First time on this site, never new I could communicate with others with the same addiction. Yesterday was my quit day and today I have been a complete BEAR, on edge and depressed. I do ok in the work setting because it is very busy and no time to think about it. When I get home, I am exhausted with customer complaints at the end of the day and my nerves are at wits end, I so look forward to a nice relaxing smoke after I get home. However, I do not like the control it has over my life and how I feel. I have also suffered from depression for over twenty years and I do not get addicted to that medication, even Xanax, Any advice for a lady of 40 that has smoked since age 16?
I can not believe I thought I was the only one with this problem!!!!!!
Truman Girl
Truman, I started smoking at at 16 but quit at age 34. I noticed a general trend at that point in my life that pot, while once kind of "in," was becoming less glamourous and more of a secretive thing with me. I also noticed that as time wore on, I enjoyed fewer benefits from smoking the pot and more of the detrimental side effects, inluding paranoia. Despite this, I continued to smoke.
As time wore on, I became aware that I was having a lot of trouble with relationships in my life, and it was beginning to bleed into the one area of my life that I had always valued the most: my work. At one one point, I was told to either get help or look for a job, and in the counseling sessions that followed, I began to understand that I used pot addictively. I thought that was amusing, because I had experimented with a lot of other drugs in my life and never had much trouble walking away from them, and here I was being brought to my knees by the lowly marijuana.
In any event, abstinence was the solution for me. I also began to realize that my will power, of which I have plenty, was actually a liability when it came to living live free of the desire to get high. Sure, I could white knuckle it and not smoke on the basis of a commitment, but I was not much fun to be around. Eventually I began to understand that the objective was to be free of the desire to use. That was a little harder to come by.
I attended AA meetings to learn how to cope with life without constantly seeking refuge in getting high. I learned a lot in those rooms and I am very grateful for having gottem my life back. These days, I have no desire to get high, and do not even get triggered when I smell it. Quite the contrary, it brings back the bad memories, not the good ones.
FWIW, I have also dealt with depression over the years, and medicated it with pot for years. I was told that the first thing to do was to get the depressant, i.e., the pot, out of my system, and then to address the issues of depression. These days, I really try to live life on life's terms, and for that reason, I have made the personal decision to deal with those issues without anti-depressants. Luckily, between cleaning the dope out of my system, and learning an array of coping tools, I have managed to keep the depression at bay pretty well over the years. I will admit that I wake up some days feeling sorry for myself, but these days, I have lots of mechanisms for dealing with that sense of self pity, and luckily, I can usually manage pretty well without the aid of antidepressants. YMMV.
Good luck in your efforts to quit.
Drop in and let us know how you are doing.
August
As time wore on, I became aware that I was having a lot of trouble with relationships in my life, and it was beginning to bleed into the one area of my life that I had always valued the most: my work. At one one point, I was told to either get help or look for a job, and in the counseling sessions that followed, I began to understand that I used pot addictively. I thought that was amusing, because I had experimented with a lot of other drugs in my life and never had much trouble walking away from them, and here I was being brought to my knees by the lowly marijuana.
In any event, abstinence was the solution for me. I also began to realize that my will power, of which I have plenty, was actually a liability when it came to living live free of the desire to get high. Sure, I could white knuckle it and not smoke on the basis of a commitment, but I was not much fun to be around. Eventually I began to understand that the objective was to be free of the desire to use. That was a little harder to come by.
I attended AA meetings to learn how to cope with life without constantly seeking refuge in getting high. I learned a lot in those rooms and I am very grateful for having gottem my life back. These days, I have no desire to get high, and do not even get triggered when I smell it. Quite the contrary, it brings back the bad memories, not the good ones.
FWIW, I have also dealt with depression over the years, and medicated it with pot for years. I was told that the first thing to do was to get the depressant, i.e., the pot, out of my system, and then to address the issues of depression. These days, I really try to live life on life's terms, and for that reason, I have made the personal decision to deal with those issues without anti-depressants. Luckily, between cleaning the dope out of my system, and learning an array of coping tools, I have managed to keep the depression at bay pretty well over the years. I will admit that I wake up some days feeling sorry for myself, but these days, I have lots of mechanisms for dealing with that sense of self pity, and luckily, I can usually manage pretty well without the aid of antidepressants. YMMV.
Good luck in your efforts to quit.
Drop in and let us know how you are doing.
August
Hey there,
I'm new here too, and have just quit smoking within the last two months. Fight through tonite, it will get easier. Make a pact with yourself that you won't smoke tonite. Let tomorrow bring what it may, concentrate on today.
I will type more to you later, for now, I have to go to work. Stay strong, and get through tonite!
J
I'm new here too, and have just quit smoking within the last two months. Fight through tonite, it will get easier. Make a pact with yourself that you won't smoke tonite. Let tomorrow bring what it may, concentrate on today.
I will type more to you later, for now, I have to go to work. Stay strong, and get through tonite!
J
