u/SteveMcJ

Just saw the other post with a misleading title, but now I want to discuss this topic.

I’ve been relistening to the pod from the beginning, and there’s very clear episodes where he seems up and down.

I like to believe he sounds a lot less volatile in the last few hundred episodes, and after seeing “Are We Good?” I know he’ll never be 100% happy, but I think he’s as “cured” as he’ll ever be

I’ve been smoking a spliff a day for probably 2-3 years now. I do spliffs bc I was getting off the nicotine vapes, but mainly bc I enjoy the ritual of smoking a joint, and weed is too strong for me these days. I just like the process of smoking.

I would do small 1-week tbreaks and switch up smoking method, but for the most part a spliff a day was the way.

A couple months ago I felt another t-break coming on. It gave me a lot of dreams and anxiety, and kind of signaled to me that maybe I haven’t been processing emotions as well as I thought I had. So I decided that maybe I just try to cut out a day or two a week to not smoke.

At first it was difficult - once a week it felt like I was starting the process all over again; found something new to be anxious about every week, and would even bleed into the days I was smoking. But what was interesting is that I continued to dream again, even on smoking days.

Fortunately, I was able to confront everything I was anxious about and was met each time with reassurance that it was (mostly) in my head.

Some weeks it’s hard to find which day is best, especially on holiday weeks. But I’ve been able to keep it up so far.

The anxiety still comes, but much less intense. I’m not sure my tolerance has changed, as I still smoke a spliff on smoking days- but it does feel like I get more stoned sometimes, or maybe I just notice myself being a little sillier. Some days I do only need half a spliff, but for sure by the end of the week I’m back to a whole one per day.

The dreaming varies, but feels cool to have them more often than not again. Like a little light has been sparked in my brain again. I actually got a cool idea for a script just last week from a dream.

I have noticed on the day after not smoking, it’s 50/50 on whether I’ll be EXTRA tired and agitated, or weirdly energetic. Probably just depends on the quality of sleep that week.

I think the biggest benefit is just the mental relief that I CAN do it. It’s still a little hard to sleep on the nights that I don’t smoke. But I feel better/more okay smoking the rest of the week, knowing I took a day off. The goal is to bump up to 2 days a week, then so on until I’m just a weekend smoker, maybe less. I don’t have a timeline for it, which makes it easier to me.

I guess not much to learn here, but I just wanted to share my experience. I really appreciate the chill vibes in this sub with approach to smoking. It doesn’t always have to be black and white.

Thanks for reading!