Confused after talking to doctor... Please help

SparkleFly12 wrote:Everyone who posts here has three things in common:

1. They were normal people with no depression, anxiety, etc.
2. Then the smoked a lot of weed
3. They started having PAWS symptoms

Oh.

Wasn't there a wee step between 2. and 3.? Something like
2a. They made the decision to stop, and it hurt real bad, man. Like, they really missed it. A lot. But after a week or so something else kicked in...

I did 2. and 2a. but that was as far as it went. Or maybe I did 3. but didn't realise it at the time. Heck, maybe I've still got it!

Wow, some of the comments on here are just shameful. I'm saddened to see this take place on a board that is supposed to be about support. From my personal experience, having gone through quitting weed for my 3rd time, PAWS is very real to me... The waves of fatigue during those periods are nothing like anything else I've experienced.

My quitting timeline:
0-3 months: Complete exhaustion, couldn't get anything done, DP, DR, aches and pains, anxiety. Continual PAWS wave of fatigue
3-6 months: Gradual noticeable improvement. Some good days some bad days. Would experience waves of PAWS fatigue that would like 3-4 days. I learned to just "go with it" and not fight it.
6-8 months: Noticeable less PAWS waves from time to time. 15 minute naps rather than long naps in the afternoon. Continual improvement.
8+ months: No symptoms.

I did notice that removing caffeine from my diet was the final thing I did for improvement. Cutting back on alcohol and sugar are obvious. Exercise a must. All the best and keep up your head up, it will improve. Just listen to your body and don't fight it.

There is a Chinese proverb “don’t go to doctor, go to one that experienced it.” What someone who has not used weed since 70s(I was not even born then) would know about PAW? If PAW is not for real then with passage of time we get better?
I remember when I went to my doctor after 3 weeks of quitting...he was insisting that weed withdrawal only last 14 days..I was so depressed leaving his office with tons of medication for anxiety and dp..I never took the medication thanks to this forum.
Weed PAW is for real and can last more than 2 years.

How are you now my friend loud

imondayXX wrote:Wow, some of the comments on here are just shameful. I'm saddened to see this take place on a board that is supposed to be about support.

Agreed. It is shameful when people on a forum try to shame others into silence. It is a public forum that is designed to allow for disagreement, to allow for differences of opinion to be expressed. It is not a place to shame or attack others just for expressing a view you or the majority may not agree with. Shame indeed.

Head in loud wrote:There is a Chinese proverb “don’t go to doctor, go to one that experienced it.”

Not a bad proverb except for one slight oversight. A brain surgeon does not need to have experienced brain damage in order to operate. If a doctor had to experience terminal cancer in order to treat terminal cancer we wouldn't have very many doctors around.

It is good to get the opinions of people that have "experienced it". As the saying goes, "walk a mile in my shoes". But, you know what is also valuable? Getting the opinions of those that have not experienced it.

If a person doesn't get defensive and instead keeps an open mind as they continue to grow they will be willing to listen to the opinions of others instead of closing their minds to the advice provided only by those they agree with.

Weed PAW is for real and can last more than 2 years.

Certainly there are symptoms from weed withdrawal the same as most chemicals we might abuse, e.g. heroine or acohol. How those symptoms develop vary dependent on any number of factors. As for symptoms that can last for more than two years, thank you for opinion.

"Because the mostly mental symptoms of PAWS are harder to measure than physical ones and are largely based on self-reporting by those experiencing them, there is some controversy as to the validity of the disorder. While there has been documented research on persistent and protracted withdrawal in substances such as alcohol and benzodiazepines, PAWS is not currently recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders."

https://www.pbinstitute.com/blog/post-a ... -syndrome/

My personal opinion is that like alcohol and benzodiazepines there are potentially long-lasting impacts of using weed. But, the cause of mental symptoms such as depression two years after stopping weed may or may not be related to weed. It is worth considering other causes.

Hope you're doin okay nowadays @HeadInLoud and Uniqueason. Awesome that you're doing better @imondayxx

@HeadInLoud Yea visiting the doctor doesnt do anything for weed paws since there are no medical studies on it to date; and thus no experts on it - so your proverb is spot on. The best people to turn to are those that have experienced it, just as OP in this thread did.

Thats the great thing about this forum...hundreds of archived cases of people reporting the same mishmash of symptoms after quitting weed, and in every case it goes away within 3 years; usually within 0-2. If I was going through this before the internet I would have convinced myself there is something seriously wrong with me and my life would have spiraled.

PAWS, depression, anxiety (different kinds), vitamin deficiencies, sleep disorders, mould poisoning, adrenal gland malfunctioning/inflation, pituitary gland malfunctioning/inflation, diabetes, PTSD, digestive system disorders, etc. the actual true cure is.... Fixing yourself, mentally, physically (diet, exercise, sleep) , socially and acceptance. just waiting won't be enough, you truly have to make an effort to up your quality in life in all dimensions, don't listen to anyone anywhere, don't label it, just focus on living and the positives, and keep improving yourself, your suffering (not problems, problems are a problem only if you suffer from them) will go away. Results are not immediate, there is no pill to cure these issues, there are pills to tackle the symtpoms but not the disease itself, the cure is you working on it.