“The key to breaking a habit is to find something to substitute it with.”
This is very true. My best advice to those with such a problem is first ask Jesus Christ to guide you and give you strength, and then find and identify what it is that you love more than you hate yourself, and love that thing. That will heal what ails.
“In the case of pot, chemical changes do take place in the brain - and studies are indicating that these changes can be long-term in nature and perhaps irreversible.”
It has been my personal experience with this drug that such changes do occur with pot use, and that they revert within a few weeks of cessation. They aren’t permanent.
I also agree that habitual pot use, daily heavy use, can promote or exacerbate any mental illness, and this also ceases within a few weeks of cessation.
Doing this drug on any sort of a daily basis is not a good idea at all, but that is really the case for almost anything.
Occasional use of this drug is not going to cause any sort of acute problems outside of the basic health risk of inhaling smoke, which should be considered, as there are consequences to the body.
You are absolutely correct - on all counts. As far as identifying what you love more than your ‘bad thing’, I think the answer is in your answer. I can’t think of anything more worthy of our love than Jesus himself.
His salvation isn’t a magic pill (even Paul apparently had ongoing struggles after his conversion), but we’re to strive to be increasingly obedient to His Word - and a right obedience is not ‘because we have to’ but ‘because we want to.’
“It has been my personal experience with this drug that such changes do occur with pot use, and that they revert within a few weeks of cessation. They aren’t permanent.”
There is a kind of sliding scale for how long lasting various effects are - how long and how heavy someone has has been using is a big factor.
After many years of heavy use, dopamine regulation in the brain will be less efficient - it won’t spring back as quickly or completely. The risk of depression and psychosis increases.
Additionally, long term heavy users show physical changes to the brain (shrinking the hippocampus, which is associated with short and long term memory), as well as chemical changes. Such physical changes have not been shown to reverse after stopping use.
Some cognitive abilities beyond memory, like decision making and planning, also seem to be permanently impaired after long term heavy use.
There are distinct short term cognitive impairments (like memory), that improve noticeably after stopping use, but they are not the only ones that can result from heavy/long term use.