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Is it the feelings or the addiction - marijuana withdrawals

answered 09:02 AM EST, Thu February 21, 2013
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anonymous anonymous
Can you get physically addicted to marijuana or is it only a psychological addiction like a bad habit.

Jill Edwards Says...

It is clear from many reports that there are withdrawal symptoms when people who use marijuana regularly stop using it. It would seem likely that people would over a long period of use, start using weed that gives them a higher kick. And I think that the stronger kick you get the greater the withdrawal. Even just looking at the pleasurability of taking the drug, it is a pleasure you have lost and it is often taken in conjunction with other pleasures, like music or sex. So there is a feeling of loss. More than that, this drug like many others is often taken in order to avoid painful feelings concerning a persons past history, or even just evidence that their life is currently rather boring. As the drug often reduces the desire to make choices and get on with living, this boring feeling is frequently how people feel when they stop taking any drug. Marijuana withdrawal, is usually associated with anxiety, depression, loss of appetite and irritability. These symptoms are compounded by any other mental health symptoms which may have been around before the person started taking the drug. So really what I am saying that marijuana as a drug with psychologically pleasurable effects, has real psychological effects when you stop taking it. Any experience which is pleasurable, causes a high, is likely to fall off from the high over time and repeated experience, it is this falling away from the high, tolerance, which makes us increase the usage or strength. So psychological and addiction are really two different windows into the same experience. If you have to look at stopping smoking marijuana, you should not feel bad if you need some support in coming off. Get some help from friends, parents, anyone you know who can support you. Try on-line too. If you wondering about using, it may be a good time to focus on living/enjoying life instead. It is easy to get in and hard to get out.

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Page last updated Feb 21, 2013

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