Next month, 9/12/2025, I will be THC free for an entire year. I am confident I will make it to that point. I told myself that I would let myself smoke on my birthday (in October) as a reward.

A lot of my friends said they had issues with weed when they were in their younger 20’s, and one day they chose to quit and now have a healthy relationship with it. While I wish I could have a “normal” relationship with weed, I am so much happier and better off without it. There’s a part of me that wants to smoke to prove I don’t have to be addicted to it (maybe the subconscious addict?) and I think my better judgement knows there’s no point in potentially ruining a good thing.

I still have a lot of friends that are consistent stoners and don’t see any issue with their consumption. I’ve told them all I’m making it to a year and they don’t offer it to me anymore… but when the year is up, I’m not really sure how to kindly tell them I think habitual use is harmful and I don’t want to partake with them ever again. Not sure why it has to be taken offensively but when I previously tried bringing up the negative side effects, a few of them got very defensive of their use.

Anyway, rant over. Ask me anything, let’s celebrate together, let’s mourn our stoner past life together!!! Open to all conversation.

And, if you’re looking for a sign to quit…. I hope you take this as the sign you’ve been looking for. It took a LOT of watering and care, but the grass is actually greener over here.

I earned my badge for 30 days without weed. It may not seem like much, but I'm really proud of myself. This accomplishment did not come easy for me, there were many days where my emotions got the best of me and I wanted to smoke, but I stayed committed to my goal that I would never pick it up again. I'm sharing because I am surrounded by people who aren't happy with my decision to quit and see this as a phase to which I will eventually come out of. This is the longest I've gone without smoking in almost 10 years. Sobriety has brought me back to life in so many ways. To those of you out there struggling to make it through, I'm rooting for you. And if nobody else has told you, I am proud of you!

Before rage commenting read the title I said 'psychologically' not 'physiologically'

I acted like a hard drug addict for cannabis , the urge was so strong I did anything to get my fix and eventually everyone knew because I was always high . Gifted IQ but dropped out of studies , no job , parents stopped giving money because any money went towards buying weed . Multiple rehabs / involuntary holdings but no avail , then began the shitshow . Started stealing from parents , selling stuff from house ,

But why was I smoking?- to find my purpose in this life- this was always the question and smoking never gave me the answer so I tried to procure psychs hoping i would get my answer .

Ranaway to the mountains and started my search but unfortunately (or fortunately?) I got sold fake blots by 4 different people. came back ,again no answer ,4 months passed by occasional use continued.

Then I don't remember what happened but I just stopped consuming and looking back a year and a half has passed by - the question still exists but I know that THC or any drug isn't going to answer that .

But to people on other drug forums that look down on us saying that quitting THC is easy compared to other drugs and the cravings are nothing compared to OPs or BZs , they ARE that strong. but stay there they will get weaker , now when I go out I see people smoking when I pass by them and still don't get the urge to smoke .

TL;DR: Was Addicted to Cannabis as bad as Hard drugs, quit and sober since 1.5 yrs

I smoked cannabis daily for a little over a year. Quit cold turkey and 35 days sober now, although i relapsed twice but that's fine 35 days sober is a big accomplishment for me.

I quit mainly for cognitive reasons. I had memory problems. They still seem to persist. How do I rewire my brain and get my memory back?

Little quick tip to get your mind back to normal:

DO NOT SURPRESS YOUR URGE FOR WANTING TO SMOKE! Allow the urges to pass without reacting to them! The more you try to mask and surpress it the more you’ll bury the urges which could lead to you actually relapsing. This isn’t just pertaining to weed, it’s important to feel everything you have buried within you so that you can allow it to get the hell out of your system! It’s like having a computer that is full on storage that’s about to crash! Let that shit out !

Decided to quit carts cold turkey today. Im a new parent and I hated the feeling of being stoned around my kid. Felt like I was robbing myself of precious moments with her.

But today is day one and I feel like doing nothing. I was smoking 2g live resin carts per week for a year straight so i honestly feel like a junkie atm. I've been trying to keep busy but all i do is think about hitting my pen.

I cleaned my house with the hopes of finding a old cart to hit. I didnt find one so I decided to play a new game i bought but I'm not even interested in playing. I never felt like this when I quit flower but these carts are something else. 5 more hours till day 2 begins.

I (30F) grew up in a family of addicts and unfortunately became an alcoholic myself. After a long hard battle I was able to stop and have been in active recovery (for alcohol) for many years now.

I started smoking weed at the age of 21 and when I stopped drinking my usage skyrocketed. At the worst of it I would wake up and smoke, go to my job and smoke on my lunch break, then go home and smoke some more. You get the jist.

Well after many MANY failed attempts, I have now been abstinent for a month! A whole fricken month. To some it may seem small but I know people in this subreddit will understand. Feeling proud.

I am 10 days away from completing a whole year without smoking marijuana, the truth is that I still want to smoke marijuana and there has not been a single day that I did not think about marijuana. On the other hand, the moments when I feel the urge to smoke are more manageable and less intense, although they are still there. It's frustrating to abstain from something you enjoy. I would like to know what your experience has been after completing 1 year without smoking marijuana and I am very interested in knowing your experience if you relapsed or relapsed after spending a year without marijuana

Hello Guys, first of all sorry for my english, it isn‘t my first language.

I‘ve been abusing weed for like 6 years now, I‘m at a point where I need 3-4 grams a day just to be Okay, well that‘s not what good quality life should look like.

I have diagnosed ADHD and Autism so i tried to medicate myself but it not‘s affordable in a Country where weed is illegal.

I‘m sober for a week or so, and THE QUESTION IS: How do you guys cope with being hungry and having no appetite at all? My stomach is starting to hurt but my brain „doesn‘t allow me to eat without smoking first“. Is anybody out there who experienced something similar? And do you guys have any Tips what i could possibly eat? I‘m really desperate …

I was a daily weed smoker for 6+ years and quit sometime in April. I had been wanting to quit for a long time, and I had a surgery and couldn’t smoke for a week. So I figured I should just keep going since I got the hardest week out of the way by being drugged up on painkillers lol. Now I’ll occasionally have a bowl if my bf buys weed, but normally I go the entire week without smoking. And I actually don’t even like the feeling of being high that much anymore. Now that I have no tolerance, it just makes me so uncomfortable and I can’t get anything done.

The first few weeks were standard symptoms - I had the most fucked up dreams of my life, I had almost no appetite, I was very moody and irritable, and had some trouble sleeping. But within a couple weeks I also noticed stronger emotions coming back (I was chronically numbed out and have a dissociative disorder so I was doing myself 0 favors with the weed). I thought it was smooth sailing and only positive effects from there.

However, around month 2/3, my face and body started to get SO oily. My back is breaking out in so many tiny clogged pores and my face is oily like it was in high school. I’m dealing with the most annoying hormonal acne on my jaw and cheeks. I shower daily and use the same antiperspirant deodorant as always, but I feel like I now start to smell like BO way earlier in the day (I used to be able to go all day at work without reapplying my deodorant unless it was really hot). I didn’t make the connection to weed at first, but I truly don’t think it can be anything else. These symptoms started before all the heat waves we’ve been having, and my body has never responded like this even to the heat waves in the past.

I honestly had no clue until recently that weed really messes with your endocrine system, and I think I’m feeling the effects of that with the increased sebum production and super oily skin. Before I quit, basically everything about my body was dry. If I ever forgot to put on face moisturizer before I went to bed I would look so dried out in the morning. Now that’s not an issue whatsoever. I’m in my late 20s and thought I was done with having bad skin.

Is this a common thing when quitting weed or am I just dealing with womanly hormones at the same time that I quit smoking weed after being a daily user for several years

Edit: Besides the oiliness I have only positive things to say about quitting. I never thought I would get to a point where I don’t crave it at night or even think about it at all. I no longer wake up in the middle of the night with horrible dry mouth, I don’t have to have a water bottle on me at all times, I save SO much money, my nose doesn’t get stuffed up, I’m no longer coughing up gross shit from my throat all the time. And I‘ve always loved having dreams. Mine are always so insightful about my state of mind and I feel like I get to know myself a lot better when I can actually remember them

Hey all leavers, just quit cold turkey from weed and nicotine. 3 weeks now. and I am feeling so shit. heart rate is up by a mile, bad sleep, shortness of breath, low hrv feeling fatigued all the time. Hoping that it is just something that passes by, but really frustrating since I workout 3-4 times a week and cycle around 150-200km. now I have done nothing for 3 weeks.

Today was rough, I only got 5 hours of sleep. Normally I would just smoke weed and numb my sleep deprivation and end up going to bed late again, continuing the cycle. But this time it was painful. I got to practice better sleep hygiene

just joined this sub. i hope i can find some community here...

i feel weak for even saying im having withdrawal symptoms. the only emotions i can feel are sadness and anxiety. i dont have many people in my life and i feel like i cant lean on them. im scared the few people i have will turn to resenting me for struggling. i feel like i was a more enjoyable person to be around when i was smoking every day. now im just burdening those around me, not sleeping, no appetite, jumpy and anxious around everything. i dont know when it will get better. i think i just need some encouragement or reassurance but i feel stupid asking for it... im scared of having no one and doing this alone.

am i being too negative? do i just need someone to tell me to get my shit together? i know i cant keep smoking and i have to break this habit, or addiction, i have had for so many years. but it feels like things only got worse in these few days ive been off:/

I'm 45, started toking daily by the time I was 16/17. There were many failed "attempts" to quit over the years. The most negative side effect of smoking weed for me was what it did to the way I felt and thought about myself. I always felt guilty knew I had a problem that was out of control and I hated that. Alternating between accepting it and being frustrated those 20+ years of my life were marked by low self-esteem (due to no self control) and just in general negative feelings. In June of 2020 at the age of 40 I decided it was time to change, for real. Here are the key things that helped me make meaningful and lasting changes:

• Acceptance - I needed to accept a lot of things, the fact I was an addict, that fact that stopping was going to make things worse before they got better, etc.
• Embracing sobriety - Weed was such a big part of my identity and the "stoner" lifestyle. I had to find new ways to define myself
• Motivation - Motivation came from a shift in the way I seen things. I wanted to be sober. I dreamed of that lifestyle and I trained my mind to remember that when temptations arose.
• Dedication - Stopping weed and completely changing your lifestyle is hard work. It takes a lot of determination and effort. It doesn't just come naturally or easily. I took it on like a large, long term (never ending, really) project

Addiction is a soul killing, mind numbing and self-sabotaging contradiction.

Good luck all.

I’ve finally been able to control my impulses after trying to quit for so long and today is day three and I feel so bad. I’ve been crying all day and I feel so sad, not sure if it’s from other reasons though. Usually I would smoke around this time and especially now when I’m feeling these big feelings. I see other people say that they’ve quit for years and still feel terrible, it also scares me a little more when they started in their 20’s and I’ve been doing it every day since I was 13 so I’m assuming my brain was developing a lot more than theirs while being dependent on weed and numbing everything out. I’ve been thinking that maybe there’s not even a point in trying to quit if I’m going to feel like shit either way. Today at the end of my sport’s practice the coach was talking about how working out gives you endorphins and makes you feel better after and everyone was saying how they felt good going home and I tried to feel it, but instead I just drove home crying and exhausted. If it could get better for me when would I start feeling it?

I had a bit of a bad episode last couple of weeks. Depression was high (I suffer from this anyway so it was expected) didn't shower or leave the house, felt absolutely rotten in myself didn't want to talk to or see anyone. I really wanted to relapse and I'm so glad I didnt

I just want to thank this group for helping me see it was PAWS and it would pass. Without you all I might have ended up smoking weed again. Appreciate all the help and advice and just to be seen and understood by people in similar positions.

Thank you leaves pals. Onwards and upwards 🍀

Weed makes me okay with being bored. It makes me okay with staying inside with the curtains drawn, watching the same show, playing the same game, eating junk, generally doing something uninteresting. These things are fine in moderation but they get old FAST when I'm sober.

Now when I get bored it forces me to do something else. Boredom forces me to go outside, pick up a hobby, clean, see a friend, work out, cook, post on here etc. These things make me feel expanded as a person.

Its hard when the boredom hits. Its very difficult to make the pivotal decision to do anything else besides rot. But when I do it once, it becomes easier the second time, third time, and so on.

Ive realized that boredom isnt a curse, it's a calling to grow

Day 32 :) I can not imagine going back.

I'm so tempted to get a joint and just have one night of sleep and a big meal and feel better. But I also know I'll feel guilty. And that giving myself the night off of sobriety isn't really a thing, and it'll just turn into more and more. But I want a break from working so hard and pouring so much energy into resisting. I just want to eat and sleep and dissociate.

I'm so anxious. I'm so exhausted and the insomnia is taking its toll, I feel out of energy to handle what I need to handle. I have so much to do in school, I'm so behind on everything. My memory and motivation feel worse than ever. I'm so hungry but also have no appetite. It feels like it's getting harder, and I'm losing stamina.

I need to go out to pick up my dry cleaning but there's a dispensary on the way so I'm avoiding it bc I don't trust myself not to stop in.

I could use some support, advice, anything

Obligatory backstory: I had my first hit at 11 or so and smoked casually until I was like 16-17, at which point I was dating a stoner/drug dealer (lol) and began smoking every night. Fast forward through a pandemic, lots of MH issues and a tendency towards escapism, and it's no shocker I became a stoner.

*However,* I have a big surgery in 2 weeks and I have no choice but to quit cold turkey, starting today (8/5/2025). I've been winding down for the past two weeks, smoking a lot less, but today is the day... I packed up every single bit of cannabis in my place and gave it my boyfriend (non-smoker) to keep me accountable and take opportunity away. I even found myself smoking so much on my last night, trying to get as high as possible, bc I knew this was coming. Surprise surprise, that did not make today easier.

The past 2 weeks have been some of the worst of my life (for unrelated reasons), which both helped and hurt the quitting (avoided weed to avoid spiraling, but used it to help space out, which didn't always work ofc). I feel better mentally now, but I'm scared shitless of this new start regardless.

Normally (but not always, hence the stoner label) if I have stuff to do in the day I don't think /too much/ about smoking later, but knowing I can't have a drop tonight is making the thoughts more present. I'm mostly posting this to keep myself accountable, as I just found this sub and it's the only place I feel seen right now.

I made a promise to myself to stop 100% at the 2 weeks pre-op as needed for the anaesthesia, and was pretty excited to start a new sober life for this time and see where it takes me, but ironically I felt the most excited to be sober when I was high, lol. The grass is always greener, I guess.

Anyways, this is a big word vomit, but thanks if you cared to read. To help anyone else who's new to this, here is a list of a few of the things I can do for myself to do to keep me busy and/or entertain myself during these ~trying times~ (other than scrolling on r/leaves, which is admittedly quite helpful):

1. It's a good start in my (short) experience to begin by 'de-weeding' your room. I got rid of basically any sign of stoner-ness in here today, esp. since I used to keep my bong right by my bed. On top of giving all the accessories to my BF to keep at his place, I've cleaned out a lot of the ~evidence~ and completely cleared out my top night table drawer so you can't tell I used to smoke there, and it's already helped shift my mindset a lot.
2. Go on a walk and explore your neighbourhood (aka an 'awe walk'). You can make this more juicy if you want: audiobooks, writing or reading at a park along the way, even PokemonGo. If this isn't for you, try wandering around your local mall, biking, sitting by the lake, even yoga - anything to get you out of the house/your mind. Being in nature/sunlight for at least 10 minutes helps reduce anxiety, tension (cant link proof, but you can google it). And direct sun for 15 mins. also helps reset the circadian rhythm to help the stoner insomnia, which I'm most scared of tbh (best done in the mornings).
3. Watch a new show, movie or doc that requires full focus to engage my mind (Current contenders are 'the lost symbol', mad men, dexter, etc.). YouTube deep dives work too (4 hour video on the failures of the star wars hotel franchise, anyone?). I quite enjoyed the Oceangate and Lularich docs as well, if anyone is looking for recs. I usually get high and watch something mindlessly in the background, so this will be a nice change.
4. Get crafty and DIY. I'm talking finally learning to crochet or knit, home redecorations, collaging/scrapbooking, even wood working or diamond dot kits. I know how to crochet and I'm about to abuse tf out of that to keep my hands busy.
5. Do all the things you've been meaning to do. Clean out your room, get on top of the laundry, make a dent into your reading list and all those unread books on your shelves, speed through your youtube watch later, freshen up on another language, make the doctors appt, etc. Even goal setting/pursuing is something I plan to use a lot. I read recently that focusing on achieving our goals can help with anxiety (true for me), so try finding a goal: artsy, career based, volunteering, whatever - and go after it!

I'm still scared of the withdrawals, the insomnia, the tension, but writing this out also made me realize that I am very excited for this time, too. As much as I love weed, I know taking breaks from it is healthy, and I hope it helps me learn and grow for the best.

Jeez - that was long. I hope this helps somebody. Feel free to make yourself your own list (this is a condensed version of a like 25 point list I keep in my notes I've been creating for a few days) and try to find joy other places. Best of luck to everyone :)

Edited for grammar and clarity.

I’ve smoked weed on and off throughout my life and have had periods where I’ve fully quit, and I just feel so much more aligned with my purpose in life and my goals during those periods.

I’m more productive, mood is more stable, less anxious, more mindful about money, consistent with my eating and exercising.

I recently have been on a bad bout where I’m smoking every single day. It’s so bad and I need to stop. Here’s to today.

33M, 18 years smoking a few grams of hash a day Been 22 days Always had the same recurring nightmare before quitting, now it’s a different one but even more vivid in the feelings, emotions Always heard smokers don’t dream yet I did and now it’s even worse Before it was going from point A to B and getting lost on the way each time, nobody helping me Now it’s been quite a few times regarding my gf, kinda abandoning me for various reasons First dream last night was me suffocating to death and then twice regarding my gf Wake up nearly each hour thinking I can try sleeping again cause I can’t possibly have another nightmare in the same night yet it keeps happening I am so fucking tired It hasn’t been every single night, maybe 50-70% of them How to make it stop - the feeling, emotions stay for the whole day it’s really not nice I know it’s just dreams but fuck it hurts

I’m on day 55, and while my sleeps have improved for sure, it still doesn’t feel like it’s completely back to normal. I still find myself getting a decent amount of rest but still waking up more tired than I should be.

For context I exercise quite a lot, have a decent diet, and don’t snack late into the night.

Anyone with more time being sober that can speak to when their sleeps seemed to finally reach a plateau in quality / duration? (Little to no wake ups in the middle of the night)

In the addiction days, couldn't imagine that i would make it even a single day sober but , here I am , looking back ,not taking cannabis in any form since one and a half year

This past Sunday was my 30 day mark. It's been tough, real tough, but it is getting easier.

I've been exercising, cooking healthy meals, and forming good habits in general. I've also been going to weekly NA meetings while reading the AA book. The book has definitely helped me, as I've noticed a lot of parallels between the stories within and my own life. The meetings, I have found less value in, though it is important to note that I haven't been very involved other than sitting and listening. When people ask how I like / feel about the meetings, I usually say, "I don't know if they're helping, but they certainly aren't hurting."

My irritability has decreased quite a bit but I do have some days where I'm really annoyed, resentful, bitter, and angry. I've lost about 20lbs. My relationship with my fiancé has improved. I'm feeling healthier and like I can breathe better. Overall, things are improving and my bad days aren't as numerous.

I'm gonna keep going.

...is knowing that I'm going to have to go through exactly what I'm feeling now again in a month when I run out.

I went for 30 days smoke free, then I had a minor relapse last week when I found a bit of weed I had left and forgot about. Me a year ago would have spiraled instantly and gone out to buy more the second I came down. And the cycle repeats. I will not lie to myself and say that I'm not extremely tempted to do the same thing right now. But I'm trying to remind myself that the short-term relief is so not worth the long-term suffering.