Is Couch Lock Overrated?
Getting high and glued on the couch is sometimes all you need and want to release the stress from everyday living. But weed has so much more potential than that. Using it only for a couch lock would be such a waste of time and opportunities. Your brain is different on weed and you might want to think ways how you can use it for various types of social and creative engagements.
A lot of weed users go through a stage where they smoke everything they have and act like a vegetable on the couch. Just being lazy, merely existing, not doing much more than basic breathing for half an hour, before eating the favorite munchies for the week.
Is Couch Lock Really That Bad?
Couch lock is about getting too comfy after smoking marijuana. It’s consuming a lot of weed and suddenly being unwilling to move. Your body does not listen to any other command than to just lie down and morph into the sofa. Couch lock is the complete opposite experience of feeling and being energetic and alive after toking. While it’s good to sign off from the world like that every now and then, it’s not really worth it if it happens all the time.
Here’s the full list of effects associated with couch lock:
- Feeling extremely elated
- Heavy limbs
- Poor muscles coordination
- Feeling tired and sleepy
- Unmotivated to do anything
- Struggle to concentrate
Some weed users chase this effect on purpose, but others try to avoid it. It’s a matter of preference of course, although couch lock can also happen by accident. For example, if the weed is too strong or you smoke too much it may simply crash you and make you unusable for at least an hour. It also depends if you ate anything before smoking, how tired you are at the moment and if you had enough sleep.
Using Weed and Staying Connected with the World
If you are not happy with all those times you couch lock, there are things you can do to avoid the effect.
Some cannabis strains seem like they are naturally prone to induce feelings of lethargy, and if that is a thing that bothers you, it’s probably a good idea to change the strain and smoke something else. Sugary and caffeinated drinks are energy boosters and can help you overcome the couch lock in the moment, but they are not very healthy.
Probably the most significant thing you can do is go actively against feeling smashed after toking. There are various activities that you can engage in as a way to avoid sinking in the sofa. These experiences can also give you another perspective on weed, and help you realize that it can be used in much more fun and meaningful ways. Here are three such ideas.
Prepare a Real Lunch with Friends
Fast food is the go-to when getting extremely hungry after smoking. But this food is far from being the ideal source of body energy and it can sometimes make you more thirsty or feeling bloated. The opposite of this is preparing a nice and healthy meal, anything simple like chicken soup and salad, that you can cook even after you buzz. Don’t worry if the salad comes in with odd pieces of cucumber. Precision skills suffer with THC, though it gets better with practice. The important thing is to swap ultra-processed food munchies with nourishing meals, and enjoy a social eating experience with close friends who share the same love for weed.
Try Making Art
You don’t need to be Picasso. Doing simple forms of art and working with your hands while you’re high, will do. A simple idea? Find a few interesting images in newspapers and magazines and cut them out with scissors, then create a collage with the selected material. Work on cardboard where you glue each piece to form a specific composition. Enrich the collage with random letters and headlines that you also cut out from the paper magazines. Do it with friends while everyone is high. You might be surprised how therapeutic this kind of activity can be.
Playing Video Games
Don’t play to win, but play to explore how you behave in each stage of the game. Do you play with more attention to detail when you’re high? Has anything changed about your decision making? Are you more creative with the solutions you take? Strategy games in particular can be excellent to self-analyze how you perform when playing while high. Playing the game will keep your mind active, making it unlikely to couch lock.
Also read on Soft Secrets:
- Does Weed Feel Different with Age?
S
Stephen Andrews
