Auchieshuggle

I smoked weed solidly for about a year, when I was in my teens. I used to do 'buckets', 'bongs' and even used it to make tea. Just like you I had a huge panic attack and after that I just used to have a thoroughly unpleasant time smoking it. So I switched to alcohol.

I want to be clean - unless herbal teas and vitamins count as intoxicants, of course.

MantaLady

I realised in my early 20’s I turned into a dick when I drank and once I had a couple I couldn’t stop so I moved over to weed. For 15-18 years all seemed fine with just a few rare drunken bumps in the road. However, when I ran out of weed I would drink straight vodka but it was rare I ran out of weed so it wasn’t an issue for me at the time. At some point which I won’t go into my life changed and I couldn’t get hold of weed. This is when I started drinking in earnest, took a few years to get really bad but I needed something and bad it got!

I went to rehab at 44 due to alcohol, whilst there I came to the realisation I had been an addict for years. I had only been drinking problematically for 5 years but I had smoked weed for 20.

My take from all this is regardless of the substance, if you need to do or take something to get through the day then doesn’t matter if it is weed, alcohol, crispy creme donuts, sex, gambling or shopping.

Personally I would not recommend swapping alcohol for weed, been there, done that and realise it’s just masking the real issue.

Real freedom, real change and real happiness came from tackling the reason I felt I needed to take anything at all.

Hope this helps xx

August252015

One thing all of our posts have in common, without straight out saying it is the amount of time, thought, planning, effort and so on that we use to get drunk and/or high. Not doing either frees up....everything.

wehav2day

I’m gonna add to the chorus of it’s a baaadddd idea. It won’t help you recover. Only recovery will help you recover from addiction. Starting pot would just be adding a shiny new drug to your pile of addictions, give you one more problem substance to have to break from.

No thanks.

Gottalife

Another way to look at it is to decide if you want a real life or if you will settle for palliative care.

My late wife had an illness from which there was no hope of recovery. She suffered a great deal and to ease the suffering she was medicated to make her as comfortable as possible until the end.

Alcoholism is also a terminal illness, but there is hope of arresting it and leading a full life, however the process is painful. One could opt for the palliative care model and ease the discomfort while waiting for the end, a sort of half life pointless existence, probably not feeling much of anything. As I heard one doctor say, you can't selectively numb emotions, you end up numbing the good with the bad. Some folks are willing to accept that deal but I am so happy I did not.

As I write I am remembering a woman who said she initially tried the comfortable path thinking she could avoid the pain of recovery. 6 months later she changed her mind and discovered she had succeeded only in postponing the pain.

Gabe1980

Yeah, I wouldn't try it. I was addicted to weed in my teens and switched to alcohol when I moved to a different town and it wasn't readily available. Weed really screwed up my mental health. It is just another way to escape from yourself until the escape traps you.

August252015

Great post, Mike.

Derringer

Watched so many people give it a try and have yet to hear of one single case of "yep, it works"

It's usually "I tried that ... Wouldn't recommend it"

CRRHCC

What we think (cognition), what we feel (emotion) and what we do (behavior) are intrinsically linked together. Our thinking determines our feelings and our feelings determine our actions. Pastor and cognitive behaviorist, Rick Warren, states, "The way you think determines how you feel and affects how you act. If you want to change something in your life or break a bad habit, then figure out what caused you to do the thing you want to change."

SoberCAH

I would strongly advise against replacing alcohol with THC.

I'm confident you can do this, Benito, if you choose and closely follow a program of recovery.

Keep us posted, because we all want you to succeed.

zerothehero

I think the problem is using weed means the person is still seeking a buzz rather than learning to live without any kind of buzz.

I know this. One of my best friends detoxed from alcohol repeatedly, never stopped weed, and insisted the weed kept him from drinking. He died from his last alcohol relapse, found two days dead on the living room floor surrounded by empty vodka bottles, his weed and pipe on the coffee table.

I owe my sobriety - from drink and smoke - to his death. Talk about a wake-up call.