Edit - A lot of people appear to be highly misinformed about cannabis withdrawal and severity because they are users and have not experienced it. Firstly, 53% of regular cannabis consumers do not experience withdrawals.

In this meta-analysis of observational studies including 23 518 participants, the prevalence of cannabis withdrawal syndrome was found to be 47%.

Secondly, because some people have no or very mild symptoms they assume that their experience is consistent with others. This is very similar to COVID in that a lot of people have no or mild symptoms and mock other people. This is ignorant, arrogant and agitating. Cannabis withdrawal symptoms can have overlapping similarities with opioid withdrawal symptoms and can be functionally debilitating for months for some individuals. There are dozens of people in this post alone who have confirmed the severity of their symptoms.

Please do not comment in this thread "get over it" , "tough it out", "it's not meth/heroin/etc" or some other ignorant version of these. Your opinion does not erase the real measurable symptoms that half of cannabis users experience. Your commentary does not add any value and only serves to troll and purposely aggravate. Do not participate if that's your mindset just move on this post is not for you.

Cannabis withdrawal syndrome was recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, 9 and requires the presence of at least 3 of the following symptoms developing within 7 days of reduced cannabis use: (1) irritability, anger, or aggression; (2) nervousness or anxiety; (3) sleep disturbance; (4) appetite or weight disturbance; (5) restlessness; (6) depressed mood; and (7) somatic symptoms, such as headaches, sweating, nausea, vomiting, or abdominal pain.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2764234

-end edit

Research is pretty thin here, all I see is recommending anti anxiety and sleep meds. Anyone have any insight here?

I get insomnia for 2-3 days and some pretty rough anxiety. Makes it complicated when I need to travel to places where cannabis is illegal.

I already do all the obvious & common sense things. I exercise chronically, sleep well generally, take supplements. Can't take melatonin (causes night terrors) or magnesium (gives bad diarrhea, and yes I take glycinate for the 50th time and yes it absolutely causes the runs, not everyone has perfect stomachs - so does L-threonate) so unfortunately those won't help me here.

I will employ a weaning strategy for the weeks leading up to quitting to reduce severity of withdrawals. Take CBD.

Looking for advice from people who have actually gone though this and found things helpful or those who may have a deeper understanding of the pathways and research that might have insight.

Edit - based on the many commenters stating gabapentin helped them enabled me to tailor my searching and discover that there is indeed evidence that this is helpful for cannabis withdrawal! So far this appears to be the best pharmacological solution. However I would note this is not a good option for anyone who has longer sustained symptoms as benzo dependency and withdrawal is much worse than cannabis. For me the insomnia is a hump in the road so I can take it for several days to get through the worst and stop usage.

Those in the gabapentin group, however, experienced significant reductions in both the acute symptoms of withdrawal as well as in the more commonly persistent symptoms involving mood, craving, and sleep

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3358737/

2nd option that looks like it could be helpful is Palmitoylethanolamide, though only a hypothesis and not clinically demonstrated. Will test this first as I don't need a script for it.

pharmacological similarities with THC suggest that PEA can produce anti-craving activity, and that it could be useful in the treatment of cannabis withdrawal symptoms. In addition, PEA could cause a reduction of cannabis consumption in cannabis dependent patients.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23896215/

Another similarly structured cannabinoid molecule is Beta-Caryophyllene, a Cannabinoid Receptor Type 2 Selective Agonist. No psychoactive effects.

This is a good candidate for testing!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10970213/

Looks like NAC (get ethyl ester version, NAC-ET!) is indeed very helpful for cannabis withdrawal, specifically for rebalancing glutamate which is very helpful in the context of sleep / insomnia and has a added bonus of reducing cravings. Great insight from /u/browri in this thread, recommended NAC ethyl ester, more bioavailability. Will try this + PEA first and see how it goes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2826714/

Sauna / Cold showers to induce the bodies natural endocannabinoid system is also a great tip.

This study examined cannabis extract spray for usage in dealing with withdrawal symptoms and had positive efficacy. Of note however is that it lengthened the amount of time needed to deal with symptoms. The caveat is it doesn't seem to have worked well on sleep disturbances which is what my main issue is. Restlessness and insomnia are the two ass kickers for me.

Nabiximols treatment significantly reduced the overall severity of cannabis withdrawal relative to placebo (F8,377.97 = 2.39; P = .01), including effects on withdrawal-related irritability, depression, and cannabis cravings. Nabiximols had a more limited, but still positive, therapeutic benefit on sleep disturbance, anxiety, appetite loss, physical symptoms, and restlessness. Nabiximols patients remained in treatment longer during medication use.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1812720