Smoking, Depression and Stress

Hi, i hope someone out there may have some answers for me because right now i'm stuck.

Im a 27 yr old single woman and have been smoking pot everyday for over 12 yrs. I've tried most drugs but pot is the only thing i was ever really in to. I have a 1st class honors degree (the best you can get here) and have achieved most of the targets in life i have set myself.

The problem is i work (on average 68 hrs a week) in a highly stressful freelance enviroment and every night when i get home there is nothing i enjoy more than a spliff, bath and bed. Nothing wrong with that you may think. However, i've noticed that when i'm not working all i seem to want to do is stay in and get high. Which is both financally and socailly crippling. It wouldnt be so bad if i had a spliff and got stoned and that was it for the night but i can easily smoke over 15g of strong skunk/hash/whatever i can get my hands on a week, to myself.

Ive noticed that the more im trying to sort my life out (i.e career), the more i seem to stay in and smoke and not really see my friends and met new people. No one really pushes me on this as they know how much work i do. Because im a freelancer there are times im not working or i have to do other work and my situation seems to get worse in that i smoke more. So i know it's not the type of work i do but it's me.

I have managed not to smoke for a few days even a few weeks once but all that happens is i can't sleep and i feel tense, bad tempered, snappy and unable concentrate. It's really starting to bother me as i'd like to meet a good man and live a normal life not constantly thinking about weed. I really cant afford it either but i always seem to find the cash.

I know i'm in a bad place right now. How do i sort myself out?

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

You have to assume that smoking that much, and that often, is your way of turning off your mind, which is the problem.  There is something frustrating you ( witness your mood when you don't smoke) and you are pacifiying that something without confronting it.  In that sense you are addicted because despite your successes are feeling powerless over some issue.    You might get some immediate help from my book, Shrink Yourself ( it deals with the addiction to food,so you will have to transpose in parts, but it is thesame issue); or you could benefit from a psychotherapist to get you started on sorting out what you have been afraid to deal with.