Have anyone been addicted to weed and managed to have a healthy relationship with it?

[paradiseengineering]

Hi! I have been smoking weed for 12 years and for me its the most addictive substance i´ve ever tried. I had to stop completely because moderation rarely worked for me. I wonder if anyone here have had an addiction to it and managed to develop a healthy relationship with it after a period of abstinence? If so, what worked for you? I know everyone is different. Im not sure if ill ever go back to it, Im just curious.

[Leo Gura]

Just replace it with DMT.

[Peo]

Well for me what worked was reading a book called Atomic habits by James Clear and applying his principles to break habits. 

I made a deal with my brother who also smokes a lot of weed. He would roll a joint for me, but I would have to go to his place to pick it up. Since I don’t have weed in my house and I would have to use his weed to smoke, it made me smoke less since I can’t bother going there everyday to pick it up. 

Also I never smoke in the middle of the day. I only smoked a few hours before going to bed, so I can wake up sober. 

Pro tip: don't have weed in your house, it is too easy to access and be tempted. 

Also if you can’t do moderation by yourself try getting an accountability partner, like the deal I made with my brother. If you have a partner, maybe you can ask her/he to hide the weed from you so they can control your weed use. 

[pursuitofspirit]

1 hour ago, paradiseengineering said:

Hi! I have been smoking weed for 12 years and for me its the most addictive substance i´ve ever tried. I had to stop completely because moderation rarely worked for me. I wonder if anyone here have had an addiction to it and managed to develop a healthy relationship with it after a period of abstinence? If so, what worked for you? I know everyone is different. Im not sure if ill ever go back to it, Im just curious.

I was never able to moderate so I quit completely. 6 months sober from weed and its one of the best decisions I've ever made. Way more stable energy / emotions. 

[Infinite Tsukuyomi]

1 hour ago, paradiseengineering said:

Hi! I have been smoking weed for 12 years and for me its the most addictive substance i´ve ever tried. I had to stop completely because moderation rarely worked for me. I wonder if anyone here have had an addiction to it and managed to develop a healthy relationship with it after a period of abstinence? If so, what worked for you? I know everyone is different. Im not sure if ill ever go back to it, Im just curious.

If you do 5-MeO even once then more than likely weed will behave similarly from that point forward. It does for me. Try that. Nothing like cosmic horror to get you put your weed down. Or maybe that'll make you want it more idk. 
I used to only do it at night, enjoy some creativity and be done. 

[Bogdan]

My period of addiction to it was about 10 years.

I am currently almost 8 months sober from it.

During these 10 years I tried quitting dozens, perhaps hundreds of times.

A few times I managed to go 3-4 months without it, and I had many, many attempts that lasted weeks and even more that lasted days.

What finally shifted my mindset was a combination of many things...

One of the most important pieces of advice for me was that if you've been a long term addict, do not delude yourself that you "beat" the addiction after only a few months. Not even after a year or two. Just accept that you'll gonna probably have to go quite a few years, and potentially for the rest of your life without it.

I realized that for me personally, sobriety has to become my single priority. Total focus. If that's not in place, then everything else is just fantasy.

There are also many other crucial mindset stuff like that that have helped and continue to help me go through the difficult, and also the stimulating parts of life, sober. I highly, highly recommend the channel Addiction Mindset for this.

But ultimately, what Leo keeps repeating to us rings true - when the pain is big enough, you'll change.

Last year this pain finally became way too much. Even though it was pretty bad for years before that!

It became so painful - couldn't believe how it's as if for years I was asleep to just how addicted I was. I was completely deluded, drowning in fantasies, beliefs etc.

It was shocking to realize that I'm living like a miserable, lazy, deluded, narcissistic, unconscious addict!

I started realizing that I'm in real danger of totally wasting my entire life.

And so after a few months of fiercely searching for the information/help that I specifically need, i finally gathered all the tools, that combined with a certain painful and scary experience, allowed me to step into this completely different era of my life.

Also it took 10 years of Actualized for me to finally see how I am being a textbook zen-devil, falling in every trap possible.

While fantasizing of becoming one of Leo's best students, I was IN TRUTH making a mockery of this work.

My last 5-10 years were spent half-assing meditation, contemplation, pickup, career, business, sobriety, learning, having new experiences, psychedelics... I was destroying my health...

And poof, I'm 30 now.

That's one of the main dangers of weed.

But at I am SO GLAD that now I can see the truth of my foolishness.

Truth is worth all the pain.

I also have compassion for myself, and i understand why my sad Romanian ass had to go through all of this. It is ultimately so Beautiful and Perfect!

I am putting Truth at the top of my values as best as I can. I credit my (currently still unimpressive) breakthrough into sobriety to valuing Truth. I will continue doing so and I will see where that leads me.

I wish you good luck, and may you break free from the chains of addiction!

[Yimpa]

When you start singing, “Weed all the World, Weed all the Children”, you have taken too much. 

[Ramasta9]

Yes I consumed weed from 13 on and off all my life. Nowadays i have a very healthy relationship with the medicine. And it all changed after I started to source my own seeds, grow my own medicine like i was raising my own children with love and care and taught me a deep connection to nature and the universe and about the same time i had a spiritual awakening so it all landed hand in hand.

The medicine then was only smoked with spiritual intention and purpose of healing so it was more profound experience than any street weed i ever had and i would soften sit in my garden and reflect on life or clean and reorganize my whole house / space i shared with my mum and sister and got really creative ideas to get my life together.

Growing and consuming my own creation helped me reduce intake significantly from daily use, sometimes multiple times a day to 3 - 4 times a week, to 1 - 2 times a week, to 2 - 4 times a month, to once in a blue moon, now its very random and more for ceremonial, healing, supportive and spiritual / medicinal purposes so the routine and rhythm is gone but the dance continues in its own unique way.

I never quit because i don't believe quitting helps, i tried quitting many times but that only leads to relapse when in some situations life puts me in, its actually more helpful than not, and if i am not touching it due to quit, it can somewhat interfere with the natural process and unfoldment of my life story and path, rather, letting go and letting be seems to align best for me and not "quitting things" per se, and it naturally falls off when its no longer needed.

Like all psychedelics, i find it very useful to integrate the sober life experience, and vice versa. Sometimes after i book or a phase of doing or practicing something and not having weed for a while, when i have the medicine it all becomes compiled and amplified and understood in one powerful session. All that i learned, absorbed, becomes the AH-HA i needed.

Its like this for all psychedelics for me, the psychedelic helps integrate the sober experience and the sober experience helps integrate the psychedelic. Its a dance. It also depends on your lifestyle, environment, situation in life, sometimes its no longer useful, sometimes it helps a lot.

When i am in nature in a peaceful and supportive environment, i lose the need for it, when i am in the city with general stresses, it can help a lot. I also notice when i am eating denser and lighter changes the way we require different things / medicines / needs.

Edited 39 minutes ago by Ramasta9