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My struggle with addiction and mental health

Posted By Jray

"My struggle with addiction and mental health"

About: CGL Birmingham / South Hub

(as a service user),

I had been smoking weed since I was around 18 and started taking it on a daily basis since I was 20. Despite the issues I know it brought, I could never resist declining weed or going out to get it myself due to a number of factors such as low self-esteem, pressure and the addictive nature of weed itself.

I tried to ignore the damaging effects it was having on my mental health and studies and gave myself tons of excuses. It was difficult to admit I had a problem until I started to run into severe financial difficulties that left me depressed. It took friends and mental health specialists to inspire me to seek help with CGL and finally admit I had an issue. It took a while for me to gain the courage to quit but after multiple sessions, I managed to gained sobriety for 3 weeks. 

The booklets helped to change my perspective and the staff were really supportive and firm.

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Responses

Response from Lydia Broom, Service User Involvement Lead, The Service User Involvement Team, Change Grow Live Birmingham last week
Lydia Broom
Service User Involvement Lead, The Service User Involvement Team,
Change Grow Live Birmingham

Submitted on 14/05/2025 at 14:21
Published on Care Opinion at 14:21

picture of Lydia Broom

Dear Jray

Thank you for getting in touch with us.

My name is Lydia and I am responsible for listening and responding to people's feedback.

I was sorry to hear about how tough life had become for you due to your weed smoking. It is a substance that is used by many people, and the detrimental impact it can have on many aspects of somebody's life are all too often ignored or overlooked and escalate as a result. I can only imagine that you must have felt incredibly conflicted about making a change and stopping your use, especially as it was something that you had been reaching for as a coping strategy regarding your self-esteem.

I'm really glad that you had some supportive people in your life from professionals to friends, to help you acknowledge that you may need some support and access our services. And most importantly, that you were open to giving our support a try which is a massive step for anyone to take.

Congratulations on your 3 weeks of sobriety. I understand how becoming free of a substance that has become ingrained in daily life, is a huge challenge that takes determination and commitment, and I hope you feel extremely proud of this achievement. As you progress through your sobriety and add many more weeks onto your sober time, I hope the freedom you have achieved from weed allows you to move forwards in the areas of your life that were once affected or exacerbated by your weed use.

It was great to read that you had a positive experience with our service and that you found the materials you were given and the support from our staff helpful. I have shared your story with our South Hub team and your feedback was greatly appreciated.

I hope that what you have shared is read by other people who are currently being affected by their weed use in similar ways, in the hope that it may encourage them to seek support too.

Thank you once again for sharing your experiences, we really appreciate it.

Best wishes and take care,

Lydia

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