30M Smoked weed heavily when I was younger, quit for 10 years, now it gives me extreme paranoia. Should I try again with small doses?

9 hours ago 4

I’m a 30-year-old guy from Canada and I wanted to know if anyone else experienced something similar with weed after quitting for years.
I started smoking when I was around 16 and I loved it. I smoked every day, heavily, and never really cared about consequences. I was always socially shy, so I mostly smoked indoors with friends, listened to music, laughed, ate food, and honestly felt happy and carefree.
When I was 18, I quit for a while. Then at 19, after losing my job, I started smoking again. My first joint after that break absolutely destroyed me. It felt like I got launched into another dimension. Full panic, paranoia, bad trip, overthinking everything. But at that age I still lived with my parents, had almost no responsibilities, and life stress was pretty low. Even though I had a horrible experience, I kept smoking daily and eventually my tolerance came back and I felt “normal” again.
Toward the end of 19, I quit for real.
From 19 to 29, I basically didn’t touch weed at all.
Then recently, since it’s legal here in Canada, I bought some again just out of curiosity. I rolled a very small joint and smoked it… and instantly it was one of the worst experiences I’ve had mentally.
Extreme paranoia. PTSD-type feelings. Overanalyzing my entire life. Every mistake I ever made came rushing back. I started thinking my wife, parents, brother, coworkers, neighbors, friends — basically everyone — secretly thought I was weird or a loser. It felt like an old “weed personality” came back after 10 years and completely took over my brain.
The high lasted maybe 5–6 hours, but mentally it shook me up enough that I never touched it again after that.
Now I’m 30, a father of three, work from home, own my own business, and life is pretty stable overall. Part of me really misses the relaxing/funny side of weed from when I was younger, but another part of me is terrified of going through that paranoia again.
Has anyone else experienced this after quitting for years?
Did it ever get better for you?
Should I even try again or is this a sign weed just isn’t for me anymore?
If I do try again, would starting extremely small help? Like:
one tiny puff at night

very low THC weed

CBD mixed with THC

gummies/drinks with almost no THC

slowly rebuilding tolerance over time

Or does paranoia like this usually just keep coming back no matter what?
Would really appreciate honest experiences/advice from people who went through something similar.

submitted by /u/FerretProfessional80 to r/Marijuana
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