6 months in, things have been feeling tough, looking to share
I'm 26 right now, and was a chronic, daily user of cannabis since I was 18 years old. For a good portion of time it was just an evening activity for me, but for the last year-ish it became more of an all-day, every-day thing.
I quit 6 months ago after I finished my master's degree. It was interfering with my school, my work, my relationships, my family, everything in my life. I knew I needed to quit, and I gave myself a few months of heavy usage before doing so after finishing my degree - and then I cut it out cold turkey.
For me, the first 3 months of quitting were actually the easiest. I experienced some sleeping difficulties my first month off, but after that sleeping began to get a bit easier, and even now I still notice my sleep getting better gradually.
I had no real cravings to smoke, so that was helpful. But after the 3 month mark, I started getting a LOT of emotions resurfacing that I never let myself feel. I realized that I have spent my whole life not knowing how to feel emotions, and eventually just running away from them by abusing substances.
These past 3 months have been so life changing with me. Some days I wake up feeling absolutely terrible about myself - filled with insecurity, self-doubt, and lately I've been feeling this sense of grayness / lack of interest with everything in my life. By time I get to my evenings after work, I still workout but then never have a desire to do anything that once interested me. TV, Video games, music, etc. all of it just sounds so boring and pointless to me now - it has been tough to deal with. I know that it's temporary, I know that recovery takes time, but these past few weeks especially have been very tough.
When starting this journey of quitting I knew that there might be trouble sleeping and withdraw symptoms, but I never expected the emotional impacts.
Just felt like venting since it's been tough lately. If anyone has advice or anything to share about the journey after 6 months or about dealing with these kinds of emotions I would appreciate that.