Marijuana Addiction & Recovery Support Group

In my opinion will power is not enough! I can only speak for my life and ther reasons why living in the solution of a recovery program is better than active marijuana addiction.

A job that uses my brain.
A conscience.
Not driving under the influence.
A conscious contact with a personal God of my own understanding.
Fellowship of MA, AA.
The 12 steps
12 step meetings
Friends who are not out to use me or vice versa.
Being there for my family and others.
Not having red eyes
A good night's sleep
More intelligence
More sanity.
Clear senses - priceless!
An ability to read and retain.
Having intelligent conversations...
Having a spiritual awakening as the result of the 12 steps of MA / AA
Not spending $ on pot I couldn't afford and go into debt
Not using dealers
Not breaking the law by purchasing drugs
Not being broke so I could afford my weed
Not using "lower companions" others who use as much as I did.
A chance to be the person I was meant to be.
Not having the shame of trying to hide my addiction even though everybody could probably smell it a mile away anyway.

To me the benefit will be feeling in control. It is easy to look past the drawbacks and focus on the pleasure we have all experienced smoking, but I am sick of being stressed out trying to find more. When i wake up and I cant buy pot anywhere, I want to go back to sleep, so my addiction has basically put me in the position of fearing waking life. I look forward to living my life without that stress, depending so much on a plant that some far off stranger grows, something I can not control or create, it makes me feel weak, powerless.
I try to keep in mind that i want to quit for my long term benefit, it wont be pleasurable to start, and at some point in my life I'll have to face th world, experience stress and sadness and worry for the future, right now I feel lik I am crawling out of a pit, my whole life has become wrapped up in pot, a relative drought here has reminded me just how much it stresses me to seek out pot, god forbid I should not find any, at times I feel like I'd probably pay twice as much if that were the going rate, it has stopped being a choice for me and is now something I must do every day, even though it is not true, I feel subconsciously, well consciously too, that I wont be happy until I smoke.

My situation after smoking for at least 24 yrs,I was sick and tired of IT controlling my life. And thats exactly what it did,waking up in the morning and first thing thinking was how much weed I had and if it wasnt at least a 1/4 I'd start looking for my next bag,even though my finances said "you cant afford it".I said OH well...I need it for my bi-polar(excuse). I woke up one morning(6+ months ago)and said NO MORE..I'm DONE..I was out of smoke and was determined not to look for anything and QUIT that day. I was quite OK with it for the first week,probaly since I had so much in my system my brain wasnt crying out for it. After that the med adjustments started, it was veryyyy hard just not to say "screw this"..but I didnt. About 3 months after quitting I started craving again..I learned thru this site that the "honeymoon,pink cloud" phase was over. I had wrote a list of why I needed to quit....finances,health,smoking to escape life instead of dealing with it head on,the laziness it caused me,the not give a crap attitude,drug testing for a job,the eating at night and not even remembering what I ate the next day,the all-over feeling that it controlled me.I would read that list(there was more than that on it)and I made it thru that tough time,which only lasted a few days. I really havent had a craving for it since. I'm so very proud of myself,and it feels great not having such a thing controlling me. This is the absolute longest(3 months before)I've quit for,and I will NOT go back I've gained too much by quitting,life is great..I look forward to each and every day I'm clean. I really wont say I went cold-turkey, I had God walking with me thru it each and every day. He knew how much I wanted it, and helped me thru each and everyday. I wish you the best..its not easy to give up an addiction,but welll worth it when you do. Good Luck to you!!!!

You can remember stuff...you're motivated to do things, you don't crave ding dongs at 2am and you don't eat crazy, messed up, worse than a pregnant woman combo's of food.

You make decisions based on REAL CLEAR needs an wants, rather than through a cloud of smoke. You can pass a drug test.

You can feel GOOD about yourself, rather than feeling shamed.

Way to go on choosing the smoke free path again.

I can tell you the benefits I have experienced:

I lost weight.
I have more energy.
I can read books again.
I don't feel shame anymore.
My thoughts are much clearer.

I used Wellbutrin to help me quit though. It made it so I no longer wanted to smoke and wellbutrin was really easy to quit taking.

Good luck. It will happen when you are ready. It took me two years of wanting to quit before I could.

For me the number one benefit is that I have control of my life ... I do not have MJ controlling it anymore.

If I had all the money I wasted the 37 years I smoked, I would be a rich man. Weed made me lazy (although I always worked). I had low self esteem. I have just stopped again, and i'm hell bent on leaving it alone this time. I was HEAVY smoker, sometimes smoking an ounce a week. I would smoke so much on the weekends that I would feel like a Zombie on Monday. God knows what it did to my brain, no wonder I have so many mental issues.

Benefits of quitting:

Not having anything to hide.
Not needing weed naps mid-day or after work (due to smoking during work).
Not waking up super spent and groggy after weed naps, with the rest of the day in an extra haze.
Not dragging my feet with lesser energy.
Clear eyes.
Increased lung capacity.
Waking up in the mornings more refreshed.
Ability to deal with the present moments better without constantly craving to escape it if it is unpleasant, or to enhance it if it is pleasant.
Ability to be more succinct in writing and explaining things verbally.
Saving money.
Saving time.
Spending time with people of higher caliber.
Don't have to reread a page a dozen times if I'm trying to learn something.
Stabilized blood sugar.
Less nasal congestion.
More apt to wake up early and make most of the day.
More apt to go to bed a bit earlier and not waste time or energy just "burning out", flicking channels and over-eating.
Ability to have sharper focus during yoga and meditation, and also during work and intelligent conversations.
Ability to own my own mistakes and make improvements on my errors without always just blaming it on the weed.
Save energy by not fighting with myself about whether or not I should smoke before occasions when I know I shouldn't smoke.
Safer while driving.
Not worrying about the cops.
Clearer conscience when it comes to knowing that I'm earnestly working on doing my best in life.
Rings under my eyes aren't so dark, and no nagging cough.
No constant unsettling jones (sure I sometimes certainly crave it but it isn't an all day, every day thing).
No anxiety when I realize that I am running out of weed.

Fabulous responses you guys!

This is a great thread!!!!