[trichomedome]

vape_ninja, on 25 May 2012 - 02:46 PM, said:

Quote

Grow your own dude it will help BUT you have to have the will to give up!!

This is good advice, it certainly been the case for me

Yes me to i was an opiate addict for years and for me growing my own was my personal way out. For years i just could not imagine not having opiates, namely morphine sulphate but now 20 months later i,m strait and pretty confident it,s over for me now, i know within myself i,ll never touch any ever again. Tbh if someone had have told me that a couple of years ago i would have thought bull shit. I,d happily try green tea and meditation if it works ? any links or advice on that. TCD

[namkha]

trichomedome, on 28 May 2012 - 12:40 AM, said:

I,d happily try green tea and meditation if it works ? any links or advice on that. TCD

Hi Trichomedome

vipassana is the meditation method most often mentioned in the context of breaking addiction

in particular, the intensive 10 day vipassana meditation retreats offered by the Goenka tradition

in Asia, they are offered free of charge (with voluntary donations) though in the UK I think (I am not sure) there may be a fee

the main website is

Vipassana Meditation
http://www.dhamma.org/

I posted some other info above about meditation for addiction which you may find useful

---

if you want good green tea, these folks are amazing

Sherston Tea
http://www.sherstont...m/greentea.html

[WaxingGibbous]

namkha, on 26 May 2012 - 04:48 AM, said:

grandad, on 26 May 2012 - 04:32 AM, said:

i'm 66 years old and still hyper, without drugs my restlessness is extreme, meditation is out of the question, some of us just have to learn how to handle anxiety and depression using nothing but cannabis and music of choice. i cant remember the age i was when my mindset embraced cannabis and started to reject all other medicine, it works for me.

hi Grandad

my tuppence again ---

I'm not sure if I got your post right...

but for me if anxiety is still regularly manifesting itself then the job is not done yet

I'd say the same thing to anybody who is using meditation as a method

if excessive anxiety is still leaping out at you often (even if meditation or cannabis or whatever is a very effective technique for making it vanish in the short term) then in my view - the job is not done

I don't know a good metaphor here... but it's something like always going back again and again (using awareness of the breath, or a toke) to have to plug up a leak

i.e. it suggests that the underlying cause has not been got rid off

this is what I saw with many vipassana folks...

in fact one of the cues for me to finally start thinking about packing it in was when I spent time around really experienced vipassana meditators, people with massive experience who had done 80 day silent retreats... ...anxious, flushed faces etc. all the usual signs of intense social unease etc.

they seemed way less grounded than even I was, and I was really struggling back then...

Do you not reckon it is possible to "wear down" the underlying causes of distress through ongoing practice, taking advantage of presumed "neuroplasticity"? Is it hooey, or does it just take too long for some people to change before some shit finally hits the fan and the possibility for change is stunted by overwhelming circumstances?

[Park_Lane]

For me anxiety doesnt sneak up on me like it used to. It cant because After 20 years of panic attacks Im a ninja master when it comes to squashing one.

However thats just the little waves, I cant stop the tsunamis that hit me once every six / seven years or so.

Its weird because the signs are always there...for example I started smoking again after beating it for years.

Then drinking more heavily, then the coke, its like my brain is desperately scratching around for confidence or solace.

Then bang! Im fully in it (18 months solid now of anxiety, paranoia and obsessive thoughts)

Im coming back out the other side now, I can feel myself relaxing more often and smiling alot more. A lot less angry too.

At least Im functioning, i have held down my job this time although Im pretty sure everyone I work with hates me as Ive been such a weird angry shit for so long.

The only thing that really upsets me is Ive done some awesome stuff in this time that I havent been able to enjoy because of it.

Oh well, hours cycle tonight, looking at outdoor grow spots round me and I feel at peace. Even if I dont grow this season (probably a bit late now)at least trying to find somewhere will keep me on my game.

Peace & Pot 420 xx

[audioaddict]

Just read your op and am feeling it.

I have spent the past 18 months trying to give up fags, and can only do so when I have weed, so I just alternate between the two, if I try to kick fags without weed I just get too irritable and angry to the point where it is probably better to have the odd fag to relieve the stress.
When I have weed all is fine with the world, but I can't grow nearly enough to stay self sufficient, not even long enough to kill the smoking habit and scale down my weed consumption... it always lasts about 5 weeks then back to the fags.

I have just started smoking the baccy again after a weekend of trying to fight it and losing my temper over everything, so heres to another 7 weeks of trying to keep a lid on the baccy.

Thankfully I don't drink too much, and managed to jib opiates late last year, but tobacco has a serious grip on me

[bennyblueboots]

I ve been clean off hard drugs nine months, cannabis and booze six. Live has got a lot better in that time. Personally, professionally and spiritually, its very important to get in touch with your spiritual side. For me that means God. I did the NA AA route and to be honest cant find fault with the fellowship. That said i still struggle. Giving up everything leaves me alone with my emotions and dealing with them is the biggest challenge for me at the moment. I really feel like i m cracking up these last few weeks. I still get tempted to use. Especially stimulants. I m not sure whether i ll quit cannabis forever i actually have a couple of indicas ready to be planted out.I love guerilla grows. I wont be smoking anything for a while though. I dont want to give anyone advice. All i ll say is there is support out there and for me the positives of being completely clean, outway the negatives. Good luck with everthing

[perlzgirl]

'withnailed'....

some other time.

[VaporNation]

smoking weed everyday compared to drinking is much healthier. ALcohol is technically poison and fucks with your liver and organs.

[namkha]

WaxingGibbous, on 28 May 2012 - 07:45 PM, said:

Do you not reckon it is possible to "wear down" the underlying causes of distress through ongoing practice, taking advantage of presumed "neuroplasticity"?

I was hoping something like that would happen through regular practice... I can't say anything more than that it didn't work for me... and if my interpretation of the behaviour of the earnest Buddhists I was around at the time is right, it didn't seem to work for many of them either

I don't want to seem like I am righting off meditation completely - but unpicking the 'rhetoric' and claims from the reality can be tough

about anxiety - regular use of high doses of cannabis has been shown to stimulate neuron ('nerve') growth around a bit of the brain called the hippocampus --- and this makes people less anxious and more grounded

Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/25509
November 2005

[WaxingGibbous]

Thanks for the reply Namkha.

Old habits are tough to break... one thing I realised about people that seek peace from meditation- myself included- is that chances are they are usually motivated by having to start from somewhere quite distressing; unless we are talking about people who come from a culture where meditation is a "normal" part of the daily admin like flossing!

I have found a lot of peace from meditation, like you I just don't know whether it carries over into everyday conscious (or unconscious) living. My wife (very keen to take the piss out of "mumbo jumbo") says I am a bigger tosser if I don't meditate. So there you go, it perhaps only affects tossers and non-Buddhas like me by degrees...

Being high certainly gives me flashes of naked experience, without the ego blundering in with its opinions... don't last though!