My name is Callum, and I am a marijuana addict
I do not completely, fully blame marijuana for all my problems. However, I have connected the dots as to how it provided me with the perfect crutch for all of my problems. I had undiagnosed ADHD for all of college, which led to me feeling burned out after sometime.
My story starts my first year at college. I was a party animal, and constantly went out to party, socialize, and meet people- which of course involved drink & dope. For the first few years of college, I was a social butterfly. I was quite well known, hit tons of parties, and had a large & vibrant circle. If anything, I actually went out too much and ended up doing poorly my first year.
The thing I want to stress about weed, and part of the reason why I believe it to be so harmful, is the fact that it does not show its damage overnight. Instead, it slowly will creep into your life bit by bit. I went from smoking occasionally, to a few times a week, to eventually every single day. Slowly, I began to distance myself from friends. I would see them less, leave hangouts early, and just overall neglect my social life. I used to have friends I’d smoke weed with, but slowly the desire to use alone and save enough for myself eventually became stronger.
Weed eventually took control of my life. Once I used to go out every Friday & Saturday, then I began to isolate more and more. Time would fly by without me even noticing. Not only did my social life stagnate & regress, but so did my grades. I was never the ideal student due to unmedicated ADHD, but I began to slowly slip up even more- to the point I failed the arguably biggest assignment of my college career.
Time went on, friendships faded, and my grades began to fall low. My whole existence became centered on getting high on weed. I’m not condoning alcohol usage, but at least that makes people(myself included) want to be sociable and actually live in the world: Socializing, networking, dating, you name it. I fell off from all of my friends, did poorly academically, and I’m still living in deep regret over my missed chances.
Weed makes you content with doing nothing, when you should be doing something. I mourn the academics I missed, friendships I lost, and time I wasted overall.
I hope my message can resonate with someone stuck in addiction to pull themselves out. I wish I had never smoked pot.