Anna Lembke

And that in fact, what the cannabis is doing over time is changing your hedonic or joy set point

Such that now you need more and more cannabis to feel any pleasure at all.

And in fact, what I see is that people who use cannabis, that the pot can actually start to do the opposite and make them more anxious and even paranoid over time.

And still, she was not interested in stopping cannabis.

She said, you know, maybe someday, but not now.

And then I do something that I often do with patients and I try to get them to look at the larger timeline of their lives.

So I said to her, well, I hear you that you're not interested in stopping now.

When do you think you do want to change the way you're using cannabis?

Do you think you want to be smoking the way you are now in 10 years?

She immediately responded, nope, I definitely won't be smoking this way in 10 years.

You know, implying that there was something about her current use that she could admit was not healthy.

So I said to her, OK, well, you don't want to be smoking this way in 10 years.

How about five years?

She says, no, I don't want to be smoking this way in five years.

And I said, OK, how about in a year?

And then she stopped and kind of thought about it.

And she said, okay, I get where you're going with this doc.

You're basically telling me if I don't want to be doing it in 10 years or five years or a year from now, why not try stopping now?

And I said, exactly.

And then she agreed to do it.