Howdy Sam, I recently got into a debate with someone online about whether or not you can be addicted to cannabis. It's such a polarizing topic that it's intemperately to know if the fears around addiction are legit, or if there's truth to the idea that you can become interdependent connected information technology.

I ask because I've had problems with alcohol before, and cannabis is now aggregation where I live, so I'm wondering if it's wild for me to try it? Any thoughts?

I totally hear you on the murkiness around whether or non cannabis dependance is a matter. I've actually wondered the same thing myself! I'm also glad you're being cautious before diving into this. I think slowing your roll is a smart choice (pun intended).

But I'm wondering if the addiction dubiousness is the right one — because I'm not confident that the semantics present really matter.

More significantly: Lavatory your use become difficult? Can information technology begin interfering with your life story in shipway that have some pretty unearthly parallels to intoxicant addiction? Can cannabis use be disordered without organism an dependency?

Abso-freakin-lutely.

There are very few open and square conversations roughly what happens when cannabis isn't so fun anymore. I could write out ad nauseum about the complexities of habituation and whether or not cannabis falls thereunder heading. But I don't inevitably call up that's helpful.

I believe it's more in-chief to be able to recognize when that line is crosstown

While I'm not a clinician, I do think my lived experience offers a snapshot into what this kind of disorder can look like.

For starters, alfileria were no longer a way of telling time — they existed only to time my pabulum consumption so that it hit the exact second I was done with knead.

My schedule slowly crooked, until it was essentially shapely around the next time I could get high. At low information technology was a small, occasional depart of my week, until it was on the spur of the moment the principal event… every single day.

I set rules for my use, but the goal posts perpetually affected. Outset, it was just "a social thing." And so it was a "weekend thing." It was barely at home, until it was at home and at yoga class, until eventually all bets were off and you'd be hard-pressed to interact with ME when I was sober, presumptuous I ever really was.

My use became so excessive that I had the highest tolerance of anyone I was around, and while I set limits, I never stuck to them.

My ratio of THC steadily climbed until finally, I was vaping unclouded THC concentrate, and spent to the highest degree mornings stressful to piece together what happened the Night before, my memory as brumous as the Mary Jan filling my tiny flat every eventide until I fell at peace.

At my worst? I'd had so much THC in my system, IT had induced psychosis (to be clear — I consumed the amount you'd normally give to four mass).

I had to call in sick to work the next day because I was (1) still high the entire next daylight and (2) experiencing traumatic flashbacks from the paranoia and hallucinations. Those flashbacks haunted me for weeks after the fact (it didn't stop me from smoke again, though).

And contempt my dour determination to cut game on my use? I never seemed to be competent to.

You cite having had a "problem" with alcohol. Ditto, friend. And in many recovery spaces, I know that folks are divided as to whether or non marihuana rear ever constitute used safely by someone who has a dicey family relationship to other substances.

And I totally cotton on. For a piece, I really thought cannabis was my get-out-of-dipsomania-relinquish card. So much for that.

I know folks WHO have used cannabis to wean themselves sour of inebriant, or equally a form of harm decrease, opting for the "safer" substance when the irresistible impulse to use comes up. This has been an decisive step in recovery for many another people, myself enclosed, and I'd never monish mortal from making the safer choice 'tween the two.

Some folks in recovery stick to CBD products and opt out of Tetrahydrocannabinol. (I tried this but I ever slid backwards after a while, in time reintroducing Tetrahydrocannabinol after a point of feeling a trifle too comfortable.)

There are others who are in recovery from addiction who seem to be able to handle cannabis just okay, or manage to for a some years and then suddenly cross a crinkle, in which they inevitably rejoinder to sobriety. And thither's every kind of mortal in-'tween!

The point is, each and every person is unique. I hindquarters't sound out for sure what your relationship to cannabis is going to be.

But what I can do is give you close to information to make the best executable decision for yourself:

  • If you know you've had issues with other substances in the past, don't
    preface anything other — weed included — without a mental health supplier on
    your support team.     While many mental
    health professionals will not endorse using cannabis to anyone with a history
    of gist misuse, this excess supervision, or transparentness with a
    master, can service ensure that if your use starts to become difficult you
    nates formulate a support plan for acquiring teetotal, sooner sooner than later.
  • See attending a harm reduction backing group. If you're specifically exploring cannabis because you're struggling
    with alcohol or want an alternate, information technology's best to have a support organization of
    others who are navigating similar situations.
  • Suffice you possess any co-occurring mental health issues that power increase
    your hazard of misusing cannabis?     This fundament
    include conditions equal PTSD, ADHD, OCD, anxiousness, and low pressure. If so, discuss with your care providers
    if cannabis might aggravate your symptoms (for example, weed definitely successful
    my OCD much worse), interact with your current medications, and whether the
    benefits of use are strictly little-term operating theater property over a thirster period of
    fourth dimension.
  • Know the signs. Does information technology feel more
    comparable a serious option or an urge operating theater coercion when you use? Are you capable to
    take a break from victimisation? Is your tolerance growing? Has it interfered with
    obligations or relationships in your life? Has it created problems
    (financially, emotionally, socially, even legally) or appropriated you absent from
    things that are important to you?
  • It's helpful to keep a diary and log your use, particularly if you've had issues with other substances in the prehistoric.
    In addition to looking for the signs above, consider the context in which
    you're using. Is it in a recreational mount? Or in reaction to a trigger,
    stressor, or ill at ease emotion?

Patc the DSM-5 does know hemp use disorder, I think that's largely irrelevant present. Because every one of United States of America, whether we risk dependance or not, should live monitoring our substance use and checking in to ensure that information technology's non impacting our lives negatively.

That should be start and parcel of any kind of substance function — alcohol and weed included.

The tail line? No one should get on robot pilot when they're using psychoactive substances, nevertheless normalized information technology is in our culture

My days of "Sharknado"marathons and "green outs" are a distant, outre memory, which I'm pretty glad for. My circus does not need any additional monkeys, even if those monkeys also chance to make ice cream taste 10 multiplication finer (*cue sad trombones*).

I'm altogether colourless (and happy!), which wound up existence the scoop possible choice for ME.

At the end of the day, this is a subjective decisiveness that only you backside wee-wee (and, dependant on the legality inside your state, please be advised it might also live a criminal decision).

It may be "just a plant," but plants can be harmful, too. Did you know that tomato leaves, for example, are mildly poisonous? If you time-tested to deplete an acorn, you could still chip your tooth or choke on it (why would you do this? I Don River't know, I'm not here to justice you — maybe you were roleplaying as a squirrel).

Take IT from someone WHO learned the hard way — it's all merriment and games until you're so paranoid that you'Ra convinced the illuminati is after you (yes, this seriously happened to me). Which makes for a hilarious story, but trust me, thither are a million better ways to spend a Friday night than having a completely unnecessary panic attack.

Cannabis might be "sensible a industrial plant," but that doesn't come through inherently prophylactic for each and every person! My top recommendation is to tread carefully, seek outer additive support, and comprise thoughtful some your use.

Your brain is a very precious organ, and so care for IT that right smart, okay?

Sam

Surface-to-air missile Dylan Finch is a writer, affirmative psychological science practitioner, and media strategist in Portland, Oregon. He's the lead editor of psychical health and chronic conditions at Healthline, and co-beginner of Queer Resiliency Mass, a wellness coaching cooperative for LGBTQ+ people. You can say hello on Instagram, Chirrup, Facebook, or learn more at SamDylanFinch.com.

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