If you are a marijuana smoker, quitting smoking is important for your mental health.
Is Marijuana Addictive?
Quitting Smoking Marijuana Keeps Your Mental Faculties in Better Shape
When we talk about smoking, particularly cigarettes, we are mainly concerned with identifying the physical hazards. When it comes to smoking marijuana, the psychological hazards often pose a greater risk. Let’s take a brief look at what marijuana is, what it does and how it can affect your mental health in order to underscore the importance of quitting smoking marijuana or as it often referred to as pot.
What is Marijuana?
Marijuana is a plant from the nettle family known as cannabis sativa or cannabis indica. It grows in the wild and is also cultivated by farmers and drug dealers. Marijuana is used for many purposes: to make rope and textiles, medicines, and finally, as a recreational drug. Marijuana can be smoked for recreational purposes in both resin and dried plant forms; marijuana resin is commonly known as hashish.
How does Marijuana Affect Your Mental Health?
Marijuana’s active ingredient is THC and within ten minutes of smoking it, you will begin to feel its effects on your body as it is being absorbed into your blood stream. Theses effects include:
- · Euphoria
- · Paranoia
- · Fear
- · Panic
- · Increased appetite
- · Rapid heart rate
- · Slowed reaction time/perception of time
Marijuana is Psychologically Addictive
Like cigarette smoking, it becomes a strong habit that is hard to break. Quitting smoking marijuana is difficult because people become psychologically dependent on the altered state provided by the THC experience. Smoking marijuana can lead to increased anxiety, depression, and inability to function at normal social levels. It affects short-term memory, so it can make your job or studies more difficult. Many people believe that marijuana is not addictive because theories about it being biologically addictive have proven to be inconclusive. However, psychological addiction is often more difficult to break because habits can become deeply ingrained into our brains-we feel as though we cannot live without them.
Quitting Smoking Marijuana
This a good idea because it is a distraction from the reality of life. Altered mental states can become problematic when trying to forge interpersonal relationships or take care of your personal responsibilities. Smoking, whether it is marijuana or cigarettes, is a habit and quitting the smoking habit is something that only you have control over. The substances don’t control you, you control whether or not you are going to use them. Staying mentally fit is an important part of life and if you want to have optimal mental health, then a marijuana-free lifestyle is a good step in the right direction.
Is Smoking Marijuana Controlling Your Life
Many people who smoke marijuana have experienced negative experiences and even trauma in their lives. Smoking marijuana acts as an emotional buffer assisting people to live their lives and function as best they can. Many have sought assistance from various health professionals and while they may have assisted them to cope, they may not have been able to deal with the underlying trauma. The Richards Trauma Process is a comparitively new therapy where these events can be resolved in usually only three sessions.
Are you Uncertain as to Whether This can Help You?
Are you anxious, depressed, traumatised? Are you seeking a drug-free solution?
Maureen Hamilton is a practitioner of The Richards Trauma Process™ and can step you through to the other side of your pain. DO SOMETHING about your situation. CALL Maureen today on 1300 619 684 or visit the Master Your Life Power website for more information.