Abstinence Timer

Every hour counts. The brain begins rebalancing within 24 hours of last use. Track the time you're rebuilding.

When did you last use cannabis?

Enter the date and time of your last use to begin tracking. This becomes your anchor point for the entire program.

Daily Check-in

Rate each symptom honestly. The chart builds over time — on your worst days, it's evidence that things have improved before and will again.

Today's Symptoms Today

Craving intensity 5
NoneUnbearable
Sleep quality 5
NonePerfect
Anxiety level 5
NoneSevere
Overall mood 5
LowGood
Appetite 5
NoneNormal
Journal — anything notable today
✓ Saved

The Honest Mirror

Read when rationalizing, minimizing, or considering relapse. Not here to make you feel bad — here to tell you the truth the high prevented you from sitting with.

None of what follows is a verdict on your character. It is a description of a pharmacological and behavioral pattern that has been well-documented in the research literature and that you have been living inside of. You picked up this program because some part of you already knows the cost. That part is right.

Opportunity Cost — What Heavy Use Actually Costs You ▼
Every hour spent high is an hour your brain was chemically prevented from consolidating memories, forming new connections, or doing deep creative or analytical work. That time does not come back.
Cannabis blunts motivation by suppressing dopamine signaling. If you have felt like you could be doing more with your life but can't quite get started — this is a documented, pharmacological effect, not a personality trait.
Heavy users report earning 8–11% less income on average than comparable non-users. This is a career-long compounding effect, not a minor footnote.
Relationships suffer not because you were absent in body but because being chronically high creates emotional unavailability. People close to you have likely noticed before you did.
The hobbies, projects, and ambitions you keep intending to return to have been waiting. The version of you that was going to do those things has been postponed, repeatedly, in 45-minute increments.
You have spent real money — likely thousands of dollars over time — on something that has made your life smaller, not larger.
Health Realities That Don't Get Mentioned Enough ▼
Regular cannabis use accelerates the same type of respiratory damage as tobacco smoking. If you've been smoking flower for years, your lungs are not unaffected.
THC accumulates in fat tissue and continues affecting cognition for weeks after your last use. The mental fog you've normalized as 'just how you are' may not be who you actually are.
Cannabis use disorder affects approximately 9% of all users and 17% of those who begin in adolescence. If you're reading this document, the odds that you're in that population are higher than average.
Regular high-THC use is associated with increased risk of psychotic episodes in individuals with genetic predispositions — a risk that cannot be identified in advance and does not disappear between sessions.
Sleep architecture is significantly disrupted by cannabis. REM sleep is suppressed during use, which is why quitting produces vivid, sometimes disturbing dreams. Your brain is catching up on years of suppressed dreaming.
Cannabis withdrawal is not a minor inconvenience. It is a documented clinical syndrome. Dismissing it was a way of dismissing your own experience.
The Rationalizations That Keep People Stuck ▼
'I can stop whenever I want' — People who can stop whenever they want generally stop when they decide to. If you've decided to stop multiple times and haven't, this statement isn't accurate.
'It's not like alcohol or heroin' — This is a comparison designed to avoid the actual question, which is whether cannabis is causing harm in your specific life.
'It helps my anxiety' — Cannabis provides short-term anxiolytic relief while chronically elevating baseline anxiety between uses. Many users are medicating withdrawal anxiety with the substance that is causing it.
'I'm more creative when I'm high' — Intoxication feels creative from the inside. Measured creative output — finished work, executed ideas, developed skills — does not improve with regular heavy use.
'I just need it to sleep' — Cannabis-dependent sleep is not restorative in the same way that natural sleep is. You have been substituting a chemical state for actual rest.
'I'll quit after [event / milestone / stressful period]' — There is no period in adult life without stress. This is a perpetually moving target, and you know it.

Coping Tools

Concrete, evidence-based tools. Use them during cravings, not after. Most cravings peak and pass within 15–20 minutes if you don't act on them.

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4-4-6 Breathing
Inhale 4 counts, hold 4, exhale 6. Directly activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Most effective for acute anxiety.
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4-7-8 Method
Inhale 4 counts, hold 7, exhale 8. Deeper pattern for severe anxiety or pre-sleep. Forces respiratory slowdown.
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Urge Surfing Timer
Treat the craving as a wave. Start the 20-minute timer. Do not act until it reaches zero — most won't make it.
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Distraction List
Pre-written activities for when a craving hits. Vague intentions fail — specific plans succeed.

Your Distraction List

Add at least 5 specific activities. Generic ideas fail when you're in the middle of a craving. Be specific: not "exercise" but "10-minute walk around the block."

    If symptoms are overwhelming: SAMHSA National Helpline — 1-800-662-4357 — Free, confidential, 24/7. Not just for "serious" cases. Trained to help with exactly this.

    4-4-6 Breathing
    INHALE · HOLD · EXHALE
    INHALE
    4
    Breathe in slowly through your nose