Weed Addiction – What Is It?
Weed addiction is the most controversial topic in addiction research and the healthcare system today.
Most people who buy marijuana online understand that drug addiction is a disease that can affect everyone. However, they find it difficult to understand that addiction to marijuana is a common phenomenon because, at one time in their lives, they have experimented on weed and stopped without any challenges. Nonetheless, this is not the case for everyone.
Weed addiction is the compulsive need to seek out and continue using a drug even when it posses harms to a user’s health, social life, finances, and other areas of one’s life. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that 30% of all persons who use marijuana develop an addiction, and teenagers who use it are four to seven times more likely to form the habit. Its use changes into a pattern when a user cannot stop using the drug due to the mind-changing compound known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Its content in weed has increased over the years from an average of 2% in the 1960s to 12% to 20% today.
When you smoke weed, the THC enters the lungs and straight to the bloodstream up to the brain. Once here, it activates different receptors in the brain, bringing about various symptoms such as a change in mood, euphoria, altered sense of time, and difficulty thinking among others. Over time, users develop a tolerance to weed, which makes them need more of it to enjoy similar effects. The continued use of marijuana causes a state where a person’s brain cannot function normally without weed, the body experiences withdrawal symptoms, and crave for the drug becomes uncontrollable despite the adverse effects, which is an addiction.
Weed addiction vs. dependence on the drug
When an individual becomes reliant on weed, their loved ones consider them as having an addiction to weed. Addiction and dependence are two words utilized by the mental health organizations to refer to the different stages one is in when using marijuana. The two words go hand-in-hand, and people commonly interchanged them; however, the two problems present vital differences.
When you describe a person who uses weed as a dependent on cannabis, this refers to the physical loss of control, which results from abusing pot. Dependence manifests through high tolerance of marijuana, whereby one needs to smoke or ingest more of this substance to achieve a high and function ordinarily. Also, you experience withdrawal symptoms whenever you fail to smoke weed such as headaches, chills, shaking, restlessness, and lack of energy, among others.
For example, an individual who is using prescription pain pills to treat a condition may find that they need to increase their dosage to enjoy pain relief properties of the medication. On the other hand, addiction to cannabis refers to having a chronic ailment brought on by extreme and uncontrollable cravings for pot. The desires result in compulsive use of marijuana, moving it from a pass time activity to the main priority of an individual despite it causing harm to the individual or those around them. When one is addicted, they act unreasonably in the absence of the weed.
Other researchers consider weed addiction as an activity you once enjoyed, but as time goes by, you begin developing the need for higher amounts that end up threatening your life.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse establishes that marijuana causes dependence by increasing one’s tolerance to pot. When its active ingredient known as THC enters the brain, it controls various brain processes making them function below or above the expected levels. Thus, the mind becomes resistant to arousal of its endocannabinoid neurotransmitters by cannabis, making its previous amounts you would take virtually useless. As a result, the user needs more pot so that they can enjoy the euphoric effects they experienced initially with only one roll of cannabis, leading to dependence on the drug.
Also, dependence occasion when one’s need for marijuana evolves in a person’s life. When a weed enthusiast begins taking weed, it is usually as a means of relaxing or having fun during leisure time. However, continued use end up growing its importance to a person, making it a high priority to avoid the severe withdrawal symptoms. Contrary, addiction occurs due to the chemical alteration of the functioning of the brain. When one continues smoking weed, the THC is absorbed into the bloodstream and into the brain, where it binds the receptors and continually alters their normal functions.
As you continue using weed and dependency develops, the increased THC institutes permanent psychological changes in the brain, making being high feel normal. Consequently, taking pot becomes a necessary behavior for one to feel normal.
According to researchers, dependence on marijuana consequences in interruption of a person’s life as they struggle to acquire normality by smoking more weed. Additionally, a person dependent on it grapples with triggers that are within their surroundings. For example, meeting friends who you smoke with, or visiting a place with weed smokers incites chemical changes in your brain, making you physically dependent on weed. Addiction, on the other hand, destroys a person’s life. Once you develop an uncontrollable urge to always be high on marijuana, your ordinary world seizes to exist. With time, an addict loses their means of income; they become withdrawn from their families and friends and stop caring for themselves, as getting and smoking weed becomes their only priority.
How marijuana legalization for recreational or medical purposes affects the brain’s rewarding center causing addiction
Just as the way other addictive drugs consequence in addiction, so does the intake of cannabis. Addiction among weed enthusiasts occurs as a result of influencing the brain’s rewarding center. A brain’s rewarding center refers to a collection of neural structures in the brain responsible for meeting our desires and yearning for a reward, associative learning, self-control, and positive emotions that include euphoria and joy. The rewarding system works by increasing the production of the dopamine hormone, once it experiences rewarding stimuli such as food or water.
Consequently, with the output of this critical brain transmitter, we are in a position to repeat the stimulus behavior over and over again, to enjoy the pleasurable feeling.
The intake of drugs such as weed is also likely to incite the rewarding system causing a release of dopamine. When an individual smokes or ingests pot, the active ingredient in the cannabis, known as Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, which is the essential component in weed, enters the lungs. From here, it penetrates the bloodstream and travels straight to the brain where it alters its functioning among them the production of the feel-good hormone known as dopamine.
THC prompts the production of dopamine, causing the onset of euphoria sensation-‘high’ which makes you feel relaxed, happy, giggly, and lethargic. Further, the THC compound conditions your brain’s pleasure center to consider weed as a stimulus that receives a reward, thus, making you love and crave pot even more.
Consequently, every time you take cannabis, the brain continuously releases the dopamine hormone causing you to seek it out even more, and graduate from dependence on weed to full-blown addiction.
Nevertheless, as times go by, and you become a high user of marijuana, your brain decreases its response to dopamine. Researchers suggest that this situation may result due to the brain’s lack of knowledge on what to do with the dopamine produced. As you consume more weed, the amount of dopamine hormone produced increases reducing its effectiveness in the brain. Thus, its flooding leads to poor communication to the rest of the body, pushing one to ingest more weed to activate its response and addiction develops.
Additionally, as one continues to smoke weed for the euphoric effect, the dopamine system becomes less responsive because the brain becomes used to the impacts of the THC compound. Since you do not need a reward for smoking the particular amount of weed you have been taking, only an increase in its quantity can stimulate the body. It leads to a weed user upping their intake to enjoy the stimulating reward of the feel-good hormone and fighting off the body’s tolerance. The tolerance leads to a massive craving of cannabis at whatever cost, which characterizes the first step to addiction.
Further, as cravings increase, uncomfortable consequences begin to develop when you do not achieve a certain level of high. These consequences, known as withdrawal symptoms, characterize full-blown addiction as one becomes incapable of functioning without consuming it.
Signs of weed addiction in marijuana users
For many years, there has been an agreement among pot lovers that marijuana legalization for recreational or medical purposes is not addictive, unlike alcohol, tobacco, or cocaine. However, this is further from the truth as according to a 1994 study, first-time weed consumers have a 9 percent chance of becoming dependent on it, while by 2015, three out of every ten marijuana users showed signs of addiction. Gauging your level of drug use is, in most cases, difficult as one lacks the objectivity, to be honest. However, if you are worried about your cannabis use or about another person’s usage, here are the signs to look out for as categorized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
Developing tolerance to weed
Just like other drugs, continued use of cannabis leads you to become tolerant to it. It means, if you find out that the only way to enjoy the euphoric effect of marijuana is by taking more, you have become a weed addict. The use of cannabis for an extended period makes your body to develop endurance to the drug, making you consume more weed to enjoy. Additionally, when failure to use weed results in symptoms such as lack of appetite, irritability, sleeplessness, and anxiety, it means you are going through weed withdrawal, which is a tail tell sign that you are dealing with weed addiction.
Consuming more cannabis than anticipated
If you find that despite constant planning and commitment, you end up using more cannabis and for a more extended period that you had planned for, you are probably dealing with addiction. Having control over your weed habit means that you can stop using it whenever you want and using as little as you desire. However, if you find that you had planned to bake and eat one batch of weed brownies for a whole week, but ended up eating all in one night, this is a sign that you have become addicted.
Inability to reduce or do away with cannabis use
You may find out that you have the desire to reduce the quantity of weed consumption or stopping altogether, but you are unable to do it by yourself. It means that you have developed an addiction and need help to kick the habit.
Spending a considerable part of your time smoking cannabis
The way people spend their time reflects a lot on the kind of people they may be. If you spend a lot of your time looking for weed, waiting to get high or smoking weed, this is a cause for concern as you may be battling addiction.
Dropping other activities
If you find that your schedule has dramatically changed from going out, engaging in extracurricular activities, hanging out with friends, workmates, and families to staying indoors indulging in cannabis, you are addicted to marijuana.
Progressing with your smoking habit even when you know of its consequences
If you have faced social, legal, or financial reprimands due to weed smoking, but you still will not stop, then you have a problem. Facing disciplinary action at work due to lateness caused by smoking weed or having your loved ones plan an intervention for you should be a wakeup call about your drug habit. But, if you find yourself continuing with this behavior, you should seek help as this is a sign of addiction.
Using marijuana as an escape from your problems
If you find that the only way you can feel better about failing your exams, performing dismally at work or troubles in your relationships is lighting up joint or eating edibles, you are likely to be a cannabis addict.
Using marijuana as a source of relaxation, creativity, and enjoyment
If the only way you can feel comfortable in your surroundings, have fun, and have your creative juices flowing is by getting high, you may have a problem with cannabis. Experts in drug abuse cases note that taking too much marijuana do not relax you, and instead, it is more likely to make you violent.
Selecting activities and friendships with people that guarantee the use of cannabis
If the primary concern when choosing which events to attend or the people to hang out with has to do with enjoying smoking joints, then you might be having an addiction to cannabis.
Difficulties attending to your typical responsibilities
If the most important responsibilities such as your job, family, and the relationship among others seem to be escaping your mind more often and taking a back seat to you enjoying pot, it may mean that you have developed an overreliance on THC.
Experts summarize that showing the signs of two of this sign within one year means that your addiction problem is mild. Four or five of these signs point to a moderate problem while six or more means that your addiction is severe, and you need an intervention quickly. Men and individuals aged below eighteen years old are more likely to elude these symptoms. If you identify that you have a sign from the list, it is time to cut back and seek treatment for this problem.
Ways of treatment for a marijuana addiction
The treatment of addiction to cannabis is similar to treating other drug disorders. It, however, has less harsh consequences. Nonetheless, getting people to seek treatment is a big challenge. The widening acceptance of weed makes it prevalent among many people and the most challenging substance for them to give up. Individuals who seek treatment to its addiction have used it for three to over ten years, and have attempted to quit about six times. In some cases, people with this addiction, also suffer from psychiatric ailments or addiction to other substances such as alcohol or cocaine. Effective treatment for this condition combines behavioral therapy with other forms of treatment, showing promise in treating marijuana addiction.
The first stage of treating cannabis addiction is through detox and withdrawal treatment. When a person decides to kick this habit away, stopping the intake of marijuana is the first step. Suddenly withdrawing from such a drug can be uncomfortable as cravings for the drug do not go away that easily. For most chronic users, they have to deal with after effects of withdrawal such as nausea, irritability, insomnia, and headaches.
Luckily, these symptoms last for a short while, and detox centers offer treatment to ease some of these discomforts such as nausea and headaches. Once one is off weed, they receive the first treatment of detoxing. Medical detoxing from cannabis is a treatment strategy aimed at gradually weaning people off marijuana until all the substance leaves their system.
The therapy, offered in detox centers gives individuals a safe environment to deal with challenges of withdrawing from the drug while under the supervision of a medical doctor. A supervised detox by a medical professional is commendable for people looking to stop smoking pot, as this helps to prevent worsening of the situation particularly for patients with another addiction such as alcohol, mental conditions or under pain medication. Once you complete detox, you can proceed with the other stages of treatment in rehabilitation centers.
The second stage of treatment for a marijuana addiction is psychotherapy. It is commonly carried out in inpatient marijuana rehabilitation centers and outpatient rehabilitation treatment. These centers utilize various behavioral therapies. Cognitive- behavioral therapy is one of the rehabilitation procedure. It is a talking therapy, which aims at helping people in addiction overcome this problem and stay sober.
The psychotherapy treatments operate on the premise that a person’s thoughts, feelings, physical feelings, and actions are linked and pessimistic beliefs and attitudes can trap one in endless problems. The treatment helps you come to terms with your issues positively by breaking them down. It achieves this by helping you identify the use of marijuana as the behavior that is a challenge to you and helps you to correct it through measures that maintain your self-control and ensure it does not occur again in the future. Contingency management is another psychotherapy treatment whose primary approach is to keep an eye on your addiction and providing positive rewards when you restrain yourself or removing them when you give in to the habit. Motivational enhancement therapy, on the other hand, is a form of treatment, which aims at motivating you the patient to single-handedly change your behavior and abandon your reliance on weed. The treatment mobilizes addicts to find it in them to change themselves so they can have the tools to maintain the change even when the procedure comes to an end.
Aftercare and addiction, counseling is the last stage of treatment. The aftercare treatment occurs in forms of support groups or individual counseling. Robust support groups are preferable as they make the difference between successfully remaining sober or relapsing. Aftercare treatment gives addicts a chance to be around other recovering individuals, get encouragement, and learn how to live an alternative life without marijuana.
One-on-one counseling is also beneficial in making the addict talk share their challenges, receive guidance, and care to enable them to learn from their mistakes and adopt new ways of life. The treatment stage can go on as long as the individual wants to ensure they move forward and get the strength to continue being sober.
Getting treated for marijuana addiction is not easy. You have to put effort into getting rid of your dependence on weed and start the slow and tedious road to recovery. Whether you go through recovery alone or have support from your friends, family and acquaintances, it is never too late. Take one step at a time and learn to live a marijuana-free life, a healthy lifestyle, and a fulfilled life.
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