Cannabis is the most consumed illegal drug in the world, and also the most manipulated by the media. As its consumption becomes more regularized in more and more countries, online communities and companies that manipulate information about the effects of cannabis are growing, exaggerating its supposed benefits and minimizing its risks.
In part, thanks to the ignorance and hoaxes that circulate around cannabis consumption (due to clear economic interests) More and more people fall into the clutches of this addictive drug (yes, it is addictive, and I see it every day in consultation).
How to support a family member to quit marijuana joints?
Almost every day I am contacted by mothers, fathers, partners and friends of people who have developed an addiction to marijuana, they witness how they suffer and wonder how to help them. In this sense, let’s look at several Tips on How to Help Someone Quit Joints
1. Empathize
Nobody chooses to have an addiction. Suffering from an addiction is precisely that the person loses the ability to choose. The first thing we must understand is that at first the person will have very little or no control over his or her consumption behavior.
Your child or your partner is going to smoke joints even though they know that it hurts them a lot. That’s what marijuana addiction is, that you know it makes you unhappy and destroys your mind and body, but you can’t stop smoking.
You have to understand that the person smokes joints to isolate themselves and escape from reality We always use drugs as an attempt to cope with distressing events and unpleasant emotions. So, to understand the person’s marijuana addiction problem and help them quit the joints, we have to understand what difficulties they are having in life, what concerns, what challenges.
An important part of any treatment for marijuana addiction will be helping the person face their problems face to face, with new strategies, so that they do not have to rely on marijuana in the long term.
2. Don’t confront his delusions directly
If the person we want to help quit smoking doesn’t want to quit because they think they don’t have a problem, it means they are still in the pre-contemplation phase. It is very difficult to help someone who is not aware of their problem, and we can make the mistake of confronting them too directly, putting them on the defensive, damage the relationship and give him reasons to distance himself from us and make it impossible for us to help him
Before I mentioned the large number of hoaxes and lies that circulate on the internet, such as thinking that marijuana is a harmless drug, that it does not cause addiction, or that it even cures depression or anxiety, or that it connects you with hidden reality. These hoaxes are spread by organizations and individuals who profit from the sale of marijuana or merchandising and paraphernalia related to cannabis (self-cultivation materials, for example).
In that sense, quitting joints is a lot like quitting a cult. It involves realizing that we are trapped in a bubble, questioning our previous beliefs, and looking for real evidence for or against it.
In order to quit smoking for good (or ask for help), a person has to question their previous beliefs about marijuana, admit the possibility that she could have been wrong and that she has been deceived (by consumer friends or by those who make money with marijuana).
Therefore, because of how difficult this process of “getting out of the marijuana bubble” is, many family members make the mistake of confronting too strongly. For example, entering the room as if it were a police raid, searching everything for marijuana, throwing it in the trash and threatening the person.
As you can imagine, this type of intervention, in many cases, will only make the person try harder to hide their consumption, and will serve to justify their desire to continue using.
In most cases, The best strategy is to have a calm and respectful conversation With the person, ask them what they like most about smoking and what they like least, help them see the relationship between joints and some of their problems. Little by little, with respect, so that the person begins to ask themselves new questions. From that position it will be much easier to help you see the problem and make decisions.
3. Applaud small advances
If he tries to quit joints and relapses, congratulate him for trying. If he tries to reduce his consumption little by little, congratulate him for trying If he starts to change his habits, exercise more, change friends, congratulate him for trying. Quitting joints is not easy, if it were you wouldn’t be reading this article.
Encourage him for the small steps he takes, because he is going in the right direction.
4. Set clear boundaries
And when we talk about empathy, love and patience, it is also important to talk about limits. No matter how much we love a person, no matter how good our intentions are, we have to set limits somewhere
It’s like when they explain the security protocol to us on an airplane. They usually explain that, if cabin pressure is lost and the oxygen masks are lowered, that we always put on our mask first, even if we are traveling with a baby or small child. Logic tells us that we should ignore the first temptation to put the oxygen mask on other people first, because if we don’t put ours on first, we won’t be able to really help other people save themselves either. The moral is that our mental health comes first, always
What I’m trying to say is that there are extreme situations in which the person does not want to give up joints, does not want to go to therapy, or does not want to commit to making changes, even though that would make us suffer a lot or even put us in danger. There are extreme cases in which, to help the person in the long term, we must set clear limits, such as stopping giving them money, asking them to leave home or giving them an ultimatum and ending the relationship.
They are very hard decisions, but unfortunately they have to be made in some cases, to protect our mental health and help the person realize what they are losing in life by not giving up marijuana.
5. Consult with a professional
The last and most important piece of advice is that you encourage the person to consult their case with an addiction professional. People move much faster and get stuck less when they have the help of a professional. Everything becomes less difficult when an expert accompanies us along the way
I am a psychologist specializing in addictions; If a person you love suffers from addiction, contact me and we will evaluate the situation.
