The Unpopular Truth About Weed (marijuana) Addiction in Teens/Young Adults!

If you think that your son or daughter is smoking weed, problematically, as in addictively, this video is definitely for you. Now, you might be thinking, well, at least it's not those hard drugs, it's just weed. Or you might be thinking, you know what, I smoked a little weed when I was younger, it's really no big deal. Or maybe you're even thinking, heck, I still smoke weed every now and then myself. It's not a problem if you're having any of those thoughts. Maybe you're right and maybe you're wrong. Let's take a look at how to know. Marijuana is most certainly a drug. And just like with any other addictive thing, some people do it and they don't have problems and other people do it and they have big problems. In this video, we're going to be talking about marijuana addiction. Now, you may be wondering, well, how do I know if my son or daughter falls into the addiction category or just into like the regular use category? Well, there are official criteria and I'll put those in the description. But for now, just ask yourself these questions. Make sure. Number one, do I know that my kid is using marijuana pretty regularly? Or at least do I have a very strong belief that they are? Number two, does my kid seem to be more depressed and anxious? Number three, does it seem like my kid is stuck in life, like they're just not moving forward? Number four, does it seem like I'm having a very hard time getting my son or daughter to be responsible for themselves? Those are the biggest complaints that I hear from parents who have a son or daughter who is addicted to weed. Now, before I go into this next part, I gotta tell you something, and this is very important, so listen up. Everything I'm about to tell you in this video is not for you to go and repeat back to your son and daughter. Please do not do that. You're going to make it worse. I do have videos on how to have a conversation with them about it, and I'll link those at the end. But the things I'm telling you in this video are for you, not for you to go and argue with them about, which also includes sending them this video to watch. Because all you're going to do is make them defensive and it's not going to help. Alright, now that we got that cleared up, let's move on. Now, I'm sure that you've noticed that over the past several years, marijuana has become way more acceptable and accessible. In fact, I think that marijuana is the most difficult addiction that I treat because of the fact that it's so acceptable and accessible, and because it is extremely difficult to get someone to recognize that it is the marijuana that is causing the problems that they're frustrated with. The person almost always feels like it's the marijuana that's the only good thing in their life. Now, hang on to that, because we're going to come back to why that is in just a minute. Now, I will tell you one little piece of good news here. Earlier in my career as an addiction counselor, I would frequently hear things like, marijuana is not addictive. Or people say, oh, marijuana, it may be psychologically addictive, but it's not physically addictive. Well, the good news is I. I haven't heard someone tell me any of those statements in a really long time. You know why? Because I think even more and more young people, even teenagers, are starting to see that, yes, marijuana is extremely addictive. So in the past, people used to say, it's totally fine, it's not addictive. It can't cause you problems. I don't hear that anymore. I think that people kind of know it's addictive, but they still hold on to this. It's harmless. It's no big deal. Kind of thinking sort of like how you might think about, like, a caffeine addiction. Most people are like, okay, yes, it's addictive, but is it really that bad? People want to lump marijuana into that category, but that is a mistake. Let's talk about why. Because it's so accessible. There are now lots and lots of ways to consume marijuana. And one of the really popular ways these days is to use weed in a vape. You know, like a vape like you would use nicotine in. And when people use it in a vape, it's almost impossible to detect, which means that people are now using weed all day, every day, like people use nicotine. So we're not talking about, oh, I smoke weed every now and then with my friends. We're talking about, wake up, use marijuana, use it again, all day, every day, multiple times a day, like someone with a cigarette habit. Now, that is a whole new ball game. And not only are people using it so much more frequently and in such larger amounts, but the potency is way more. You have all these big businesses which are very invested in coming up with all these different strains and different strengths and how to make it consumable in different ways. So. So because of that, addiction to marijuana has skyrocketed. So now that we've talked about why weed is addictive, and it's progressively more and more and more addictive. Let's talk about why having a marijuana addiction is a problem. The biggest problem I see from people who are addicted to marijuana is that they stop moving forward in life. Now if your son or daughter is a teenager and they start smoking weed when they're 14, 15, 16, 17, this is a big problem. Because what that means is they get like failure to launch, they do not leave your house because they never pass through those teenage and young adult emotional developmental phases, meaning they never learn how to adult because they're stuck in this marijuana addiction. Now, if your son or daughter started using marijuana problematically a little later in life, maybe they have moved out, but they're probably not really killing it out there as an adult. Now, if you've ever had a conversation with them about weed, you've probably heard them tell you that it's the only thing that helps my depression and anxiety. Now, I hear that one all the time. And usually when a person says that, they really believe that because when they use marijuana is the only time they feel better. But let me tell you a little secret. I see all kinds of addictions. Alcohol addiction, opiate addiction, heroin addiction, cocaine addiction, Xanax addiction. You name it, I see it. And guess what? In general, my clients that are addicted to marijuana have way more depression and anxiety going on than the people I see who are addicted to those harder drugs. Let's talk about why. There are actually several things that contribute to this problem. Number one, it takes away the feeling of being bored or temporarily. It can take away the feeling of stress or anxiety. Because when you're all high smoking on weed, you're just all mellow and cool and you're very likely to just engage in some other addictive kind of behavior or just plain mind numbing nothing kind of behavior. Essentially, you're usually not being productive when you're high. And to make matters worse, when you're not high, you have a deficit of good brain chemicals, including dopamine, which is your motivation chemical. And so when the person isn't using marijuana, they don't have any regular motivation to kick in. So whether they're high or they're not high, they're not being productive and motivated. Now, sometimes when you smoke weed, you may feel like, oh, I'm going to do all these things. You have all these ideas, but the action part doesn't usually happen. And because people are using it so much, so frequent, so often, it's obviously messing with their brain chemicals, causing them to be sort of neurochemically more and more depressed and anxious. Now, not only that, but because they're not being productive in their life, that creates a whole second set of problems, right? Because eventually they're going to feel like their friends, their peers, everybody else has moved on without them, and then they get kind of depressed because they're not where they should be in life. And guess how they deal with that feeling of depression? They smoke more weed, which obviously doesn't get us anywhere. And in addition to that, usually causes your family, like your parents, to get really upset with you and to start getting on your case and to start trying to make you get a job or trying to hold you accountable. And then you get resentful and irritated at them, and then you blame them for making you feel bad about yourself. So that's another layer about why they're so depressed. Now, everything I've told you so far happens in the majority of the cases that I see. But the next thing, it doesn't happen in the majority of cases, but it does happen occasionally. And when it does, it's really bad. And that is the fact that when you're using marijuana, you are at a much higher risk to develop psychosis. Yeah, that pretty much means, like, you lose your mind, you believe you see things, hear things, believe things that are not true. And I've seen this many times, usually in young men between the ages of like, let's say 15 and 26. That's just a guesstimate. Doesn't mean that that's the only people it happens to, but that's where I see it most frequently. And this looks like a psychotic break, like schizophrenia, and oftentimes lands the person in the psychiatric hospital, usually for a long period of time. But I'm not here to try scare tactics. I don't believe in scare tactics. I'm really not trying to scare you half to death. I'm just trying to be real with you about this problem. Now, another issue that I've only started hearing about in the last few years is something called hyperinuresis, which is a major stomach problem associated with marijuana. You see, when you're marijuana dependent, you usually get to the point where you need to smoke to be able to eat. But if you develop hyperinuresis, the smoking will make you throw up. So you're caught in this catch 22. This can cause significant weight loss, significant distress, and it actually becomes a very significant problem. Now, after hearing all that, if you feel like your son or daughter has a problem with marijuana, I want to give you Several resources and things to think about. The first thing to consider is our invisible intervention program, which is our online program that teaches you, step by step, how to get someone out of denial and into those active stages of change and ultimately into recovery. And with marijuana addiction, particularly, you're going to need a system or a problem because it is much more difficult to get people out of denial than most of the other addictive drugs. The next thing that I want you to consider is you need to think about how or if you decide you need to have some conversations about it, it very important that you do it in a productive way. Like, you do not need to get all your notes out that you just took from this video and then read them off to your kid. It isn't gonna help. I have some videos on how to have that conversation, and I'm gonna link them right up here at the end for you. And another resource I want to tell you about is there's another YouTube channel called Addiction mindset, and there's this guy on there, his name is Dr. Frank, and he specifically helps people come off of marijuana, nicotine, energy drinks, and adult entertainment addictions. He's very good. He has a lot of material on marijuana addiction. So if and when you finally do get your son or daughter to the point where they might be willing to think about doing something different, Addiction mindset is a really great resource, and I would definitely connect them with that YouTube channel and maybe even with one of Dr. Frank's recovery programs. But don't start to send them videos over there until they're in the right mindset for that. I'll put links for all that in the description.