It is now widely accepted that weed is, at the very least, less dangerous than other recreational drugs.
But never forget that the excess of absolutely nothing is good and weed addiction is a real thing.
In fact, I am someone who has tried smoking weed and I've seen both, the good and the bad sides of it and I can't wait to share them with you!
In today’s article, I will talk about WEED, lets's get high!
Haha, I'm kidding. Let's get started!
Is weed addiction real?
Contrary to the belief of many weed smokers, it is addictive. Marijuana is one of the most widely used drugs in the world.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about 9% of people who use marijuana become dependent on or addicted ( link ), meaning they cannot stop using it even if it is having negative effects on health, finances, relationships, or career.
While marijuana addiction isn’t associated with overdose death like other drugs, it can have serious side effects like social anxiety and laziness.
At all things that no high performer would like to experience.
I'll also share my personal experience about that later in the article.
Why do we get addicted in the first place?
If you have a happy, organized, trouble-free life, you're probably not going to want to do drugs and run the risk of addiction because you know you don't want to fuck up your life.
On the flip side, if you're living in poverty, have high levels of stress, depression, living unhealthy life or have no social mobility… you might as well be willing to start smoking pot to “make yourself feel good”, "forget about your problems" or some other shit like that.
You've probably heard of those studies where the rats choose some drug over food, right? It turns out that the results are completely different if you put the rats in a rewarding social setting where there are other things to do to occupy their time. It's not unreasonable to assume that humans follow a similar path to addiction.
Symptoms of weed addiction
Marijuana might negatively affect your decision-making and motivation.
Can cause the loss of interest in the social and recreational activities that you once enjoyed.
Next to that, you’re losing interest in setting and achieving goals.
And the biggest sign of all is when you simply can not stop smoking… The only way out of that is speaking about that with a specialist or some person that you love and together find the solution for it.
My experience with smoking joints
Fun fact: I am born on the International Marijuana Day, the 20th of April.
420, baby!
"420, 4:20, or 4/20 is cannabis culture slang for marijuana and hashish consumption, especially smoking around the time 4:20 p.m., it refers to April 20 (which is 4/20 in U.S. form)."
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, sometimes it’s very funny to smoke a joint with friends and laugh at nonsense.
But if you start doing it too often, for example, every month, every week or even every day… It actually becomes far away from a funny activity.
You are going to most likely find yourself sitting in a room with people who just wanna chiiiiiiill.
Nobody wants to go for a walk.
Nobody wants to go and meet some new people or experience something new.
Nobody wants to do any other activity than walking to the kitchen and eating like there's no tomorrow.
You can not do sport.
You can not keep your attention on something that is not highly entertaining for more than 3 seconds.
You are also becoming a contender for the World Procrastination Championship because you just wanna chiiill and you can do that work tomorrow, or why clean your room today when you can clean it next week, right?
Plus you are hungry only when you are high, the rest of the time you are "kinda like not so hungry" and you might miss important meals.
Next to that, I realize more and more that weed is actually a depressant rather than an antidepressant.
By the way, you not only fuck up that day with being high, but then you also fuck up the next day or two, with having a hungover or schrewing up your sleep schedule.
Another thing that motivated me to quit weed was that during the years I have been in contact with many people who are addicted to weed, and I have personally seen them waste their valuable time and energy, and that's very sad.
Currently, I am simply asking my friends or clients if they would like to see one day that their kids are daily high on weed, and if the answer is "NO", then I kindly ask them, “Then why the fuck you are doing it?!?”
After all, that's just my opinion, I am not saying that it's right or wrong to smoke weed, just sharing my experience.
In the end, I would just like to say that you are not alone in this struggle, and I am always here to help you get through tough times!
There are going to be always addictions in our lives but try to focus on some healthy addictions and addictions that you can control.
I am for example addicted to the gym and eating healthy, it’s really an addiction to me and something that I cannot live without it :) What is your healthy addition?