Love the annual tradition

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So many folks in this thread saying they have to be high to tolerate their families. What's the point of even attending a holiday family get-together if you can't stand them? (Just get high at home with a couple of friends who also can't stand their families.)
- Sometimes people's support systems are full of jerks. It sucks, but you can get stuck being dependent on family
- Can't speak to others' motivations, but my wife had to "keep the peace" with her grandparents by seeing them on Christmas, even though they were awful people who took pleasure in bullying and belittling her mum. If we didn't show up on Christmas for an hour or two and put up with some snide comments and a few "I'm only joking don't be so serious", then her mum would have to put up with months of full on abuse.
  We didn't need substances to cope with it, but I can totally see how people might feel like a drink or a toke with some family they do enjoy socialising with could make it easier to be with family they don't enjoy spending time with, but feel obligated to to avoid hurt feelings.
  For whatever reason my mother in law didn't just cut contact and leave them to die alone in their crappy little house surrounded by their hate and resentment and friends who also couldn't stand them. Thankfully they are dead now, so we don't have to put up with them.
- For these people, tolerating family for a day is better than having to deal with the shit from not going.
- Inheritance
  
  My mom was in this situation. Her dad was an abusive asshole, but his mom was a tyrant, and would disown my mom if she went no-contact. This was a big deal, because her grandparents owned an auto manufacturer. Like, private plane flights across the state for breakfast on weekends rich. And now, here I am...planeless. But with a shitton of respect for my mom
- social obligations, I'd love to just stay at home and watch YouTube videos on archeology (I'm watching this one right now) https://youtu.be/30jMvj4L_jo
  
  Jean-Paul Sartre says that human beings are imbued with radical freedom, which is the ability to do whatever you want. Society can't take away the freedoms you have within your own mind, regardless of social manners or coercion.
  For example, you could approach the bad family members in private the day before Thanksgiving, and tell a lie that you're all going to have dinner at a restaurant because the oven broke. It only works once, but it sends an appropriate message.
- They may be assholes, but they know how to cook and they have hella food.
  My super Christian aunt and uncle were the ones always hosting thanksgiving. But mysteriously after I came out of the closet, my family stopped getting invited.
  
  Their loss
  
  Jesus himself would probably set their house on fire
- It's just the addiction talking. These people get high alone at home too.
  
  Love the unironic myopia

Why would fucking make your eyes red?
- It's not the fucking, it's the crying that comes after good sex.
- Not all of us live in Alabama.
  
  Some live in Mississippi.
- Poor aiming.
- The cold
  
  Just put a heater in the cellar. C'mon guys plan ahead. You know what time of the year it is. Christ Almighty.
- Decreased blood pressure leads to an expansion of blood vessels.

I don't get how this is a thing for Americans. How are you not destroyed by anxiety and paranoia if you go get stoned before having dinner with all your relatives?
- I imagine, sometimes, its the only way to cope with them. some people get paranoid, some do not. setting and grounding play important roles in this.
  
  It also helps to not be the only one who is high.
- I'm going to have a panic attack regardless around my relatives. Might as well get stoned first.
  
  You don't need people in your life you don't feel safe around. I know that's emotionally easy for the uninvolved to say (and quite frankly my family's pretty great all things considered) but it's also true.
- I used to be paranoid and anxious...
  But then I got high.
  
  Ooohh ooohh
  Was gonna head right out the door
  But then I got high.
- I use cannabis daily for several years. You get used to being in public high and it becomes less scary and panic inducing.
  When I visit my family I must be fried. I can go on several week long vacations without cannabis but the moment my family is near I must be fried for my own remaining sanity.
- For the most part, everyone knows what happens on "the walk" nowadays.
  My cousins and i go on a walk because we dont want our younger sibling/cousins/nieces/newphews to see.
  
  Three years ago I got high with my 18 year old nephew at Thanksgiving at my place. We were sitting on the porch, family in the next room. Didn't think at the time I was sitting back to back basically with his grandma.
  We came back in and she says oh was that some "good shit" or not?
- The anxiety and paranoia of being around my family is astronomically worse if I’m not blitzed
- By already being used to being stoned, most likely.
  Also the paranoia and anxiety doesnt happen to everyone. Some people want the loss of control to a degree, and the spontaneity it can bring to social situations.
  Probably depends on whether you need to hide it or not as well. Here its legal and noone cares if I go smoke on the porch and come back in.
  
  The "I can't deal with my relatives when sober" crowd are just addicts looking to justify their addiction.
  The truth is they would get high anyways.
- Depends on the vibe. If them finding out is game over then yeah full anxiety.
  If it’s one of those things that they can tell but look the other way… then it’s just good family time!
- I can speak to this (Canadian, we have Thanksgiving in October, i get high because parts of my family are hard right Conservatives): If I get stoned for dinner (after preparing dinner), I don't feel like shit when people rag on the food or bring up trash political takes. Being high makes me calmer.
  Also I don't care if people know I'm high, so that helps.
  If I do stay sober, I have to hear how minorities are ruining the country and be accused of poisoning people by not making a healthy meal... which makes me anxious.
  
  Do you worry that the weed impairs your ability to produce effective counterarguments? Drag wouldn't want to go into a situation like that without being on drag's A game. Thanksgiving can be one of your few chances each year to argue with your relatives, so drag tries very hard to avoid wasting it.

My whole family gets high now lol
- Family walks are great
- Same here but my parents are used to ditch weed from the 70s so I make sure to get them some CBD stuff so they're not blitzed out of their minds.
  
  THC/CBD ratio is mostly bs. Also if it's CBD only they can't even get 'blitzed'

We call it conference call and just stand by the porch.
- safety meeting over here
  
  Joint council meeting

I wish this worked for me. I don't get paranoid or anxious, but it just doesn't relax me at all. I basically feel no actual body effect, except my heart starts racing. Like, for hours. My eyes get like in the picture, but it's not cute, it's painful. I also get ravenously hungry. Like if it wasn't for my racing heart and bleary eyes I couldn't focus on anything else but shoving shit into my mouth. I get confused of course, which - duh - but I can't even focus on enjoying the daze because of all the suffering.
Guess I'm stuck with booze on the holidays.
- You don’t need to glorify weed. You can not like it, it’s ok.
- Time to go cold turkey and reset your tolerance
  
  Lol, turkey

I'm glad I'm old enough to not give even the tiniest crap about holiday "traditions" and making allowances for people I hate.

I never liked weed. I just tell my family off when their crossing lines. I don’t have the patience to hear the crazy aunt complain about Biden or another family member. Shut up and be grateful. It’s literally twice a year we have to put up with each other.

Naturally, both of these dingbats forgot to bring the Visine along.

We're all stoners this year, whole crew's stepping out before dinner.
Edit: now that I think about it, hell, I'm the guy cooking and probably on smoke break #5 or so. Basically whenever me or the dog want to go out then away we go.

66 comments