Cannabis addiction symptoms | what to look for

Cannabis addiction symptoms are not always easy to spot, because most people assume cannabis is fairly harmless. The symptoms come on slowly, too, so they are easy to overlook until you are smoking most days. They are real, and they show in the way you behave, the way you think and the way your body responds. Recognising the symptoms of cannabis addiction early can help you take action before cannabis has a greater impact on your life.

You may have started for a reason that made sense at the time: to relax, to sleep better, to get through a difficult week, or to avoid feelings you would rather not have. It worked, so it became part of your routine. What changes over time is the reason. Something you did because you enjoyed it becomes something you do because the day is harder without it, and that shift is usually the earliest sign of marijuana addiction, long before anything shows in your body. 

How far it goes differs from one person to the next. The European Union Drugs Agency links three things most closely to problems: the age you started, the strength of what you smoke and how often you smoke.

If any of this sounds familiar and you would like to talk it through, call us on +27 21 541 0643.

The signs of cannabis addiction usually become visible in everyday life before you recognise that you have become dependent, and they appear in what you do before they appear in how you feel. Some can be explained away for months; others are the sort of thing your partner notices before you do, mentions once or twice, and then lets drop. That is why behaviour is the place to start.

You may notice that you:

• use cannabis more often than you intended
• organise your day around when you can smoke
• spend a lot of time getting hold of cannabis or smoking it
• keep your use to yourself or play it down
• spend more on cannabis than you meant to
• fall behind at work or at university
• carry on smoking even when it is causing you problems

The psychological signs take longer to appear, and they are the ones you are least likely to raise with anyone, because they point to why you smoke rather than how much. Over time, cannabis can begin to affect your motivation, your memory and your ability to enjoy an evening without it. By then it is hard to say whether the flat mood came before the smoking or after it. They are also the hardest to admit to.

You may find that you:

• have strong cravings for cannabis
• think about cannabis throughout the day
• become irritable or restless when you cannot use it
• feel unable to relax or sleep without it
• lose interest in things you used to enjoy
• find it hard to cut down or stop

Your body adapts to regular use, and you notice the change as soon as you cut down or stop. One of these symptoms of cannabis addiction in particular, needing more than you used to for the same effect, is hard to put down to anything else. Tiredness has any number of causes; tolerance has one.

You may notice:

• needing larger amounts to achieve the same effect
• being unable to sleep without it
• changes in appetite or weight
• a cough or a tight chest that does not clear
• bloodshot eyes and tiredness that lasts all day
• sweating, headaches or shaking on days without cannabis

The symptoms that appear when you stop

Sweating, headaches and shaking come from stopping rather than from smoking. Weed withdrawal symptoms can start within a day of your last joint and carry on for a couple of weeks, and sleep is usually the slowest to recover. The longer-term effects of weed on your lungs, your memory and your concentration are a separate matter from the signs of dependence.

Part of the reason these signs are hard to spot is that cannabis is often used to cope, so every symptom already has an explanation attached to it. You may rely on it to manage stress, anxiety or loneliness, or smoke out of boredom or feeling depressed, or to get through a difficult period. Either way, you can put the tiredness, the flat mood and the broken sleep down to whatever made you smoke in the first place. As dependence grows, how you feel depends more and more on whether you have smoked, and the symptoms and the reason for them become difficult to tell apart.

What other people notice

Weed addiction symptoms are generally the same as the signs of cannabis addiction, because weed is one of the most common forms of cannabis. The signs look different from the outside, though. What you are most likely to notice in others is that they have become withdrawn, spend more time alone, seem less motivated or become defensive when cannabis comes up. 

You are welcome to call us on +27 21 541 0643 with any questions. We can give you personal advice on how to express your worries and set your boundaries at the same time.

Most regular smokers reach the point of asking themselves: ‘Am I addicted to weed?’ Counting joints will not answer it, because how much you smoke matters less than what your smoking has started to cost you. Recognising one or two of the signs above does not necessarily mean you have an addiction. Several that persist over months, however, suggest that your relationship with cannabis has changed more than you meant it to.

Ignoring the symptoms does not make them go away. As cannabis use increases, it affects more of your life, and money, sleep, work and the people close to you rarely come under strain one at a time. So by the time the problem is obvious there is far more to put right than there was six months earlier. Recognising it early gives you the chance to act while the problem is still small.

When the signs get more serious

Cannabis psychosis is one of the more serious effects of strong cannabis, and it can involve paranoia and hearing or seeing things that are not there. Carrying on after something like that is one of the clearest signs of addiction there is. Once regular use has turned into addiction, it rarely gets better on its own.

A list can tell you what to look for but not what it means in your case. If several of these signs sound familiar, the most useful next step is to talk to someone who can put them in context. Stopping on your own can be difficult, and not because you lack willpower: addiction changes the way your brain works; relapsing is frustrating enough to leave you thinking you simply lack the strength. That is worth knowing before you try again.

Talking about drug dependence can be hard as you might feel shame, frustration or fear of being judged. You can always talk to our team. Call us on +27 21 541 0643 or leave your details and we will get back to you.

Why stopping on your own can be difficult

There is another reason as well. Difficult feelings and memories are easier to ignore for a few hours when you are stoned. But when you stop smoking they return, sometimes more strongly than before. That is why it is very tempting to start again, sometimes leading you to smoke more than before. Quitting weed takes more than the decision to stop.

How we can help

We start with an addiction assessment, which looks at how much you smoke and at what keeps you smoking. Our treatment for weed addiction covers the addiction and any mental health problems that come with it. This combination is known as dual diagnosis. Treatment takes place at our cannabis rehabilitation centre in South Africa, away from the places you smoke and the people you smoke with.

If you would like to talk any of this through, call us on +27 21 541 0643. Cannabis addiction symptoms are worth taking seriously long before anyone mentions rehab, and what you do next is still up to you.