Hi Everyone! I quit using alcohol on August 20th, 2019, and somewhere along the way I also quit vaping and smoking nicotine, but now I need to finally quit vaping and smoking marijuana. I know that I have some degree of lung damage, and I can’t play around with this addiction. I personally am going to make today my official quit day as it’s the start of Imbolc and also the anniversary of my grandfather’s death. He was a smoker and alcoholic who quit before I was born, but the damage he did to his body is what eventually led to his death. I hope that my memories of him will help sustain me. I actually quit inhaling marijuana around the 28th or 29th of January 2024. My lungs hurt. 
I’m trying to maintain a hopeful outlook but I’m extremely upset with myself for allowing this damage to my lungs to continue for so long. Obviously, I consider it to be an addiction because it’s hurting me and yet I struggle to stop, I justify my use, it affects my life in a negative way, etc. I may continue to use edibles as my main goal is to not harm my lungs, but even edibles negatively impact my sleep cycle, which is so important to me for healing. I’m a survivor of violence and assault, a mother, and I’m in a committed relationship. I hope I can get the support I need in this forum. I used to use Sober Grid before it shut down- it was crucial to my success in quitting alcohol, and changed the direction my life was heading. I’m extremely grateful for the chance to beat this. I hope I can make some good connections here.
Welcome to Talking Sober SFS, and wishing you all success in quitting vaping and smoking marijuana! Personally I first quit smoking both tobacco and marijuana (I never vaped) over 8 years ago, after which my alcohol use increased dramatically. Quit drinking some years after that (coming up to 5 years in June).
For me, addiction is addiction. And when I read you story to me you seem addicted to marijuana too (but correct me when I’m wrong). And for me in the end the only solution was to abstain from all substances, because when I quit one substance another one will take its place. My life has been has been so much better since I made my life substance free.
Anyway, welcome again, and hoping you will find the support here in becoming free from addictions yourself. Being here sure helped me enormously!
Hi, nice to meet you! Yes, I agree that my marijuana use is an addiction. However, I’m not entirely ruling out the use of edibles as I wean off smoking or even permanently because I use them for pain relief instead of other substances when necessary. I’m not a big fan of edibles for fun- smoking weed is the fun part for me, the dopamine rush- edibles are mostly just pain relief. I hear you though, and I plan to keep myself in check, with this forum for support. My parents use pain pills, I will never use them. Even when I badly hurt my spine, I would only use high amounts of CBD with some THC for pain, and Advil. I hate all pills. Pills took my parents from me- they are still alive- but addiction to pain pills dominates their lives. Marijuana is an acceptable pain relief alternative in my opinion, but everyone is different and has different beliefs surrounding that topic. My opinion may change in time.
Indeed opinions differ. Marijuana has been my DOC for over 35 years, I would never use it as medication. While I do see a role for pills. But only very strictly prescribed and monitored. Like benzodiazepines that are used in the management or withdrawal from alcohol in the detox facility I work as a nurse, never longer than about 5 days and usually shorter (and I worked in psychiatry and I know the dangers). Like opiates IMO can have a role in pain management right after surgery or with traumatic injuries or in palliative care, again closely monitored and with the use of the strict guidelines (for example limiting the time of use) we have here (I’m in The Netherlands).
As an aside I did use edibles once after quitting smoking weed. I fell asleep and that was it. Looking back I’m glad that’s all it did because it cured me of the idea it maybe could do me some good in some way.
My parents are both retired nurses with pain issues who are addicted to opiates. My father was a meth addict in the 70’s. After shooting up every day for 365 days, my dad lost his mind and was committed. My dad then turned back to alcohol and marijuana. My mom knew this when she married him. He hid his alcohol addiction and marijuana use from us. I didn’t start finding the empty bottles of vodka hidden around the house until I was 12 or 13 years old. I thought my mom was drinking on her morphine, which is what she was using at the time for pain from back injuries due to nursing, but it was my father who was using vodka to sleep each night and who knows when else. They are both children of alcoholic fathers. My mother started on the pain pills when I was young- I think I was 8. She was driving and was rear-ended at a stop light by a Mack truck. Eventually, after years of other surgeries and tears and pain, my mother had a final catastrophic surgery, a spinal fusion gone wrong that left her in what they feared would be permanent pain for life. She was prescribed OxyContin, which was being handed out like candy in the United States at the time. She was on OxyContin for 18+ years, and now goes off it back to morphine or methadone sometimes and back on, though now the views in America have changed about OxyContin, so it’s much harder to get now. My father uses her prescription pills for his pain, because doctors won’t give him pain pills due to his previous addiction to meth. He may have used them since I was in middle school, when I first started finding the vodka bottles. He drinks alcohol when he comes off them and has tons of marijuana gummies, and shakes and waits for the next time he’s given one of her pills. She enables him. They enable each other. They also are in pain and have been poorly treated by the very industry they worked so hard for while destroying their spines. My mother would commit suicide if not for her pain pills- she can’t live with her pain. If my mom died, my dad would too, because they are so intertwined, both emotionally and addiction-wise, and massively codependent. So I grew up in a household with addiction, although on the surface everything was normal, and even I had no idea of the extent of it because it was hidden. I was the family scapegoat. They still use me as an excuse for just about anything to not look bad to other family members. My brother is the golden child, and a boy so he is treated very differently. He has his own addiction issues, sadly. I still love them although I have had to cut them out of my life at times. I recently went to my first Al Anon meeting and I plan to continue going to meetings. I worry about them constantly. They aren’t careful about safety issues. My father hears a choir sing to him- he has auditory hallucinations- and believes that an angel is watching over him, so safety is not a concern for my father, because he thinks his angel will save him. It’s been a rough road. I definitely need to support from AlAnon for the day that I get the call that he has burned the house down.
That’s a tough story friend. Thanks for sharing. There’s an active thread here dealing with codependency and families with addiction dynamics or how should I say it. Might be helpful, hope so.
I commented with “follow”, is that how I join? I’m still figuring out this app… I have to say, I preferred the simplistic and intuitive design of the Sober Grid App over this app design! It seems that it has far more features, though, so perhaps that will make up for my annoyance! 
You don’t need to post in a topic to follow it. You can set any specific topic to ‘watching’ so you’ll get a notice whenever there’s a new post in that specific topic. A lot of the settings are preset in the way that’s most convenient for most members. it’s all explained here:
It’s quite a lot but most of it you don’t need.
Than here’s some info on this forum in particular:
Indeed, IMO the way the forum works has some annoying features. Like the big number of topics which makes it hard to find stuff unless you bookmark posts and topics. But all in all, and as with most things, it simply takes some getting used to.