There are a lot of people out there who do not even think of weed as being a real addiction. They consider it to be a “soft drug” and not really worthy of the label of addiction. For the most part, there are generally no withdrawal symptoms when someone stops smoking weed, and there is very little evidence of physical dependence. So it gets passed off all the time as being somehow less than other “real drugs.”
This is a big mistake because Marijuana is a real drug and it can seriously screw up your life. For a moment, forget about the fact that weed is illegal, or that it is physically unhealthy to smoke, or that it can impair your driving, and so on. Forget all those arguments for a moment because they are besides the point.
Here are the 3 main problems with weed addiction:
1) You are medicating your feelings, just like with any other mood or mind altering substance (such as alcohol, cocaine, etc.).
2) You are dedicating your life to a hollow purpose.
3) Your ambitions and motivation is being sapped by your drug habit.
If you smoke weed every day then all 3 of these factors can be applied to your life. They will all exist for you in some form or another. Let’s take a closer look at these 3 problems.
Smoking weed medicates your feelings
One of the things about a chemical addiction, be it alcohol or any other drug, is that eventually we are using the chemical to medicate our feelings with. Now this doesn’t always happen overnight but it always happens in the end. We might not start out using a drug with the intention of medicating our feelings but we develop the pattern over time.
Why does this happen? Because our drug of choice becomes our coping mechanism. If we are a drinker, then every time we experience drama in our life or get upset over something, what do we do? We reach for a drink, of course. The same is true with other drugs of abuse. Those who smoke weed will naturally want to get high when they are faced with any sort of emotional upheaval in their lives. And when we keep doing this over time, it establishes a form of dependency. We might not be physically addicted to weed but we are addicted to using it as a coping mechanism. We become comfortable with using weed to mask our true feelings when we don’t want to feel them.
Why is this a problem? Well, it can become a problem for many people if they continue to use weed as a way to cope. It creates a dependency and results in emotional immaturity. We basically stunt our emotional growth because we are no longer facing reality when we need to; instead we are coping out and just getting high. It is actually a very immature way to go through life and it certainly doesn’t keep you “real.”
Eventually, if you ever decide to quit smoking weed (or become forced to due to the legal ramifications) then you are going to have to relearn how to deal with your emotions.
Your life purpose is diverted
Another reason that weed addiction is a problem for people is because it diverts your life purpose. Essentially, when you start smoking weed on a regular basis and get caught up in the lifestyle of doing so, your entire life purpose shifts to those activities. Getting high and scoring more weed becomes your purpose in life and any other dreams that you might have had about accomplishing anything are basically shelved.
A lot of people who smoke weed stay in denial about this, because they maintain that they still have dreams and they still have goals. This is usually a form of denial though because now that they are full time weed smokers they are no longer actively pursuing those goals and dreams. They are complacent with their life.
The habit of smoking weed creates a certain lifestyle and that lifestyle becomes your life purpose. It becomes difficult to pursue anything outside of this relatively limited world view.
Weed addiction destroys your ambition
If you want to sit around all day and be lazy then smoking weed is one way to accomplish this. The lifestyle prevents you from doing things because eventually all things must be accompanied with getting high. This starts to limit what you can typically do throughout your day and this is also what starts to shape the lifestyle for you. In essence, you are what you do all day. Not only does weed addiction take away your dreams and goals, but it also demotivates you from achieving any goals that you might still have intact.
Because smoking weed has become central to your reward system, you no longer have to pursue other typical rewards that might come from achieving positive goals in your life, such as with exercise, health habits, or learning goals. There is no reason to push yourself to grow in any of those ways because the rewards for doing so have been reduced in comparison to your “weed reward.” In other words, because you are in the habit of rewarding yourself with weed, other rewards in life become less desirable for you.
The justifications don’t matter
There are a million reasons out there about why smoking weed should be legal and why it is less harmful than alcohol and so on and so forth.
None of it matters.
Weed is still harmful and addictive and it still destroys your life, even if it does so in a more subtle way than “harder drugs.” This subtlety is what makes it so dangerous. Even if the drug were legal it would not be any less problematic for people.
Smoking weed saps your life away a little bit at a time.
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this is so cool! 1337
You people have no clue what your talking about. This is all a lie. I smoke marijuana about everyday. It actually motivates me to do more things and be more creative. I also run a large business, have a nice big house, three great kids, and a beautiful wife. So don’t even tell me that it will ruin your life. I’ve been smoking it for 34 years, since I was 15. Get your facts straight. Have a nice day.
This is the stupidest fucking thing i’ve read. Stop with the lies.
Idk….these points are not so much wrong they just may not be for you to receive. I want to stop so maybe i need some negative or life altering facts to help cope with the change.
It is all true i myself have experienced most of these symptoms you ve described above, also you start to become more and more sedentary.
Now i smoke once weekle mostly saturdays or fridays and its been working well =, but every time i try to leave it, some friend shows around my house with loads of weed.
it is crap believe me, dont be stupid and get caught in that shit its only pourpouse is to destroy your life, are you willing to be a nobody for the rest of your life just to experience the effects of weed. You ll just be wasting your money and time. Study and dont be another parasite in the society.
the weed reward was more relevant to me in the way i would study 2 hours a night and reward myself with a smoke, i managed to pass all the test’s but the motive was just to do that so i could smoke. i found getting up earlier was more difficult and i was starting to cancel flight’s while training for a pilots licence, when this started happening the next morning after i got high something clicked and my body switched to auto pilot and I flushed half an oz down the toilet haha. Weed made Nintendo a lot more fun though so i play it less which is probably a good thing. i think the cure was just to cut down and not smoke every single night. On occasions i would make excuses to get away from my girlfriend for the day to get high and chill alone because i thought it was better, but it would just make things worse and i would get caught out in lies. In the end each individual needs to make the decision for themselves and if their smart enough to know if it’s affecting them, flush it down the toilet along with the issues. (unless your weak)
This is true although it does affect certain people and personalities more than others.I think how you were raised,your self esteem,roots,intelligence and knowledge are all a factor in how it affects you but yes I agree it makes people overly complacand afffects their judgment,priorities and values in a bad way that tends to get worse for sure.No doubt.The key is obviously moderation but not everyone(only a small percentage of people can moderate their behavior effectively.Face it we live in an addictive society look how screwed up it really is.
So you can be a dumbed down smoker or you can stand up for yourself and be a part of the solution.Getting good grades while smoking really does not mean you are smarter or better than someone who doesnt and smokes and doesn’t.Their are many factors to account for this discrepancy.I believe your home and family life are to account for.
Hello All.
Coming from the back of an incident that could mean expulsion from my college, this article really does strike a chord. this is not to say that the people who smoke weed regularly(however they choose to define it, mine was a doobie every few hours) and still lead a well rounded life are fiction of someone’s imagination,they exist, just like I do too.
The reward system and emotional balance really takes a beating and to quote the author,’In essence, you are what you do all day’ holds true on so many levels.
It is a fact that there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this discussion, I would argue that is because some people(like me) are much more likely to fall into this lifestyle than others and look to weed as a coping mechanism than others.
It is perfectly possible for a group of junkies to have a guy who smokes his fix and gets on with his work and someone else who just goes looking for another session or do something just as stupid as that(nintendo, wii anyone?)
Weed addiction as defined by the author is a possibility with a reasonable probability and should be treated like that. thank you for being patient enough to rummage through my musings
omg could you be any more opinionated you conservative fuck
I am so high right now
been smoking for 20+ years. go to work every day and do an excellent job or I wouldn’t have one. Go suck that one. Not destroyed my life or anyone around me.
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