Question: I have clinical anxiety and I was medicated on a swath of anxiolytics for more than 20 years. I am not going back to that hell. Now I am 36 days straight after more than 10 years of pretty much daily cannabis. I expected to feel a lot better after quitting and I do feel a lot sharper and more able to remember things. The one concern I have is that I am having sleeping problems. I can fall asleep without a lot of difficulty now (though it was hard at the start) but every night I wake up in the middle of the night after a bad dream. They are not always nightmares but they usually are and they always leave me feeling unsettled. I do not know what to do. I cannot and will not touch sleeping pills of any kind. I have tried drinking alcohol to knock myself out so I won’t have nightmares but this just seems to delay them to the early morning. And then I am hung over too. Can you give me any advice on how to minimize this problem I am having?

Andrew Nichols Says...:

Given your reported history above, I would strongly discourage you from any further use of alcohol. It will only worsen your sleep problems, and you may have a vulnerability toward developing a dependency.

Have you tried any herbal sleep aids. Melatonin is a safe one that works for many people. if you find the capsules don't work for you very well, try some of the liquid, which you take under the tongue. Certain fast-acting tablets for sublingual use are also available.

Also, make sure you are eating a healthy, balanced diet, and getting regular exercise daily. Limit exercise to periods at least two hours before time to go to sleep.

Good luck.

Question: I live with three people I don’t really like. I don’t really have any other place I can afford. And they are also pretty much my only friends. I thought I liked them and I thought my life was pretty good but then I stopped smoking weed a couple of weeks ago and my friends did not and now that I am looking at things with a clear head (I was wake and bake and then go all day for 8 years – no job I am on disability) I can see that we are all losers and the only thing we really have in common is getting high all the time. It turns out that when you’re not high, playing video games and looking at porn all day don’t really add up to a satisfying existence. Now the problem is it is so depressing that the only thing I can think to do is get high. When you have no friends and no money and no skills and no social skills and aren’t good looking or interesting and disabled and not real mobile…how can you even start changing your life? I feel stuck and if I don’t get unstuck soon I know I am going to go back to my old ways. What should I do?

Andrew Nichols Says...:

1.  Do you have any family to reach out to, even for a short time?

2.  Get in touch with a local chapter of Narcotics Anonymous (http://www.na.org/) and start meeting people who are working at the changes you are...they may also know of resources you can use.

3.  Consider visiting your local health department.  If you have disability benefits, you may also be able to get psychiatric care.  There are medications that can help as your brain learns to give up pot.

4.  Consider using melatonin to help with sleep.  It's an herbal remedy that stimulates your brain's natural sleep mechanism.

Good luck!

Andrew