Why I must quit weed for good.

I have been buggering around for years like this and at last have made the decision to quit my mate Skunk.

I bought the Clearhead tape and book and have started reading I have behaved impossibly badly since I have made the decision to quit. This is a new unconscious strategy I reckon I expect it means I am serious about quitting.

At 47, and successful at most things this is completely throwing me, so reading your words truly encouraged me another step.

Thank you

Hey indigo2008, We're in the same age group, I am 49 and gave up pot cold turkey 9 months ago. After a daily habit lasting 30 years I finally got to the point where I wasn't getting any pleasure from smoking pot.

I never even tried to quit before that point in my life - the key was that I was totally sick of it. Pot was no longer my mate. My advice to you is to start thinking of skunk as your enemy as opposed to being your mate. I would also strongly recommend getting into exercise and healthy eating (if you are not already) as the best substitutes for the bad habits associated with smoking pot.

The next morning......

Was absolutely dying to smoke last night. Was sat around, just watching tv, wasting time on the internet, basically doing fck all, and the general feeling I kept having was, 'well if im just doing this, surely I may as well just be smoking?!' It makes no sense looking back, but its a feeling i often get, and the one that usually leads me back to smoking again.

But this morning, having not smoked I feel great. However hard it was the day/night before not to smoke, I have never woke up the morning after and felt, 'god i wished I had smoked last night'. ' If only I had caved in and bought some weed'.!! In fact, the harder it is the night before, the better it feels the next morning when I wake up sober.

Its a bit like exercise. I sometimes really need to force myself to work out. It can take me an age to get going and finally do something. But upon finishing a workout, I have never thought to myself, 'i wish I didnt do that'. 'i feel terrible after doing all that exercise!'.

So just a reminder to myself, that when those hard nights, the ones where temptation to ring round and see who has got some weed come, just to see it through, and i will be feeling so much better about not smoking come the morning!

33 days and nights to beat. 7 Completed!

Congrats on day 7 Yackety. I'm on day 4 myself, although I've only smoked for 3 years on and off, for the past year I've been really on and have experienced the same feelings you wrote about in your opening post, like isolating myself from things and people I like because of weed and really feeling akward around people when I smoked, I decided it was doing me no good so I quit. I liked your analogy about exercise and not smoking, my mind tries to trick me into it sometimes too but I think back to the last time I got stoned and what a bad time I had and it gets it off of my mind. In my previous quit attempts, many times what brought me back to weed was my mind, and it's ability to build up weed in my head and make it seem like some great wonderful thing, but then after I'd smoke it wasn't anything like I had built it up to be. Sorry for rambling, I guess what I'm trying to say is that a common definition for insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting a different result. I found myself doing that with pot, I'd smoke again and again even though I didn't like it, and everytime I'd tell myself, "This time is going to be different" but it was just as crappy as the last time, so I'm glad I'm out of this destructive cycle and hope that we can stay out of this together, the support of my family, friends, and you great folks here have really helped so far, thank you.

weed is a lot worse than smoking regular cigarretes, I`m trying to give up on tobacco. Everytime I smoke mary I get weird tickling sensation in my brain that scare me , the next day if I don`t smoke any my anxiety rises 100%.

Precious007 I'm trying to give up tobacco as well, I quit weed, booz, and cigarettes 4 days ago, today it was really hard when my friend lit up a smoke and it smelled really good, I wanted to ask him for a drag, but reminded myself that it wasn't worth. My friend is also trying to quit, he's 20 and has been smoking daily for 4-5 years, and he said he really feels the physical withdrawals unlike myself who was more of a, "social tobacco smoker", but with eachother's help we've managed to not smoke thus far.

Hey Yak
Like I wrote to Blanchip----
seems like something was in the International air yesterday as many of us were tempted....but overcame it and were able to X another day on the calendar....YAY US!!!!!!

I have been keeping myself so busy----too busy in a way and when I find I dont have plans and something to occupy my head the feeling creeps in bc for many yrs pot was my friend and I was never alone, lonely or bored when I had my joints and my sofa. Thing is---I think we all need to reinvent ourselves and what we do in our alone time. Take the pot association away from these 'lonely times' as I think we can all agree that in hindsite smoking just made us lonlier and more isolated.
As Im writing this to you, I am writing this to myself.....
Strength in numbers mate---we hear ya, we get ya and we are supportive of you-
sb x

Seeking Balance i kno exactly what u mean about reinvention, i started smoking daily when i was 13 and im now 21, ive been stoned constantly through out most of the "charecter building" years of my life, as ive grown up a stoner i dont really kno who i will be without weed, will i still find as much things funny when im not high, or will i still be as funny when im not entertaining fellow pot heads.
Thinking about this actually scares me in a way, EVERYTHING i have done in the last 8yrs i have been stoned while i hav been doing it, and now i hav to go over everything again in a fresh light, i kno that in the long run (proabably in the short run too) everything will be better with out weed but as they say its better the devil you kno.
its strange that no matter how many problems weed has caused me i still turn to it everytime as a crutch when things get bad, i was all fired up to quit then something happened with my best mate which streesd me out ALOT and i instantly turned to weed, i kno that there is always gonna be problems that arise and my mind will tell me tht weed will make it all better, but to be honest i really dont kno what else im ment to do, ive never actually faced a major problem ive had, ive jus blazed up and tried to forget about whateva it was tht was stressin me
sorry for going on but ive jus never thot about quittin from this angle, i will have to not only reinvent myself but also re-evaulate how i approach every aspect of my life, ive jus read this post back and im kinda makin this reinvention sound like a bad thing but no matter how much it scares me i cant wait to see who i am.

If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it'll spread over into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level."
-Bruce Lee

ELWAY wrote:If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it'll spread over into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level."
-Bruce Lee

thats it i am going to exceed my current god damn level even if it kills me.

good quote elway. how are you doing with your quit? i haven't heard from you in a while since your first post a little while ago

hey blanchchip to be honest it aint been goin good, ive done the first day 3 times in the last month but something keeps on happenin and i think "i can jus hav a lil smoke to handle this then i can get back to quittin" i jus havent been in the rite mind state jus now, i was gonna push it back to the new year but i got a couple of days off nxt week so im gonna try and quit then, i KNOW i will quit, i have far too much hate for weed now to keep smokin it, 2009 is gonna be possibly the best yr of my life! hope your getting on well blanchchip and everyone else on their path! oh and Merry Christmas!!!!


The vision must be followed by the venture, it is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.

Where do i start?...Yak i just read ur first post and briefly scoured the rest as u superbly covered everything.The fact is my life mirrors your's in many ways baring the 10 reasons to quit.Not that i dont aggree with any of these but regretfully i can add anger(not violence) and depression to that list but assumingly everyone has experienced the latter.I am now 29 and this must be my 20th attempt in the last few years.Today is day 8 and currently my fourth best attempt in about 5 years.Im lying in bed and only stumbled on this site when i was looking for a lung detox.I quit ciggerets today too and only took them up on a previous cold turkey attempt.15 years have been thrown down the drain and whatever ambition,talent charisma and character have gone with it.Not to mention a beautifull women that i had the most intense and loving relationship a man could wish to have.I wont waste anymore reading time listing the rest.
After numerous attempts my x realised i was never going to pick her over the weed and finially left leaving both of us broken hearted.Could ya blame her,i lied to her to protect my smoking habbits.To make things worse we worked together and the problems of a broken hearted stoner can escalate so when i realised we hit a point of no return i left the job and 5 weeks later i was on a plane to the other side o the world.I promised myself that day that when i return i would be clean not for her but for my own piece of mind.That was a year ago.I did survive 3 weeks and even got a tatoo in thai which means control.Of course it didnt last and i was back in the same routine.
I once played sport at a high local level and somewhere inside of me i threw myself back into the deep end only last week.I hope this is the turning point in my life as after 6 sixty metre sprints i was first to hit the showers and had to watch the rest of the panel continue with their training.I could'nt breath,had a headace and my whole body was rattling.This really hit a nerve!!Im 29,dont carry an oz of fat,can still sprint as quick as most people i know and have the skills to compete if not dominate with the rest of the squad.
Im typing this because i feel and i know only time will tell that this was my cure...to see something that used to come so naturally now become a nightmare.I think its just what i need..A CHALLENGE!!!something that motivates me.God when was the last time i said that!!i could type all day about my problems but i think when the end is in sight its just time to let go and as YAK pointed out to just move on with my life.Iv spent too much time and energy even trying to quit never mind actually being a stoner.I just have to move on.its now or never!!
My new life started last week and i dont ever want to look back again.**** THE WEED,**** MY FRIENDS THAT SMOKE THE WEED,**** AMSTERDAM,**** THE NOVALTY OF GROWING IT AND **** ANY IDIOT THAT SAYS ITS OK.Im man own man and if i have to loose more to gain in the long run then il be a selfish as i have ever been to get to where i want to be.This is my life and im not going to be a slave anymore.I hope anyone reading this has enough fire in u to stand up and claim what is rightfully your's!!!!!LIVING IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT,FAR MORE REWARDING AND FAR MORE ENJOYABLE THAN DOPING

mate, i just came back to this forum after 2 months smoking and your post rings solidly of my own situation.

your energy has fired me up something savage. thankyou.

p.s reading your post's just make me angrier with the weed but also encourages me that im far from alone and this feat has been achieved before,Thank you all for the comforting trip i have just experienced

Hey Blanch,i must have missed ur post when i was typing my p.s last night so to see it now has just topped off a wonderfull day of natural emotions.I used to think i was too dramatic preaching to friends about quitting to absoulutely no avail so to see a response,well im chuffed:).Im delighted to
have found this blog and i will continue to visit it.
I woke up today after reading this blog with a real spring in my step.Despite quitting last week iv stiil been in an isolation buzz and the paranoia of everyday activites was still there(probably still is).Anyway my sister called over today...Now usually when she does she pretty much gets blanked by the mood swings,the impatience,the paranioa and quite simply the ignorance of a stoner.So im now lying in bed again after talking garbage for hours with her with little or no effort put into sparing my self obsessed time!!If this is how i will conduct myself from now on in everyday life then give me some of that!!!
Blanch i have'nt conquered anything yet and im only a few days ahead of u after your 2 month binge so im glad we can support eachother and anyone else who needs encouragment.Im sure u have valid points to share that i can use to help me in this extremely testing time so here's one i learned over the year's especially the last year.,,,,No1 can make us change only ourselves but we can be influenced by a few,say family,a partner or maybe a good friend who does'nt smoke and can see the damage from a normal perspective.Surround yourself with these people and ditch anyone assosiated with weed untill u feel strong enough to deal with them.....
Dont beat yourself up over the last 2 months and just start fresh again and keep doing so untill u win.Its a war my friend!!A war for your state of mind so dont dont ever give up on that as there will only be one outcome if u do