What does Cali-Sober mean?
- 1. What does the term 'cali sober' mean?
- 2. How to recognize when someone has an addiction
- 3. How can marijuana help overcome addiction?
- 3. a. Dopamine and its functioning in the brain
- 3. b. Replacing the source of dopamine
- 4. The bottom line
As marijuana gets comfortable in our contemporary lifestyle, getting more and more consent on its legal use around the world as years go by, the substance is no longer the taboo it used to be.
The plant once thought of as an illegal and therefore dangerous drug, is one not uncommon to find at most friends gatherings or parties today, and not only among young people but between stoner adults as well. You might have even heard of friends who shared a joint with their parents or grandparents too.
What we mean is, the point of view society has on marijuana is changing, and for most people, this isn't a substance to worry about with that much concern anymore. In fact, the benefits that cannabis provides to the body are all too good to be ignored.
As a matter of fact, marijuana can be a great ally to treat addictions, for example, now there's a whole new huge wave of people who are using cannabis as an aid to sober up and get over their alcohol addiction. Let's learn all about being Cali sober.
1. What Does The Term 'Cali sober' Mean?
The term 'Cali sober', which is short for California sober, is used to refer to those people who refrain from drinking alcohol but do smoke marijuana. But then, why California?
The California part of Cali sober is used most likely due to the association of marijuana with the United States' most stoner state, and even more, the first one to legalize the use of the plant in the medical field, as far back as 1996. Besides, nowadays, recreational marijuana being legal in the state as well, it is no surprise that this is the stoner's paradise.
However, while Cali sober does mean a person is still consuming marijuana in any of its forms, and for any purpose of preference, either medical or recreational, there are still some different opinions on the different boundaries this sets. For example, the Urban Dictionary on its part considers that Cali sober means that you're not supposed to drink alcohol or any other drugs but cannabis. 1
On the other hand, other people consider that Cali sober refers just to alcohol restrictions and that you are still allowed to do psychedelics as well. Nevertheless, it isn't really about the definition of the term but more about finding what works for each person and carrying it through.
For instance, if a person is struggling with his or her addiction to this or that drug, then perhaps staying Cali sober could actually help them get rid of this addiction. And the same goes for alcohol, an alcoholic could indeed try their best efforts to stay sober by being Cali sober and this wouldn't mean that they're not doing it right.
2. How To Recognize When Someone Has An Addiction
If there's anything that movies and television have ever taught us, special shoutout to BoJack Horseman, it's that the first step towards getting over an addiction is realizing and admitting you have one.
There is a big difference between substance use, substance abuse, and addiction. Of course, we can't ignore that substance use is the first and only way to get to abuse but not necessarily everyone reaches up to that point. And likewise, abuse is the main highway to becoming addicted to something.
Substance use is, simply put, consuming a certain substance, alcohol, or any other drug, every now and then, but not on a daily basis and not that it becomes way too often. Substance abuse, on the other hand, is a term used to refer to the abnormal use a person makes of this or that drug or substance.
This usually is when someone is using the substance in a way they shouldn't, such as taking more than the regular or prescribed dose, using other people's prescriptions to buy more, using the substance as an escape to feel good, to ease stress, or avoid facing reality, among others.
However, people who are using or abusing a substance are still in a stage where they still have control over the habit, with the power to stop it whenever they wish to. This is the crucial difference and the thin line between abuse and addiction.
When a person is suffering from an addiction to something, no matter what this thing is, this means that they've lost the power to control their independence from this source of addiction. And this manifests both physical and emotionally, after a period of abstinence from the substance, the person might start to experience feelings of anxiety, as well as physical pain, among other symptoms. 2
Here are some signs to identify if you or a close friend or relative has an addiction:
| Physical symptoms of addiction | Emotional and behavioral symptoms of addiction |
|---|---|
| Extreme drowsiness; low blood pressure; limp muscles and spasms; stomach spasms; confusion and disorientation; dry mouth; delirium; weight changes; and more. | Increased aggression or irritability; attitude or personality changes; depression; priorities change; poor self-care; money problems; criminal activity; withdrawal from social activities; excessive sleeping, and more. |
If you can pinpoint a couple of the signs and symptoms on yourself or someone you know, it's essential you take care of the situation as soon as possible and try to get the necessary help to target the issue.
3. How Can Marijuana Help Overcome Addiction?
In order to understand how marijuana can help overcome addiction, we should explain how addictions develop and work in the human brain first.
Dopamine And Its Functioning in The Brain
The responsible behind most addictions is dopamine, a neurotransmitter that responds to pleasurable stimuli in the reward system in our brain. How does this work? When we have an experience that makes us feel good, it is dopamine that produces the longing to repeat these experiences, providing us with the motivation to do it over and over again.
The dopamine levels produced with drugs can get quite high, and once that the brain gets a hang of this status of extra dopamine, it starts to develop tolerance in the body regarding the dopamine triggering substance. This, in turn, makes the person require more of the substance in order to provoke the same old feelings.
And lastly, since the joy found under the influence of big dopamine levels is too high, when the person is not under the substance's influence, previous activities in which this person found joy are no longer as pleasurable as before.
Replacing The Source of Dopamine
When an addict withdraws from a substance, this can lead the person to seek other ways to cover the hole, which means, something else to give them the pleasure and produce the dopamine levels that they got from the substance before.
Luckily, we can find high dopamine levels after intense workouts, having sex, listening to music, eating certain foods, sleeping, and, of course, consuming marijuana. So, indeed, performing any of these, like going Cali sober might be precisely what an addict needs to help them get over the addiction.
By following a method known as harm-reduction, which involves a slow decrease in the use of the substance, instead of an abrupt stop, and combining it with going Cali sober, using marijuana to reduce the feelings of abstinence might be the perfect recipe to help a person
Find out all about marijuana and the ways it can help overcome alcohol, drugs, or other addictions in the following article.
4. The Bottom Line
We know from history that nobody has ever died from marijuana and that even as much as a person might try, there are no real possibilities of overdosing from smoking too much weed.
Therefore, if a person wants to be Cali sober as a resource to escape a far worse addiction, such as alcohol or other drugs, then we shouldn't allow anyone, probably not a stoner, to make any negative comments on this. When a person makes an effort to change for the better then nobody should be in place to criticize how they want to do this, as long as it's working.
After all, what's the danger in being Cali sober? Smoking too much you end up binge-watching TV? Eating too much stuff to satiate the munchies? Driving too slow? Can't see the big issue here. Enjoy life as a Cali sober!
MEDICAL DISCLAIMER
This content is for educational purposes only. The information provided is derived from research gathered from external sources.
EXTERNAL REFERENCES
- "California Sober" Urban Dictionary's top definition.
- "Behavioral Addiction versus Substance Addiction: Correspondence of Psychiatric and Psychological Views" Seyyed Salman Alavi, Masoud Ferdosi, Fereshte Jannatifard, Mehdi Eslami, Hamed Alaghemandan, and Mehrdad Setare. April 2012.
