a crutch.

I'm already planning on seeing my tdoc twice next week, because she gets how big a deal this is for me and wants to make sure my skills toolbox is as prepped as it can be.  I was just wondering if anyone here has done anything similar because I'd be interested to hear about your experiences and how you coped.

[dancesintherain]

So I haven't really been there (plenty of other issues, but haven't hit this one at this point...), but the one thing I was wondering from reading about your decision was whether there was anything in particular that motivated you to make the decision to do it now.  If there was a particular reason, would it possibly help if you wrote that somewhere so that you can look back on it or gave yourself some sticky notes to remind you about it or anything along that line?  The thing that made me think it might be the case was just that you seem very motivated to make the change and you're doing a great job of gathering the extra support of your tdoc, writing here, etc.  So kind of like how having something that documents life when you're not depressed might help someone hang in there when experiencing it (or at least it does for me), who knows. 

I realize that doesn't get at the underlying issue of how to face the evening sober and hopefully others might have ideas on that front.  

[philosophin]

5 hours ago, dancesintherain said:

So I haven't really been there (plenty of other issues, but haven't hit this one at this point...), but the one thing I was wondering from reading about your decision was whether there was anything in particular that motivated you to make the decision to do it now.  If there was a particular reason, would it possibly help if you wrote that somewhere so that you can look back on it or gave yourself some sticky notes to remind you about it or anything along that line?  

Two reasons:

1. Hubby smokes too but feels that the daily smoking is affecting his performance at work, so wants to cut back to weekends only.  I want to support him in that. 

2. I'm starting to look for jobs, and want to be able to test clean in a reasonable period of time, just in case I apply to a job that tests.  I know that it would take at *least* 12 days to test negative if I were smoking on a daily basis like I am now--in other words, I would definitely fail a drug test.  Weekend-only smoking is a huge step in the direction of my ultimate goal (total abstention, at least while job searching), and at least I'd have a shot at passing a drug test, provided I could put it off long enough.  (If I applied to a place that I *knew* for sure tested, and really wanted the job, I would just stop smoking completely as soon as I applied.)

 

 

[WinterRosie]

Can I add another reason?

As you're becoming more skillful with your DBT you may find that your ability to tolerate distress grows and that you're more effective at self-soothing. If you're using weed to self-medicate the distress and to self-soothe (and many folks do) then, as you become increasingly skillful, you'll have less need to self-medicate.

[water]

A few helpful tips:

1. Stay away from friends/family who smoke. No parties for a while. It is WONDERFUL you are doing this with your partner. Much much harder to do if temptation is everywhere.

2. Remember this line:

The urge to smoke will stop whether you choose to smoke or not.

Designed to help with stopping cigarette smoking but works just as well with pot. Wait out the urges. They will go away. Every day they will get fewer and farther between.

3. When you DO get an urge, are you feeling happy? Fear? Love? Anger? Figure out what triggers your urges. Keep a log, a journal. Start a blog here to talk about the urges. 

4. Be Very Mindful. That critical voice will say, "oh, it's ok, just this once, only a little, why does it matter?" and blah blah blah. Stamp out the voice that sabotages.

5. Write down the worst experience you ever had stoned on an index card. Read that when you get an urge you can't refuse.

6. You are cutting down, not quitting. THis is a harm reduction method. Works very well for some people, others are better off quitting altogether. My fear is that smoking on the weekends will make it even harder every week.  YOu will not get the drug totally out of your body to see how you do without ANY. If you can, quit altogether for 3-6 months minimum. THEN after that achievement, do it only the weekends.  When I stop I get very irritable and emotional. Smoking only on weekends never worked for me. I would quit altogether for a period of time.  If this is not possible, then only use a vaporizer. Better for your lungs and not as strong.

7. DRink drink drink water and orange juice. YOu need the vitamin C and water is what flushes THC out of your body.

8. Once you decide the plan and one day when you BREAK the plan, take a deep breath, and start again. It does NOT mean you have to start smoking again everyday.

 

It is very important to feel your body, mind and spirit not stoned. To understand how this drug affects you. The only way this will happen is if you guys clean out for a week or two first before starting up the weekend bit. I cannot emphasize enough the difference between being really clean and just cutting out a few joints a week. It sounds like you really do want to cut back. Let yourself dry out first. 

[philosophin]

9 hours ago, WinterRosie said:

Can I add another reason?

As you're becoming more skillful with your DBT you may find that your ability to tolerate distress grows and that you're more effective at self-soothing. If you're using weed to self-medicate the distress and to self-soothe (and many folks do) then, as you become increasingly skillful, you'll have less need to self-medicate.

This is a GREAT reason!  I have the feeling I'm going to become more skillful really quickly once I cut back    I'm pretty sure my first session with tdoc next week is going to be about the skills I'm going to use to cope with my emotions now that I can't rely on pot every night.  Thank goodness I've already done the distress tolerance module in group!

29 minutes ago, water said:

A few helpful tips:

1. Stay away from friends/family who smoke. No parties for a while. It is WONDERFUL you are doing this with your partner. Much much harder to do if temptation is everywhere.

2. Remember this line:

The urge to smoke will stop whether you choose to smoke or not.

Designed to help with stopping cigarette smoking but works just as well with pot. Wait out the urges. They will go away. Every day they will get fewer and farther between.

3. When you DO get an urge, are you feeling happy? Fear? Love? Anger? Figure out what triggers your urges. Keep a log, a journal. Start a blog here to talk about the urges. 

4. Be Very Mindful. That critical voice will say, "oh, it's ok, just this once, only a little, why does it matter?" and blah blah blah. Stamp out the voice that sabotages.

5. Write down the worst experience you ever had stoned on an index card. Read that when you get an urge you can't refuse.

6. You are cutting down, not quitting. THis is a harm reduction method. Works very well for some people, others are better off quitting altogether. My fear is that smoking on the weekends will make it even harder every week.  YOu will not get the drug totally out of your body to see how you do without ANY. If you can, quit altogether for 3-6 months minimum. THEN after that achievement, do it only the weekends.  When I stop I get very irritable and emotional. Smoking only on weekends never worked for me. I would quit altogether for a period of time.  If this is not possible, then only use a vaporizer. Better for your lungs and not as strong.

7. DRink drink drink water and orange juice. YOu need the vitamin C and water is what flushes THC out of your body.

8. Once you decide the plan and one day when you BREAK the plan, take a deep breath, and start again. It does NOT mean you have to start smoking again everyday.

 

It is very important to feel your body, mind and spirit not stoned. To understand how this drug affects you. The only way this will happen is if you guys clean out for a week or two first before starting up the weekend bit. I cannot emphasize enough the difference between being really clean and just cutting out a few joints a week. It sounds like you really do want to cut back. Let yourself dry out first. 

This is great, thank you.

I already mostly consume through vaping.  I agree that stopping altogether would probably be ideal, and if the weekends only plan doesn't work out, that is definitely my next step.  I'd like to at least give it a shot, though, and see how it goes. 

Thanks to everyone who has responded, I really appreciate it.

[Wooster]

Also, just a heads up that when people substantially reduce or stop pot, they can have a spike in anxiety that usually goes away around 3-4 weeks. So don't be surprised if that happens and know that it will get better.

[philosophin]

13 hours ago, Wooster said:

Also, just a heads up that when people substantially reduce or stop pot, they can have a spike in anxiety that usually goes away around 3-4 weeks. So don't be surprised if that happens and know that it will get better.

Thanks for the heads up.  I'm already experiencing increased anxiety, possibly from cutting down on alcohol, so...yay?    Thank goodness pdoc hasn't tried to get me off Xanax yet, definitely not the right time for that.

[philosophin]

Well, I've pretty much given up on that idea (cutting way down) for now, and somewhat surprisingly, tdoc is okay with that.  My attempt to abstain for a workweek came to a crashing halt when, unable to turn to pot or booze, I thought cutting myself would be a good idea instead.  Ugh.  Tdoc feels I have enough on my plate right now without pressuring myself to cut out pot.  I'm disappointed in myself though.  It's not physically addictive so I don't really feel that I have an excuse for being so weak and not being able to stop.

:/

[ElectricFeel]

On 4/6/2016 at 2:07 AM, philosophin said:

Well, I've pretty much given up on that idea (cutting way down) for now, and somewhat surprisingly, tdoc is okay with that.  My attempt to abstain for a workweek came to a crashing halt when, unable to turn to pot or booze, I thought cutting myself would be a good idea instead.  Ugh.  Tdoc feels I have enough on my plate right now without pressuring myself to cut out pot.  I'm disappointed in myself though.  It's not physically addictive so I don't really feel that I have an excuse for being so weak and not being able to stop.

:/

You're not weak! It's hard to give up dependencies for anybody, much harder if you're struggling with other issues. Trying to go from smoking everyday to smoking two days a week takes a giant sh*tload of willpower and mental energy. My advice is to take it easy, try lowering the joints more slowly.

I was a heavy smoker for two years, started it to fight insomnia, ended up smoking all day everyday. Last year I decided I was going to cut it down, and basically what I did was smoking one or two less everyday. Just, you know, I was with my friends and when time was getting closer to call it a day, I'd just not smoke anymore. Like, an hour or so before bedtime or before going home. I didn't do that everytime, just when I was feeling ok and could handle it.

My other advice is to not buy it yourself, at least most of the time: for me, at least, it's made a huge difference. You don't own the pot, so you can't carry it anytime anywhere with you. Right now I smoke two to three times a week (mostly on weekends or holidays), but some weeks I smoke five or six days, if I'm feeling like crap it's easier to slip it. But I no longer feel the urge to smoke if I smell pot. It's more like "oh, I'd like that", not "omg I need to smoke that's so good" like before. But it took me like six months to get to that point, and it's still hard sometimes.

You shouldn't feel disappointed. It's hard enough to cope with emotional distress and shifting moods. One step at a time. Take care. ♥

[philosophin]

On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 3:05 AM, ElectricFeel said:

You're not weak! It's hard to give up dependencies for anybody, much harder if you're struggling with other issues. Trying to go from smoking everyday to smoking two days a week takes a giant sh*tload of willpower and mental energy. My advice is to take it easy, try lowering the joints more slowly.

I was a heavy smoker for two years, started it to fight insomnia, ended up smoking all day everyday. Last year I decided I was going to cut it down, and basically what I did was smoking one or two less everyday. Just, you know, I was with my friends and when time was getting closer to call it a day, I'd just not smoke anymore. Like, an hour or so before bedtime or before going home. I didn't do that everytime, just when I was feeling ok and could handle it.

My other advice is to not buy it yourself, at least most of the time: for me, at least, it's made a huge difference. You don't own the pot, so you can't carry it anytime anywhere with you. Right now I smoke two to three times a week (mostly on weekends or holidays), but some weeks I smoke five or six days, if I'm feeling like crap it's easier to slip it. But I no longer feel the urge to smoke if I smell pot. It's more like "oh, I'd like that", not "omg I need to smoke that's so good" like before. But it took me like six months to get to that point, and it's still hard sometimes.

You shouldn't feel disappointed. It's hard enough to cope with emotional distress and shifting moods. One step at a time. Take care. ♥

Thank you for the words of wisdom/support.  I guess one thing that is making it difficult is trying to even quantify how much I smoke in the first place.  I usually use a vaporizer so it can take multiple long sessions to finish one bowl, making it really difficult/impossible to remember how many bowls I've smoked.  Thankfully I've at least gotten past the all day, everyday smoking...

[philosophin]

Well I might have to quit altogether, at least for a while, because I am thinking of applying to a couple places that I know drug test.  This could be a good thing for me.  Help me get a clearer picture of my mental state without living in a haze of pot smoke.  Anyone who says pot isn't psychologically addictive (for some people, at least) has no clue wtf they are talking about.

[philosophin]

I'm on day 4 of no pot, and the emotions are raw and intense.  Guess that's bound to happen when you've been blunting (pun fully intended, lol) your emotions with weed 12 hours a day for years on end.  Plus my pdoc is trying to rip me off Xanax over a grand total of...2 weeks.  Yes, she is trying to do a 2-week taper of a drug I've been taking for over 10 years.  Talk about shitty timing.

[jt07]

3 hours ago, philosophin said:

I'm on day 4 of no pot, and the emotions are raw and intense.  Guess that's bound to happen when you've been blunting (pun fully intended, lol) your emotions with weed 12 hours a day for years on end.  Plus my pdoc is trying to rip me off Xanax over a grand total of...2 weeks.  Yes, she is trying to do a 2-week taper of a drug I've been taking for over 10 years.  Talk about shitty timing.

Good for you and congratulations for making the leap! Not sure what to say about your pdoc though.

[philosophin]

God this sucks balls...stopping pot has caused me swing between rage, severe anxiety, and suicidal depression.  My husband says this happens every time I stop smoking.  So once this hell is over I hope to stay off the mj for quite some time.

[ElectricFeel]

On 11/8/2016 at 3:34 AM, philosophin said:

God this sucks balls...stopping pot has caused me swing between rage, severe anxiety, and suicidal depression.  My husband says this happens every time I stop smoking.  So once this hell is over I hope to stay off the mj for quite some time.

You go girl! Side effects are awful, but it's for the best.

If you can, try meditation and yoga, and/or working out. I have an app for meditation (http://www.1giantmind.org/). Though I don't specially enjoy this kind of meditation, after a month I've realised it does help me let go of feelings and release stress. I've also tried vipassana meditation, but I can only do it if I'm feeling allright, if not, I end up more stressed.

I work out at home when I'm so shaken up I can't meditate. I use https://www.fitnessblender.com/ they're great, the've been doing workout videos for years and have different videos for everyone. I usually have 10-15 minutes of warm up (cardio warm up), 1 hour/1 hour and a half of toning, and 1 hour or so of yoga and cool down. If I'm out and I start to feel anxious, I make a couple stretches and yoga poses, depending on the situation and people I'm with.

You're on the right track and you know it, so I cannot give any more advice on how to deal with swinging feelings (apart from the fact that those three things are basically what's keeping me from being totally depressed and acting on my ugly feelings). I hope you feel better soon.

[good_egg]

I empathize really strongly with your side effects. Up until recently I was a pretty heavy pot smoker and every time I would try to stop or take a break I would have really bad anxiety, rage, etc. This is in part due to the fact that the pot keeps my antidepressants and mood stabilizer from working as they should. I call it being emotionally constipated. As difficult as it is, you CAN do this. I found that a useful way of dealing with the negative emotions was to put a yoga mat down on the floor and every time I felt like I was spinning out of control, I would do 10 push-ups or crunches. It expels the excess energy. Keep busy as best you can, get out of the house and go for walks, and wait out those urges. They will go away. That voice in your head telling you that just a little won't hurt is lying to you. Tell that voice to fuck off and keep your eyes on the prize.

Good luck! I believe in you!

[monkeyshines]

https://www.reddit.com/r/leaves/?count=50&after=t3_54sg2p

That is an awesome forum on giving up weed. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

http://droginfo.com/pdf/guideuk.pdf

This is informative as well.

Edited September 29, 2016 by monkeyshines