Smoke Weed? Here is The Real Breakdown
If you happen to smoke weed every day then this can lead to serious drug addiction over the long term. Most people do not see much threat in doing so, because there are no withdrawal symptoms when you quit smoking weed suddenly, and therefore there is no real physical addiction to the drug. But smoking weed every day is a real sign of addiction, and it does not really matter much if the drug is physically addictive or not. The psychological addiction is extremely damaging in its own right. Let’s take a deeper look and see why smoking weed every day can be really unhealthy.
Smoke weed and you medicate your feelings
If you are smoking every day then at first you will probably just be doing so for recreation and to relax and have fun. But if you continue to do so on a regular basis then you are going to have days when you are dealing with feelings and then you smoke weed. Now these do not have to be huge, super intense, heavy feelings. They can be moderate or even minor feelings. You will of course have different feelings and emotions over time, just like anyone does, and have different emotional states on different days. This is perfectly normal of course, for anyone.
But if you are smoking weed on a regular basis, then you will inadvertently, even if you do not intend to do so, be medicating some of these feelings and emotions by covering them up with the high from the drug. When you smoke weed you do not have to feel your emotions. If you are frustrated, or angry, or sad, or hurt, you can get blasted with weed and get high and guess what? The feelings are medicated. Are the gone completely? Not usually. But they are drowned out enough that it is a similar effect to medicating your emotions with alcohol. The problem is that through everyday use, marijuana plants the idea in your head that you can simply get high and thus avoid dealing with emotions. This creates long term problems.
Smoke weed and you escape from reality
Now if you take this a step further, you will see that many people who smoke weed every day are also doing so in order to escape from reality. This is similar to the idea above about medicating feelings. In most cases, addicts who are dealing with stress will resort to their drug of choice in order to calm down and relax. Or they will use their drug as a way to deal with boredom. Instead of finding new and exciting things to engage them with, they will simply resort to their drug of choice and medicate themselves.
This type of living can have a real negative impact on your relationships. It really is an immature way to deal with reality and to deal with your feelings and your relationships. Instead of confronting other people and being real with them, you simply avoid them or get high whenever there are problems or issues. The addict will have a tendency to avoid the person or go find other people who will get high with them instead. No communication results from this and therefore no real growth is possible.
It is not so much that an addict confronted will stomp off and get high. Rather, the drug addict will self medicate, nearly every day, and choose to use that as a release instead of dealing with any emotions that might arise between them and other people. They will avoid the situation and fall back on their drug instead of grow through their differences and work things out.
If you have to smoke weed in order to have a good time
Now if you find that you have to smoke weed in order to have fun, then you really need to take a look at things and see what is going on in your life.
In most cases, when we first discover marijuana, it actually is a lot of fun at first. Later on in our addiction, we have to smoke and get high just to be in that state of mind and do things that we are used to doing when we are high. Let’s get high and go to the movies. Let’s get high and go see a concert. If you are not high, then doing those things will seem like a bit of a let down, because you are not even in your “normal” state anymore. You have to get high just to enjoy things at this point. Thus, marijuana seeds your destruction early on and it continues to grow.
Do not confuse this with the idea that getting high is fun. At this point in your addiction, you have to get high just to have the opportunity to possibly have fun. There is a big difference there. Our denial clings to the past, which is when we could just smoke a bit of weed and it would be a blast, regardless of what we were doing. But later in our addiction, simply getting high is no longer enough. It takes a very self aware person to examine this state of addiction and see it for what it is and thus see past their denial.
If you are at that point then you might want to make some changes. Believe it or not, you can go back to a state of being where you can have fun without getting high first. Having to get high is just a crutch. It gets in your way.
You don’t need it.
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
You hit the nail on the head perfectly. Weed is a crutch. Humans are not intended to live an a artificial state of mind induced by a plant.
This is all true but some humans just smoke weed to relax.
real talk. almost everything you said was on point..
you gotta learn how to balance things out i think…
theres a time and a place for everything, sometimes its time to chill out and have fun and sometimes its time for action and elevation and if youre the type of person who gets lazy on weed then you might wanna put it down for a minute .
right now i dont smoke havent smoked for 2 months and imma wait until my studio is finished and im in a lil better shape until i fire one up again…but all that AA bullshit i dont fall for that
i did rehab just to make shit easier since it was free
but nothing they said made any sense and i couldnt relate to none of those people…i tried to keep to myself as much as i could and work out but they make you go to these pointless meetings with a bunch of squares and lames bitch about their problems and try to be comedians, so i bounced out after 3 weeks…
its diffrent…some people can smoke all the weed in the world and still function…like snoop for example and i can mention 5000 other succesful wake and bake smoke everyday people with no problems at all i guess its diffrent for diffrent people.
some people might say that yous a weak muthafucka for goin to rehab that they know heroin addicts that went cold turkey and shit like that and if theyre right or wrong.. i really dont know thats something to pholisophize on i think i can be weak at times but then again who dosent. i dont know….
but i do know what i want and i will make that work for me and all you AA fanatics can talk about relapses , “depression” and all that other frigilous shit. just my thought on it i hope that wasent too drawn out and unfocused, 2 months isnt easy. and everyday is a struggle especially when everybody smokes weed and all music is about weed youn see niggaz blazin in every other video now i cant even fuck wit worldstar anymore (lol just jokin)
but still..it kinda makes you feel like firing one up but i also know thats a distraction that i dont need right now. when its time to chill its time to chill but right now its time for action and to make shit happen.
I think this is a great post. I also think that the other comments are helpful as well, but I need to put in mine. I think I have a pretty good grasp on all this, maybe even more than the person that wrote this article. You can tell that the person who did write this article DID NOT smoke weed everyday, for a long period of time, or atlas that his view is pretty subjective. Lets take a look at another side… and I am going to be brutally honest. All you can do is learn from other people.
I have been smoking weed since sophomore of high school. I am now 21 years old. So that is like a solid 5 years. Everyday pretty much, once a day at least. Sometimes I would get sick and take like 5 days off or randomly take a day off. But pretty much, weed has been a top priority for some time now. And I am not starting to realize I don’t think its that healthy for me, RIGHT NOW. It was great in high school, and other times. It has opened doors for me, brought me to new experiences, and let alone the experience of smoking weed and the spiritual side. I have got so much out of it, I think it has opened my eyes to being a more caring person, also maybe more liberal. A lot of people I know that HAVE NEVER smoked weed or only smoked a couple times, are very conservative, cold, selfish, and uncaring. BUT, right now, I am starting to feel the affect of the pot. I really don’t think it makes me that lazy, even if it does, it gets made back up with the inspiration and creative ideas that I get from pot. BUT BUT BUT, on an emotional level, the guy who wrote this piece was RIGHT. It does cover up problems. I just started going to a therapist, and things that I didn’t think bothered me at all EVER, now when I talk about them I start to cry and realize there is pain there. So i think marijuana has just been a sort of “fog” over my feelings for the past 5 years, not letting me deal with them on my way. As this guy said, “self-medicating”…
Thats my story though. I have found it easy to cut down on the pot, but hard to kick it completely. I think if you haven’t tried pot, your nuts. Try it. Experience, or how else can you judge? I also think pot is an amazing herb, not a drug, that can be used medicinally in so many ways. Its also very spiritual. BUT, like anything, watching too much tv, working out too much, doing anything TOO MUCH, isn’t good. We should be out there exploring all the different things we can, meeting all the different people we can. Even SEX too much isn’t good, it takes you away from other things in your life. So just watch the marijuana intake…
-hope this helps some passionate, caring person, who needs a hand, with something not too serious to the body, but maybe to the soul.
It’s sad I’ve been married 11 yrs but the last 5 yrs I can’t believe my husband has been self medicating himself I’m glad I found this artcile it helped me out alot I’m going to let him go I just can’t seem to find him anymore hes here but his brain isn’tand I can’t take the yelling when he runs out thank you
What a very thoughtful person said about moderation. I went online to find some kind of answer in relation to how i should approach draw, as I’m, 17, and I don’t see myself quitting for good any time soon. That is the answer i’m looking for, as I’ll hear or read one thing saying weed is evil, and another saying it is beautiful, but it’s true, its definately will have positive effects on my life as long as I moderate it. Thanks
what the hall
I am a 19 year old male who has smoked marijuana on and off since 8th grade. I grew up in an urban area so of course drug use is a known subject. I smoked for the first time in the winter of 8th grade year and my mind was blown. I was confused, intrigued, and ofcourse…HIGH! I smoked regularly for the summer after and slowed down throughout 9th grade(maybe once a month.) In 10th grade I didn’t smoke whatsoever because of this girl. Then in 11th grade I started smoking again. My friends in a different city started smoking so it was just another thing to do with them. Then my senior year came around. I’d say it was probably my best year of high school and I started smoking at an increasing rate. It wasn’t that I needed more but I just liked smoking different strands, I liked the ritual with my friends (blunt cruises, bike rides, sneaking out of my friends parent’s houses, etc etc), and plus it allows me to think without a judging mind. This all leads me up to saying this. I do not believe weed is harmful, period. It all depends on who is using it. Since february of this year I have smoked on an everyday basis. I do have depression and anxiety and have taken prescribed medicine but the meds disagree with me and are proven to be more harmful than marijuana. The med I took was celexa and its effects were absolutely terrible. I found myself having more panic attacks, mood swings out the ass, terrible dreams, a foggy mind, etc etc. The worst side effect of all was the inability to reach an orgasm. Why the hell would they prescribe that to anyone!?!? I don’t self medicate but I do smoke atleast once a day. I wish the us govt would see that marijuana can be used to treat many problems such as anxiety and depression without any harmful side effects besides munchies and increased drowsiness. However due to another girl I am seeing I have to say farewell to my FIRST true love and her name is mary jane. Spark up!!!!
i think im ganna go get high
I’m fucking baked as right now, WEED is the bees fucking knees. Peace out fuckers.
I have been smoking pot for 3 years, i started when i was 13 and i am now 16… you can smoke weed and relax, you can smoke weed and forget your stress, or you can smoke and be lazy. People have been smoking weed for a LONG TIME, we have also been drinking alchol and using opiates for a long time, pot is just another drug, but it i a drug that allows much CLARITY and FOCUS. when you smoke pot, you may not be able to multitask but it gives you creativity and a different view of life, perhaps even a BETTER view of life.
i started smoking pot occsionally until i was 15 when i smoked much more, and 16 i still smoke mostly everyday, and it has not interfered with ANYTHING i have done, my grades in fact got BETTER, i have even done a few tests while high, all of which i have done VERY well on, one of them i got 102 % it was math ( i got the bonus question right ). what i am saying is that WEED HAS MADE ME SMARTER, or perhaps just more perseverant and observant which has made me LEARN BETTER.
Dont believe me? go smoke a bowl right now… but do not smoke it to get rid of stress, do not smoke it to go eat pizza and chips and watch tv. just go smoke a bowl and THINK! you will have many ideas most of which you will lose track of which is ok. go read or paint or draw something, the more your brain needs to think in a state of high the better it will be at it next time, after a while you will have no confusion even if you smoke ALOT, and when you become sober again you will realize everything you learned has stuck. you will learn that weed i a helpful drug and if used corectly has absolutely the most minor of side effects.
now go, smoke a couple bowls.
Just a comment regarding meditating emotions. What about Xanax, Prozac, or Haldol? All prescribed legally by a physician… And the effect on the economy?
You start off your article with a complete fallacy – that cannabis is a gateway drug. It is NOT, and has NEVER been proven so. Stop spreading lies.
i have been a everyda smoker since 10th grade and is now 21..i recently got arrested and put on probation, and have been clean for two months. being clean helped my mind clear and i felt more self confident. now 10 min ago i smoked again and it seems all the 2 month progress was a waist, i dont want more jail time.
I smoke weed multiple times every day (usually directly after school and all day beginning the moment i get up on weekends)
I have to admit your article is completely on point and matches what I have noticed myself.
I cant imagine doing the things that are fun to me without getting high first and I guess I definitely medicate my feelings in a way.
I think I mainly smoke out of boredom and out of habit.
when I do the stuff I usually do (watching tv or chilling out with friends) when im sober, I quickly notice how boring it is and how little activities i actually engage in when I smoke.
I guess weed makes you content with doing passive and usually quite boring things.
I think I really should cut down sometime…
Wow great article. Notice how many people have posted denial responses to this, some even trying to get others to smoke.
Why? Because they are addicted. Weed is definitely a drug, no one denies that so why would you try to push it on people so hard? Just because you [think you] can smoke every day and it makes you smarter doesn’t mean it will for most people. I love weed but I have been really struggling for a while to quit and am finally making good progress. I think it is fine on occasion but the fact is once you become an every day smoker (me for 3 years, for the past year I started mixing tobacco which made it way worse) taking a day off is HARD. So for all the people who say it isn’t bad for you why the fuck is it so hard not to be high for a day? Do you think snoop would feel good if he went a day without getting high? No, he would have a shitty day. This is because you end up needing weed to be able to be normal., just like this article said.
I got addicted because of my anxiety. Marijuana has some great medicinal properties and could be used to some people to combat depression and anxiety. But the fact is it has side effects. You get high. You are slower, can’t multi task, and short term memory does go.
(I have com to believe that you get short term memory problems with weed because you just don’t pay much attention to trivial things in your life when you are high. It linked with why you can’t multitask well when high and why weed helps stimulate creativity. You can easily get engrossed in whatever task currently has your attention. But you instantly poor all your attention into that thought or task. The back of your mind isn’t cluttered with distracting unrealted thoughts. This helps ‘focus’ the mind and helps creativity but those background sub and pre conscious thoughts are important! Those are the processes that help form memories. You CAN learn school and do well at school if you are high (I still have a 78 avg after 3rd year uni, although down from 92 in highschool) but it is hard. You have to focus on what you want to learn, and forget stupid little things.
If you are a daily smoker and like the affects weed has on you then I’m glad you’ve found your drug. But don’t keep living in denial: if you smoke weed daily it is essentially working as an antidepressant for you. Maybe the side effects aren’t too bad but would you want to go a day without the drug? If you are okay with the fact you are RELIANT on a drug to function optimally then that is ok. Many people take antidepressants their whole lives. But how dare you go around trying to convince other people to start taking your drug just because it works for you. Why don’t all ex-depressed people try to push their antidepressants on the rest of the world saying “look doing this every day isn’t bad, actually it is great you should too” because there are side effects and risks and …. i’m tired of ranting but seriously I think weed should be legal since it is less dangerous than alcohol. I also think drug awareness in school should NOT teach abstaining but should give real information. It is ok to smoke sometimes but there are risks. But fuck all these people in denial posting comments against this article. I think weed is good and should be legal but I also have lived all the stages mentioned in this article. I am getting better, atleast I’m out of the denial, but the fact is this is how the addiction develops for most people (who do develop problems with the drug). Some people will be able to smoke their whole lifes responsibly. Some will smoke in denial of the negative effects, or thinking the positive ones outway the negatives and that weed improves their lives but then it is just their version of an anti depressant because a day without weed is a day without an improved life.
weed money,dope…leggo
i have smoked weed every day a few times a day every since i was in the 6th grade and im 22 years old now still smoking large amounts of weed every day and iv just started to drink alcohol every night. i have alot of fun street racing and hanging out with friends going to partys working out and everything but when i sit back and look at it im not doing anything with my life but im having fun but i want more than this there has got to be more to life than this.
also weed does cover your emotions, i dont even think about alot of stuff i just dont know how to deal with it any other way than to smoke weed and chill i even take xanex and klonapin sometimes with my alcohol just to get away from the world and zone out forget about everything its the perfect high
but its time for me to quit smoking by choice
i have been getting very suicidal, contimplating suicide every day. and just getting very depressed, i think if i quit smoking weed, and quit drinking and taking xanex and klonapins maybe i can deal with my problems and move foward in life, be successfull and have a family
i have one problem tho, its where i live im surounded by the best weed (kush) and alcohol/pills etc and its so easy to get and so much of it people just give it to me for free and smoke with me and give me pills and take me to clubs and everything its hard to say no
im gonna say no starting tomorrow im gonna quit smoking weed and cigarettes at the same time, ill work out, street race, read books, and make videos for youtube anything i can think of to keep me busy and keep my mind off stuff and im gonna see if i can change my life for the better and get out of the situation that im in, maybe ill move far away and start a new life
What pot may give with one hand, it takes away with the other. It’s a zero sum game, in which the user always loses. There are no shortcuts in life – and pot convinces you otherwise, because of the effects it has on your brain – 6 years of smoking in my late twenties taught me that. Pot is the ultimate seduction – it convinces you there’s nothing to worry about, when in fact its just numbing you from the Truth. Life is meant to be a challenge & ever changing – nature teaches us that, and so as natural as pot may be – it takes one away from one’s nature. After quitting for 7 weeks, starting up again for a 6 due to an “emotional disturbance” (in reality it was just a normal everyday love life challenge), and now 8+ weeks sober again – I attest its possible. And it get’s BETTER! You do get your normal faculties back, but it takes work, as with anything worthwhile – keep pushing through it, it happens on its own after a while.
It’s well worth it in the end, this precious existence of being human. Seize it, and master the moment – because that’s only where life takes place. I recommend mediation. A 10 day Vipassana course was a challenging yet well spent experience I recommend to anyone, pot smoker or not.
Don’t forget, pot is a CRUTCH and any reason you come up with to justify using it … IS the work of pot itself. If it changes your nature, it’s not natural even if it grows out of mother nature.
A Very Thoughtful Person: You’re pretty much dead on.
But just as every other drug, weed affects people differently.
And Timmy- You’re even more dead on ;)
People self-medicate themselves everyday with advil, coffee, television and massive amounts of McDonalds. We all choose our own poison
MODERATION, yes… But shits’ just better high!
how can someone that doesn’t smoke weed just read this article and take all these combined words for granted? You know…you can try to help people understand things all you want, some will take your words for granted, some will look at you with a WTF face, but in the end they will always try to find the truth for themselves. That is the only
Here’s what both sides of the arguement are missing. It’s not for everyone – ill explain why. When the author says that it you “get high and avoid emotions” you are flat out wrong, with the exception being You. You (or someone you know) may have gotten high to avoid emotions. Its EXACTLY the opposite effect for myself. I smoke, very little at that, specifically to focus on what, if any, issues are (sub)consciously affecting me. What some people mistake as paranoia or anxiety is simply a rush of a collection of things that you should internalize and focus on – its simple self diagnosis. I find cannabis effectively dissolves (whatever is left of) my own Ego and I can objectively and subjectively form my own ideas, opinions, and logical solutions without any outside subliminal interference. Yes – the media, pop culture, government, other peoples influences are subconsciously written into your internal programming. This is probably the point in my response where people reading this are questioning what the heck I’m talking about and they will dismiss any insight I have provided. Cannabis, when harnessed, is a beautiful tool for personal mental growth. It’s humbling, sometimes provides humility, and at times feminizing.
Don’t expect to hop into the basketball court and be Michael Jordan. That takes practice, experience, and understanding. Same thing with cannabis. It’s harmless, non-toxic, and severely misunderstood from being demonized. Do some people do stupid stuff while they are high? Yes, but that’s like blaming the Corvette when you wrap it around a tree speeding. If you’ve used cannabis a few times or only when you were young then you won’t understand. But like the first thing I said, its NOT for everybody. Some people don’t ask the correct questions while you are feeling the effects. And this is not just a pro cannabis response – I think young people under 21 have too much on their plate already to have to be dealing with things like alcohol and cannabis, let alone other substances. Growing into young adults is a hard enough task. It’s when you want to see things that you don’t even know what is bothering you or controlling certain decisions and feelings that cannabis can be the most fascinating tool we never have enough experience with and instantly dismiss because of predetermined judgements. Sometimes you have to go into the rabbit hole to find out what you might not want to face. And remember, if you are smoking pot and being unambitious and lazy then maybe you are using it for the wrong reasons.
I will admit, I enjoyed smoking marijuana for about seven years. It’s pleasurable side affects may outweigh the negative side affects. It heightens the senses making everything seem absolutely wonderful whether your cleaning your home, watching a movie, or having sex ( just a few examples). The problem is that with chronic long-term users you tend to develop a physiological dependence; I will use myself as an example. I am trying to quit, and I am having a hard time. The only withdrawal symptom would be that I am depressed and bored, this really makes me want to smoke. I also enjoy the act of smoking weed… packing the bowl, rolling a joint… taking a hit. It is all very ceremonial to me. I am quitting because I have reason to suspect that this drug is creating havoc between me and my partner in crime. Cant say for sure until we both come clean for a while, but financially… its causing problems. Also, going without is like going without your A1 steak sauce!… anyways making weed runs sucks!! I don’t have time for it. I work full time, keep up the home, and take care of a child. I know what your thinking, but lets leave it alone. I realize that there may be more to life, but now that I’m at a level state I realize that I have no idea how to enjoy my life without it. I will try by replacing this habit of mine with something else equally enjoyable. I will make time for some physical activity, maybe get into a project of some sort, read a book… challenge myself. I simply cannot except one way of living for the rest of my life… I can experiment with a sober life.
And occasionally, drink some poison every once in a while… if I can without drowning myself in it. Sad to say, I don’t believe that I can just smoke weed in moderation, tried it… look where it got me.
This article is nothing more than a piece of bologna. One can not judge others or condone others without any evidence and only accusations. You people should be shamed of yourselves for propagating the misguided youth. My indigenous grand parents use to cultivate marijuana in the early 1800′s because it was of a valuable resource in the world being used for rope, paper, clothing, and as a medicine. Are you telling me MY Ancestry was wrong for providing to MY Native People?!