Do you struggle with a dependency on marijuana to enjoy life? Do you think about getting high and find yourself sort of going out of your mind when you can’t? Can you function without it?

Do you have to use marijuana to feel normal?

Many people have problems with marijuana. Often touted as something that is perhaps very lightly physically addictive, but perhaps psychologically addictive, either way, when it’s someone you know, or perhaps you yourself, has an issue abusing or using marijuana, the problem becomes very real, and it doesn’t matter if its technically psychological or physical. It’s there, and it’s a problem, and it needs to be dealt with.

In this article, we will take a look at a few ways to get help when it comes to using and quitting marijuana use.

1. Establish a firm commitment to quit.
This is very important. Having a strong psychological commitment towards quitting is the first step. Think of all the reasons you should quit – including very dramatic ones, such as not wanting your kids to find out you smoke, for instance – and latch on to them. Hold on to them for strength. You will need these reasons close by your heart when you are struggling and breaking free of your habits and patterns.

2. Garner the support of friends and family.
Let your friends and family know have think you have a problem with using marijuana and that you are addressing this problem. They hopefully will be right on your side.

If your friends and family indulge in marijuana themselves, or find it otherwise threatening to learn you are quiting, you will have to simply find other friends and family who will support you, and focus on them for now. This could mean dropping friends or even family members while you change your life.

3. Accept that you will have relapses.
No one is perfect. Accept that any mistakes you make in the future are just – mistakes. They don’t define you, and they don’t stop you from waking up the next and not using.

4. Accept that you might need professional help and be ready for it when the time comes.
Understand that you dependency on marijuana might be incredibly strong, and in order to effectively break it and move beyond this dependency, professional help could be needed. This might mean one on one therapy or it could mean staying at a drug addiction treatment facility for a number of days, or just out patient visits.

Either way, it’s OK to accept professional help. Allow yourself to get the help you need, when and if it comes down to it.

5. Finally, start an exercise program.
This is a funny sounding suggestion, but when quitting one habit, it’s great to replace it with another. For people with substance abuse issues, establishing an exercise program can be an effective way to excerpt control over the body, making it obey you, rather than the usual act of falling victim to the bodies craving for a drug. Of course, exercise has about a million other benefits, all of which carry weight in helping you live a happy, healthy, drug free life.

The concept of real addiction problems when it comes to marijuana is hard for some to swallow. For those who think it’s silly, at least don’t make it harder for someone who believes they have a problem. Drug addiction – and addiction in general – comes in many guises, and while marijuana has valid medical use and, also, I will readily admit, recreational value for many that is both safe and enjoyable – it is a real problem for some, and for that group of people, I wish them the best in the journey of breaking free of the chains that hold them down.

“If I smoke marijuana habitually, does that mean I’ve addicted to smoking marijuana, too?”

This is a question a lot of smokers have. It’s clever in the assumptions and biases in conceals. Let’s look closer at what usually is meant by this question.

“If I smoke marijuana habitually…” usually means the smoker in question uses marijuana every day. This is often the case for many years. This would certainly qualify as a habit. But is a habit the same thing as addicted? Which leads us to the end of the question, where we ask if having a habit -

“…does this mean I’m addicted to it?”

If we replace the word “marijuana” with any other drug, such as cocaine, vicodin, meth, or even alcohol or tobacco – the answer is clearer, isn’t it? If someone you were friends with told you they had gotten in the habit of taking 3 vicodin pills every evening or else they couldn’t relax or fall asleep, there would probably be no need to qualify their situation by asking the question if this habit is an addiction. Many would automatically realize it’s become a drug addiction.

So why the difference with marijuana?

The different is likely in how we approach smoking or using weed (or cannabis, chronic, reefer – whatever street name for marijuana that you’d like to call it) and an inherent assumption that it’s not as addictive as other drugs.

If we establish that smoking or using any drug habitually is akin to addiction, which I believe it is, the question then shifts to what marijuana addiction looks like. Is marijuana addiction a dark black hole that we can paint on the same canvas as drug addiction in general? Or is the experience of being addicted to marijuana more benign?

I think few would look at the evidence and claim marijuana addiction is in the same class as addiction and certain other drugs, such as heroin and its demonstrably addictive properties, for example. But this does not mean that being addicted to marijuana is not without its consequences. Marijuana withdrawal is a very real experience, and some peoples weed addiction stories seems to rival that of the traditional drug addict.

If you’re reading this, looking for input on to whether or not you are “really” addicted to marijuana, try stopping and see what happens. This will likely answer your question. For tips and some good general guidelines, read our article titled How to Stop Smoking Weed.

A Question For Our Readers: Do you think your marijuana use can be considered more of a habit than addiction, or more of an addiction than a habit?

Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think and why.

This article we will discuss some of the treatment options available for people seeking marijuana addiction help. This information is aimed at individuals who recognize they have a problem with addiction and it has manifested in their lives in the form of a marijuana habit that has taken control of their lives and is having a dramatic negative effect on them personally, as well as their job, family, and social life.

Marijuana addicts, and drug addicts in general, have options for dealing with their treatment and addiction issues, although these options are somewhat limited, and often shrouded in red tape. This is not meant to be discouraging, just realistic. That being said, let’s review some of the means people often seek treatment for marijuana addiction.

Those with health insurance are in the best position to seek full time rehab. Many if not most health insurance plans provided through your employer will offer some form of in person rehabilitation for drug addiction. There are no hard and fast rules on how this works however; acquiring those details will require calling the insurance company for more information or speaking with your company’s HR representative who deals with such questions. Often though, it works something like this: the insurance company first requires a visit to a drug addiction specialist, who will then essentially approve or confirm that there is a legitimate need for marijuana addiction treatment. At this point, the insurance company will pre-approve the rehab treatment and the patient can seek treatment. The details as to what specific drug treatment programs are covered, the length of their stay, and the specific treatments available that are covered are going to be specific to each insurance plan and is not something we can specify broadly.

Live-in drug treatment rehab is not necessarily an appropriate or necessary option for everyone.Outside of attending a full time or live-in marijuana addiction treatment program, which is an unrealistic option for many due to either lack of insurance coverage, an inability to leave the job for extended time, or the need to keep the problem a secret for fear of the social/career/political consequences, what other resources our at their disposal for seeking help?

Some people find much success in simply going cold turkey with the support of their family, friends, and loved ones, as well as professional counseling for a drug addiction specialist. Often this means getting emotional support from other people who have also suffered from an addiction problem at some point in their lives. To this end, it can mean seeking out a support group, such as Marijuana Anonymous, a kind of philosophical sister organization to the more well known group Alcoholics Anonymous. The internet provides a virtual support system for many addicts seeking help, although ideally in person meetings will be the best route to go, but this option is few and far between for many outside of major cities in the United States and Canada. Attending such meetings can help an addict deal with their addiction in ways not possible when trying to deal with it alone. Additionally, a drug counselor can provide a perspective and a personal game plan that will often prove to be a critical component of an addicts drive to quit smoking marijuana.

So in summary, here are some of the options available for professional marijuana addiction treatment:

• Marijuana Addiction Treatment – Attending an in person, live-in drug rehabiliation center.

• Drug Addiction Counseling – Similar to rehab, but doesn’t involve overnight stays.

• Support Groups – Support groups such as Marijuana Anonymous, either in physical meetings in person or seeking kinship and support through online emotional groups.

If you have any experience with marijuana addiction treatment, such as those items listed above, please leave a comment with your experience. What  type of marijuana treatment did you do? What was it like? Were the results successful in quitting marijuana?

Marijuana addiction research is a subject that has always fascinated me. In this article we will take a look at some research studies implicating a link between marijuana and addiction. Drug addiction research in general is liable for multiple interpretations, with groups putting their own spin on the findings. I suppose our spin here being that this site is aimed as a resource for marijuana addicts is to find evidence of addiction. With that boldly open disclaimer, let’s take a look at some research studies!

An interesting study on marijuana withdrawal at McLean Hospital in Boston shows some interesting results. Harvard trained psychiatrist Harrison Pope, who was one of the researchers involved in this study, says its results show “there is a clear (marijuana) withdrawal syndrome”. The study involved taking marijuana smokers who had smoked about 5,000 times in their lives and have them stop smoking (they were monitored via urine samples) and then observe the results. The withdrawal from not partaking in daily marijuana use primarily involved subjects becoming irritable, sleepless, and having little appetite. This lasted about 7 days and then subsided, the study said. Pope note that they did not “see craving even remotely to the degree you would with heroin or alcohol or cocaine,” but that some people in the study, having not been able to smoke marijuana, were “quite miserable.”

According to studies funded by NIH (National Institute of Health), long term marijuana usage can lead to marijuana addiction, which they rightly define as seeking marijuana compulsively in spite of understanding and experiencing its negative and harmful effects related to the users family, career, schooling, or recreational life. NIH also reports what seems to be the consensus in regards to the possibility of marijuana withdrawal, which is that it is a real problem for long term users when quitting pot, resulting in the user being irritable, experiencing insomnia, anxiety, a psychological craving for marijuana, and also losing their appetite. These marijuana withdrawal symptoms start about a day after stopping smoking, are worst on days two and three, and go away within a week or even two weeks after quitting.

A study on marijuana addiction by the Department of Psychiatry at John Hopkins found similar results in regards to people who have quit smoking marijuana. Researchers stated that the withdrawal experience of that from quitting marijuana is similar to that of cigarette withdrawal, an interesting parallel that many can relate to with cigarette addiction being entirely widespread in most countries of the world.

What are we to make of such researcher? I think a good logical case can be made that habitual usage of marijuana makes the body dependant on its continued usage, and cessation of marijuana usage results in withdrawal symptoms commonly associated with drug addiction and detoxification, with negative effects on the users mood, sleeping habits, appetite, while simultaneously experiencing a strong drug craving during this withdrawl period.

Does that mean marijuana is addictive? What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

Stopping any behavior that we’ve become accustomed to is very hard. Behaviors that are repeated daily become reinforced daily. When it comes to substances we put in the body – be it cigarettes, alcohol, weed, or even something like McDonalds food some think (like Morgan Spurlock) – the body can respond by craving said substances when it is denied them. The term addiction is highly controversial, and a definition everyone can agree on doesn’t really exist. Nevertheless, people who want to argue should go somewhere else – if you are here reading this article, I assume you are here because you’re interested in quitting marijuana and learning how to stop smoking weed.

These tips are not professional medical advice from a drug counselor. Rather, these are real life tips I want to share with you from my research into marijuana usage, addictive behavior, and from all the “marijuana addiction stories” I’ve learned over the years in the course of my work. Read this with an open mind and take it for what it’s worth.

1. Understand Why You Want to Stop Smoking Pot

It’s vital that you’re desire to stop smoking marijuana is intrinsically tied to a gut-level reason for wanting or even needing for quitting marijuana. I suggest taking out a paper or opening up a Word document on a computer and start adding your thoughts on why you want to stop smoking weed.

As an example, you might want to stop smoking marijuana because you’re about to have a son or daughter. Or you might want to stop smoking because you’ve swear you do not want to miss another job opportunity because of the drug test. Or maybe your reason for quiting is that someone you love died of lung cancer from smoking all their lives, and you’ve seen the toll this had on their family, and you never want to risk putting your family through the same thing.

These are all examples I’ve made up. I hope they don’t offend anyone. The point is – you need a reason to quit that hits you in the gut. You need a reason to quit that makes maybe upsets you or makes you tear up. Quiting a drug or an addictive behavior is tough, and having a “reason to believe” will increase your chances of not giving up when life gets rough and you want to solve the problem by getting high.

2. Commit to Quiting But Understand Mistakes Happen

Perfection is not realistic. I’m not saying that the second point here is to give yourself an excuse for using again. But what I’m saying is that it happens to the best of us, and before you throw in the towel forever, realize that THAT is just another excuse – the truth is, if you make a mistake, dust yourself off and move on.

Really what this point is about is accepting that you are human and that making a mistake once just means that you made a mistake – but it doesn’t mean you’ve given up on your commitment to quit smoking weed.

3. Get Support From Family and Friends

This is a tough one for many. Sometimes it’s friends and family who are threatened by your actions when it comes to trying to stop smoking pot. For them, you are a reminder that maybe they should look at their actions. Nevertheless, it’s very important to establish support where you can get it. If this is from family, great. If this is from your current friends, awesome.

However, if your family and friends won’t support you, then seek out new people in your life who will. This could mean going to drug abuse groups like Marijuana Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous. Or it could just mean trying new activities and meeting new people and never making drug use the focus of the social activities.

Some level of social support is practically mandatory here – get it where you can.

4. Consider Exercising, Taking Up a Hobby, Joining a Club, etc.

Often times when trying to end one habit, a trick to help is to replace it with a new habit. For our purposes here, doing something like joining a gym and establishing a daily exercise routine can be incredibly beneficial as part of your overall plan for how to stop smoking weed. But it doesn’t have to be this – it could be a hobby you’re passionate about or some kind of club you participate in.

I hope you’re reading this nodding your head and understanding how this can apply to your own life and your own goals in relation to marijuana. Marijuana addiction is something you don’t have to live with your whole life. You can quit. I hope this article point you in the right direction from how to stop smoking weed.

If you have quit marijuana or are trying to quit smoking marijuana, one thought at the forefront of your mind likely relates to what’s known as marijuana withdrawal. The term “withdrawal” here in this context refers to the body’s response to suddenly not getting a drug its grown accustomed to continually getting; in this case, we’re talking about marijuana (or weed, pot, etc.)
Is marijuana withdrawl real?

Marijuana usage is so entirely common, and many find it to be non habit forming and have the attitude that it is not harmful, especially compared to other drugs. While this latter aspect may be true in the sense that it’s less harmful than other drugs, withdrawal from marijuana when you’ve become addicted to smoking weed is a very real experience.

I think to prove this point it’s a bit more interesting to quote from others who have openly written online about their experiences trying to quit smoking and what the forthcoming marijuana withdrawal experience was like.

Here’s a snippet from a person in Vancouver Canada, who is in his early 30’s, who wrote to say that he was able to quit cold turkey using discipline and the force of his will, but “I was not expecting to get my ass kicked by the withdrawal pains of not getting high. I was going through flu like symptoms, shaking and getting cold as hell suddenly, then hot, and back and forth! According to my wife, I was also a real pain to be around for 2 or 3 days, just whining and being quick to snap at her or the kids. When I started smoking weed at 15 I never thought 15 or so years later I would ever experience what I felt in those 3 days from marijuana withdrawals. Until this, I didn’t even think marijuana withdrawal existed.

These symptoms mentioned here are fairly common it seems. Another person writes that after smoking every day for more than 2 decades that he “went through terrible marijuana withdrawal that lasted for about a weed. My life was just headaches, mood swings, and generally a mess for that first week without any marijuana. I never truly realized how addicted to cannabis I was until I quit. It was like some kind of crazy post marijuana psychosis in those first 48 hours.”

Like many other drugs, marijuana can be for good (think medical marijuana) or bad (think weed addiction), and the truth is that it takes common sense and a good drug policy approach to find a solid middle ground between the two. Being that drug users who’ve tried to quit – and drug counselors who have seen it all – truly understand that going through cannibus withdrawal is a reality for people who have become addicted to marijuana, what makes sense as far as society’s response to such a drug and its – some say – forthcoming legalization for medical and possibly recreational use in the United States?

Todays guest post comes from an anonymous author whose wants to be known as J. He contacted Marijuana Addiction Help after noting some interesting observations amongst his friends and folks at school and wanted to write a guest post. Here it is, unedited for your reading pleasure. Thanks J. for your input! I think his observations are dead on insofar as how our culture polarizes usage of drugs and especially marijuana. If you’ve got any thoughts for JF, please leave him a comment here on this post and he will see it and try to respond to you.

Something I’ve noticed growing up in todays world is that marijuana, or weed as it’s more commonly called amongst the people around here who use it, is that it’s considered really cool to smoke pot. It’s almost to the point where straight up weed addiction is what some idiots think make them cool. I’ve noticed for instance, that some people at my school seem to wrap their entire identity around how much weed they smoke.

I will admit, I tried getting high once before (actually more than once!), and it was OK – it wasn’t the greatest thing ever, nor was it all that bad. It just was what it was. But it’s nothing to get so crazy over as to wear “Chronic” shirts and write poems in English class about smoking (or god forbid, the ever popular “Why Marijuana Should Be Legalized” essay paper – gag!) and being addicted to the green stuff.

There’s a no so small crew in particular of so called stoners at my high school who I think are purposely trying to get addicted to weed. I swear, it’s like the goal is for them to wake up one day after smoking daily for months, take a weed addiction test they find online, and then happily check off all symptoms for weed addiction one by one on a chart while listening to some Cypress Hill.

This type of identity characterization or drug culture worship is just plain silly. I wish I could start the next sentence with “For one thing, no one cares..”, but the sad truth is, a lot of people do care. This group of kids are not outcastes. They’re what you’d probably call “the cool kids”. They wear nice clothes, have lots of friends, buy their etextbooks on their fancy iphones, and go to lots of parties on the weekends.

On the other hand, there’s even a few “straight edge” kids at my school who have their identity wrapped up in the opposite problem, that of being entirely drug free. (Some won’t even drink caffeine or eat meat. What this has to do with drugs, I do not know!)

Anyway, it’s strange growing up in a culture that seems to only allow for extremes. On one hand, you can be a stoner, on the other, a straight edge kid. What about the rest of us normal people in between? Where does our story fit in?

Editors note: Any other students or young folks out there who like to write about marijuana addiction, weed addiction, or drug use in general and their experiences with it – good, bad, for, against, etc – are welcome to submit an anonymous guest post. Please see About for more information.

Being addicted to marijuana is uncommon for many smokers, but for those experiencing it, you’d better believe it is real. It is not something that happens to everyone. But some people who smoke marijuana do so compulsively, habitually, and….addictively.

Some of these same people may want to quit their habit and tbut you know what – they can’t. No matter how hard they try, they keep coming back to getting high, beating up their resolve each time this promise is broken, again and again. The cycle repeats. It’s no fun.

If you are at this point, you probably have a good idea of how your addiction is negatively impacting (technical word for “messing up”) your life. Having the money for drugs and otherwise doing whatever it takes to continually get high is getting in the way of everything else in their life – their family, school, their job, even being a Mom or Dad. And even if it’s not this dramatic, maybe it’s still bad enough. Maybe it’s still not who you want to be.

Maybe you or someone who love can count themselves amongst some of these people who want help against being addicted to marijuana.

Even though the vast majority of people who have smoked cannabis do not manifest signs of addiction or addictive behavior, this does not mean that those who do show these signs should be dismissed. It is not a judgment on the many individuals who regularly smoke marijuana and show none of the negative behaviors associated with being an addict, that there is, indeed, some people who become unable to control themselves and have an addiction that can, simply put, ruin their life.

Nevertheless, if you’re smoking cannabis and your addiction is causing you strife, if it’s controlling your life, it’s there is a compulsive urge to smoke and this gets in the way of your family life, your social life, your schoolwork, your career… then maybe you are here to do a little research on addiction and maybe what it would be like to seek treatment for this problem.

That’s the type of person and experience this website seeks to address and help.

If you are curious about what this means, please read the following posts:

Is Marijuana Addictive?
Is marijuana even an addictive drug? Some people don’t think so. The question itself is controversial. Marijuana use and its effects – it is not the same for everyone, and not all users are addicts. But that doesn’t mean some users don’t become addicted to marijuana.

Signs of Marijuana Addiction
A look at what could be seen as traditionally addictive behaviors, manifested by marijuana addicts. What are the signs of addiction?

Treatment for Marijuana Addiction
What options do you have if you seek treatment for your addictive behavior? A look at counseling, detoxification, and drug abuse rehab (in-house.). It might be more of an option that you think, and most importantly, your insurance likely covers some form of treatment.

Addicted to Marijuana: Users Stories (coming soon)
Profiles of drug abuse. How it’s effected real people. Real families. Addiction does have real consequences. If smoking has become a problem for you, maybe some real examples can help you decide what to to do in regards to your own behavior. If you have a story yourself you would like to be featured here anonymously, please contact us.

Basic info on Marijuana and Usage
A look at some statistics from different sources (for and against marijuana use) on the number of people who have tried marijuana at least once and those who have used it more recently, too.

The question of whether or not marijuana is even theoretically addictive is controversial.

Some users who regularly smoke marijuana – such as those working successful jobs and careers, or raising a family, who feel that smoking weed adds depth and joy to their daily life – find it rather insulting to ask about marijuana being addictive, likening the concept of addiction only to images of junkies clutching needles or crazed business men snorting cocaine.

This type of reaction misses the point though:

Marijuana addiction can still be a real problem for some even if others – even if most – people are able to function in a healthy or responsible manner while smoking marijuana.

The easiest analogy here is that of alcohol: the majority of alcohol users are not alcoholics, yet there is still a percentage of individuals who will become addicted to alcohol, and act out the signs of addiction.

But this is where the analogy gets fuzzy:

The casual marijuana smoker is usually put into an unfair box as compared to the casual drinker: when someone is talking about marijuana addiction, they often make the assumption that nearly everyone who smokes marijuana has a problem, whereas the same assumptions are not made for alcohol use.

This unfair bias is a big reason that many smokers feel threatened by the topic of marijuana addiction: when the smoke clears (no pun intended), they understand that the cultural attitude they are up against implies they are an addict by virtue of the fact that they use marijuana. Little to no consideration is given as to whether or not marijuana use could function as something other than a negative habit.

Unfortunately, this black and white outlook penalizes those who enjoy marijuana responsibly while obscuring the problem for those who are suffering because of a real addiction to marijuana.

I would say that despite all the hype and confusion, a good working definition of what it means to be addicted to marijuana is simply this:

“Marijuana addiction could be defined as chronically making the firm decision not to use marijuana followed shortly by a relapse due to experiencing overwhelming compulsive urges to use marijuana despite the firm decision not to. “

Note that this is definition sidesteps the question of whether or not MOST people become addicted, or how marijuana stacks up against other drugs in their addiction potential, etc. None of those things matter if that sentence above describes your experience. (Also note how well this definition works in regards to being addicted to anything.)

Addiction Signs

Understanding addictive behavior means looking at patterns and underlying motivations for a behavior and actions. While it’s not as easy as going down a list and checking yes or no and adding it all up, such a list is a useful tool is making an overall analysis of what is going on. Below is a set of symptoms that are associated with the behavior of a user who is suffering from marijuana addiction.

• User feels they are unable to control behavior.

Have you tried to stop smoking marijuana? Did you fail? Does this keep happening, despite how hard you try?

• Marijuana habit interferes with or causes a reduction in social activities.

Do you avoid people who disapprove of you smoking? Does marijuana gives you increase your social anxiety? Does it prevent you from going out and trying new experiences? If you didn’t smoke, do you think you’d have a more active social life?

• Marijuana use interferes with family life, negatively impacting relationships with children, parents, and loves ones

Ask yourself, “Would I be a better Father/Mother/Son/Daughter/etc if I weren’t doing this?”

• User spends money on marijuana when basic needs, or the needs of their family, etc. are not met

Are you still able to find money for marijuana even when money is not there for food, clothes, etc or to pay late bills?

• User experiences unpleasant side effects if he or she does not smoke marijuana.

Can you feel headaches or dizziness coming on that is only relieved by smoking again? Can you fall asleep without being high? Do you start to get nervous, anxious, or freak out if you know you are running out of or don’t have any more weed to smoke?