Good evening all,

Hope all is well, so I've smoked for a large chunk of my life starting out at what I deem an acceptable amount at regular intervals like two to three times a week it was great it enlightened my mood put me into a wonderfully altered mindset that allowed me to take a completely different view on life and the little things we often ponder.

In short I felt like it genuinely enhanced my personality and mental state of being it was a fun and enjoyable experience that allowed me to grow as a person.

This stayed this way for about 3 years, it then turned into what I could only call a nasty addiction & while it isn't deemed chemically addictive I can tell you that psychologically it is addictive for many people me included (this could be said for any substance to the right person), I proceeded to smoke a 0.5 - 1G a day almost without fail for again nearly three years straight.

This was due to my bouts of depression coming back with a vengeance for various personal reasons ( I can safely say though that as this juncture of my life I'm free and rid of depression hopefully for good ).

None the less the abuse of the substance ruined absolutely anything I cared for about it, it stopped doing anything mentally or physically it was nothing more than a dependency a bad habit to smoke daily.

I met my wonderful partner about 3 years ago now which is when I stopped cold turkey I just didn't have that void to fill in my life now with smoking it wasn't even a case of having to think about not smoking I just did.

And all of this leads me onto where I am now, I have no intention of making it a habit again but I'd like to be able to smoke once in a blue moon for all the wonderful things it brought me in my youth, and use it much like I use psychedelics as a tool to improve myself.

However every time I try and smoke now it literally turns me into a P O T A T O, I feel totally disconnected numbed and just all right meh it's such a crappy experience that offers nothing and tends to make me feeling lethargic the day after, I can only assume that my addiction has in some way altered my brains chemistry and seemingly seems to have ruined cannabis for life for me.

Does anyone else share a similar story? If so did it get any better for you, did you return to it and it was restored to it's once all mighty glory, how?

Basically just curious if anyone has any insights and stories of there own on how one might bring the wonders of cannabis back into my life

Hopefully the read hasn't been tooo dreary and is insightful enough that you can offer feedback.

Peace

I don’t have any answers. Just wanted to chime in with a vote of support whichever way it goes.

I am basically going thru the same thing, I am pushing 40 now and have smoked for the majority of that time, the last 10 years about a gram+ a day of regs.

I don’t by chronic smoke because, ultimately I will smoke about the same, maybe a bit less, either way the sack is gone in a week and I am scraping resin.

I have quit previously for about 1 and a half years. ( like 5 years ago )

So, recently, I have been totally quit for about 3 monthes( first few weeks were emotional and mental Hell )

And again, more recently, I got it in my mind to smoke “once and awhile, like I do every other drug”

My plan was to make sure I didn’t smoke two days in a row, I have currently smoked 3 days in a row.

I get what you mean about it not feeling as good as before, Tho for me, it did feel good that very first time, the next two days just felt lazy and tired.

I am beginning to think I simply can’t handle weed.

If it doesn't work for you then just give it a rest. I smoked like a Rastafarian as a kid, got a job and wife and responsibilities and drifted away from weed. Got middle aged and discovered it makes me paranoid and self conscious so I just leave it alone. Shame cause I feel left out of the whole legalization wave.

cannabis for swim is the same, it was a great for the years of teenage but after its become just like you said potato and really lowering the frequncy for swim.

this video probebly gonna give some clarity about this subject, only the 2 first min are on cannabis.

That's a common pattern. You are describing exactly my experience with mj. I was smoking it for about 10 years, first two years were full of insights, informations, cevs and pleasant states. I slowly started to use it daily, then hourly. 24x7. It turned into ugly addiction, I was unable to exit it. After smoking I realized I won't smoke again, then two hours later when comming down, smoked again. Deadly circle. Only serious health problems helped me to stop with it. And serious means serious. The whole exit last more than 5 years.

Now it is more than 10 years after I quit and when I smkoke mj, I just have ugly depressive thoughts, nothing else. And I am not trying it more often than once every 2 or 3 years.

Yes, this substance is lost for me, I know this. And I am thankful for it. It has given me very much, but there is not anything more it can offer. Rest in peace.

And honestly, now I get the main message - the more addictive the substance is, the more useless it is. Anything more addictive than mescaline is just a no-go for me. I wish I knew this when I was young...

I've the typical love/hate relationship
The only thing I'm compulsive with, and then it starts to loose it's magic.

There's an art in using it very sparingly. Just a puff, or maybe two. Stop there.
Should try that one day

I had that too. I only take cannabis orally now, and not more than two or three times a month, and months go by that i don't do it at all.

There are a couple of things that realy work for me, with cannabis: 1- i never "just do it". I always do it on fun occasions, or when there's something going on that is already an interesting experience by itself. For instance: sex, travelling, being with realy good friends, taking a walk in nature when the weather is realy nice...this summer i discovered that swimming is realy great on cannabis. Don't just sit in front of the TV, doing nothing.
2-Don't get distracted from the world around you. Sometimes on cannabis, you can have these thoughts that just "suck you in", like a black hole. And then all you do, is spent time thinking and thinking...usually about pretty stupid or trivial things. It can make you introverted, like you're locked inside your head. There's only one remedy and that is simply "DON'T ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN". Once you are firmly locked deep inside your own skull, it is pretty hard to get out again, because there's always that one little thing you haven't thought of yet. The moment you notice that you're getting distracted, you should immediately stop thinking about what is distracting you. 3-don't do the same things over and over again. Do something you didn't do the last time you where stoned.

I have it also I completely agree with dragonrider , microdoses of oral cannabis ( i use it as tea) are still great for me in proper setting but not too often. Once i thought that my lungs have raised awareness just like my whole body did, therefore they scream at me if i put toxins in them like smoke and that is where those ugly feelings come from.

Do you guys decarboxilate the weed/hash especially for activating oral ROA?
If it's cake then the baking did that job.

Moderation!

That's all I have to say... carry on.

It's a common pattern. My personal opinion is that people simply outgrow cannabis as it has served its purpose and is no longer necessary. It's a psychedelic after all, not candy.

I used it from my teens to mid-twenties. To be honest it lost its magic quite early on with me but I continued to smoke it out of habit and as a way to continue to be relevant in my social circle. After a period of abstinence I smoked some again and for a brief while on that one day I felt like a child and free. Subsequent sessions immediately resumed the normal of feeling alright, chilled, a bit mind fucked perhaps, but nothing like that first day.

I'm around those who still smoke it and I have no desire for it anymore. Even the smell has lost its appeal. Tried taking a toke or two, felt alright, but to be frank I just prefer the clarity of being sober now.

The only problem is your attachment to it. Let it go.

i too have had my love/hate relationship tested over the years; i am now at a point where i'm done with it. it just doesn't work in my life anymore. for at least 3 decades i was a daily toker/vaper. as the years went on, i found it created a kind of depression; not when i was high but in the inbetween states. i also started leaning towards worrying about things needlessly.

one thing that has not been mentioned yet that i think is a strong factor is the weed has changed significantly over the years. it has become so strong - even low THC percentage buds - that the effect is almost unmanageable for me. i have tried the aforementioned "just a toke or two"; that has me anxious and paranoid - even with indica strains.

i'm old enough when i can remember being able to smoke a joint, enjoy the high and not feel myself crawling into an internal hole of self-consciousness and anxiety. in my opinion, cannabis has become more like a narcotic that a "soft drug" as it has been referred to.

ironically, i went to a concert last night in SF (Kamasi Washington!!!) and the place just was filled with thick cannabis smoke. my buddy also has stopped. we agreed, the smell is very seductive...brought back a lot of fine memories...alas....

i find it kind-of cool. i don't do drugs. i only use medicines. psychedelics for me exclusively. i like things that give clarity; not make things foggy.

As a workaholic, I naturally hate any substance that lower my productivity. Hence I never likes cannabis.

However, when I am overwroked, can't sleep and really have trouble to "turn off", then I found cannabis helps me tremendously.

I use it very rarely to do just that. I watch a visually rich movie like "Valerian and The City of A Thousand Planets", sit back and enjoy Then I can recharge my batteries easily.

Speaking of Valerian, the Valerian root (V. officinalis) helps me like the cannabis, maybe more - to calm down and have a good night sleep.

Well honestly this has been such a delightful read, and it's nice to know that so many of you appear to have gone through the same thing, also a little disheartening that it doesn't seem to pass

But yeah obviously my time and any form of benefit that will come from cannabis has been, gone, and served it's purpose also what xss27 says is undeniably true that it's my attachment to it more than anything else, a wonderfully clear insight into the situation.

It's not the same for me anymore either, but I still do enjoy it when I come around to it. These days it's maybe 1-3 times a month with high quality stuff, hanging out with a good friend. I don't ask too much of it. It makes me feel overall pleasant, reduces any minor aches and pains, and puts me in an entertaining headspace. There is always a bit of anxiety in the first 5-10 minutes, but then it is quite pleasant.

It definitely helps me access my creativity that can get bogged down with the adult rat race, no matter how much I try to distance myself from that. I will often get back to songwriting, poetry, or prose. I also had a mild OBE with good cannabis and a small glass of great scotch recently. As DmnStr8 said, moderation is certainly key.

I'm 15 right now and have been smoking weed everyday for the past few months, well not everyday per say, but you know what I mean, some days I'll smoke 2 grams a day on my own! and other days ill only sesh with the bois (use of the word bois is a joke ) but I can say without a doubt it is my favourite thing to do and don't plan on building a tolerance to it (not that I can control something like that, but it has te same great effect on me) but also another thing, i'm in Sydney Australia right and I've asked people about his online but just wanted to double check to a more array of people. but in my year especially it is a common thing to smoke something called spin, this is when weed is spin with tobacco its usually something like 30 per cent tobacco and then 70 per cent weed but I personally like 40 to 60. but it does get u addicted but that a whole nother story

Have you read the rules to this site? You must be 18 or older. You are far too young for psychedelics. And don't smoke spin. All of my mates who smoke spin now smoke cigarettes because of it.

I'm taking a break from cannabis for a while. I find that a tolerance break every now and then is great to reset the nervous system. The cool part is all the hallucinogenic dreams that I start having when I stop using cannabis. The hypnagogia I experience reminds me of low doses of mushrooms. They are very visionary, I see like surreal pop cartoons smiling at me. The other night I saw this UFO in the sky with lights on the bottom. It was rotating. This was a hallucination all while i was falling asleep.

I also had a lucid dream that got really psychedelic. Everything exploded into rainbows like how I hallucinate on psilocybin. After that dream I had another one where terence mckenna was lecturing at me about how consciousness is free to explore other places and spaces when the body dies.

So there are some definite benefits on giving cannabis a rest.

Haha those sounds like some pretty whacky and insane dreams, always had dreams this vivid?

I only ask as I very very rarely remember my dreams, which in all honesty makes me quite sad feel like I'm genuinely missing out on something could be quite special.

If flower doesn't do it for you anymore try smoking some oil. I use one gram of (usually indica) butane hash oil daily, have for the last few years. I've never felt healthier, it's good medicine, my daily driver (along with my methadone). Be forewarned, using oil will raise your tolerance to insane levels. I can't get stoned on flower anymore unless I've just taken a tolerance break.