PTSD management without herb

I smoked every evening for the past seven years to stop the nightmares; no antidepressant pill did that, and the weed brought relief. I got a medical card and everything was above board. Recently I realized that it has become a comforting habit, an escape to avoid dealing with negative memories, and I started worrying about the longterm health effects of weed. I have just been marking time, not really living, and still feeling unhappy. Fast forward...here I am on day 5, sober, craving, and feeling. How do I make it through the night, and manage to function at work the next day with all this emotional crap? The #1 thing for me is mindfulness meditation: After a mindfulness based cognitive therapy course, I finally had the strength to quit (it was based on the book The Mindful Way Through Depression by Segal). I now meditate morning and night to keep the thoughts at bay - at least an hour a day. And when I can’t sleep or wake up in the middle of the night, I meditate some more. It sounds crazy and I never thought I’d be able to find the time but I couldn’t come up with a better option for me. I’ll probably have to do it for the rest of my life if I want to stay drug-free, but I’m already starting to benefit from a quieter mind (sometimes). There’s other stuff too, for example I’ve started going for walks when I crave weed the most, I spend quite a bit of time on r/leaves, and I’m fortunate that my workplace is supportive of mental health, but right now for me to tame the PTSD, mindfulness is the ticket. I wish you peace of mind and strength for your journey.

/r/leaves Thread