Cannabis, pool and life

[poolplayer2093]

Hi fellow AZers. I just wanted to share a story with you and hopefully save a few people's lifes and mental health.

I was under the impression that weed was helping me with my game and other areas of my life. My concentration and ability to deal with the pressure was way better whilst high. Well, that may be true for me and other players but it comes with a price!

I decided to start playing sober and clean my life up. But with in a few days of quitting I started have SEVERE anxiety and panic attacks. It's been about a week and a half since I stopped and I am continuing to go through this. However, I am feeling better slowly but surely. I never thought cannabis aftermath would be ANYTHING like this and I'm not alone. This very common for people to go through after smoking for long periods of time. I've smoked for 7 years now daily in small increments.

To anyone on here considering smoking weed to help their game--don't! To anyone on here who does use weed for their game or is just a daily habit--stop NOW! Trust me. Depending on how long you have smoked pot for will affect your detox symptoms and period of recovery time. Most reports say 30 days and you'll be good. You will overcome it and eventually get better. It's not worth it just to win a game or to simply get high.

My mom and dad have always said to me - Deal with life on lifes terms. And I will no honor that statement, get better and live my life again. And I hope you can do the same.

Best Regards,
Ken

I smoked weed with some friends in junior high a long time ago. i remember it being so much fun. we laughed a lot and tried to ride our bikes to the store to buy chips and stuff but we never made it. it was really a fun memory.

years later i tried it on a whim. it was no where near fun. it freaked me out bro. i started sweating and breathing heavy. i got real paranoid and in general it was just really bad. i really can't see how people can pay to feel like that. that stuff and me just don't mix. hell now that i'm older i don't even really like to drink anymore.

 

[Mitchxout]

I smoked weed with some friends in junior high a long time ago. i remember it being so much fun. we laughed a lot and tried to ride our bikes to the store to buy chips and stuff but we never made it. it was really a fun memory.

years later i tried it on a whim. it was no where near fun. it freaked me out bro. i started sweating and breathing heavy. i got real paranoid and in general it was just really bad. i really can't see how people can pay to feel like that. that stuff and me just don't mix. hell now that i'm older i don't even really like to drink anymore.

Nobody pays to feel like you described. Your resistance is low and you smoked some high THC weed. When you need an aspirin do you take the whole bottle?

 

[Purdman]

Weed And Pool

This was probably cool. Pro Choice is the way to go. If you do or if you don't, that's your business!
Don:thumbup:

At least it was a level playing field!

 

[Pushout]

Very interesting. I had an awful cigarette habit for 30 plus years. I finally quit and it took several years to feel completely normal. Each time I tried to quit, the physcial nervousness and anxiety came first, followed by a gloomy depression. The depression was the most difficult symptom to cope with, a real funk. The depression slowly got worse, then better, over a period of several months.

My understanding is this all has to do with the pleasure centers of the brain and the endocrine system.

Just remember, when you are done, you are going to feel way better than you ever did high. You will be relaxed and in charge of your mind, body, and most importantly, your soul.

Congratulations!

Chris

I stopped smoking in 1980 but I literally wanted to smoke for seven years after that.

 

[TATE]

I stopped smoking in 1980 but I literally wanted to smoke for seven years after that.

I know, some of us get really wired into it. One poor guy here finally just said he couldn't do it and gave up trying.

I think a lot of it has to do with if our parents smoked around us growing up, and at what age we started. I started at 14. Glad that nightmare's over with.

Chris

 

[Hungarian]

It sounds to me like the OP is a type that benefits from the effects of small amounts of pot. It's a natural substance and it's completely harmless. I don't understand the stigma.

A rattle snake is "natural" but you don't let it bite you...just saying

 

[Hungarian]

Oh yeah, that was the original topic, wasn't it? I forgot.

Anyone who thinks that chemically altering your brain makes you play better is misguided.

Coke and meth may make a player unbeatable for a night, but there's a heavy penalty for those nights. Players who rely on powder to play well end up with very short careers...and often, lifespans.

I'll use a couple of real life examples to illustrate my point. Nick Varner was well known for always playing "on the natch". Louie Roberts was well known for being twisted out of his mind at all times.

While there were times that Nick couldn't beat Louie due to the chemical assistance, Nick is alive today and Louie isn't. I say Nick wins.

Please excuse my ignorance but what is natch?

I was unaware that Nick was a drug user.

 

[Scott Lee]

Actually an apple works exceptionally well (or so I've heard)!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Always go with glass.

 

[Scott Lee]

Hungarian Nut...It means "not high on drugs or alcohol". BTW, for the record, Nick smoked heavy for decades...nicotine is a drug too!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Please excuse my ignorance but what is natch?

I was unaware that Nick was a drug user.

 

[JB Cases]

Oh yeah, that was the original topic, wasn't it? I forgot.

Anyone who thinks that chemically altering your brain makes you play better is misguided.

Coke and meth may make a player unbeatable for a night, but there's a heavy penalty for those nights. Players who rely on powder to play well end up with very short careers...and often, lifespans.

I'll use a couple of real life examples to illustrate my point. Nick Varner was well known for always playing "on the natch". Louie Roberts was well known for being twisted out of his mind at all times.

While there were times that Nick couldn't beat Louie due to the chemical assistance, Nick is alive today and Louie isn't. I say Nick wins.

There is no denying that chemically altering your brain enhances performance. That is why all major sports BAN performance enhancing drugs.

There are many people in life who function perfectly fine using drugs to enhance their lives. Some legally prescribed and some not. Other people take it to extremes. Those are not people who take drugs to enhance performance but instead are people who take drugs to escape from the performance of life.

Just the other day I listened to a report that researchers have found that probiotic yogurt influences the brains of mice in a way similar to Valium. The study suggests that what we eat affects mood far more than we know. Anyone who eats a pot brownie knows that but they know what's in it. Who is to say though that there aren't plenty of chemicals in stuff we eat everyday that isn't affecting our brain chemistry in one way or another. MAYBE all that meat is making us hyper-aggressive and tense and so we medicate to balance it out.

The thing is we really DO NOT know much about about our bodies and brains and NOW we are learning SO MUCH more about what's really happening.

When you are addicted to something and you break free it is natural to want to share with others. I disagree about warning others to not try it though. We are all chemical beings and altering our state of consciousness through the use of chemicals is a personal choice to be undertaken individually. For one person smoking pot might make them into an unproductive stoner but for another person it might help them to change the world for the better.

For some perspective: My mother was a drug dealer. I didn't smoke my first pot or ingest any other "illegal" drugs until I was 32 years old though. I don't use it now and have smoked it maybe five times in my life. I tend to view drugs from a different outlook having been around them all my adolescent life and seen them from all sides, commericial - performance enhancing - escapist.

 

[Blue Hog ridr]

The Amsterdam Open. If you vaporized a bud of the stuff they have, you'd have a hard time being able to pick up a cue, let alone making a ball.

When I play, I have a couple or three hits at a time and thats it. I like to be able to control my buzz. I can regulate how much beer and pot I ingest and keep myself at a nice level while playing. Any more and I'm a slush bucket and altho I can still play, I don't play as well.

And then of course I have to ingest large amounts of wings and riblets after.

 

[Baxter]

I haven't had any tobacco products since March, and haven't had a cigarette since February. I started smoking when I was 17, I'll be 24 this month. It was really hard for the first week. It got easier. I still think about cigarettes every once in a while, usually during a moment that I figured out was a trigger to smoking (like after a meal, while driving, while on break at work, etc).

I've smoked herb just as long. I've stopped numerous times for work related reasons. Every time was for several months. The only side affect I've ever felt from stopping cannabis use, was the return of my back aches, and insomnia from said aches, on an epic scale. See, I actually am one of the people who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. I fractured the L4 and L5 vertebraes in my back when I was about 10 years old. I told my parents I hurt my back, and nothing was ever done about it. When I was 20, I actually had x rays taken by my chiropractor, who then figured out what had happened.

If I quit smoking herb, I can't sleep, and it's not from "withdrawls". I only smoke after work anyways, and I don't like playing pool high.

Just goes to show, different strokes different folks. Just because you had an experience like you did, doesn't mean everyone else is the same. The pulpit is that way ------>

Leland

 

[Maxx]

This commercial cracks me up....

if I still smoked pot I probably couldn't stop laughing!

 

[Purdman]

I have Diabetic Neuropathy. They want me to take 4 oxycodone pills a day. No way man! You know what I do buddy.
Don

I haven't had any tobacco products since March, and haven't had a cigarette since February. I started smoking when I was 17, I'll be 24 this month. It was really hard for the first week. It got easier. I still think about cigarettes every once in a while, usually during a moment that I figured out was a trigger to smoking (like after a meal, while driving, while on break at work, etc).

I've smoked herb just as long. I've stopped numerous times for work related reasons. Every time was for several months. The only side affect I've ever felt from stopping cannabis use, was the return of my back aches, and insomnia from said aches, on an epic scale. See, I actually am one of the people who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. I fractured the L4 and L5 vertebraes in my back when I was about 10 years old. I told my parents I hurt my back, and nothing was ever done about it. When I was 20, I actually had x rays taken by my chiropractor, who then figured out what had happened.

If I quit smoking herb, I can't sleep, and it's not from "withdrawls". I only smoke after work anyways, and I don't like playing pool high.

Just goes to show, different strokes different folks. Just because you had an experience like you did, doesn't mean everyone else is the same. The pulpit is that way ------>

Leland

 

[stunshotDAVE]

the learning curve

great choice!.

realize that if in fact you did become very skilled while high, you will have to relearn a lot ,while sober to have the same level of skill you acquired while high.

here comes another can of worms.

 

[Blue Hog ridr]

Purd, I had a brain OP 10 yrs ago. I have to take 4 20 mg of Oxy a day.
Its not so bad. I only wish that pot would help but it doesn't, otherwise I'd s hitcan the Oxys in a minute.
I've wheened myself off the Oxys several times just to prove that I could. My wife is a nurse and an addictions specialist.
Oxy is about the easiest to detox yourself off of out of many of the other narcotics available for pain.

 

[onepocketron]

Nothing more holier than thy then a recovering addict.

Take it somewhere else.

Sounds like you could take some of your own advice. You are actually the one that sounds "holier that thou". As far as I'm concerned, you are the one that can take it somewhere else. Glad you took the time to try and help a fellow human being.
Kinda sounds like you had some experience with a 12 step program and couldn't hack it.

 

[onepocketron]

To the OP, if you continue to have issues while not smoking, you can always go to an NA meeting (narcotics anonymous). They have been through it all (some a heck of a lot more than you can imagine) and can help. In addition, you can always go see a physician as there are medications that will help with the anxiety attacks and such.
I haven't had a mind altering chemical of any kind for quite a while (drugs or alcohol) so I am speaking from experience. If I were to make a suggestion, it would be to get some help either from NA, or a doctor, or both. Good luck.

 

[ShootingArts]

a way to cut corners

One of the things I learned training horses is that drugs enhancing physical performance is a myth, with a caveat. You bring a horse to the track that is fit, ready to run, and likes to run, there is nothing in the world that can make it run any faster. A hurt horse, an out of shape horse, or one that hates to run, drugs can make it faster. It'll destroy itself on drugs but it'll be faster for the moment.

Horses don't have the mental and emotional effects of knowing that they are running on drugs so I can't comment on the effects in that area from training horses. Many years ago I used some mild speed pills to balance the alcohol and fatigue playing very long sessions. The pills certainly helped compared to going 24 hours or longer without rest and drinking while playing but I'd never say my performance exceeded what I could do fresh and rested. Of course drugs can make you feel ten foot tall and bulletproof. That can help you win, it can also help you stay in a bad match-up and go off big.

I have competed for over forty years now and all of my best performances were on the natch. Drugs for conditions that you need them I agree with. Drugs for recreation, none of my business. Drugs for competition, only if you are trying to mask issues. Ahead of the game to fix the issues instead of masking them.

Wish I had video of all the times somebody thought they were turning in a world beating performance on drugs when they couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a bass fiddle!

Hu`

 

[JoeyA]

Ken,
You're quite correct about what marijuana has done to you. It does the same thing to many others as well.

Some people will swear they have none of the symptons you described and maybe they don't.

I'm not in a position to tell anyone what they should or should not be doing but I grew up in the 60's and some of my friends are still weed heads and still paying the price for smoking weed all these years. Broken relationships, lack of motivation (prefer to chill than to grind out a living), a constant need for additional money to pay for the more expensive weed.

I know one pool player who likes to do the crystal meth and has to smoke the expensive weed for an hour to go to sleep after being up for two days. Smoke the good stuff for an hour and you'll be working (if you can put in a 40 hour week) your nuts off paying for the meth and the weed.

Didn't mean to hijack your thread about the meth stuff but you are a very lucky young man to recognize the problem and be "ABLE" to get off of it. It's not easy to get off of any drug. I'm proud of you and I know your dad is too. I PROMISE YOU THIS: If you quit weed for good, you will be a far more productive ( be able to work harder and smarter while not only having more money but being able to keep more money) and be a happier person in the long run. This might not be true for everyone but it will certainly be true for you.

I have a friend who is a doctor and he treats people every day of the week with the same kind of problems that you are having and all they do is smoke pot ( they test for every kind of drug and some only smoke pot).

The old weed has been around a long time and most have tried it at one time or another. For the vast majority, it hasn't brought them a whole lot of success in anything except "chilling".

I hope your thread stays right here on the Main Forum because you're doing a lot of poolplayers and others a real service by posting this thread.

Look, I'm not saying weed is morally wrong or bad for everyone. I'm saying that some people pay an enormous price for smoking weed and I think most would be better off without it. For me it's not a moral issue or a legal issue. It's just a health issue.

For those who have genuine medical needs for medicinal weed; burn one.

Somewhere on my computer is an article that I wrote about weed but never sent it in for publishing. Maybe one day......

Good luck to you! You did a big favor for some people who heed your advice no matter what anyone says.

Best Regards,