Relationships and AddictionWhether it's drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, pornography, or anything else, addictions can be detrimental to the health of a relationship.
It is weird because alchohol has very little appeal to me and is only something I enjoy socially out with friends, but once I began smoking weed at age 18 I could not stop to the point it was an everyday thing and I would panic when I ran out. I also snorted cocaine on several occasions and even though I liked it in the beginning, I started getting tired of it really quick and discovered very quickly that it was a "rich man's high"(powder form)and not for me.
I'll be honest with you, I was against pot (and any other drug) for the greater part of my life (35 years, I'm 38 now), wouldn't touch the stuff, wouldn't associate with people who did. I thought it was evil, in part from what I've always "heard" and I lumped the crack heads and meth heads with the pot smokers. But then my H suggested I read up on it, because he is ADHD and probably bipolar... We would have many of fights about him going to talk to someone, get on something -- Ritalin? He was adamant about not taking any scripts -- Ritalin did him in as a child and a teen, it was a horrible experience for him and he just wasn't interested in scripts.
Fast forward to now, I did my homework, I read the pro's and con's, I researched as much info as I could on it. And the effects of pot on my H is one that brings him down to a normal operating level. Instead of hyper, ahead of himself, quick to anger, horrible attention span, always seeking attention, etc... he comes down to a calmer level... One where we can discuss things rationally... He also works on these things within himself... He doesn't just smoke it and hope that it cures all... He also works at controlling his ADHD the best he can, such as at work, without any substance help. So it's kind of like a dual treatment for his ADHD.
And low and behold in the midst of me finding out more about it for him, I found out that it could also benefit my appetite (or lack thereof) and my female issues. I have something that can turn into cervical cancer, so I did more research on pot... And sure enough, there are studies indicating that THC can shrink certain cancer tumors, cervical being one of them.
I think it's important to recognize the benefits of cannabis.. Not just the negative that's floating around. Of course like any prescribed drug, there are certain people it can negatively affect, such as yourself. Along the same lines, my H can't take penicillin... And I know there are more that can have deadly reactions to penicillin, does that mean it should be removed as a source of treatment for certain things? Or pain meds? There are many prescription meds that people abuse, does that mean those that can use it responsibly shouldn't have the choice? Just an observation.
There is just such a negative connotation with pot, it's unfortunate.
Weed is not chemically addictive, only habitually addictive; which anything on the planet can be with daily use. Turn your guns on alcohol, Xanax, Prozac, (the "legal" drugs) etc before batting an eye at weed. Weed was essential in healing my PTSD after going to war. It cured my insomnia, stopped my nightmares, made me able to laugh, and forced me to eat. After a year of using it every day, I stopped. I missed it, but I didn't crave it. Now I am grateful for it.
All this weed chatter makes me want to spark up.... I will wait until this evening after dinner.
Been smoking it for 15 years.. Maybe habitually addicted, maybe not. Love it and don't care what anyone thinks!! All I know is that my house is cleaner and love working out after smoking up.
Weed is not chemically addictive, only habitually addictive; which anything on the planet can be with daily use. Turn your guns on alcohol, Xanax, Prozac, (the "legal" drugs) etc before batting an eye at weed. Weed was essential in healing my PTSD after going to war. It cured my insomnia, stopped my nightmares, made me able to laugh, and forced me to eat. After a year of using it every day, I stopped. I missed it, but I didn't crave it. Now I am grateful for it.
I smoke weed for PTSD too. Therapy and mood drugs do not keep the flashbacks and nightmares away.
Since I am aware that there is a time and place for everything, I never smoke around my parents, in-laws or nieces. I do not smoke before class or when I am studying. My grades are wonderful, our place is clean and I am not constantly high.
It has been easy for me to smoke and still live a productive life. That is why I laugh when I read the stereotypical comments made by some on TAM.
I made soooooo many dumb mistakes back when I was getting high that I didn't even know I was making because I was oblivious to my surroundings, and now that I have stopped and been away from it for so long I can still usually tell those who are high on weed simply by their behavior and mannerisms. And it's quite sad when I see some of the people I used to hang with & get high with back in my late teens to mid 20's, who are now in their mid to late 40's and are STILL getting high, being irresponsible, out of work, and one is back living with his mom at 47 years old. I have a pretty strong feeling that would've been me as well if I didn't decide to straighten my ass up.
s, who are now in their mid to late 40's and are STILL getting high, being irresponsible, out of work, and one is back living with his mom at 47 years old. I have a pretty strong feeling that would've been me as well if I didn't decide to straighten my ass up.
Yes, we are all failures, like John F Kennedy, Michael Phelps and Mick Jagger (Sir Mick Jagger). All achieved nothing and living at home with mom. Tragic.
Yes, we are all failures, like John F Kennedy, Michael Phelps and Mick Jagger (Sir Mick Jagger). All achieved nothing and living at home with mom. Tragic.
I made soooooo many dumb mistakes back when I was getting high that I didn't even know I was making because I was oblivious to my surroundings, and now that I have stopped and been away from it for so long I can still usually tell those who are high on weed simply by their behavior and mannerisms. And it's quite sad when I see some of the people I used to hang with & get high with back in my late teens to mid 20's, who are now in their mid to late 40's and are STILL getting high, being irresponsible, out of work, and one is back living with his mom at 47 years old. I have a pretty strong feeling that would've been me as well if I didn't decide to straighten my ass up.
I think it's good that you recognized you had a problem with weed. But what you describe can be attributed to a myriad of issues, no? Someone who's living with their parents at 47, I'm not sure who's fault that would be. Did they force their way into their parent's home? I hear that a lot when someone tries to point out how bad weed is... I hear that a lot! What you are pointing out is the product of personal choices and those who enable a user to continue making poor life choices.. If my oldest child came crawling back at any age now that she is an adult, always high on pot, never working, or seldom working, etc... I'll be damned if I'd let her crash anywhere near my property. I would not stand for it. I would let her know that I love her, etc.., but I will not enable that kind of behavior and lack of motivation.
I've watched my MIL put up with her grown adult children (ranging from 30 yrs old to 40 yrs old) continuing to milk her for every dime she has, she let's them walk all over her, it is the most depressing thing I've ever seen in my life. One of them is a bonafide active crack addict, and he smokes weed, another one is a bonafide alcoholic and the other one, I'm not sure what his problem is, but he doesn't smoke dope at all, he just takes and takes and takes. She is forever continuing to give them money, she even pawns things to give them money. And then she turns around and gripes about it all to us. Who's at fault here? The loser crack addict, the alcoholic, or the other son who just takes whatever she's willing to give OR the most obvious answer -- the mother who doesn't say ENOUGH is ENOUGH?
ETA: My parents would never in a million years let me camp out in their basement, smoking weed, drinking, etc... In fact, they wouldn't let me live with them if I were actively drinking... Boundaries can be a life saver.
Yes, we are all failures, like John F Kennedy, Michael Phelps and Mick Jagger (Sir Mick Jagger). All achieved nothing and living at home with mom. Tragic.
Ummmm JFK was pretty much already the PRESIDENT at age 47 & holding other offices before that, Michael Phelps is still only in his late 20's and is a gold medalist and a millionaire, and Mick Jagger joined the Rolling Stones in his 20's and was also a millionaire at a very young age.
I think you are confusing dudes who have freakin made it big at something and..........moved their moms IN, with dudes who are in their late 40's who sit around getting high all day living WITH mom and who contribute nothing to their living situations pretty much. *Not very good examples - lol*
Seriously, I watch just as many people waste their life on lotto scratch offs and welfare as I do smoking weed.
The difference? I have seen MORE people with severe health issues and nerve problems HELPED by smoking weed than seen families helped by the welfare system.
anything and everything, including food, can be addicting. whatever you satiate your compulsion, emptiness or whatever with, can become an addiction.
So what was the point here?
I had a phase of smoking weed all the time, I felt weird being sober instead of high, I've had a stage of complete sobriety, I've had drinking stages. I've even had what I thought was just weed put before me and my value as a person.
Bottom line, you can't blame weed for your behavior. Weed is not why my value as a person and wife was at the bottom of my ex's "totem pole" so to speak, he wasn't addicted to it, he was and still is compensating.
And when he tries to quit smoking weed, he has the same symptoms you went through OP. I would have the same symptoms if I stopped drinking coffee, I have the same issues if I lower my cigarettes, If I don't get dressed in the proper order, shut the car off the "right" way, I will lose sleep over not getting everything on my mental check list at work done, and it will be as stupid as not filling one sugar shaker.
Anxiety, loss of sleep, loss of apetite, nerves acting up etc. Because my brain has to have things done that way, or have x-things done, or it doesn't work.
The ONLY horrible addictive side effect I have seen is the lack of mental and emotional growth in users who started smoking at an extremely early age. Because they used it to cope, instead of dealing with things head on. There is a big difference in the people I know who didn't start smoking until their 20's and the people who started smoking in their early teens pre-teen years.
I have never seen anyone go through what I've seen heroin and crack addicts go through as far as withdrawls because of weed. Those people truly suffered something I would never wish on anyone, I don't care what smoker I was around, how long they'd been smoking, and how often, they never went through that.
which is the difference, between physical and mental addictions.
Ummmm JFK was pretty much already the PRESIDENT at age 47 & holding other offices before that, Michael Phelps is still only in his late 20's and is a gold medalist and a millionaire, and Mick Jagger joined the Rolling Stones in his 20's and was also a millionaire at a very young age.
I think you are confusing dudes who have freakin made it big at something and..........moved their moms IN, with dudes who are in their late 40's who sit around getting high all day living WITH mom and who contribute nothing to their living situations pretty much. *Not very good examples - lol*
Ok, sorry. I thought they were good examples. It must be all the weed that has me confused.
Again the whole point of this thread was "marijuana is addictive....to some", and those that don't think so are wrong and you may as well say that neither is alchohol because to those like me and others who don't have drinking problems - it's not. So I'm not saying at all that I am against weed and maybe it should even be legalized, but don't fool yourself into thinking it's just a harmless & cute thing that people do because in my line of work(lab testing)I see people ruin their lives over it everyday.
Again the whole point of this thread was "marijuana is addictive....to some", and those that don't think so are wrong and you may as well say that neither is alchohol because to those like me and others who don't have drinking problems - it's not. So I'm not saying at all that I am against weed and maybe it should even be legalized, but don't fool yourself into thinking it's just a harmless & cute thing that people do because in my line of work(lab testing)I see people ruin their lives over it everyday.
I haven't seen anyone posting that weed is "harmless and cute".. Everyone who has been supportive of cannabis on here has pointed out what ailments they have, or know someone to have, and that is their point behind the backing of it. Everyone seems to also acknowledge that it can create problems for certain people.
Your line of work is a totally different argument all together (which has also been pointed out a few times) and drug testing is what it is.... It is red tape.
From what I see happening with the laws, it is only a matter of time before every state will have medical cannabis anyway and drug testing for MJ will be a thing of the past, eventually.
I haven't seen anyone posting that weed is "harmless and cute".. Everyone who has been supportive of cannabis on here has pointed out what ailments they have, or know someone to have, and that is their point behind the backing of it. Everyone seems to also acknowledge that it can create problems for certain people.
Your line of work is a totally different argument all together (which has also been pointed out a few times) and drug testing is what it is.... It is red tape.
From what I see happening with the laws, it is only a matter of time before every state will have medical cannabis anyway and drug testing for MJ will be a thing of the past, eventually.
Yeah I can see that happening eventually where it's legalized, and then just like you can't drink on the job or drive drunk it needs to be regulated in the same manner(to be done on your free time only and not behind the wheel either).
And we had a local pro athlete here who was an admitted weed smoker and had already been suspended for it, and according to public records he was making a salary of $1.4 million a season. Well even though he was sternly warned to stop and would be drug tested for it he STILL continued smoking it, and as a result he was then suspended again for a year WITHOUT PAY for testing positive again! To me this is an example of someone who got addicted to it so badly, that he was willing to forfeit a million dollar salary for a year so he could continue getting high even after being warned repeatedly not to. And even though there is red tape and politics involved in all of that, would you not stop smoking it if the billionaire orgainization you work for told you to stop or risk losing millions as a result? I only make $40,000 a year and would never risk losing that salary over something like weed, but back when I was smoking it heavily everyday I might have.
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Re: Marijiuana IS addictive.....to some. 
That is why I laugh when I read the stereotypical comments made by some on TAM.
Re: Marijiuana IS addictive.....to some. 
