T.A. Michaels

 So, the goal of quitting Alcohol, Cigarettes, and THC is a bit harder than one would imagine. What i am finding is that the fact that i still have Weed.... Means I keep smoking Weed. But with that said.... I can only smoke weed on day's I'm not working... and considering I've smoked weed nearly every day this week... it's meant I haven't been able to work. Weed and Cigarettes sorta go hand-in-hand. While i don't have to smoke a bowl every time I smoke a cigarette, i do find that every time i smoke a bowl, i end up having a cigarette. Surprisingly I find that quitting drinking was far easier than giving up either Cigarettes or THC. It may be that i wasn't truly addicted to Alcohol... or it may be that because the worst of the withdrawal symptoms were over the course of the first week... being several weeks sober now I dont reflect on the negative aspects of the quitting. In theory i should do the same for Tobacco and THC. THC is easier to quit because you ha...

A rapid change in priorities has me on the fence regarding quitting both Cannabis and Tobacco sooner than the 90 Day minimum as i had originally planned. With that said, going nearly 50 days sober has been good for me. My skin is clearing up (I was prone to acne while drinking beer), and overall my weight is slowly dropping (Down to 226.4lbs from 230lb+ at the start of the journey).  Overall, I am optimistic regarding the situation. I was originally shooting for the 90 day mark with quitting Nicotine entirely, but i feel that it should be something achievable in the next few days. While Cannabis generally costs less (1 8th costing between $15 and $30) vs $16.00 for a single pack of cigarettes. I feel that in the near future it might be worth while to buy a half ounce.... and then when that runs out call it a day on cannabis. (Odd for someone who ran www.gethighri.com, right?) I have formally left my job as of last week. The situation was becoming to dangerous. One guy was constantl...

For some reason I thought things would get easier simply by quitting alcohol, but what I'm finding is that I'm struggling far worse now than when i was having a few drinks on the weekends. I know the old saying goes: "It's always darkest before the dawn." But, as someone who feels like they've been in the dark for years... I'm questioning when twilight will hit and the sunrise will be on the horizon. It's a general sense of restlessness that has taken over to be honest. A sense that what I'm doing isn't what I want to be doing. After the struggles of last year I know that in the worst of scenarios, my wife and I will get through whatever comes our way because we have each other. She knows I'm unhappy. She knows I'm struggling. She knows I want a different life. And I know she is willing to support my decisions whatever they may be.  Something that has dramatically fallen off since I've gotten sober is my personal hygiene. I don'...

This past week was a bit hard for me. Recently, after a mental health episode, i had met with my Mental Health Nurse Practitioner to discuss some things that were going on with me. She told me something that I've had a hard time wrapping my head around. She indicated that I may have been miss diagnosed when i was 23. My symptoms present more like Dissociative Identity Disorder rather than Schizo-affective Disorder. After some time reflecting on this, I believe she is right. When i was little, there were a few traumatic experiences that i lived through and based on what happened immediately afterwards, i would assume DID would be a more likely diagnosis. See, with DID, when the mind attempts to protect itself from traumatic experiences, the child or individual will suffer amnesia. And i can remember at least 3 separate instances from early childhood where my memory ends immediately once the trauma began (Remembering the last moment before the abuse occurred) but then during and afte...