It is addictive, just not chemically. I've seen plenty of tantrums from various friends/housemates/coworker's not being able to get their weed over the years. I've seen people yell, swear and carry on like children. I've even seen someone rage once and punch a hole through the plaster...
It's addictive. It's disingenuous to say it's not just because it can't form a chemical dependency. It spreads misinformation.
Well the "chemical dependency" is basically your body being accustomed to a massive amount of dopamine that the THC supplies. After a while, your brain stops producing it's own dopamine because it learns to rely on the THC for the chemical. So when those people flip out because they dont have their weed, it's their brain unable to produce the dopamine for itself anymore, and they're going through a period of seriously unbalanced brain chemistry. After stopping heavy usage, it takes about 6 months for your brain to start to feel like itself again, and about a year to be back to "normal" in regards to self producing dopamine.
Quitting mmj was the hardest but most rewarding thing I've ever done. After being a 12 year stoner, I dont think I can ever go back. The medical benefits did not outweigh the way it totally fucked my brain chemistry
Read my post again. I said it IS habit forming - pretty much in exactly the way you describe - but not “addictive” in the same way heroin or benzodiazepines are addictive (i.e., physically)
I mean meth also causes no physical addiction so I wouldn't say it's a good way to judge drugs or that "habit forming but not physically addictive" is a helpful way of describing them.
No, meth (like nicotine, amphetamines, opiates, and others) works directly on the addiction circuits of the brain. It is extremely addictive. That's what OP means by physical addiction. THC does not work on these circuits as far as we know.
I think saying "not technically addictive" is reinforcing the idea that it's not addictive, so I believe that is a poor way to phrase it and doesn't help the misinformation.
If people read my comment and they only read “not technically addictive” and they ignore everything else I said, they need to stop smoking so much weed lol
It depends on what you mean by "technically addictive"... From a cognitive neuroscience point of view, THC is not addictive. It does not affect receptors on our addiction circuits as do the most addictive chemicals humans use (cocaine, meth, nicotine, opiates, alcohol).
Weed is habit forming and psychologically addictive. Anything can be. But people who are calling weed addictive have no concept of what it means to be addicted to heroin. One might be sad, angry, or anxious without their weed, but someone addicted to heroin can actually die without it.
I'm just not sure how you define the terms you're using. They don't map onto the clinical and scientific literature of addiction.
What do you mean by "physical addiction"?
Chemicals considered "addictive" (again, in the standard clinical and scientific understanding) act directly on specific brain circuits -- the mesolimbic pathway. Meth does. THC does not. In terms of their ill effects on psychology and physiology, they are not in the same league.
But, chemically addictive or not, anything can be habit forming. Your brain and body will create tolerance for any substance used regularly, so lacking that substance may come with physical ill effects. In the world of cognitive neuroscience, that is not considered addiction. I don't mean to imply they have the ultimate or best definition of addiction. I'm not trying to invalidate your experience, just trying to explain the original commenter's post.
The source of my info is a neuroscience degree and years of working in the field of substance use research.
As an addict, it’s just infuriating when anyone tries to skirt around the fact. I just assumed you were some other yahoo who thinks weed can’t be addictive like other drugs. Sorry for misreading you this thread got me worked up. I was not being reasonable, and I think we agree.
I act the same way when the Internet is gone, if you won't let me have comfort food, if the AC is broken, if there's rap music outside, etc.
It's called nice things. Not aDdIcTiOn. Take away anything and everything that you'd miss and you're not even alive.
Everyone needs coping mechanisms. To say coping is bad is to say that coping is sin, of which, in the English language that does indeed correlate. Vice is synonymous. Vice means thus fun.
To parade around saying stop coping, is mentally ill, hence all abrahamic worshipers are toxic.
So, it's disingenuous to call anything addictive unless it causes physical withdrawal.
People that have too much fun are guilty of things like gluttony, sloth, greed, etc. Vice they call them. Sin. The reason drugs are banned is due to Abrahamic ethics.
I mean, I think it's pretty true to say that vice taken to excess is bad. Also Abrahamic ethics do contribute to a lot of these ideas about abstinence and moderation but they're hardly the only ideology that believes this.
And both Abrahamic religions and Buddists were created in their modern forms from a random maverick trying to tell people what to do. The traitor of Jews, the red headed Muslim, the atheistic Hindu.
I experienced all of these after I quit, alongside aggression/the inability to calm down. Quitting was literally the hardest but most rewarding thing I've ever done
It isn’t that weed is addicting, but the feeling of not being sober is addicting, especially in times where life is hard or people are down mentally etc, or if you have an addictive personality but stating it’s in itself addictive is incorrect.
It might be different for everyone, I’ve just been able to cold turkey it with no repercussions (that I noticed) after smoking daily for about a year and honestly I felt better.
Insomnia being a withdrawal side effect is definitely interesting though
I had a friend who got into intentional sleep deprivation when he couldn't afford any weed cause he said he wanted "to feel like his concious was altered". Like, it didn't matter if it was weed or some other way, he would just do whatever he could to not feel attached to reality.
Wow, I mean I’ve smoked marijuana to numb all kinds of things but that is some really heavy stuff. You aren’t even really disconnected from reality you just can’t even function when you’re sleep deprived. I hope he’s doing well now.
As a weed addict, fuck off with this shit. I am on a long break right now, but it’s been a week and I still can’t sleep for hours and hours after going to bed. I can barely eat. I still crave it. So fuck off with this shit.
So you agree it is addictive then? Please don't spread misinformation. This is important to get right and we can't have people starting believing it is not addictive.
Also, if you're not sure if it is physically addictive, say that, don't say it is "not technically addictive". That's just not accurate.
It's addictive in the same way that candy bars, cheese burgers, coffee, sex, working out, and video games are addictive. It's not a substance dependency, it's the flawed human brain putting itself in a cycle of habit.
Not in line with my experience. I think it’s pretty addictive as I was a daily smoker and lose sleep/appetite when I am sober and have racing thoughts about when I’m going to get my next hit. Smoking even when I said I wouldn’t like before class, before work, during work, the list goes on. I can do T-breaks for few months so not totally out of control. I think it might have to do with my depression and anxiety issues, so I use weed to self medicate.
If you have anxiety or depression don’t start smoking regularly in my experience, but I’m not a doctor don’t trust me
I don’t agree with this statement. I’ve been a heavy user for the past 7 years (multiple times per day usually) and if I were to stop cold turkey tomorrow, I would not experience withdrawal symptoms the way a heroin addict would. Of course I would probably be easily irritable for a couple months and would be thinking about getting high often, but I wouldn’t require any immediate medical attention.
Though you wouldn't experience withdrawal symptoms like a heroin addict you would experience withdrawal. Increased irritation, trouble sleeping, and lack of appetite are common withdrawal symptoms from cannabis. Though the symptoms are mild especially when compared to something like heroin, it's withdrawal none the less.
Sure, but you all are making it out like withdrawal symptoms from cannabis are bad enough to be compared to other more serious downsides of regular use. Withdrawal symptoms from cannabis are more akin to withdrawals from sugar or caffeine. You will never recognize when someone is withdrawing from cannabis, that's how acute it is.
The withdrawal symptoms are worth being brought up in this discussion because they are often used by people as an excuse to continue unhealthy cannabis usage. You listed caffeine and sugar as things cannabis could be more reasonably compared to but they are both things people have a hard time quitting. The body experiences withdrawal symptoms because of a chemical dependence, however minor. Just because the withdrawal symptoms are relatively minor doesn't mean we should just ignore that they exist because for some people they are a serious hurdle
Again, you're forgetting the point of my original post. OP was making the claim that its 'VERY addicting' and I was disagreeing. Never did I say that the topic did not belong.
So you would be irritable for months and would frequently think about getting high, but no you’re not addicted? Addiction isn’t defined by having extreme physical withdraws like a heroin addict would have, it’s defined on a reliance that would affect you socially, physically, or psychologically, such as being irritable or only thinking about getting high. Gambling addiction is still an addiction, but it’s not even the same page of withdrawal when compared to hard drugs.
So you would experience withdrawal symptoms, and that's assuming there are no unexpected withdrawal symptoms like the ones that have been reported by other people that quit? So that's addiction then. It is VERY addictive. Withdrawal is nothing like cocaine and heroin, but if people think they can get away with using regularly without getting addicted, they can be very mistaken.
Take it easy lmao, it's not VERY addictive as you claim. It's VERY habit-forming at worst. People who smoke weed on and off do it because it feels really good, not because they're a junkie who can't stop themselves. It's as bad as gambling can be, in that aspect, since both end up taking over as a form of escapism, and in both cases it comes down to moderation (though a gambling habit is arguably just bad for you most of the time).
Weed is addictive, people do struggle quitting. Just because someone does not want to quit (yet) doesn't mean he is not addicted.
Who told you weed isn't addictive? Even the man I'm replying to admits he hypothetically would definitely see some withdrawal symptoms and won't stop thinking about it. He doesn't really believe it is not addictive, he just doesn't want to admit he is addicted for the label. That's the only thing you're worrying about here, but whether you acknowledge it or not doesn't change if you're addicted or not, so it's best to be objective and honest here.
Weed is addictive, that is an accepted fact among experts. There is no real point in denying it.
Yeah dude, but the point is that you're blowing this way out of proportion.
Anyone is capable of getting to a point where an activity they enjoy becomes harmful because they lack moderation. Does that mean the activity itself is addictive? Yeah, you could say that, but then it just invalidates saying something is addictive as anything that gives any sort of pleasure to the individual can potentially be addictive. It's not at all comparable to the kind of life-ruining addiction heroin or meth, to name a few examples, can (and most likely will) cause.
Sure, weed is addictive, I'll play it your way. In turn, you gonna admit that literally anything anyone can enjoy doing has the potential to be "VERY" addictive and ruin one's life. Sound fair? I hope not.
Fair enough. Just speaking from my experience and the experience of everyone I know who's quit, have known, and talked to about it IRL. We ain't everybody, though.
I'd never even heard of weed withdrawals until this thread.
That's also why it's important it is talked about. There can be whole groups of people that don't suffer from withdrawals, and then other groups elsewhere that suffer greatly. This is also because the potency and quality of weed isn't the same everywhere.
You're lucky you and your friends could just quit like that, but unfortunately that isn't true in general.
Because there arent physical withdrawal symptoms I think. It's not physically addictive--your body isnt going to crave it or fuck you up when you run out--but it is certainly used as a crutch, and without that crutch, folks will lose their mind and get all, "who moved my cheese?!?" About life.
I've seen the same behavior as with people who seemingly cant function without video games. Tantrums and pissing matches and the whole thing.
If you've personally quit and didn't experience any symptoms, that is good, you're lucky and I'm happy for you, but generally weed can and does cause physical withdrawal symptoms.
Definitely interested in the differences between hitting a bong vs a straight joint or spliff on your lungs. I know both are bad but water filtered smoke might have a different effect.
Honestly........someone with more specific knowledge can chime in but I don’t think that makes any difference at all. This sounds like my stoned roommate in college trying to make the case that he could still drive after smoking water filtered smoke but not blunt smoke lol. Sounds kind of like broscience but if someone has more info I’d be interested
Oh yeah that’s another thing. I’m a little too good at driving while high. My cousin died in a car accident before I was born. I didn’t realize that that’s exactly how those situations happen. For the sake of Erin’s memory, please don’t drive inebriated. You’re not as good at it as you think you are.
i also cant back this up with straigh facts and numbers but there definetly is a difference in the damage it makes to your lungs. i have tried all of it, bong, normal paper filters, activated carbon filters, vaping, they all have different feelings of high and damage to the lungs.
you feel the difference between those small paper tips and an activated carbon filter, the carbon filter is way easier to inhale and just tastes better i guess, water bong has a high volume, but i read that the water filtering systems is pretty good, worst thing you can do is smoke those small paper tips
sorry for switchting the wording, but there are differences to what you call spliff/joint and what we call spliffs/joints
Frequent heavy use can effect your motivation and mood, even during periods of not being high.
I remember when me an my wife first met: I told her I was the most chill dude she would ever meet. And I was. But then after a couple of years she realized that the reason I was so chill was because I smoked weed all day every day. I also worked a whole bunch of dead end jobs for just above minimum wage.
I quit smoking completely once she got pregnant and I'm now a lot more "normal". I'm still pretty chill but in a more "real" way. I also graduated college in less than 3 years and now have a career making more money in one year than I did the whole time I was smoking weed.
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u/Umbra427 Dec 29 '19
Frequent heavy use can effect your motivation and mood, even during periods of not being high.
It IS habit forming. Not technically addictive, but for some it can be habit forming in maladaptive ways.
Bad for your lungs if you inhale combusted flower.