Withdrawal
{What to expect when you stop taking certain drugs}
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What is it?
Withdrawal is sometimes called craving, clucking, or catting, because of the unpleasant physical and/or mental symptoms you can expect to experience. Put simply, it's your body's way of telling you that it's out of balance and needs a dose of your drug of choice to get back to normal.
Why do you get withdrawal?
Withdrawal will generally occur as a result of building up a physical dependence to a drug that you take regularly. This doesn't automatically mean that you're "addicted" to the drug. The lines are blurry, but it's a good sign that you should stop and have a think about your relationship with the drug in question.
What does withdrawal feel like?
You feel it in your body
Physical withdrawal can be quite unpleasant and make you feel unwell in a range of ways. The symptoms are often the opposite of the drug you are withdrawing from, e.g. with cannabis you might start to feel overstimulated and unable to be at ease. It can be anything from headaches to feeling like you've got the flu.
It affects your mind too
Psychological withdrawal can last for a while for some and can be triggered by people, places, times (and practically anything that has a link to your personal substance use). These feelings are generally relatively short but your experience will vary widely depending on many factors such as the drug, how often you take it, how much tolerance you've built up, your mental state, your physiology, etc.
Sleep might be difficult during withdrawal due to insomnia and there is always a temptation to redose to help you drop off to sleep. In most cases a user's sleep pattern will return to normal once your brain recovers its normal function.
What factors affect withdrawal?
The way you use your drugs can also play into your experience of withdrawal symptoms as different methods of using drugs increase the chance of building dependence. The quicker a drug gets into and leaves your bloodstream, the shorter or more extreme the high, the greater the likelihood of dependence. Such methods, like injecting or smoking, will increase the likelihood of experiencing withdrawal and make it more severe.
Taking recreational drugs is a highly ritualised experience. Routines like reaching for the rolling tray, visiting your dealer on a Friday evening to pick up a bag are also an integral part of the experience. We tend to have patterns of behaviour, so it's normal to miss those things and these gaps can contribute to the difficulty of withdrawal.
References: Eddy et al., 1965; NHS; Sleep and Substance Use Disorders; Differential Effects of Addictive Drugs on Sleep and Sleep Stages; Sleep Hygiene; Withdrawal syndrome; WHO - withdrawal
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