Anecdotally, I spent ~10 years as a daily pot smoker. I then moved to another country where it's illegal, so I stopped cold turkey in one day. I didn't experience any physical side effects or cravings. YMMV, but at least for me, it was a psychological condition. Once I told myself that I wanted to live in a place where it was illegal, and I wasn't willing to break the law of my new country of residence, that was it.
As a personal anecdote: been smoking for 10 years and everytime I take a break I have huge night sweats for 3 or 4 days until I become normal again.
I'm talking like waking up twice in the middle of the night to change bed sheets and t-shirt so I'm not sleeping in a pool of sweat.
> Flawed drug awareness campaigns of the 1990s claimed that cannabis could be psychologically addictive but not physically addictive like other drugs. However, cannabis does predictably cause physical dependence—the hallmarks of which are tolerance and withdrawal—and heavy users may have great difficulty in attempting to reduce or end their use, leading to compulsive, continued use and related consequences
Prolonged cannabis use produces both pharmacokinetic changes (how the drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted) and pharmacodynamic changes (how the drug interacts with target cells) to the body. These changes require the user to consume higher doses of the drug to achieve a common desirable effect (known as a higher tolerance), reinforcing the body's metabolic systems for eliminating the drug more efficiently and further down-regulating cannabinoid receptors in the brain.[7]
Cannabis users have shown decreased reactivity to dopamine, suggesting a possible link to a dampening of the reward system of the brain and an increase in negative emotion and addiction severity.[8]
(...)
Cannabis withdrawal symptoms occur in one-half of people in treatment for cannabis use disorders.[15] Symptoms may include dysphoria (anxiety, irritability, depression, restlessness), disturbed sleep, gastrointestinal symptoms, and decreased appetite. It is often paired with rhythmic movement disorder. Most symptoms begin during the first week of abstinence and resolve after a few weeks.
Whether or not there is strong evidence of physical addiction, the withdrawal experience is very real, and often unpleasant. Couple this with psychological dependence, and quitting can feel quite daunting.
The main issues right away:
- Problems sleeping due to REM rebound (vivid disruptive dreams or nightmares)
- Appetite issues
- General irritability
- Heightened anxiety (especially if using cannabis to treat anxiety)
If you’re using semi-medicinally, it’s extremely easy to hit these roadblocks, conclude “see I shouldn’t quit, weed isn’t so bad anyway”, and fall back into the habit.
I’m convinced that the reality of cannabis addiction/withdrawal is aggressively glossed over by the community of users who are very invested in what they’re doing being just fine. The truth is a bit murkier/darker.
I say this as a recreational-bordering-medical user (it does help calm down my PTSD) who enjoys using it, but who dislikes the inconvenient reality of trying to take a tolerance break.
I recently quit a pretty heavy constant background dose of THC (which I used to leverage myself off a pretty heavy constant background dose of alcohol).
sleeping is a big one
piercing headaches
similar effect to quitting alcohol - heightened sensitivity to light and noise
its also quite an adjustment to be dumped back out into the world again after living for years in your little blanket of quiet satisfaction.
its not the worst, and I've quit weed before without going through anything..but its not nothin
As does gambling addiction. The chemicals being internally generated by a psychological process doesn’t mean there aren’t severe withdrawal effects. Panic attacks and depression can have severe physical side effects. That doesn’t make any of those things chemically addictive substances.
