Does this sound like you? Here are some quotes by marijuana addicts. This is not to shock you, or to make you feel miserable. This is just to help you to see whether your marijuana use might be a problem for you. If you feel uncomfortable reading these sketches, or if you can identify with even just some small parts of it, you are most welcome to check us out, either by phone, email, or at our weekly meeting! Most of the stuff on this page comes from the website of the Marijuana Anonymous World Services Office (see the Links section). "...We lose interest in all else; our dreams go up in smoke. Ours is a progressive illness often leading us to addictions to other drugs, including alcohol. Our lives, our thinking, and our desires center around marijuana --- scoring it, dealing it, and finding ways to stay high." "...If you find it difficult to control your marijuana use, if you think about using marijuana even when you are not, or if you have broken promises to yourself or others about limiting or stopping your use, you may be an addict." "...In MA, we know what it is like to lose control over marijuana and not be able to stop using, despite pledges, pleas, and promises." "...I am a marijuana addict because when using pot, it was the most important thing in my life. More important than anybody or anything. It helped to suppress all the inadequacies I felt. It helped me not to feel the pain of not living up to expectations. It enabled me not to worry about anything. It helped me to not care about the things I really cared about. It enabled me to stay in my own little world and not deal with emotional feelings that would continually come up when I wasn't smoking. It would drive the fear away, but after a while, the fear would return. Pot helped me not worry about not having a relationship with women, even though I wanted this to happen. Because of negative feelings about myself, I always thought deep down that I was worthless and didn't deserve to be happy. Instead of dealing with these issues I would smoke pot and the feelings would go away. Therefore, I never learned very many social skills or problem solving skills. Problems would come up and they would seem too huge to deal with. I would smoke pot and look for the answers after smoking, because then the problems seemed smaller. In reality, they were only day to day issues that could be resolved if dealt with, instead of running away from them. I would smoke and not deal with the problems and let them fester inside until I thought, "I just can't handle it." I would try not to think about them, or go somewhere I could start all over, escape, and hope that would teach me how to deal with them the next time. But the next time, they would continue and I would do the same thing, over and over,until it was killing me."

12 Questions Here you see again those 12 Questions that were already printed on our home page. We thought that you might be interested to see them again. Has smoking pot stopped being fun? Do you ever get high alone? Is it hard for you to imagine a life without marijuana? Do you find that your friends are determined by your marijuana use? Do you smoke marijuana to avoid dealing with your problems? Do you smoke pot to cope with your feelings? Does your marijuana use let you live in a privately defined world? Have you ever failed to keep promises you made about cutting down or controlling your dope smoking? Has your use of marijuana caused problems with memory, concentration, or motivation? When your stash is nearly empty, do you feel anxious or worried about how to get more? Do you plan your life around your marijuana use? Have friends or relatives ever complained that your pot smoking is damaging your relationship with them? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may have a problem with marijuana.