Cannabis addiction recovery

[Collega]

Hi. Has anyone had insomnia and anxiety after about a month from quitting cannabis. I was a cannabis smoker for about a year or more a few times a day. And after stopping smoking everything was well for a three - four weeks. Then insomnia came with anxiety and strange things in head.

[Gymsack]

I have never smoked or consumed by eating Cannabis BUT I use it every day as a topical salve dissolved in Coconut oil for pain and it works very well. If it is used in an oil on your skin only, then it will not get into the blood stream and it will not enter the brain and will not show on any test. I grow my own and make my own salve from a combination of raw and dry roasted cannabis that is dissolved in coconut oil. I have had no side effects nor indication of any dependance. Maybe try it to see if it can help you wean off the smoke. My doctors are telling me to try the Cannabis orally or smoke to see if there are other benefits to fight the PD and I will do so by putting some oil in muffins when this years plants are ready.

Why did you stop smoking it ? The insomnia and anxiety may be the PD without the cannabis not just the effect of weaning off because I have never met anyone else that said he had been addicted to cannabis by topical application or ingestion , only a few by smoking it. It is not an opiate.

PS> I am 76 and I have smoked tobacco for a very long time and I am addicted to nicotine but I am down to 3 or 4 cigarette a day for over two years and my doctors tell me to stop worrying about quitting as it probably is helping with the PD . So we make our own way in this world from our own trials and tribulations. Good Luck

[kaypeeoh]

Stoners unite! Any new habit takes about 4 weeks for it to become the new norm. Once you're habituated to this new norm there can be a withdrawal period if you then opt to stop. The insomnia and anxiety are the brain's response to Cannabis withdrawal. You might try melatonin for insomnia. And meditation for anxiety.

Where I live the stoners are trying to make pot legal. And of course the anti-stoners are up in arms over it. Personally I'd like to see a pot dispensary close so I might be able to get a job there.

[Muay]

Hello, I have a master of science degree in medical cannabis from the University of Maryland. Smoking cannabis with high THC content leads to dependence and when you stop there is withdrawal symptoms. i.e. like those you mentioned. It will take a while for those withdrawal symptoms to wear off. I would not advise smoking THC long term as there are adverse long term consequences.

[chartist]

I did a one year test of high THC cannabis (indica) for sleep. What I found is that everyday use caused a degree of tolerance requiring that I use more and more to maintain the same effect over the test period of a year. I realized during the test that the increased dosing was a definite problem, but wanted to complete the test, which I did.

During the test period I also realized that if I tried to skip a night, I probably was not going to fall asleep until very late in the night or possibly not at all.

After completing the one year test, it was very difficult to sleep without cannabis and the desire to smoke for just one more night was very strong and that feeling lasted for many many months. Imo, I was most likely moderately addicted to cannabis for sleep. After about 6 months, the desire to use cannabis for sleep had declined very significantly, but the desire was still present and I was tempted many times to just try it one more time and would try and justify that desire by telling myself I would only do it once and that I really didn't need it. After about a year, the desire was pretty much gone, but I could see how easy it would have been for me to sneak a few hits.

Having done this test I can see how some people might not be able to stop themselves from continuing to smoke cannabis for sleep. This is why, now, I never suggest cannabis to help people sleep. After being off cannabis for a year, a more normal sleep pattern for myself came about and that is when I finally appreciated having stopped using cannabis for sleep.

Another issue with using cannabis every night for sleep is that cannabis reduces REM sleep. REM sleep deprivation can increase oxidative stress levels and reduce glutathione level in certain areas of the brain. I don't know if the reduced REM sleep caused by the use of cannabis meets this threshold or not, but I am no longer interested enough in cannabis to one day realize that it does meet that threshold for these effects to occur.

In your case, you were likely using more cannabis than me because you were using it several times a day, so I would fully expect insomnia as a potential result of using cannabis for a year at several times per day as your body adjusts to a lack of internal reactions that it had become accustomed to on a daily basis. As to the other effects that you mentioned, the human body has cannabinoid receptors throughout and each time you smoked those receptors were being activated and or bound with causing many reactions in your body on a very regular basis. Now that the cannabis has been stopped, those activities have been stopped, multiple response reactions to that stoppage from your body seems inevitable and should be expected. If your body reacts similarly to mine to the use of cannabis, those issues may fade with time.

I don't know if you were using high THC content cannabis like I was, but I suspect that was a major contributing factor as to why it was as hard for me to quit cannabis as it was. My feeling is that had I used a lower THC level, I may have been able to have an easier time of stopping the use of cannabis. On the downside, the lower THC buds I tried, were not very helpful for sleep in my case.

Art