3 ms·

People don’t take the withdrawal potential seriously. I’ve had a complex relationship with cannabis over the years, and one of the things that I didn’t underst

People don’t take the withdrawal potential seriously. I’ve had a complex relationship with cannabis over the years, and one of the things that I didn’t understand before getting stuck in a daily habit of heavy use for a period of time is how hard it can be on your body to just stop. I had major upset stomach and food aversion for a few weeks to the point that I lost 10 pounds, major sleep issues, a major spike in depressive symptoms (not just baseline depression, because I eventually got back to baseline), etc.

chisleu 1y ago
Same. After enough use, I just kind of forgot how to have fun without it. Sleep issues are the worst.
cluckindan 1y ago
Anecdotes are not helpful here. Did you commonly have an upset stomach and food aversion before?
- haswell 1y ago
  No, upset stomach and food aversion were not common for me before. I've gone through the quitting process several times over the years, and the experience was consistent each time. I've also run experiments while quitting like: what happens to the food aversion and stomach issues if I use some cannabis? When in the middle of withdrawal, it was like flipping a switch that allowed me to eat again. These symptoms are well known among the cannabis community, and there is increasing awareness in the medical community [0] especially for people who experience the most extreme forms like CHS [1], which has become increasingly common with more people using extremely high % THC products. If you're curious about this subject, I'd highly recommend reading the thousands of 1st hand accounts of the quitting process on a subreddit like /r/petioles or /r/leaves. It's extremely common for people to be skeptical of cannabis addiction/withdrawal [2], and I'm pretty certain this is an overcorrection after the decades of demonization and straight-up lies about cannabis. This is understandable, but the pendulum is gradually swinging back as more people experience difficulties quitting. I'm still in favor of legal cannabis, but the addiction potential is very real and worth highlighting. Part of the issue currently is that research is decades behind at this point due to the federal scheduling of the drug, and much of the research we do have was conducted with old low-THC strains. Hopefully we'll get better studies that highlight the things many heavy users already know 1st hand. - [0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9110555/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9110555/ - [1] https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21665-cannabis-hyperemesis-syndrome https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21665-cannabi... - [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/07/31/marijuana-addiction-legal-recreational-sales/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/07/31/marijuana-a...

chisleu 1y ago

Same. After enough use, I just kind of forgot how to have fun without it. Sleep issues are the worst.

cluckindan 1y ago

Anecdotes are not helpful here. Did you commonly have an upset stomach and food aversion before?

haswell 1y ago
No, upset stomach and food aversion were not common for me before. I've gone through the quitting process several times over the years, and the experience was consistent each time. I've also run experiments while quitting like: what happens to the food aversion and stomach issues if I use some cannabis? When in the middle of withdrawal, it was like flipping a switch that allowed me to eat again. These symptoms are well known among the cannabis community, and there is increasing awareness in the medical community [0] especially for people who experience the most extreme forms like CHS [1], which has become increasingly common with more people using extremely high % THC products. If you're curious about this subject, I'd highly recommend reading the thousands of 1st hand accounts of the quitting process on a subreddit like /r/petioles or /r/leaves. It's extremely common for people to be skeptical of cannabis addiction/withdrawal [2], and I'm pretty certain this is an overcorrection after the decades of demonization and straight-up lies about cannabis. This is understandable, but the pendulum is gradually swinging back as more people experience difficulties quitting. I'm still in favor of legal cannabis, but the addiction potential is very real and worth highlighting. Part of the issue currently is that research is decades behind at this point due to the federal scheduling of the drug, and much of the research we do have was conducted with old low-THC strains. Hopefully we'll get better studies that highlight the things many heavy users already know 1st hand. - [0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9110555/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9110555/ - [1] https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21665-cannabis-hyperemesis-syndrome https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21665-cannabi... - [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/07/31/marijuana-addiction-legal-recreational-sales/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/07/31/marijuana-a...