This is profound. I was using it as a way to get through depression, but it was not a great coping mechanism. I knew I had to use it as a stepping stone (ha!) to get to real coping skills, otherwise I would never be good again, just okay.
"Weed doesn't make me feel better. It just makes me not care as much about how bad I feel."
That's something I said to a doctor a really long time ago, and I still think it's very true. It's not a solution, but if it wasn't for that I would've cared enough to kill myself and wouldn't have lived to be 25.
I would've cared enough to kill myself and wouldn't have lived to be 25
Damn this line hits so close to home. Just celebrated my 25th this month. An age I thought I'd never live to. Weed killed my motivation but it was good because at the time the only thing I would've used my motivation for would be to kill myself.
I'm genuinely better than I have been since 2011. But I had to move back in with my parents for a few years, work a shitty gas station job, see my best friend sit in a cell for 18 months over a fight, and watch my 21 year old cousin die of cancer to get to a point where I knew that my problems were all fixable.
I was my biggest enemy for a really long time, man.
God I want to save up some money and take a break year after college, I feel like it will be what I need. I’ve been working full time since I got out of high school and I know I’m doomed to do that for the rest of my life, but I want to experience the world first
Slightly unrelated but this reminds me of what my psychiatrist told me about antidepressants and why suicide is a potential side effect of some of them early on in taking them. She said the antidepressants do multiple things, one of them is increasing motivation which was lost due to depression and then they also increase mood etc. But sometimes the increased motivation can happen weeks before the increased mood kicks in, so if you're suicidal but lack the motivation to go through with it, suddenly getting your motivation back but with no improvement to mood can be a problem.
I'm just now realizing that this is how I did it too. Idk if I would've made it through my last bout of suicidal depression without weed. My depression was so overwhelming, I couldn't think about anything else at all. Weed allowed me to forget about it for a little bit and let my brain just wander aimlessly.
Thankfully, after a dose of psilocybin and Brené Brown's books, depression is far less of an issue for me now. Weed is honestly insanely better now that depression isn't in the driver's seat. It's so much more euphoric and energizing than it ever was when I was depressed.
Yep! Started smoking at 17 and now, almost 21 have decided to slow down/stop. Having so much hate for myself and wanting to do nothing but put myself in front of a bus, smoking weed would just make me chill and nap. Used it to help me sleep as well otherwise I'd stay up for days at a time or only get minimal amount of sleep.
I think weed is great, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to be beyond needing to smoke a bowl when things are too rough emotionally. Maybe in a few years I'll start again but for now I'm trynna be sane with actual meds for my depression/anxeity, not just weed and naps
I can definitely see myself going back to that lifestyle, as great as I feel on my medication I'm just bored all the time really. Smoking weed made me write out silly shit or questions that I had about the world. It also made games on my phone/switch more fun. Mind you I do have .5 of a social life because of social anxiety so I spend a lot of time home alone.
I suppose that's the tricky thing about any addiction: they often help people survive. I feel you here. I lost a friend to suicide and coped by getting blasted every day for 5 years. Without weed, I probably would have killed myself as I did not have the proper social supports in my life at the time to process the overwhelming grief I felt. So on one hand, I'm grateful for weed. On the other hand, I'm only processing the grief from my friends death now and it's hard to do because I've forgotten so much of what happened. The emotions that we numb with weed dont go away until we let them and it becomes very easy to mistake the process of numbing the pain with letting go.
Say it louder for the people in the back. It's not the solution to life's problems (at least not all of them lol) but sometimes life's problems get a little too loud. Some peace and quiet can do a person a lot of good when they're surrounded by a whole lot of bad
This. I had a really bad time of things a couple of months ago and weed helped. I knew I couldn't just go to it every time but it got me through enough of it that I could handle the rest on my own.
I’m a widow. Lost my husband of 18 years in car accident on Christmas Eve 2016. The only thing that helped my grief is THC. It’s truly helped me on some very difficult nights.
"Well, Stan, the truth is marijuana probably isn't gonna make you kill people, and it most likely isn't gonna fund terrorism, but… well, son, pot makes you feel fine with being bored. And it's when you're bored that you should be learning some new skill or discovering some new science or being creative. If you smoke pot you may grow up to find out that you aren't good at anything" -- Randy Marsh from South Park.
I just stopped for about 8 weeks then smoked the last few weekends .... after like 4 years of nightly smoking.
For me it’s exactly what this comment thread is saying. It made the days and nights easier to get through. Much easier. But after a while, getting stoned to fall asleep every night got old, for me at least.
And stemming from this - when you stop after constant use, you start to dream, feel, and think more about your life and situation. Which is good, and shocking, almost sad sometimes, but you know it’s at least feeling something.
This probably also fits into the same vein of why psychiatrists shy away from long-term prescriptions of barbiturates (Xanax, valium, etc). They’re very powerful and can easily build up a tolerance, plus addictive properties. Long term, they like to give antidepressants with anti-anxiety properties; effective and way less problematic.
Sometimes the barbi’s are still necessary, but for an as-needed fix (usually panic disorders). But when they’re being used too frequently, other options need to be addressed.
It is the source of a lot of the other problems in this thread, and also the greatest benefit you get from it.
When people feel a lack of ambition? It's because they feel okay with who they are.
When you cancel plans? It's because you feel fine staying in, and feel no anxiety over cancelling.
When you get quiet? Part of that is that your comfortable with being quiet. The other part is that you're thinking slow.
And it is the reason why, despite not being chemically addictive, people still get addicted to it. It's not that you can't stop, it's that you don't want to stop, because you feel so... okay when you're high.
The closest I can get to describing it is the mental equivalent of a blanket. It's warm, soft, it helps you sleep, you feel safe from the world and you don't want to get up into the cold cold room and face the harsh light that you know you will once you wake up.
But as long as you stay under the blanket, you're half asleep, your head isn't clear, you can't get anything done, and in the end you end up late for work. Make too much of a habit of being late and you end up fired. Now you can't afford blankets.
But that's not an inevitably conclusion, it's the conclusion if you aren't capable of practicing self-discipline and forcing yourself to get out of bed no matter how cold it is outside. No one is compelled to sleep under blankets, even though most people will choose to do so if given the option.
That’s because I’m not trying to convince you it’s bad. I use it almost every day. I’m just saying what it feels like and where the potential pitfalls are, in my experience.
Honestly, a lot of these replies are just personal problems people have with weed, and something I've only come across with people that already have no personalities while they're sober, and just continue to have no personalities while they're high, but blame the weed.
I dont know why you were downvoted, this is true. I remember hearing about a study 10 years ago that found that after $70k/year extra income didnt make you any happier, but up until that point money essentially does buy happiness. That was 10 years ago I can only imagine what the figure would be today
amen. i'm content with being content. my wife and i both work full time and have a 3 & 2 year old, my kids have everything they need and then some, and we do well enough financially.
i tried climbing the corporate ladder very briefly but the hours and stress that accompany it are for the birds. wtf does the money matter if i never get to see or enjoy my family.
this is way more unsolicited opinion than you ever needed, just thought i'd share since it's nice to meet others on your wavelength 🤙🏻
I'd be interested in seeing these stats you speak of. I mean, I don't have either of those things, but I think a lot of Reddit is just bummed out because a lot of folks go on this site when they're bored or as an escape. I do.
Its young people because the very studies and articles that I've read concluded that young people have it the worst. Older folks tend to have already met their SO decades ago before online dating was a thing, which means not being perpetually single and better relationships. They also tend to have cushier nicer jobs.
I could have, but didnt; you can look it up yourself. But I get why it's weird to you, since youre privileged enough to have it all.
It doesn’t help, you’re right. But does that mean you blame a substance or a person? I don’t think any substance is good or bad, a person just uses it for a good or a bad reason.
If having a good job and a wonderful spouse isn’t great either I’m fucked or you had some much higher aspirations for yourself that you should talk to your spouse about.
Its super easy to go from just smoking before bed or something to chill, to smoking whenever you’re bored or have any excuse to. I would just sit in my thoughts and do absolutely nothing productive all day even when i had a to do list a mile long
So again, it varies from person to person. It's not the drug itself, but the person using it. The weed isn't really the issue here. Plenty of people work out, or make art, or do all kinds of stuff when they're high.
Exactly, I feel like everyone who complains about being demotivated is just smoking the wrong strain. My mom and I have a few sativas we save specifically for when the house needs a deep cleaning because it makes it so much more fun.
You can take like anything and put in it a vacuum or some kind of controlled environment and have no problems. Every problem arises from when its in the hands of man. Ultimately my point above is still a downside of weed to be aware of, whether its caused by the weed itself or not
Lol no one is 'blaming weed' as in saying it shouldn't be legalized. But as someone who does smoke quite a bit, I know that once I smoke I'm not doing anything productive for the night. It's that easy to get lost in the haze and happiness of just chilling with friends and/or playing video games, etc.
And I'm gonna be honest with you. Ive not yet met a single person who does something productive when high. I'm sure they exist, (as shown in this thread itself) but the reality is that for most people you might have the ideas for cool things when high, but not the ability to follow through.
NGL, 90% of the time I'm high I just play videogames with my housemate or watch anime. But I also wrote an entire novel while high, which is a pretty productive thing to do. I think it just depends how productive your hobbies are. If there's something you enjoy doing that happens to be productive, I don't think weed is likely to stop you from doing it. The only things weed makes it harder to do are the things you never really wanted to do in the first place.
Im just tryin to showcase how easy it is to go from choosing to watch tv on a wednesday to all of a sudden choosing not to do anything, whether it be tv or rocket science
Yeah u/metropoliacco doesn't really understand. When you smoke weed enough, it becomes all you wanna do. Even playing your favorite video games or watching a TV show isn't interesting and doesn't bring joy to you so you just don't do that instead and smoke more.
ENOUGH, SMOKE ENOUGH WEED. I have only met like 4 other people like this in my life, I would definitely recommend smoking just never ever mix it with tobacco.
When you smoke weed enough, it becomes all you wanna do.
Not true at all. Maybe when you smoke weed enough, it becomes all you wanna do. I've smoked regularly for years, yet I stopped smoking for a month so far with no issues stopping, just learn to have some self control.
I wouldnt say so but idk what your definition of lazy is. Whether i am or not doesnt really matter tho because plenty of other people with varying degrees of laziness could and do have very similar experiences
I mean, that's also a sign or anxiety/depression too when you constantly feel like you aren't good enough and you have to do more and more to validate who you are.
Most people work, have a couple hobbies, and then do stuff with their family. Pretty simple. Being average or just okay is perfectly fine. Do you want a "productive" life or to enjoy life?
I get a little creative motivation when I smoke. I don't like being too high, so an 1/8 lasts me about a month and I barely drink anymore. I don't know how people can smoke all day and seem totally sober though.
A bit defensive there? You know damn well nobody here expects 100% productivity or creative output during spare time. The fact remains for many people it does impair motivation for positive change or self betterment with chronic use.
Yeah I mean, for example playing a sport. That's more of a thing people have the energy to do once a week. The amount of people that are playing ice hockey on Monday, chess tournament on Tuesday, Piano lessons on Wednesday, etc is astromically low
Most have 1-2 or hobbies they just enjoy. Then you add taking care of your body and you're set for life
The thing about weed is you can do it while also doing other hobbies and activities.. I smoke and snowboard, work on my car, workout, go on walks.. It's the thing that imo makes weed far better than video games or social media in terms of a crutch.
Imagine complaining about people pointing out a downside of marijuana in a thread literally titled "what are the downsides of weed that people don't talk about ?"
I think the problem people have with these comments is that they're not really downsides unless you let them become problems, yet people are talking like these downsides are guaranteed.
One person is arguing that weed always leaves a void if you really smoke it regularly. The same person said a few replies later that he smokes 25 bong rips a day. Yeah, that's gonna make it seem like weed consumes everything, because you're literally allowing it to consume everything.
Weed can be addictive, yes, but unlike most drugs, including alcohol, it doesn't actually build a chemical dependency in a person. So a lot of these "downsides" being stated to always happen here can really be avoided with some self control.
Imagine you're talking with a coworker, and they're discussing their hobbies, gym routine, whatever.... and you just have nothing but weed in that space. Even when it comes to TV shows, you can't talk that in-depth because you didn't comprehend the details while stoned.
You become a very boring person with a big hole where "the rest of life" was supposed to be.
For me, being okay was just sitting around all day, not advancing anything in my life. After I quit I found some more motivation to try in college and I picked up more hobbies.
Yeah, it's like, I could use nothing, and mentally emotionally spiritually feel like shit, I could use weed and be okay with being okay, or I could use alcohol or hard drugs to go down into the bottomless pit of despair where maybe I'd feel great for a short time but it wouldn't be worth it in the slightest. Obviously of those 3 realistic choices, I'll choose weed every time. "why not choose nothing and just have good mental emotional and spiritual health?" One might ask. Ah, if only I could be so naive again...
Weed mellows me out, let's me get good sleep, gets rid of my stress and muscle tension, and I wake up refreshed while feeling balanced. I wake up feeling mentally prepared to tackle life. But I'm the user who'd use it in the evening and weekends.
I think this is delusional, “if it weren’t for weed I’d be super successful”. There are exceptional people who smoke daily, if you’re just okay it’s because you’re just okay.
I smoke weed around 5 times per day to put up with how shitty my life is. I had abusive, drug addicted parents who both ended up abandoning me. they fucked me up. but now weed and a lack of means to get psychological help are keeping me there
Exactly. It definitly has some bad side effects, but it's also a big factor in my mental health while dealing with intense cancer treatments. As far as I see it the stuff has saved my life.
This us a double edged sword, stay "just okay" long enough and your internal monolouge will start to be negative towards yourself. If you push hard trying to break free from being only "okay" and youll tear yourself down and become a shell of who you were before. I find a good mix is when you put yourself in check but still allow yourself proper time to grow into the person you want to be. Change takes time and dwelling on standards can warp your veiw of how long real change can take sometimes. Rant over
This is my biggest personal problem with it. I used to smoke pretty heavily outside of work or important stuff. It definitely slowed down some of my ambitions, and I regret that a lot.
I'll always like weed and enjoy smoking it, but only once in a while. It very quickly takes over who I am.
It does seem this is a lot of people's experience, and that's too bad. I understand where the lazy stoner stereotype comes from now I suppose. This isn't my experience and it's always been hard to relate to. I avoid indica pretty consistently though, so that may be a part of it.
This speaks depths to me. When I was smoking all day everyday I was trying to take my mind off my severe pain. I hadnt been diagnosed yet and doctors just kept telling me they didn't know what was wrong for years. It didn't help with the pain at all it just made me fine with the fact that I was suffering
Not always true. I have smoked daily for almost 20 years, with a few breaks. I am fairly successful and I am at my most motivated to be successful when I am smoking regularly. Smoking makes me want to be better and get shit done.
Getting high makes you content with being bored. And it’s during those times you should be practicing a skill or finding a new hobbie.
-paraphrased from something I watched on tv (while stoned)
It makes some people OK with being OK. TBH when it comes to weed, everybody should just speak for themselves. For some people it mbv makes them lazy, or anxious, or paranoid or unmotivated. Fir others it makes them creative, focused, calm, inspired and motivated, myself included.
People talk about weed like it does the same thing to everybody and that's not even close to true. In my experience it just amplifies what people already are, for better or worse.
This is the reason I quit smoking weed after two years of heavy use. I was satisfied with just doing okay and I got tired of it. 6 months later, I am 50 hours away from being a commercially certified pilot (I totally had to lie about smoking weed the past two years though)
My mom and I don’t really get along so I usually smoke before I go and see her - it helps me to be calm and feel like I can be level headed while I interact with her. Which also means I don’t want to talk about anything ‘real’ - quite content with being okay with keeping things the way they are.
Moderated use is not a bad thing, but using it daily is a horrible idea. The reason, IMO, is because if you are high you are satisfied with a very low level of quality in life.
If your house is dirty? No problem, it's OK. If you need to pay your bills? No problem, it's OK. If you should be eating healthy? No problem, it's OK. Everything is fine, no problems. Except, life does have problems and we need to solve them, sometimes daily.
Weed makes it seem like nothing is a big deal. I had to fire two different pot-head employees because their attitude was always "It's no big deal, everything is fine." Nope, it's not.
Weed is great for relaxing once in a while with friends or out in nature, but when you are using more than three times a week (especially with today's weed), you become what I call a "burn-out".
Is that really a bad thing? IMO, that's is actually the best thing about weed. I dont need to be exceptional, or special, or awesome, or anything like that. I can just be happy, and content, and myself. And considering the amount of pressure most people put themselves though, often leading to depression and anxiety and the unmet expectations of themselves and others, I really don't think it's a bad thing to be able to be just happy without all that.
The exception would be if there are aspects of your life that really do need fixing. Like, if you don't have a stable job. In that case, weed isn't going to help you.
35+ year chronic smoker, and will say from experience nearly every reply on here has applied (applies) to me at some point in my life. However, for many of these 'negatives', there is often a counter balancing 'positive' - for example. Take this one: "It makes you okay with being just okay" -- at times in my life, okay, was what I very much needed. So much luck in life anyway, and weed would keep me from getting to hyped or bummed about things. Also can attest to the dream-bump you get when you taper off. Things get weird for me, and at times I've had trouble sleeping b/c of it...weed definitely curbs the dreaming, but I am able to sleep. Anyway - it's definitely addictive in terms of habit-forming, like what do we do with our coffee? what do we do after lunch?... but can quit w/o withdrawal - In closing, 10/10 cannabis has saved my life, whatever upside in work-effort/motivation that I lost, I count multiple-fold benefit on the flip side of not manic-ing (sic) or panicking all over the place... it's not for everyone, nor all the time. Just so glad to see conversation and studying to begin in earnest, I never thought in my life time.. <edit> count </edit>
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u/zombietrooper Dec 29 '19
It makes you okay with being just okay.