How to Help Someone Stop Smoking Weed
Do you have a friend or family member who is continuously smoking weed? Are you the parent of someone who seems to rely on weed to get himself (or herself) through the day? It is possible to help a person stop smoking weed.
Like with any drug, the effects of the drug themselves make it very hard for a person to stop once he has developed a dependence on the drug. It can seem very true to the drug-user that he needs the drug every day just to cope with life, just to feel what he considers “normal.” Despite these fixed ways of thinking, on the Narconon program, marijuana addicts have recovered the ability to think clearly, enjoy life and achieve goals again.
Symptoms of Marijuana Abuse
Marijuana use creates euphoria, sedation, lethargy and a feeling of empathy that is not based on real emotions. With high doses or chronic use, a person can suffer memory loss, difficulty paying attention, even panic attacks and hallucinations. He may feel like his senses are sharper but he will lose an accurate sense of speed or distance which can make him a dangerous driver. The loss of inhibitions combined with poor judgment that commonly occurs when stoned may mean that decisions with dangerous consequences may be made, such as the decision to take on a physical challenge that cannot be safely met, or the decision to have unprotected sex.
Of course, many people know that weed use results in loss of coordination that can seem funny at the time. Marijuana is well known for causing the “munchies”—increased appetite for snack foods, especially sweets. The eyes of a marijuana smoker are normally red after he smokes the drug.
What many people do not know is that heavy weed use is increasingly resulting in what has been termed “cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome” which simply means that use of high potency weed can cause people severe, excruciating abdominal pain and violent vomiting that continues for a long period of time. In fact, the only temporary relief seems to come from staying in a hot shower or bath for hours. If a person does not know that the cause of this problem is cannabis or weed, he can continue to cause the problem by smoking more weed. Medical treatment or drugs do not ease the pain or vomiting. The solution is to stop using weed. Doctors are slowly becoming aware of the cause of this problem and are more likely to ask if the person suffering this type of condition is using cannabis.
Problems for Students in Particular
Marijuana abuse is especially popular among young people. Right at the time in their lives when they should be learning and planning careers, marijuana may be sapping their ability to focus, learn, think logically and retain what they have learned. In addition, a person who chronically abuses this drug very often suffers a loss of motivation. Educational goals may become uninteresting and the lethargy and lack of focus resulting from marijuana abuse make it hard to follow through on assignments anyway. Statistically, more young people receive lower grades when they habitually smoked weed. One study showed that of those who had been heavy users completed college less often and had lower incomes after leaving college.
So these points cover how to tell if a person you care about is using weed and what the negative effects of this drug can be. You may already have been aware of some of these problems but didn’t know how to help.
Offering Help
If a person feels that using marijuana is making his life better, you will have a hard time convincing him (or her) to stop smoking the drug. You may have to work with your friend or family member to remind him of the way things were before he began to rely on marijuana to detach him from problems and emotions. Help him compare the way things are now with earlier times when he might have talked about his plans and future with enthusiasm.
You may have to convince him that the dreams he gave up on can still be attained if he quits cannabis use with your help. These earlier dreams and enthusiasms are the key to helping many people envision a new life without drugs, but that new desire may be fleeting. If you get his interest again, you must move quickly to the creation of a new sobriety so these dreams can be renewed.
You will have to work with this person to get him to stop using the drug. He will have to stay away from drug-using and drug-selling friends because most people easily fall back into drug abuse when hanging out with the people still involved in the drug habit.
The withdrawal symptoms he may encounter include:
- Anger, tension, irritability, restlessness, depression
- Chills, stomach pains, shaking, sweating
- Decreased appetite, sleep difficulties, bad dreams, nausea
These symptoms are not normally severe but he may need help resisting the cravings that probably will last for weeks or months. Clearly set goals and the support of sober family and friends can help him stay on a new, creative path toward goals of his own choosing. Nutritional supplementation can help him recover energy and interest in life and help alleviate the symptoms of withdrawal.
What if He Can’t Seem to Quit?
Each year, more than 400,000 people enter rehabs to get help for addiction to marijuana. And these are only the ones entering publicly funded facilities, which means the real total would be higher. Since only about one in ten people who need help for addiction get it, it would be easy to estimate that more than four million people are addicted to this drug. A heavy user may be so drowned in the fog of drug abuse that he can’t quit using the drug when he wants to. In this case, a long-term rehabilitation program that helps a person build a new sober life and the skills to maintain it over the long haul is the answer. This is the service provided by Narconon drug rehabilitation centers around the world.
In many rehabs, prescription drugs make up part of the treatment program. Not at a Narconon center. The entire program is drug-free. Nutritional supplements aid a person in regaining energy and bright viewpoint. A sauna-based detoxification step flushes out the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the intoxicating ingredient in weed), helping a person regain the clear thinking they may have left far behind. The life skills segment of the Narconon program walks a person through the learning of the real-life abilities needed to stay sober and achieve goals.
If you are trying to help a person stop smoking weed, you should find out about the Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation today. If he can’t stop using the drug on his own, he needs the help of an effective rehab program before any more of his life or talents are wasted, and definitely before he can progress on to use a more heavily addictive drug.
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