Beating boredom after quitting weed

At NCPIC, we are contacted every day by people who want to quit weed or are in the midst of trying to quit. One of our Facebook followers recently contacted us to talk about his biggest post-quitting problem: incessant boredom! After quitting weed, he just felt bored with life, and he said most quitting tools out there don t really talk about boredom enough or offer any kind of solution to the problem.

We ve found other ex-users have described life soon after quitting weed in similar ways where everything appears so profoundly BORING. Where life seems so dull and bland, like all the interesting thoughts experienced when high have been replaced by shuffling through their boring daily activities without any sense of mental expansion or creative inspiration.

So this got us to thinking: just how do you go about filling the gap that cannabis used to fill. Is there a cure for the boredom and what is it?

Using weed is like going to work

Using weed everyday takes time up: it has its place, its own important regular slots in your life, and while you may have thought it ok once, you now wonder what other things you could be doing with your time. Because of the place it has in your daily life, when you stop smoking it leaves a really tangible gap a big gaping hole of emptiness that s unfamiliar, boring and needs filling fast!

As an analogy, you could perhaps look at using weed like going to work it s a routine and something many people do day-after-day. Some people do it for many years, following a familiar schedule or pattern which leaves only a limited amount of free-time… until BOOM! One day the prospect of retirement brings an urgent need to take a long hard look at your life and set about adjusting it to make the most of the extra time you re going to have, and try to ensure you re going to enjoy it and be happy. In this sense, deciding to quit weed could be likened to approaching retirement from work it s actually a hugely exciting time and probably something you ve wanted to do for a while, but can seem daunting and endless.

Quitting is like retirement

For some people retirement is something to be dreaded, with real withdrawal symptoms what on earth will I do? , I m going to be so bored! , If I m bored, I m going to end up watching daytime TV all day and become some kind of vegetable. What will I do without work, what will my purpose in life be? .

But there are some people (are they the lucky ones or are they the smart ones?) who see retirement as a fantastic opportunity. It is a chance to do new things they haven t had time for before, or things they used to enjoy in the past but have long-since given up, things that don t necessarily require money, but are going to bring something good and rewarding for the future.

Is it going to be boring or brilliant? Choose.

Maybe when you quit cannabis, you have to make a conscious choice to see it as an opportunity to re-awaken your curiosity and enjoy searching out other things to do and achieve. It s like taking back control and purpose, resulting in big rewards that far outweigh the effects of the bud and confinements of a pot-smoking life.

Quitting marijuana and retirement from work are pretty big changes to your life. They are changes that need to be planned for with short and long-term goals along the way to motivate you.

Remember all those things you used to like doing? Can you do them again now you re going to have the time and energy? Can you re-connect with those friends or family you ve lost touch with? Can you set out to try to achieve something you ve always wanted to do? It will probably be difficult of course but good things are worth working for, right? It will be worth it it will expand your world and may reward you with the lifestyle you have dreamed about.

Choose not to be bored, make a plan and get started!

And to give you a little helping hand, NCPIC has just launched a new Quit Centre, which includes a range of multimedia resources that help with all stages of quitting the prep, withdrawal, initial quit stages, and getting things back on track after quitting (including sleep and boredom tips).