I want to stop but I find it hard

We start smoking dope for different reasons and likewise the reasons for wanting to stop can be quite varied but usually on some level we understand that our intake has got out of control and is doing us more harm than good.

Ironically the time when we feel most willing and able to stop is when we are stoned and out of our heads but so often the next day we are back to reality again craving a smoke just to feel …. normal to get through the day.

Neither scientists, doctors or drug experts can seem to agree as to whether cannabis is a physically addictive substance although a 2003 United Nations report examining whether cannabis is a harmless drug noted that ‘cannabis meets all the official diagnostic criteria for drug dependence. Criteria include tolerance, withdrawal symptons and difficulty in controlling use… Once tolerance is established stopping the drug causes a range of withdrawal symptoms. These symptons include anxiety, insomia, tremor, irritability and aggressiveness…’

Some people stopping using cannabis will experience some, or all of the above symptons but every individual is different.

Many drug experts lean toward the dope is just psychologically addictive theory, but what does that mean? My personal experience was that quite honestly I was scared to stop.

I wasn’t smoking to get high anymore I was smoking just to keep a straight head to feel normal; Of course I was fearful of stopping! smoking dope to me was as much a natural part of my life as eating and sleeping. I told myself that if I stopped smoking dope everything else would fall apart.

So whether psychologically addictive, or physically addictive most peoples minds and bodies go through an uncomfortable adjustment period when they stop using dope.

A friend of mine Joan put it well when she said that she used dope to help her as an effective pain reliever for her period pains and to help her get a good nights sleep, on the other hand she increasingly suffered from side effects such as paranoia & anxiety attacks and was really concerned about the effect smoking dope was having on her lungs. When it came down to it smoking dope was the easy solution for Joan’s problems but the side effects increasingly came to dominate the rest of her life. It took guts for her to look elsewhere for safer, drug free alternative solutions to her problems but she found them.

Joan like so many dope smokers was torn between a desire to stop and the reality of actually stopping, every individual in this situation has to think very carefully about what is truly important to them in their lives what their priorities are, when the motivation for stopping finally outweighs the fear of doing so, you are ready to finally stop using dope and move on.