Are there withdrawal symptoms from marijuana??

[Drahcir73]

Hey everyone, for those of you have seen my last questions that I've been suffering from anxiety for about 7-8 weeks now, it all stemmed from me thinking I was having a heart attack but after many tests, I was ok, but also at the same time I stopped smoking weed cold turkey, just wondering if anxiety could be one of the side effects, I wasn't a heavy smoker but smoke for about 21yrs until bout 7-8 weeks ago, any input would be great, thanks!

[Paxiled]

By the way, when I said you'll miss it, I went through this when I quit many years ago, also due to anxiety.  There are things that take time to learn to enjoy again if you were doing them stoned -- sex, movies, music -- so there might be a dulling effect to life.  But you can overcome that by remembering how it felt when you were stoned and learning to access that state without using the drug.

[Paxiled]

No.  Marijuana isn't addictive and has shown no physiological withdrawal effects for the average user.  On the other hand, you will miss it, so it does have psychological withdrawal effects, and if you were using it to self-medicate instead of occasionally for fun that can cause the problems to arise again and they could be worse because the body now has to do for itself what a drug was doing for it.  But if you were a daily heavy user, in other words, you got to a point where your normal state was being under the influence of marijuana, then you enter a different category.  Your brain will take time to get used to not having it in your system, and I don't thing it's really known what happens to people who live on the drug instead of use it occasionally.  Also, if as you say you used it for 21 years, you went from natural marijuana to the heavily hybridized and much stronger drug it is now.  But you say you weren't a heavy smoker, and if that's true, again, this isn't an addictive drug so you should be fine.

[michigan07]

There will be some amount of "need" for your body to want to smoke which by stopping may cause some feelings of withdrawl. I use that term (need) loosely because there are so many variables such as how much you typically smoke, what type, your tolerance, how long, how often,etc.. I would imagine there would be some anxiety and some phycological dependence on the drug from having used it for so many years and what you are experiencing could be from the two decades of it's use. On the other hand anxiety can come from nowhere (so to speak as there is usually a trigger to what is causing it) or from recent stressful situations going on in one's life. Was the weed being used to help keep yourself calm over the years ? How the anxiety started is not as important in my opinion as to how you will address it. If it is interfering with your day to day life it might be a good idea to talk to a therapist who can guide you to what may be causing the anxiety or some self reflection may help too. Most important would be finding ways to help it subside such as trough therapy as I mentioned, different relaxation techniques, and if necessary medicine which should be done along with the therapy. Hope this help man