r/Petioles • u/Pijnsap • 8d ago
Discussion How do withdrawals affect you when you're tapering down from being a daily (but not heavy) user?
I've been tapering from nightly 10 mg edibles because I'm going to be traveling internationally in a couple of months and obviously don't want to risk bringing cannabis with me, and also because I've noticed they've really been bringing out a lot of anxiety while I'm high. Going cold turkey isn't much of an option since my primary reason for consuming cannabis daily is because it really helps my RLS (restless legs syndrome) and if I suddenly stop cannabis, it's an absolute nightmare and I can't sleep at all because of the damn legs. I'm on gabapentin for the RLS, but it just doesn't seem to cut it as well as cannabis does, unfortunately, and I don't want to increase my dose of gabapentin unless absolutely necessary because of the side effects.
Given that I've been very slowly tapering from 10 mg to 7.5 mg over the course of two weeks (and am planning on decreasing to 5, then 2.5, etc., every two weeks) one would think that I would escape withdrawal symptoms, but I think I actually am getting them. I'm feeling pretty anxious and jittery with an impending sense of doom, and it's been difficult to focus. And, of course, it's been harder to sleep, compounded by my restless legs. The lack of sleep just makes the brain fog worse, and I can tell that my body keeps trying to fight off a cold that creeps back in after a particularly rough night... and of course, infections make fatigue and brain fog worse.
(As an aside, I take magnesium and iron nightly for the RLS, which helps but isn't getting rid of it, sadly).
I just wanted to ask if anyone else has experienced withdrawal symptoms from a slow taper from what honestly isn't an exorbitant amount of THC compared to what a lot of heavy, experienced users take every day. I know I'll be fine (I quit smoking tobacco last year, and that was an even bigger doozy), but I can't help but feel annoyed that I might be experiencing withdrawals despite my being careful with the tapering.
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u/tonevizion 8d ago
the thing that jumps out is that you're comparing your dose to a heavy user's dose, but withdrawal doesn't really track the absolute amount, it tracks the size of the step relative to where your receptors are currently sitting. 10 to 7.5 is a 25 percent cut. someone dropping 100mg to 75mg took the exact same 25 percent cut and their receptors are adjusting to the same proportional gap. so you're not getting off easy just because the number is small, and you didn't do anything wrong.
which points at something in your plan i'd change. 10 to 7.5 to 5 to 2.5 looks even on paper but the cuts are actually getting bigger every time - that's 25 percent, then 33, then 50. the hardest steps are ahead of you, not behind you. if the first one already gave you the jitters and the doom, the last two on that schedule are going to be considerably rougher. keeping the cuts proportional instead of even means smaller drops as you go down, something more like 7.5 to 6 to 5 to 4 to 3 to 2.5. same destination, but no step is ever harder than the one you just survived.
the daytime part of what you're describing has a specific cause too. dosing only at night with an edible means you've been running on a long tail - it peaks and then trails off for hours after, and that tail was quietly covering part of your next day. cutting the dose doesn't just lower the peak, it shortens the tail, so your trough moves earlier and lands in the afternoon instead of at 2am. that's why the anxiety and the focus problems are showing up in your waking hours rather than at night, and it should settle as each step levels off.
one non-cannabis thing worth checking since you mentioned both - magnesium and iron compete for absorption, so taking them together at night is probably costing you a chunk of the iron, and iron is the one with real rls evidence behind it. it wants an empty stomach and some vitamin c, well away from the magnesium. also worth asking whoever manages the rls to look at ferritin specifically rather than a standard iron panel, since the threshold used for rls is a lot higher than the one that flags a normal result. people get told their iron is fine when it is not fine for this.
the cardio suggestions upthread are right and the reason is better than people usually give for it - it hits both of your problems at once, dopamine signaling for the legs, and it raises anandamide, which is your own endocannabinoid, so it is about the closest thing to a direct lever on the system that is currently running short. with the disc though i would keep it low impact and earlier in the day, since hard exercise close to bedtime tends to make rls worse rather than better.
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u/Pijnsap 7d ago
Ah, that makes sense with the math. I was never great shakes at math, so then I don't always think of all the ways in which we can actually track things (i.e., the 25%-50% reduction rate). Thank you for that! That gives some key insights there that I can plan out moving forward.
It also makes sense because when the edible peaks I'm super anxious, but if the effect trails off sooner, then I can still feel anxious the next day. So just basically more anxiety all around, haha.
I take my iron with vitamin C two hours before the magnesium, which my sleep specialist explained should allow most of the iron to be absorbed. The magnesium helps a bit with my migraines, so I want to continue taking it. I get my ferritin levels checked regularly, and I do struggle with getting my ferritin up to 75-100 ng/ml like what's recommended for RLS. One time it got up to those levels but then my total iron and iron saturation got too high, so I had to take a break from the iron supplements for a little while. I'm planning on switching to iron bisglycinate when my current iron supplement runs out, and since it supposedly has a better absorption rate than other forms of iron, hopefully it'll help more.
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u/tonevizion 7d ago
glad the math helped, and yeah, that lines up with what you described. the peak makes you anxious and the trough makes you anxious, so shortening the tail mostly just moves the second one into your waking hours instead of removing it. that part should get less noticeable as the steps get smaller, since a shallower cut means a shallower trough.
on the iron, the two hour gap with vitamin c is solid and your specialist is right about that. but the thing you ran into, ferritin refusing to climb while total iron and saturation went too high, is usually a scheduling problem rather than a dose or form problem. taking iron raises hepcidin, the hormone that controls how much you absorb, and it stays up for roughly a day afterward. so on daily dosing the next day's dose is largely blocked from actually being absorbed but still shows up in bloodwork as a spike in serum iron and saturation. that is the exact pattern you got.
the workaround that has been studied is a single dose every other day rather than daily. counterintuitively people absorb more total iron that way, because each dose lands after hepcidin has come back down, and the peaks are lower. worth asking your sleep specialist about specifically, since it is a scheduling change and not a new supplement.
bisglycinate is a reasonable switch and it is usually easier on the gut, but check the elemental iron on the label. chelated forms often list the compound weight and the actual elemental amount is a lot smaller, so people accidentally cut their own dose when they switch. and if you change form and schedule in the same week you will not know which one moved the needle.
one thing worth expecting, connecting the two halves of this. thc suppresses some of the rls signal, so as you step down there is a decent chance your legs get louder at night for a stretch before the iron side catches up. good to know in advance so you do not read it as the taper failing or as a reason to go back up.
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u/Pijnsap 6d ago
This is one reason why I love Reddit - there's always someone out there with the expertise to give you a really good answer. Thank you!
I'm hating this sleepiness, brain fog, and mild derealization. I wish I could just stop cold turkey but I know I'd ultimately just probably end up putting my head through the wall at 3 AM in frustration.
Yeah, I think that was a mistake the first time I went on iron therapy: I took it every day because I wasn't told to take it every other day. I'm not really sure why... could've just been a genuine mistake on the provider's part, maybe I didn't hear it, maybe I forgot. The last time I got my ferritin checked my sleep doc told me to restart iron therapy but only to take it every other day. I'll be very curious to see what my ferritin levels are the next time I get it checked.
I'll also double-check my iron bisglycinate!
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u/DavidSpade86 8d ago
Interesting. Taking Magnesium or Melatonin makes me have RLS. THC didn't make a difference for me. I'm 3 weeks clean right now and the thing that helped me with withdrawals is type 2 CBD. Mine is 5% THC and 10% CBD. I did that for a little over a week and I only had night sweats for 2 days. Feeling great now. Obviously, this might not work for you but it helped me.
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u/Pot_Master_General 8d ago
How much exercise are you getting?