You sound like you’ve never experienced heroin withdrawal before. Sick is an understatement. It’s more like legs thrashing, everything hurts, you are simultaneously hungry and not hungry, puking, crying…every negative feeling wrapped into one, and the entire time you have the knowledge that one more fix would take it away instantly. That week feels like a year, and everything gets reduced to a second by second basis.
I’ll take my “being bummed I don’t have weed” psychological addiction any day.
If anyone out there is considering heroin, I’d highly recommend giving it a pass. It makes you feel fearless (William Burroughs called it being the “de-anxietized man”), but it also removes all feelings of remorse and regret, until you inevitably become an insufferable asshole. The addiction creeps in slowly, so you don’t feel it for weeks or months, and then one day, you can’t wake up without it.
If you think this story won’t be you, think again. I once thought the same. I’ve been clean now for 15 years, but it still lurks in my mind sometimes.
And there’s the rub. I don’t want to be a wake-n-bake kind of person, but I also don’t walk fully upright until I’ve had a hit or two, and using my hands for anything requiring dexterity and/or strength means I’ll have invisible gremlins stabbing my knuckles with their tiny, invisible knives the rest of the day and night. “Microdosing” through the day allows me to get shit done when my body doesn’t want to cooperate.
Ok, this is anecdotal for certain, but an honest and lived experience.
I’ve developed osteoarthritis in various parts of my body as I aged, my wife has rheumatoid arthritis. She takes some non-opioid prescription meds (with unfortunate long-term effects) for it, but they’re anti-inflammatories and don’t do much for the base pain. I introduced her to CBD oils, ointments, salves, and tinctures. She now takes an eye dropper of tincture every night before bed which allows her to sleep better, and has a variety of tropicals (lotion, gel, roll-on, stick (like deodorant)) for localized treatment and flare ups in both trees and muscle tension. She also does not like being high at all, so she gets hemp-based products online (Lazerus Naturals, for the curious).
On my end, I enjoy the high as (with a sativa) it helps me to focus and get things done (undiagnosed ADD checking in) as well as killing the pain in my body. I’ve also found that the THC component gives a boost to the pain-‘killing’ effect, but that could just be the drugs talking.
Marijuana aside, I’ve also learned the benefits of Turmeric for arthritis pain. There are days I forget to take Turmeric and am soon reminded when the invisible gremlins start stabbing my hands in the evening. See if you can get her to add that to her supplements and she might get a bit more relief.
I’m a skeptic and scientist by nature, and endured various days of pain just to make sure the stuff I am taking is actually doing something, so maybe I can save someone else the hassle. Keep in mind that some things are a cumulative effect, meaning you’ll need to take them for a few days to really propagate through the system for best effect.
And conversely, not everyone is you. Weed has particularly variable effects, I know it might not work for my grandma, but as I see it it’s worth a shot if the alternative is opiates. She’s only unwilling to try it because she grew up being lied to about cannabis and thinks it will make her crazy. She’s even afraid of CBD.
As a daily smoker, yes.
Though I will contest that it is largely psychological, when i go on a break after a couple days of poor sleep and appetite i am back to normal.
Wait am I still on the left side
The psychological aspect is the hardest part of any addiction. Yeah withdrawal sucks, but depending on the drug it’s just like being sick.
If all it took to break an addiction was being sick for a week it wouldn’t be hard.
You sound like you’ve never experienced heroin withdrawal before. Sick is an understatement. It’s more like legs thrashing, everything hurts, you are simultaneously hungry and not hungry, puking, crying…every negative feeling wrapped into one, and the entire time you have the knowledge that one more fix would take it away instantly. That week feels like a year, and everything gets reduced to a second by second basis.
I’ll take my “being bummed I don’t have weed” psychological addiction any day.
Yes, I’m fortunate enough to have gone without that particular withdrawal.
But heroin is exactly what I was thinking when I added the qualifier “depending on the drug.”
I would never compare weed to heroin in any aspect.
I see now, I missed that qualifier.
If anyone out there is considering heroin, I’d highly recommend giving it a pass. It makes you feel fearless (William Burroughs called it being the “de-anxietized man”), but it also removes all feelings of remorse and regret, until you inevitably become an insufferable asshole. The addiction creeps in slowly, so you don’t feel it for weeks or months, and then one day, you can’t wake up without it.
If you think this story won’t be you, think again. I once thought the same. I’ve been clean now for 15 years, but it still lurks in my mind sometimes.
My wife and I have said we’ll each slam a hit on our deathbeds. But until then, nope.
Well, then, pro tip: take an allergy pill, it will keep you from itching too much on your first go.
Lol noted
I recommend trying to regulate it to the weekends at the very least. Maybe every other weekend, max.
Being high all the time makes everything seem horribly boring when you’re sober. It kind of just drains your experiences from your life.
(If your experience is chronic pain, well…)
And there’s the rub. I don’t want to be a wake-n-bake kind of person, but I also don’t walk fully upright until I’ve had a hit or two, and using my hands for anything requiring dexterity and/or strength means I’ll have invisible gremlins stabbing my knuckles with their tiny, invisible knives the rest of the day and night. “Microdosing” through the day allows me to get shit done when my body doesn’t want to cooperate.
Honestly wish I could convince my grandma that weed would be better for managing her arthritis pain than the opiates her doctor has her hooked on.
Ok, this is anecdotal for certain, but an honest and lived experience.
I’ve developed osteoarthritis in various parts of my body as I aged, my wife has rheumatoid arthritis. She takes some non-opioid prescription meds (with unfortunate long-term effects) for it, but they’re anti-inflammatories and don’t do much for the base pain. I introduced her to CBD oils, ointments, salves, and tinctures. She now takes an eye dropper of tincture every night before bed which allows her to sleep better, and has a variety of tropicals (lotion, gel, roll-on, stick (like deodorant)) for localized treatment and flare ups in both trees and muscle tension. She also does not like being high at all, so she gets hemp-based products online (Lazerus Naturals, for the curious).
On my end, I enjoy the high as (with a sativa) it helps me to focus and get things done (undiagnosed ADD checking in) as well as killing the pain in my body. I’ve also found that the THC component gives a boost to the pain-‘killing’ effect, but that could just be the drugs talking.
Marijuana aside, I’ve also learned the benefits of Turmeric for arthritis pain. There are days I forget to take Turmeric and am soon reminded when the invisible gremlins start stabbing my hands in the evening. See if you can get her to add that to her supplements and she might get a bit more relief.
I’m a skeptic and scientist by nature, and endured various days of pain just to make sure the stuff I am taking is actually doing something, so maybe I can save someone else the hassle. Keep in mind that some things are a cumulative effect, meaning you’ll need to take them for a few days to really propagate through the system for best effect.
Best of luck!
Weed sucks for pain.
Opiates are the only thing I’ve found that makes any difference at all.
Not everyone is you.
And conversely, not everyone is you. Weed has particularly variable effects, I know it might not work for my grandma, but as I see it it’s worth a shot if the alternative is opiates. She’s only unwilling to try it because she grew up being lied to about cannabis and thinks it will make her crazy. She’s even afraid of CBD.
Exactly
But I’m not the one coming on here telling everyone weed eases pain.
Notice what I said: “I’ve found”. I didn’t tell other people what would work for them.
So I’m not a medical professional, and I didn’t speak out of an abundance of caution while making an offhanded comment on a shitpost. Sue me.