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To add something new to the thread, instead of spending this entire post addressing a bunch of comments...
What criteria would have to be met for you guys consider a someone's Cannabis use an addiction?
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Now, for some clarification...
I consider this all part of the topic of Cannabis use/addiction. If the mods deem otherwise, they can delete this. A conversation about addiction, among a bunch of Cannabis users, is bound to be a bit touchy/controversial, though, and there's nothing wrong with that, so long as nobody is flaming or otherwise abusing anyone else. We are all adults, here.
My original post, that is the topic of the following discussion:
"Not to speak for/at you, specifically, but that's tricky territory... Imagine if someone said, "I don't have to drink/do coke/take Xanax every day. I can feel stress, anxiety and depression, I can be less patient, kind and tolerant with others, I can not sleep as well, I can be hyper-self-critical, I can have a more vulnerable immune system, etc. I can be depressed all the time about the state of the world." People wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the possibility of the person being addicted.
"Having to do something" doesn't necessarily mean that the consequence of not doing that thing is death. It can be mood issues (anger, depression, anxiety, apathy, etc.), physical issues (inability to sleep, inability to eat, etc.).
You'd have to take a deep look at why you feel all of those negative things when you don't use Cannabis, to see if your Cannabis use is a healthy coping strategy.
If you have a disorder/chemical imbalance that causes those feelings, and Cannabis fixes that, then it's fine.
If you feel that way because you don't have your life in order and haven't learned how to use non-drug coping mechanisms to deal with stress, and Cannabis masks the stress, that might be considered unhealthy usage, since it would be keeping you from addressing important issues in your life.
If you feel that way because constant Cannabis use has caused normal life to feel boring, that's also probably unhealthy."
In order to keep this clear and concise, and to avoid missing anything, I will be breaking the quotes down into parts, and providing a response for each of them.
I'm amazed at how many assumptions you made and also by the spin you gave to what I wrote.
What assumptions did I make? How did I put a negative spin on anything? If you want to make those claims, quote the exact examples in the text.
You know nothing about me, yet found it quite easy to pontificate so negatively as to why I use Cannabis. Seriously: you sound silly to me with all your negativity. You could have asked.
I didn't claim to know anything about you, nor did I put you into any category of usage patterns.
You are making an assumption that he's speaking about you personally, when it was clearly stated in the first line that he's speaking in generalities and
not about you. Please read it again.
This is correct. Thank you for reading my post and not implying things that I specifically stated I was not saying.
Struck me as personal and even judgmental, the disclaimer notwithstanding.
How you take something is up to you, but it doesn't change what was actually said or meant.
For many, stress, anxiety, depression and insomnia are the baseline. It may be congenital, or the result of traumatic stress that's done permanent damage. Ordinary life is not "boring". It approaches agony.
In quite a number of cases, cannabis can move the dial.
Without medication, it's like trying to alter the orbit of a planet with the power of positive thinking.
Some thoughtfully advocate talk therapy and CBT over any medication. (easily $10K out of pocket these days just to get started).
In some cases, that is true. I even stated that in my post.
"
If you have a disorder/chemical imbalance that causes those feelings, and Cannabis fixes that, then it's fine."
-Everythingshazy
But what I see here is unadulterated "just say no" worthy of Nancy Reagan.
Again... It's up to you how you take something, but that doesn't change what was said or meant.
I have to disagree with you, Stu. This person directly quotes my post talking about my personal experiences and then goes off into hypotheses ("Imagine if...") which have nothing to do with real life--certainly not mine.
And then that person goes on to use the pronoun "You" referring, I assume, to my quoted post. And all this, without asking me any questions, but rather, just making assumptions. And in a patronizing way.
Take a look at how other readers are responding; I'm not the only one who finds it somewhat insulting, irrelevant to what I posted and patronizing. Life is not a series of hypotheses: "If this, then that." It is a way to avoid dealing with the realities of life.
I ask you to please read again.
As I clearly stated in the first sentence of my post, I was not speaking for/at you specifically. The parts that I used "you" in, refer to everyone. What matters is what was said, not how people on the internet misinterpreted text. I have been very careful not to accuse anyone of being addicted to anything. I'm in this thread to discuss and debate the topic of addiction as it pertains to Cannabis, not to debate with individuals about their personal Cannabis use.
I saw the "you" as meaning "one". English is tricky, and there was a clear disclaimer that it wasn't about you in specific. I found
@EverythingsHazy to be quite interesting, informative and well written. We, unfortunately , tend to say "you would" rather than "one would" in English.
@EverythingsHazy , I quite agree that there are issues that one must consider when one thinks about addiction. I'm not saying anyone person is addicted, to be clear. It is the topic of the thread, so it was interesting to hear your views, as it so often is.
Thank you
@Madri-Gal! I appreciate the kind words.
You are correct. I was using the general "you", since there was no need to keep saying "one" after stating that I was not talking to anyone in particular.
There are also "if"s at the start of the three parts that contain the word "you", so even if someone assumed it was directed at them in particular, they still wouldn't have been accused of anything. I left it up to the reader to decide if they fit into any of those categories.
If you want to use the word addicted to describe me as a habitual cannabis user, then go ahead. I could care less.
I'm not sure if this was directed at me, but if it was, I wasn't describing you as anything, or even discussing something that you said.
