Why Do Marijuana Addicts Need to Go to Rehab?

Clinically Reviewed by Matt Hawk ICAADC, CACII, Written by Karen Hadley

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When does drug or alcohol abuse turn into the need for rehab? The answer is “as soon as possible.” Catching an addiction early offers the best chance for the individual to fully recover. While the medical definition requires a person to meet a certain set of criteria, it’s likely that if the question is being asked, the person has already become addicted. Rehab can help stop the progression and allow the person to avoid the consequences of continued use.

Day after day, the drugs they take or the alcohol they consume harm their body, mind, and life. They continue to neglect or hurt those they care about. Their health suffers. With many drugs, there is even a serious risk of death. Getting a person into rehab sets them on a new path back to self-respect and health.

Important Data about Leaf Marijuana and Cannabis Concentrates

Today’s marijuana strains contain more THC than strains in the past. Leaf and flower products have gone from 4% THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol) to an average of 16%. Some strains of cannabis flowers can reach over 30% THC, which is the most psychoactive part of the cannabis plant. In other words, it has the greatest effect on the mind.

Cannabis concentrates have an even higher percentage of THC than the leaf or flowers. There are dozens of different concentrates on the market, with THC concentrations ranging from 30% to 99%. Obviously, these products will have a much more profound effect on the mind. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, use of these very strong products comes with a higher risk of becoming addicted.

Nearly 19 million Americans suffer from addiction to cannabis. One in ten adults between the ages of 19 and 30 uses some form of this drug daily, giving them a greater chance of becoming addicted. Once a person becomes addicted, it becomes harder for the individual to function. Most people need help to break free from the trap of addiction. If you care about someone who is addicted, you can help them by getting them to a rehab that guides them back to sobriety.

Signs That Indicate That a Person Needs Rehab

Many signs can alert friends and family to the addiction of their loved one. If you notice more than one of these signs in someone you care about, they may need rehab if they are to get back control of their life and future.

1. Has the person tried to quit or promised to quit and couldn’t follow through?
2. Have they also been unable to cut down their marijuana use even when they wanted to?
3. Did they once have goals and hobbies that were important to them, but they have abandoned them?
4. Are they doing poorly at work or school?
5. Have they lost one or more jobs, or have they ruined a business?
6. Are they neglecting spouses or children in their care?
7. Have they experienced legal problems, such as fines and arrests?
8. Do they spend an excessive amount of time getting, using, and recovering from marijuana use?
9. Are their relationships with family members and friends suffering?
10. Have they suffered panic attacks or paranoia?
11. Have you discovered that they lie to you frequently?
12. Do they blame you for their problems?
13. Are they suffering from a severe lack of motivation?
14. Do they continue to use marijuana despite the problems caused?

If you’re seeing these signs in someone you care about, you need to get them into rehab. The right rehab can restore their ability to make sober choices.

Marijuana: What You Need to Know

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The Road Back to Sobriety

To recover from marijuana addiction, a person must be guided through the process of learning how to create a new, productive, and enjoyable life. In the time spent addicted, they typically lose their self-esteem and integrity. They have obscured their problems and upsets with drug use. If they have abandoned goals or have become unproductive, they could cover up any disappointments with more marijuana use. Loss of motivation is a well-known symptom of marijuana use.

A person who is addicted must recover their ability to make drug-free decisions. They must rebuild their self-respect and, usually, restore their relationships with family and friends. There must also be a way for them to get relief from constant cravings for more marijuana. To be successful, a rehab must address each of these types of damage resulting from addiction.

What Is Experienced During Marijuana Withdrawal?

Whenever anyone addicted to marijuana begins rehab, they must first withdraw from the drug. These are the symptoms they are likely to experience as they make this transition.

• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Sleep problems
• Disturbing dreams
• Restlessness
• Headaches

These symptoms can last as long as two weeks, although the most severe of the symptoms normally subside after 72 hours. Those who use more of the drug or use it more frequently will generally have more severe symptoms and need more help during withdrawal.

Drug-Free Recovery at a Narconon Rehab Facility

Many drug rehabs employ medications as part of the rehab program. They may maintain a person on a drug that replaces the one to which they were addicted. A person recovering from marijuana addiction may be prescribed drugs like bupropion, varenicline, or antidepressants to get them through the rehab program. Some of the drugs used are habit-forming or even addictive. On the long-term program at Narconon centers, those in recovery and their families discover that drug-free recovery from marijuana addiction is possible and, in the long run, more effective.

Starting with a Drug-Free Withdrawal

From the moment a person enters the residential Narconon rehab, they are given the support they need to get through withdrawal in a healthy and tolerable way. This gives them an excellent start on a future sobriety that does not rely on drugs.

It is essential that each person starting the Narconon program first receive an examination by a medical professional to determine whether or not they will need a medically supervised detox before starting rehab. Once each person has been cleared for this drug-free withdrawal by a medical professional, they receive generous doses of vitamins and minerals that calm the body and mind. They receive gentle physical assists to ease spasms or cramps. Orientation exercises help them realize that they have left addiction behind and they now live in a drug-free present. When they are free from the drugs they were consuming and are eating and sleeping well, they can move on to the rehab program.

Relief from Cravings with the New Life Detoxification

After months, years, or even decades of cannabis use, a user accumulates a burden of cannabis residues in their body. Often lodged in their fatty tissues, these toxins are even capable of being released back into the bloodstream long after drug use stops. As long as these toxins (and those from any other drug or alcohol use) remain in the body, they can help trigger cravings along with cognitive and mood problems.

The New Life Detoxification is an innovative method of flushing out these toxins. Each person exercises moderately, takes a strict regimen of vitamins, minerals, and oils, and then spends time in a low-heat sauna. As they sweat, these residues, called metabolites, leave the body. Day by day, it is more possible for a person to think clearly. Cravings and agonizing dreams of drug use can be relieved. It’s now more possible to focus on recovering one’s sobriety.

Focusing on the Present

Drug use typically drives a person into a less aware state. When drug use turns into addiction, reality can move far away. Those who are addicted are typically focused on acquiring and using drugs, which takes precedence over caring for their families or their own health. Their honesty takes a back seat to their need for more drugs. The next step, the Objectives, helps each person regain a better grip on the reality around them.

The Objectives consists of a series of guided exercises that reorient a person to their present surroundings. Day by day, each person can sharpen their perceptions. They can learn to live in a more analytical fashion and have better control over their own thoughts and actions. These changes are essential to break a person out of an addicted mindset and lifestyle.

Protecting Sobriety with Stronger Life Skills

While in a residential rehab, a person has plenty of support. Once they go home, they must be able to rely on themselves. This is when they are going to need stronger life skills. Lack of these skills enabled them to become trapped in drug use and addiction in the first place.

The life skills component of the Narconon program has three parts:

1. Overcoming Ups & Downs in Life: When you are associated with people who do not care if you live or die, your life is likely to experience severe ups and downs. Drug dealers and criminals typically fall into this category, though in some cases, the signs are much more subtle. Staying sober after rehab requires being able to identify people who can be trusted and those who must be avoided. It’s also necessary to know how to deal with these two types of people for one’s own safety. The Overcoming Ups & Downs in Life course teaches these skills.
2. Personal Values: After years spent addicted, most people struggle with a heavy burden of guilt and shame. If they are to even give themselves a chance at happiness later, they must find relief from these burdens. The Personal Values course teaches each person how integrity is lost and how it can be brought back. This course helps provide relief from this heavy burden and teaches each person how to preserve their own values in the future
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3. Changing Conditions in Life: After leaving rehab, each person must create a new, sober life. They will have to make many decisions about work, school, family matters, and more. The Changing Conditions in Life course teaches workable, doable formulas to smooth out the rough spots in life and make the right decisions. This helps a person maintain long-term sobriety.

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Narconon Is a Different Type of Drug Rehab

Some people trying to get sober go through as many as several or even a dozen or more different drug treatment programs in the effort. After all those tries, they still may not be able to maintain their sobriety. Fortunately for them, some of their families find and choose Narconon, a different type of drug rehabilitation program. These are just some of the many reasons:

• There are no medications given as substitutes for the drugs they were taking.
• The philosophy at Narconon is that those in recovery are not “powerless” over their addictions and they will not “always be addicts.”
• This is not a 12-Step program.
• This program addresses not only the addiction but also the reasons the person began using drugs.
• The life skills training focuses on the exact skills needed for lasting sobriety.
• The New Life Detoxification is found in no other drug rehab.
• The Objectives are also found nowhere else.

At a Narconon, the goal is actual rehabilitation, the restoration of the abilities a person had before they became addicted. To learn more about the Narconon program, call today for a confidential conversation.