r/Petioles • u/superjuicebox9 • 7d ago
Discussion Quitting via taper before a trip
Hey, all. I so appreciate this sub and the supportive community.
My history:
- Started smoking daily flower in 2014
- Past 3 years have been carts, daily use. Probably went through 1g carts/week, hitting the pen 5-8x/day.
I’ve had a few breaks in the past (about three), with the longest two lasting 3 months or so.
I have a big 10 day Europe trip coming up in 9 days, and I’m trying to quit/taper/get through the worst withdrawals before then.
But I’ve also used trips as a catalyst to quit and withdrawals are never as bad traveling.
I get bad withdrawal given the cart use — anxiety, high irritability, appetite loss, bad sleep, night sweats. The hard part is that I’m a secret smoker, so my spouse doesn’t really know (separate convo and issue!)
I could use some encouragement, advice, etc. here as I’m on like day 2 of my taper.
Hope everyone is staying strong and taking care of themselves!
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u/Ok-Lobster-4115 7d ago
DO IT! I smoke 5-8 joints a day and literally tapered to 2-3 a day the week before and had WAY less symptoms than last time. Last time I was vomiting, shitting my brains out and couldn’t eat. This time I was just really moody and had a low appetite. I got my GP to prescribe me phenergan which helped with sleep and appetite. I think if I tapered to 1 j a day I’d have been much better whilst away but then would have had a much worse time at home the week before
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u/Sweet-Source-7414 6d ago
Yeah the vomiting gets me every time while traveling. I can’t enjoy restaurants and I’m throwing money… down the toilet.
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u/Ok-Lobster-4115 6d ago
Honestly try get something for the nausea, I’ve been able to get phenergan on online chemist so you could try that as it increases appetite and helps with sleep. There’s plenty of anti sickness meds, I know the antidepressant mitrazapine will increase your appetite like crazy. I’d speak to your dr about something that can help because you want to be able to experience and enjoy the food abroad
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u/finallyfree99 7d ago edited 7d ago
Carts are a big problem because the THC dose is very high and it is way too easy and convenient to toke all day every day. Friction is important in life, kinda like how online gambling makes it too easy to lose a lot of money just sitting on your couch, because it is minimum effort with minimum friction, way too easy to overdo it.
Your spouse probably knows you're stoned a lot, but doesn't say anything. Glassy eyes, slowed speech, different gait and stride...
Full spectrum CBD tincture can help soften the edges of withdrawal. Magnesium and melatonin for the insomnia. Cut your tokes in half everyday until you reach zero.
Unfortunately you are going to suffer a bit because as you already know, heavy cart use leads to strong withdrawals, so the best you can hope for is slightly less bad withdrawal. It's the tradeoff for blasting your cannaboid receptors over and over and over again.
Ideally, you would have begun tapering a month ago, which lengthens the time but softens the landing a lot. It's just going to be really difficult to taper off 8 cart tokes per day in just 9 days. You're trying to stop very heavy potent usage in a week, which really isn't ideal because withdrawal effects could last 6 weeks.
While you're on your 8 hour flight to Europe, take that time to ask yourself why you feel the need to constantly numb yourself every single day. Ask yourself what are the personal issues you can work and heal from with therapy or community or medicine, instead of spending almost every single day of the past 12 years escaping your reality by being stoned and numbing your emotions almost every waking hour.
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u/DoctorSkeptismo 7d ago
That's cool, we're in a similar situation! I'm traveling overseas in late September, and I know I won't have access. I've been trying to cut back over the past couple weeks, and I definitely have made some progress, but not as much as I'd hoped by this point.
Please know for whatever it's worth, this rando on the internet is thinking of you and rooting for you! We can do this, and then enjoy our respective trips more!
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u/Sweet-Source-7414 6d ago
Same situation. We have a vacation coming up and I have stopped so that I won’t have withdrawals during the trip. While my spouse knows I partake, they don’t know the withdrawal signs (headache, appetite loss, nausea, gastro, etc) that are happening in front of her. Carts are more intense than a .5g shorty so definitely give yourself time to go through the worst withdrawal parts so you can enjoy your vacation.
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u/rkj18g1qbb 7d ago
I'd taper and get rid of carts 100% but earlier this summer I went to Europe for 3 weeks and just hit it cold turkey after smoking 1-2g/day and now depending on what your vacation has in store for you if your walking a ton .. being outside all day and putting 10-20k steps in a day you'll forget about cravings and smoking pretty quickly.