I'm uncomfortable mentioning my pot smoking habit to my counselor...

[Florida_guy]

For the last 2 years, I've been in and out of mild to medium depression.  I've been taking Paxil (10mg/day) and that's helped me a lot.  I'm married w/3 kids in elementary school.  Both my wife and I smoke marijuana daily for the last 2 years (about 1-3 joints/evening).  We used to smoke a lot 10 years ago (before kids) but stopped totally for 10+ years until we moved to Florida where we found a dealer.  My wife also has been in and out of depression.  We are going to see a marriage counselor next week and I feel it's important that we mention our regular marijuana usage and my wife is against it mainly for the fear of legal matters being that both of us use it and we have 3 kids and also she does not feel that smoking has anything to do with her (or my) depression.  Actually, she feels it helps her.  Both of us are totally unmotivated with life and lots of things just don't get done around the house.  We take very good care of the kids, participate in activities with them, etc but I personally feel they are loosing out a little because of our depression state of mind which I'm starting to think is directly related to our regular use of marijuana.

My question is:  Is there a "danger" if we share our regular use of illegal drugs with our counselor?

Thanks for guiding us.
Sincerely,
Florida_guy

[Witchywoman]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

It is a good idea to tell your counselor everything, including the marijuana use. I'm a professional counselor myself, and I can tell you that it will have no legal repercussions. Therapists are required to keep everything you tell them strictly confidential, with three execptions. Therapists are required by law to report suspect child or elder abuse, and to get you immediate help if you say that you are going to kill yourself or someone else.  On the suicidal one..therapists don't break your confidentiality if you just talk about suicidal feelings. Your confidentiality is only broken if you say you are going to harm yourself and you won't make an agreement to keep yourself safe. They can break your confidentiality just because you tell them about pot use.

The pot use might be adding to the lethargy and depression, I don't know...I think it has a different effect on different people, but give the counselor a fair chance to really know the whole of what is going on. If they judge you for the pot, without listening to the whole story, you've got the wrong counselor. More likely, the counselor will just take that in consideration as a possible factor and try to help with the whole picture.

please let us know how it goes!

WW

[Witchywoman]

oops   I mistyped.

I meant to say, the can not break your confidentiality just because you reveal that you smoke pot.

WW

[skipper]

florida guy:

first of all welcome to this forum! there are many here who have gone before us...

"about smoking pot" i used to smoke it myself. but don't kid your
self, it fits the british model of addictive behavior. you will do what you want.

may i ask you question? what harm (at least while you are in counselor therapy) would quitting do? it will be there when you get done with things.

my main motivation is junk, always has been, always will be. like
i said i've smoked enough pot to know where it's at. pot smokers
are lethargically lazy. don't get me wrong, i'm not responding to your post to put you down. i look back on my pot smoking days and i can't believe how lethargic and lazy i was....

if you induldge in a behavior that you suspect may be causeing you problems, stop the behavior. you will know after stopping
if it was causeing problems. what have you got to lose? your
pot will be right where left it!

keep an angel on your shoulder
kip