I use to smoke marijuana on a heavy daily basis from past 4 years and now wanted to quit because it has start causing problems to me in the form of anxiety and depression. So how can I quit smoking it without facing any withdrawal symptoms. And once I quit it completely will that effect me later in the life.

Dr. Saul PereiraPsychologist47yrs exp

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If you?re a long-time user, you can have physical withdrawal symptoms ? like cravings, irritability, sleeplessness, and less appetite ? when you stop. One of the significant reactions of withdrawal is anxiety. In fact depression and anxiety may be the causes or in some cases the precipitator of the addiction. Some years ago you were still in your late teens and your nerves were still forming and the damage to them can be quite considerable, especially at that time. Now that you have stopped you must seek professional help from an addiction counselor and work out the reasons behind the addiction in the first place. There may be a lot of precipitating factors that predisposed you to the substance. A lot of study of your family history, your personal development from prenatal days and your upbringing will be very useful to deal with in treatment. You must start a good exercise regimen for your physical recovery on a daily basis. There are four issues which you need to work on with your counselor: the oral issue, the rigid value system, the genetic issue, and the script issue. You should attend NA meetings regularly and change a lot of lifestyle habits, friends, social habits, and learn healthy ways to be a happy person without the use of substances. Your spiritual soundness is also an area of work to focus on. In the NA group you will be able to work on the 12-step program, which is very exhaustive and very useful to your recovery. Mere abstinence from the substance is not enough to resolve the addiction problem. Rehabilitation programs are good for you if you feel you just cannot recover from an outpatient program. 

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