been off weed for awhile (3 months) and decided to smoke for a bit last week and it was pretty alright but nothing i would see myself going all day everyday with again ever again. im just tryna find moderation, a middle ground where i can enjoy it the same way people enjoy alcohol ever so often without it totally brain/cognitively fucking me. i wanna stay function and normal and maintain my mental health/emotional health ive developed these past few months while also being able to toke here and there.

(I'm not saying to give it to children or not to be appropriately cautious with it. Please still be responsible with how you treat cannabis.)

I'm just saying that it's literally just candy for adults. It's a sweet treat that just so happens to make you feel funny for a little while.

I fucking love those Goetze's caramel creams. I can't control myself around those, I will inhale the entire goddamn bag in one sitting. Normally I'll just keep them out of the house and only buy them once in a blue moon when I really feel like treating myself. I'm starting to understand that no amount of moderation will work for me long term and I will ALWAYS eventually crack and want to overindulge, so I need to start treating weed the same way I treat those damn caramel creams.

It goes up on the shelf with fancy teas and bath soaps and other creature comforts that make life more pleasant as a whole, and you don't need to do it every single day- it's just a treat after all and too much of ANYTHING is bad for you.

I live in a legal state where I can't throw a rock without hitting like 10 dispensaries. There is no shortage of it and I can just go buy it whenever I want. It's not that exciting "forbidden fruit" that it was when I was a lot younger, it's literally just funny adult candy, and it's not the end of the world if I run out and don't have any for a while.

My wallet will thank me in the long run 😭

I'm looking to see if I can find people who have successfully gone from harmful and excessive smoking that's hard to stop even though you want to (what would be defined as addiction) to a new healthy and balanced relationship with weed.

I've heard of people who were heavy drinkers before, and really struggled to cut back, but managed to do it and now only drink socially and don't have a problem with it. I assume this might be possible for some people who smoke weed too, but I've never heard of anyone, so I'm not sure.

I wonder if the narrative of "once an addict, always an addict" is true for everyone. There are some vices you couldn't possibly stay 100% away from, or it would at the very least be very hard and limiting to do so (like sex, food, shopping, etc). So people who are addicted to those things often learn to moderate them using sets of rules, contextual changes, professional treatment, etc. Then, they can have a romantic and sexual relationship, eat food or do their groceries in a healthy way. I'm wondering if there is something fundamentally different about psychoactive substances that makes it impossible to treat addiction to them the same way.

Thought it was 5 mg As I was going to start small but it turned out it was 10mg. Usually gummies never did anything for me but I actually felt it this time around. I've been having really bad cravings lately . I also started a new depression medication that's been kicking my ass with sleep and just makeing me feel awful so I decided to just pop a gummy or else I was going to go ahead and take a couple puffs of my cart that I still have. But that's how it starts just a couple puffs that turns into everyday thing..

Been smoking since I was 15 turning 31 in December. The first 2 weeks were horrible but a lot manageable for now. Couldn't sleep no appetite. If there's anyone who can give me more long term tips it would be appreciated.

Hi everyone, throwaway account for obvious reasons here.

I've been smoking weed on and off for about 12 years (the first few years were only on vacations or particular celebrative days with friends), and about half a year ago I've started using it quite a bit more than I used to.

I used to smoke about half a 0.3g joint which is a very small amount, and that was basically only on weekends. Now for the past year I've been smoking once or twice a week, the amount is a little higher as I smoke the whole joint but it's still about 0.3g.

With that situation said, I'll now talk about my general health:
For the past couple of years, I've been having physical pain in muscles and joints, mainly my back and hands / wrists, and I've been trying to understand where the hell it's coming** from.
I also had other issues like shallow breaths (sometimes), brain fog, and just a general sense of dread and that everything in the world kind of sucks or is evil.

Went to physicians, physiotherapy and all sorts of stuff but nothing fixed it so my brain of course started monitoring more and more my situation to see if it would worsen or not.
About a year ago, as I've said before, I started using a bit more and it felt less and less exciting than it used to be, while highlighting my issues more and more.

So of course I went to a psychologist (which I already went to before so I knew them), we talked about these things among others that happened in this time period in my life, and we've come to the conclusion that I needed a psychiatrist's consult on this. So I went, and they gave me a medication for generalized anxiety disorder called lyrica (pregabalin), a common SSRI called bupropion, and another one for sleeping, because I told them sleep wasn't restorative anymore.

I've been on these medications for about two months, not much has changed if not that I feel a little bit more flat, I can recognize bad thought patterns (like realizing I'm getting angry at someone for no reason), but I feel like when I'm high things have worsened again.

**Whenever I smoke, my brain starts flipping through toughts, my physical pain seemingly worsens, which triggers my self monitoring, which triggers my anxiety which leads to shallow breaths, palpitations and most if not all that is included under this disorder.

At this point, I don't know if I truly do have a medical condition, if my anxiety started from a panic attack or something else, if it's weed that's causing all of this, or what.

So today I've decided to share my story, hopefully finding someone in a similar situation that has sorted things out, any help is appreciated.

Oh and about two years ago, when all of this started, my thyroid started acting up again (basedow disease, so hyper) and from then I've been taking medication to keep values under control. Some people suggested me to simply remove my thyroid as this is the second episode and it's most likely going to happen again. Just throwing this out there in case it means anything.

TL;DR: I probably have generalized anxiety and don't know if weed makes it worse or not.
Sorry my post isn't really that readable I assume, my attention deficit doesn't allow me to write coherent paragraphs

Maybe this is a tad extra, but weed is essentially the only “companion” that I’ve had with me for the last 20 years. I’ve had long breaks, taking 6 months to a year off at a time to focus and maybe re-evaluate the relationship I have with it. Overall I’ve led a pretty solitary life for as long as I can remember, and cannabis has been my retreat from all the pressures of life. It’s not something I want to stop doing completely, as I’ve been too sad whenever I tried that before.

It’s really been a safe bubble for me at times, because I’m a very expressive, talkative person but also *highly* sensitive. That combination makes life extra hard to get through socially, and weed sort of helped me hide out and focus on necessary tasks, which take me longer to complete than most.

(Sorry, I’m a bit stoned as I write this, forgive any vague rambling)

I know that I can’t do this alone, and as I get older it seems harder to step away from it without asking for a bit of help. I suppose what motivated me this time is that I’m tired of keeping my life so small and tired of hiding out. I know it’s not like that for everybody, but this is how it is for me, and I’d like to be able to put myself out there, talk, express, and be open to receiving both love and criticism without letting it push me back into a corner. For me, this takes immeasurable courage, so I wanted to mark this moment as the start of my next prolonged break.

My last one was 6 months long, so I’d like to go for as long as possible, maybe even a year or years, so I can save some money, time, and energy and put it toward some things I’ve put off for far too long and take care of some personal business.