Am I Addicted To Marijuana

Having an addiction is a seriously rough situation to be in both mentally and physically and with a rising popularity in marijuana comes an epidemic of especially teens and young adults getting addicted to it. A marijuana addiction has somewhat of a more mellow and silent stance among the other drugs that have heavier stigmas connected with them (like heroin, meth and cocaine for example). This is in large part due to the growing pro-marijuana campaigns around the country in an attempt to legalize weed everywhere. However, a marijuana addiction remains a legitimate issue. If you’re struggling with a marijuana habit that you can’t quite figure out, unsure on whether or not you’re fully hooked or not, then there are several signs to keep an eye out for. Some of these signs are marijuana-specific while others can be found with general drug addiction.

The Signs To Look Out For

One major aspect to addiction is, and this goes for any drug addiction, is time being wasted on the drug. If your time begins to revolve around the purchase and use of marijuana, if you’re seeking out friends who use, if you find hidden agendas to what you’re doing and how you’re going about spending your time, then chances are that you have an addiction to marijuana. This is just one clear, but sort of major, indicator that you’ve been plagued by an addiction to weed. If you have abandoned things you used to enjoy, activities that used to hold a good amount of your interest, all for the sake of getting high- then you’re definitely hooked.

Failing, or even just not doing as well, in school is another big indicator. Marijuana in particular can make a dent on the level of one’s IQ. This is especially a problem with people under the age of eighteen. Aside from the IQ aspect of it, there’s also the aspect of general time lost on effort toward school. If you notice effort dropping in this direction due to marijuana usage, then the seeds of addiction have most likely taken hold.

Changes in your mental condition could be a major factor in having developed an addiction to marijuana. A marijuana addiction can be linked to conditions like anxiety, depression, poor memory, forgetting things and trouble retaining information, a poor sense of time, short-term psychosis, paranoia and even suicidal thoughts. You might think that these conditions are attributed to something else but it very well could all be associated with your addiction or a telltale sign that your marijuana habit has turned into an addiction over time.

If your marijuana habit is taking a toll on your relationships then there’s a good chance that you might be hooked on the drug more than you’d like to admit. It really is a defining moment when you realize that your drug use is in fact affecting how you are interacting with the people that are or were once close to you and important. It’s necessary, when trying to figure out if you do i fact have a problem, to become aware of the strength in your relationships and if there is any unhappiness stemming from those relationships. This means that you might have a pretty bad drug problem.

Another off aspect to your life which might be linked to a marijuana addiction is difficulty making decisions. There have actually been studies done on this, one in particular related marijuana users to caring less about the results of their decisions which caused them to be impulsive and make bad decisions.

An additional sign that you might be addicted to marijuana is if you’re frequently getting bad stomach pain, vomiting, having lung irritation or having panic attacks. These could all be signs from using marijuana often or too much. This is all the more reason to get sober, because your immune system will come down from using.

Financial And Related Problems

One sign that you’re addicted to marijuana is if you’ve lost a job due to using or missed opportunities in relation with your career. Since marijuana causes you to feel lazy, unmotivated and become unproductive it can tend to cause you to get to that dire point of getting fired because of not showing up, or increased tardiness, or just not doing a productive job while at work. But this can also extend to concrete opportunities that you turn down because you’d rather get high. This is a dangerous place to be in because it pretty much reflects that you care more about the drug use than improving your life. This can also extend to the marijuana user utilizing their money which was set aside for important obligations like rent, food, or family related stuff in order to buy more weed and get their own fix. It’s this type of behavior that should strike as a real eye opener.

If you’ve happened to even observe these signs in yourself and haven’t made a change in the past- it is never too late. Just taking the simple action of facing what is going on with you, and maybe having someone to talk to such as a friend or close relative to help motivate you in order to do something about your drug problem can all be efforts in the right direction leading to being sober.

You should look at these signs and line them up, realistically, with your life to see exactly what degree you are having trouble. Using and being addicted to something like marijuana can definitely take a toll on your life, productivity and even your mentality toward life. Your mentality towards the recurring problems due to addiction can also be due to the drug. It’s vital that if you’ve spotted some of this type of behavior in your life or somebody that you know that help is seemed immediately. Start with getting in communication with the people who care for you and truly want to see you doing well. Maybe some of these relationships have been hurt because of your using marijuana. However, if these people care about you and you make the effort to reach out that could be the start of a new beginning for you.

There are tons of rehabs that deal with marijuana addiction and many types of innovative therapies are incorporated at these places which are specifically designed to help you feel productive and good about yourself as well as your future. If your priorities have been swapped for marijuana and friends that use marijuana then it is important to get help as soon as you can. Also, cutting yourself off from friends who use and especially friends who you’ve only bonded with due to the drug is a wise choice. It might not help to confide about wanting to get sober to friends who are still using marijuana.

By Robert O. Newman II, ICDAC, ICPS, CIP