As above my son wants to quit smoking cannabis after 15 years which we are so pleased about. Can he get help from his local GP?
Answer:
There are 3 aspects of addiction and he will need support for all three. There is the mental aspect of facing the world everyday without cannibis in his system, dealing with the strss head on with no buffers. He is going to need mental health support, whatever he is comfortable with. It may be as simple as talking to friends, it may be something more formal.
biochemical and behavioral (since these are intertwined)- If he wants to quit, another thing he is going to have to do is to break the dopamine loop of his habit.. Studies have shown that once a substance or even activity becomes a habit (for better or worse, biochemically as long as there is a reward for a behavior, he will get a squirt of dopamine and thusly reinforce the behavior ( you know, the feel good stuff produced by the body, and in this case he is getting dopamine and THC.). His own body has been reinforcing the behavior by giving him a squirt of dopamine at the anticipation of/ or completion of that behavior (in this case smoking pot). Go here:
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/27/31/8181
What he needs to do is to find a reward for NOT smoking pot. It can be exercise, or anything that he enjoys other than smoking. The secret is replacing the habit with a healtheir one. A Psychaitrist or psychologist may be more appropriate to help with this.
As for a GP, his lungs may need to be checked to make sure he isn’t suffering from any lung disease. Smoking is smoking no matter what the substance in the pipe or paper is…