Signs of Marijuana Addiction and Steps to Recovery

What to Expect of These Marijuana Symptoms

If you’ve discovered or realised that you’re addicted to cannabis, then it’s your chance to change your lifestyle. Learn more about relapse prevention strategies and recovery skills from addiction in order to function normally and properly without marijuana. Essentially:

• Physical and Psychological Symptoms: Physically, the consequences of marijuana include increased heart rate, changes in mood, and changes in appetite. Psychologically, marijuana can increase paranoia and anxiety. This can then lead to the reduction of your brain’s ability to think clearly and outright depression.
• When Will the Symptoms Dissipate? The physical withdrawal symptoms should wear off given enough time has passed once you’ve ceased taking the drug and the drug itself has worn off. However, the psychological effects of cannabis can last for many months or even years after you’ve stopped smoking marijuana.
• Immediate and Long-Term Consequences: The most common and immediate outcomes of cannabis abuse are depression and anxiety. These conditions can lead to you wanting to self-medicate or get prescribed medication for them to treat them properly.
• There are also complications like lowered IQ that won’t be recovered or healed even after you ceased consumption of pot, especially if you start taking the drug as a minor.
• Cannabis Addiction versus Other Addictions: However, the symptoms and physical signs of cannabis addiction aren’t near those of hard drugs like heroin, which is a fact that the pro-legalisation of marijuana contingent keeps offering as an argument for cannabis legality.

Does this make smoking pot okay? There are those who’d argue that yes, it’s justification. However, there are also those who explicitly state that no, it’s not a justification at all and marijuana abuse can lead to brain damage, among other complications.

The Consequences of Marijuana Use

Regardless of how it’s taken, there’s a real risk of feeling like you require marijuana every day, so you might have troubles stopping using it on your own volition. In any case, there are various consequences related to marijuana use that pot smokers need to be aware of.

• Brain Abnormalities: 18 to 25 year olds who consumed marijuana at least once every week tended to have significant brain abnormalities. The abnormalities were present in the reward and emotion centres of the brain. Even casual usage of cannabis can increase your chances of developing addictions to other substances down the line or affect your ability to deal or feel emotions.
• Not for Minors: The adolescent brain considers marijuana to be neurotoxic or toxic to the brain, nerves, neurons, and the nervous system in general. A study following more than 1,000 people who used marijuana as adolescents showed that there’s a 6-point decline of their IQ (Intelligence Quotient) on average. Stopping cannabis usage won’t restore the damage either.
• To be more specific, their IQs at age 13 then and at age 38 were compared. This change is alarming because on average, non-marijuana users are known to have their IQ remain stable or slightly go up during this period. Regular pot smokers, on the other hand, have their IQs decline, thus proving the alleged rumours that cannabis usage “rots” the brain with its neurotoxicity, especially among young kids.
• Psychotic Symptoms: Cannabis also makes it 3 times likely for someone to develop psychotic symptoms or some sort of psychosis. This is according to a study spanning 3 years and involving 4,045 test subjects that lack any psychosis whatsoever. Many of marijuana smokers ended up developing symptoms of psychosis such as manic-depression compared to their non-smoking counterparts.
• Induces Depression: Did you know that by using marijuana, you could risk developing depression? It’s true. Pot smokers are 4 times more likely to develop the condition. Another marijuana study followed 1,920 people for 16 years. It revealed that marijuana smokers were more likely to develop depression by 4 times when compared to people who have never smoked a blunt their entire lives.

According to a 7-year study that involves 1,601 students who are 14 to 15 years of age, 60 percent of the students became marijuana users or at least tried out cannabis by 20 years of age. Meanwhile, 7 percent of them ended up becoming daily pot smokers. The young females of the volunteers who were daily marijuana users were five times more likely to develop depression to boot.

Marijuana and Pain Control

Codeine is about as effective as marijuana when it comes to pain control according to a research study. To be more specific, smoking weed by blunt or by bong is no more effective in controlling your mild to severe pain than 60 to 120 milligrams of codeine.

This is according to 9 clinical trials comparing cannabis with other pain medication in 222 patients in total. The research study also examined 2 chronic non-malignant pain trials, 2 acute postoperative pain trials, and 5 cancer pain trials.

However, unlike codeine, more side effects can be found in marijuana, including increased risk for psychosis and depression. This is why you shouldn’t depend on marijuana as a painkiller unless you have no other viable options.

Recovery and Relapse Prevention Strategies

You need to first recognise that you have an issue with marijuana in order to take your first step to recovery and sobriety.

• Short-Term Addiction: If you’re dependent or only slightly addicted to cannabis, you can stop taking the drug, survive the initial week of withdrawal and then take steps to fast-track your recovery success.
• Long-Term Addiction: If you’re dealing with long-term marijuana abuse, you might need rehab assistance to deal with long-term withdrawal symptoms such as brain abnormalities, psychosis, and so forth through dedicated counseling and a more focused inpatient treatment including aftercare.

Overcoming addiction to marijuana is a journey you shouldn’t take lightly, especially if you’re already in a rut. You can end up depressed and anxious due to your pot usage.

You might have also changed your relationships with your wife, children, parents, siblings relatives, friends, coworkers, or boss for the worse due to your usage and suffer various other problems as a result of your marijuana abuse.

You might have turned into a neglectful father and husband because you’re more concerned about getting your next hit. You could have also abandoned your work responsibilities or ended up in debt because of your severe marijuana addiction.

Thankfully, there are various ways you can go about overcoming your marijuana addiction, whether it’s short-term or long-term addiction.

• Inpatient Rehabilitation: Those affected by marijuana won’t usually need to go to inpatient rehab wherein you have to stay in a facility for an extended period of time. Usually, those who do have a co-occurring mental illness or addiction.
• Outpatient Rehabilitation: This is the most common rehab treatment for marijuana addicts. It involves semi-weekly, weekly, or even daily rehabilitation sessions that include therapy and counselling to assist you in learning how to recognise and avoid situations that cause you to consume pot.
• Behavioural Therapy: You can also use behavioural therapy in order to teach yourself how to boost your mood or get rid of your boredom without resorting to cannabis consumption. The idea here is to consciously change your behaviour into something more positive.
• Cognitive Therapy: This therapy should assist you to think in a different way and react to stimulus in a more objective or positive manner. This will allow you to cope to difficult situations without resorting to marijuana.
• Community Reinforcement: Community reinforcement programmes can assist addicts who take pot to feel good or accomplished about themselves by rewarding them every time they meet recovery goals. This will make them feel accomplished and make their commitments without taking pot.
• Support Groups: Just as there’s such a thing as Alcoholics Anonymous, there’s also Marijuana Anonymous and other support groups that assist cannabis addicts through the 12-step recovery programme.

The Addictive Potential of Marijuana

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there’s addictive potential from long-term use of marijuana. In many cases, first timers or beginners won’t become addicted. Even recreational smokers of pot who do so occasionally won’t become addicted to cannabis.

With that said, long-term marijuana usage or cannabis abuse can lead to quite a number of harmful side effects. Abruptly stopping smoking marijuana without first weaning yourself off of it gradually or after a prolonged phase of usage can lead to the abovementioned withdrawal symptoms.

Marijuana Addiction Rehabilitation Programme at The Dawn Rehab in Thailand

We at The Dawn Rehab in Thailand specifically offer 12-step cannabis recovery programmes, counselling from our top-rated addiction specialists, and dual diagnosis treatment that you won’t find in just any other Thailand wellness centre. In fact, many other rehab facilities refuse service to addicts with co-occurring drug addictions and mental illnesses. This isn’t the case with the Dawn Rehab.

We believe in our dedicated staff, crew, and clinical team in giving assistance to those suffering from marijuana addiction. We offer the highest opportunity for success because of the number of inpatient and outpatient options they could avail of for recovery. Contact us today to learn more about our complete and dedicated services for marijuana addiction and other addiction types.