ID:1341326
 
No, I'm not quitting BYOND! Far from it!

This post is actually about me (and my girlfriend) deciding to stop smoking pot. Today is my first marijuana-free day...up until this morning, I was getting high every day at least twice. Now, I don't consider this whole thing incredibly serious. Withdrawals are basically non-existent with weed, the main thing is just having the willpower to refuse it (particularly since my roommates smoke all the time).

I do feel a bit tired today, and I think it's because I'm used to waking up and hitting the bong right after breakfast. It is almost like my replacement for coffee (which I never drink), hopefully within a couple days I won't feel this way. It seems a bit ironic because I've heard most people say they can't get to sleep when they stop smoking suddenly, whereas I feel like I can't wake up!

Anyway, I'll have to be sure to donate some of my weed money to BYOND :) and perhaps I will be less lazy about working on games!

Has anyone else been a huge stoner and then dropped it? If so, tell me what your tactics were. Did you remove all paraphernalia from your environment? Did you have to ditch your friends that would smoke around you no matter what? Or did you "just say no?" That's what I'm trying to do - I figure it's better to get used to being around it and still refusing, rather than pretending like it isn't available or doesn't exist and then suddenly caving when someone offers it up. I don't feel like a super addict or anything but I do crave it, so perhaps your stories will help me stay the course :)
drugs r bad
Quitting marijuana is a fair bit easier than quitting other drugs due to it's non-addictive nature. (quite the opposite, in fact). That's not to say that it won't be hard. As with anything else, e.g. video games, television, it's still psychologically addictive.

It is a good idea to quit while actually around people that still smoke, though you have to be able to resist the peer pressure, assuming that they aren't decent enough friends to respect your decision in the first place.

From my friends' stories, I've heard it's easier to replace it with something else. If you choose to do this though, pick something non-addictive and preferably healthy, like cranberry juice or something crazy like that.
Giving up anything cold-turkey can reinforce dependency. You can fall into a cycle where you decide to stop, cravings grow until the point where you give in a little, feel like you've crossed the threshold so you might as well binge, then you feel really guilty and powerless so you let all sorts of things go in your life, things get even worse, so you promise to stop again. The down part of the cycle gets more intense with each failure.

Instead, manage your lifestyle and slowly minimize the things you don't want in it. For instance, if you feel really tempted, give in. But give yourself limits, like limit the amount that you'll smoke, or promise that you'll smoke when you've finished your work for the day. You may also want to set a schedule, like every Saturday, where you smoke. That way you manage your cravings and learn to control them. That gives you power over yourself, instead of feeling like you have to surrender and have no power.
I remember when I used to get stoned almost every day in high school. When you're by yourself, it's easy to resist smoking, but when you're around friends, it's not. It's especially hard when you're being offered some exotic blunt everyone has tried and you want to make sure you're apart of the trend. When I started college, I realized that I needed to stop smoking and eventually stopped refusing bongs from my friends, didn't go to parties as much, started going to the gym, and started studying more. When you're inactive, that's when you crave marijuana the most.
Whenever you get your cravings, just thing about the millions of brain cells you kill off every time you take a puff. Poor little innocent cute brain cells that ain't neva did nothin' to nobody. That should be motivation for you to put the blunt back down.
Most of the people I know that were big pot heads and quit, just decided to quit and refused what they were offered. Most stayed around it for awhile, but their friends started to fade away since they didn't smoke any more. 'Just say no', it's not hard. I get offered a lot of drugs and drinks all the time, people either get used to it and stop offering or just fade out. I have about 24 cans of alcohol in my house right now, and alcohol stays in the house, I haven't touched any since I was a kid. Weed never did anything for me, so I never got into that, even though everyone(literally- no joke) else in my family are major pot heads and most of them are alcoholics. My sister recently started parole for a possession charge and quit it all, no issues with cold turkey.