I recently went through a similar experience.

It initially helped me to stop drinking. I pretty much swapped out alcohol for marijuana. Alcohol felt really bad for me physical, emotionally, and mentally. And marijuana doesn’t.

I found a lot of other benefits:

- unwind and integrate my brain. As an engineer my brain is constantly is “solve” mode, always thinking about problems at work or side projects. Marijuana stops that, my thoughts and brain feels much more integrated.

- easier to focus and be present with my kids. I wish that I could just sit and enjoy long periods of time with my kids, but my head is always uneasy, checking work, phone, thinking about problems. Marijuana dials that back and lets me be present and focused

- emotional introspection. I had some pretty shitty things happen to me in childhood. I’ve never really reflected on them. I’ve started to repeat some of the abusive behaviors that I experienced growing up. Marijuana has helped me to really introspect my emotions and be open to integrating that trauma

- helps relieve low level anxiety and depression, it’s uplifting. I eat low dosage edibles most nights and positive mood effects linger through the next day

- it’s just fun :$ it feels good and is recreational. Music sounds different, food tastes more intense

I never would have guessed It would be so positive for me. I smoked for a couple months In my late teens until it started making me paranoid. I never would have guessed It would provide me so much benefit. I certainly would never ever have guessed I would become a daily user in my later 30s AND it would significantly improve my quality of life

Are you saying that you can use one day and have a fresh engineer brain the next? In my experience the “veil” remains for days and takes close to a week to dissipate.

For about my first 3 months :) It’s starting to catch up with me already. I’m scaling back to weekends now to see if I can strike a balance. If not it’s been a huge quality of life improvement and I’d be more than happy with irregular recreational use :)

Would you consume edibles or smoke?? I just take edibles

Wow, nearly the same experience here although my main aim was to alleviate the immense anxiety I faced for years. The various prescription drugs were not helping so I decided to self medicate and bought edibles when they became legal here. It was like a damn miracle. All my tension and irrational scares melted away. I just hope my use won't build up too much tolerance and the effects will last.

You really nailed it as far as the reasons why I do it.

My brain is "on" ALL the time and it's hard for me to relax normally. Marijuana really helps with that.

The answer to that varies from person to person. It may provide nothing. Many people have tried it numerous times and don’t like how it makes them feel. You really just have to be the judge of that for yourself.

For me it helps slow down my brain a bit, quelling distracting thoughts and anxieties running through my head so I can focus a bit better. It’s also useful for unwinding and relaxing at the end of the day, and I find that my thoughts are a bit more creative and inventive, if a bit slower.

Set and setting are very important as well, usually it’s best at home or in other relaxed environments. Being high at work or in public is often a pretty terrible experience, for me at least.

I agree that it can help with focus. I learned to do engineering while consuming marijuana by working on personal projects in the evenings at home. I found that in the right setting and with the right dosage marijuana seems to help me achieve a "flow state" of focus. Of course, too much and you'll dash your short term memory and forget what you're working on. Its no silver bullet but I seem to have learned a lot about how to use it by now.

Well you'll mostly have to take my word for it. But I think in general it helps with morning body pain, general mood, and some creativity. I'm well aware of other healthy choices I could be making to help with those things, but for whatever reason I find marijuana a convenient supplement. It is not the healthiest option but I don't consider it "bad" either.