(((DK))), I quit drinking and smoked my way to sobriety ... well sort of ... used pot as a methadone program, and also I was with (for the last 10 years) a very heavy pot smoker (can't remember more than about 2 weeks all up in 10 years that he didn't smoke heaps each day). I sort of stayed smoking pot for him too.
Anyhoo, I quit alcohol about 9 years back, during that time I have done lots of things and definitely did stop using pot for many periods that lasted quite a bit of time. But at the end of the day if I wanted anything at all I did resort to smoking pot. For me, I thought that it was not as bad, no where near as bad, as alcohol. It did not make me do anything that was embarrassing (or so I thought). And I love to be social and talk a lot about lots of things and pot really isn't the drug for that sort of thing, so I really thought it was no big problem for me long term.
I have quit now, about 4 months (cigs gone too). Quit the relationship too ... I was holding onto a way of life and thinking that I had grown beyond and someone who didn't want what I wanted.
Pot is nearly cleared out of my system, I know my head has some residues still but most of the fog and unclear thinking and memory is good now. Believe me I was very functional! I have completed a degree with distinction, gone onto honours with it and now PhD ... but my mind was still foggy and thinking was no where near as clear as it should have been.
I have been exercising regularly, crying, ranting occassionally, moody, up and down. But most of all I have been levelling out and am feeling heaps better, I just know that this is the way to go. I do believe that the pot changed my motivations, thought processes, attitudes and now having stopped smoking pot I really am becoming who I want to be.
BUT I am so, so grateful that I did smoke it and that it was the lesser of two evils for me. BECAUSE I AM happy (ecstatic) not to drink and that for me was a really, really massive thing (um.. alcoholic thing .. um ... pretty bloody major). In the LONG term pot has been good for me. BUT it really did need to become a thing of the past and I held onto it for a very long time, refusing to let go ...
peace and love,
Brigid
