My success story.

Grew up with stoner parents but never smoked. Terrible breakup at 23 (2015), and couldn't get my mind straight, actively decided to start smoking pot to cope. Fell into heavy addiction. Productively dropped to nothing. At the peak I was smoking 1/8th oz high THC indica per day and doing nothing else - no friends, no steady job, neglecting the business I had opened, living with my mother (who often gave me free weed). Originally thought becoming a stoner would yield some social connections, but for me it never did. Just wasted time, wasted money, and 8 wasted years of productivity. Tried to quit by weaning in 2019 - failed. For the last several years I knew I had a problem but felt I had nothing to look forward to other than smoking up.

5 months ago I quit my other addiction, caffeine/Pepsi, because I visited a dentist and had to spend $$$ to save some teeth. That plus being scared of diabetes got me to stop drinking pop. Very difficult, but saw it through. Drink water now. Still crave pop.

2 months ago I caught a cold. Congestion, cough. Everyone here knows how much it sucks to be addicted to weed and have a cold. Pulled my back coughing trying to clear my lungs of phlegm. I had a moment of clarity - "this is my chance - I can piggyback off this." Bought some edibles to transition but they are very expensive compared to bud so that only lasted a day. Having smoked every day for 8 years, being able to think "I've gone a day!" then "I've gone 48 hours!" then "it's almost been a whole week!" gave me more pride than I've had in a while.

Things that helped:

-Picked up some books.

-Made sure my musical instrument was nearby.

-Got a good pair of boots so I could take a walk in any weather.

-Remind myself through affirmation that I love my body and want to treat it great.

-Allowing myself to spend some of the money I'm saving on other things I've wanted for a while.

Above all you need to find stuff to do so you aren't sitting on the couch thinking "man I miss getting high."

Life is looking up for me. Got a job paying more than I've ever made - and wouldn't be able to do it while high. Had a few dates. Watching 90% less TV (TV sucks when you're sober).

Have been able to do all this while still living with a stoner parent, with frequent marijuana smell around the house. No affirmation/"good job" from that person, but luckily they are respecting my efforts to quit and stopped offering me free weed after the first time I declined and said "No thanks, I'm not going to smoke anymore." I don't think they believed me at first, but honestly - it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.

You can do this - if you're reading this, it means you want to, and that's enough.