Night mares moods and depression

[Shazi]

Hello 🩷 I have been smoking weed now for about 20years. The last 10years very heavily.

I quit one month ago,  I am really struggling with moods, depression and nightmares. My brain just isn't coping during the day from the nights. I think im getting enough sleep , but if given the chance I crash out during the day. I'm constantly tired and sad. Does anyone have any inspiration stories of similar to help me keep moving forward and staying off the weed. I have past experiences with anti anxiety and anti depression tablets but I seem to be worse. I have seen my gp but unfortunately the help offered isn't working.

I suffer very bad anxiety and depression which is worsening since quitting. I have no motivation and feel like life isn't worth living anymore. I have had thoughts of ending my life due to the anxiety and not coping with the feeling I get. My family means alot to me so leaving them behind in this world seems far to selfish. I don't like living like this. I am healthy, I am in a wonderful relationship with a beautiful 12yr old step daughter but I'm always worrying about things I don't need too. I try and stay busy in hope this helps, but its worsens. I work about 2 hrs a day on a very casual schedule as I work for myself. I walk, I exercise etc but lately all I want to do is sleep. My head hurts maybe my its my brain from the nightmares. I'm hoping someone can shead on light on this and let me know it'll all ease up soon. I've always been a believer that weed wouldnt have withdrawal symptoms. I feel so stressed and sad.  I have not felt happy in a very long time almost years. Weed wasn't making me happy anymore and I feel smoking it has created my panic attacks and anxiety.

Thank you for this opportunity of hope 🩷

[Scared]

When i quit smoking cigs i became depressed and also anxiety came knocking on my door.  I asked doctors for an explanation to no avail .  I then questioned nurses all over the internet but still no answers.  Then i watched every youtube on the subject i could find and nobody can answer me.  It turns out not much is said on the problems of quitting pot or cigs but only they talk of the benefits.  Until i happened onto a Ted talk seminar where the scientist has been looking into Neuroplasticity and the brain chemicals associated with smoking.   This scientist claims that dopamine receptors are being activated for so long by smoking it has forgotten how to operate these receptors on their own natural way.  In short pot is giving you the feel good high and knows no other way of feeling emotionally ok.  Neuroplasticity is exactly as it sounds.  Its elastic and changes.   You need to hang on to being a non smoker for how ever long it takes for your brain chemicals to come back to normal.   Sorry but the truth is nobody knows how long this takes.   There simply is not enough of the negative aspects of quitting that has been researched.  I looked for weeks and was lucky to find this amount of knowledge

[Shazi]

Thank you so much 🙏 I will keep pushing forward. I will look into Ted talks 🫶

[therising]

Hi Shazi

I'm glad Scared has offered you insight into one of the best ways forward when it comes to gaining a greater sense of self understanding. Research, research and more research into how we tick can not only offer some forms of guidance, it can also be a generally fascinating learning experience. Going down the rabbit hole of self understanding can definitely lead to plenty of 'Oh, wow, I had no idea I worked that way!' moments.

Given the number of specialists out there in the world, who study in their chosen field for some years (in the way of gaining knowledge and qualifications), to know everything there is to know about our self would mean studying at uni for decades. From endocrinologists to psychologists or psychiatrists through to hematologists, neurologists, epigeneticists and so on, it turns out that we're seriously complex creatures. Whether we're trying to give up the dope, the smokes or the booze, any one of those specialists will tell you 'It's not all that simple'. What giving up one or all of those things does to our hormones, mental state, general chemistry, nervous system and genetic state can be complex. And while such specialists may be able to help in the way of giving us a greater understanding of our mind and our body, the impact on who we naturally are or our nature (a 3rd factor) is a whole other thing. If we're someone who has come to thrive on certain stimulants and/or manage through certain sedatives, stopping a stimulant and/or sedative is definitely going to come with challenges in all 3 areas.

As a 54yo gal who used to drink regularly many years back, waking up to the number of natural skills I'd never developed while I was drinking was real eye opener. How to naturally manage social stressors, how to naturally manage depressing or potentially depressing challenges, how to naturally manage inner dialogue and developing intuition, how to naturally manage your own nervous system and how to naturally manage developing levels of dopamine that can be felt are just a handful of the many areas where skill is a requirement.

Stopping something we've heavily relied on for a number of years is just one half of the story or challenge. The other half can involve 'Okay, now I'm ready to learn a whole new lot of skill sets'. Not easy, especially if we're a natural 'feeler' or 'sensitive' (someone who's sensitive to how and what we feel). Then it's also a matter of 'Now I need to learn how to feel on a whole new level'.