Many tens of thousands seek professional treatment help for their marijuana addictions each year in America. There is no shame in getting help when you can’t do it on your own, and it’s a far more courageous and sensible thing to do than ignoring the reality of your addiction, and continuing to lower your quality of life and health through ever more heavy marijuana usage.

But when you do make the decision to get help…where do you go, and what do you need?

Here is a basic overview of some of the available treatment options.

12 Steps Group Meetings, Such as NA or MA (Marijuana Anonymous)

These free peer support meetings can be a great venue to explore your compulsion to use and to gain insight and strength towards recovery. Learning what you need to know from other people also dealing with an addiction to marijuana or other drugs of abuse.

Like AA, marijuana and narcotics anonymous use the 12 steps to sobriety as a philosophical framework to recovery, and as with AA, you must subscribe to certain core beliefs for the steps to work. You can’t fake it, and you either believe in and the process and approach it with commitment or dedication, or you don’t, and if you don’t it's not likely going to work for you.

Individual Therapy

One on one sessions with an experienced addictions therapist or psychologist can also help a lot as you grapple with getting and staying off marijuana. These can be expensive, but getting some individual attention and help with your particular issues does have real value, and the insights gained from a few sessions can offer you a very solid foundation for your attempt at getting clean.

Working with a therapist you should expect to explore any personal issues that lead you to seek such intoxication, and also explore why it is that you turn to marijuana as a coping mechanism. You may also want to explore any unresolved personal issues that linger and contribute to your drug seeking behaviors.

A trained therapist can also help you to devise a tailored relapse prevention plan, help you to identify those things in your life that led you to crave marijuana and help you to understand just what you can do to beat these temptations.

Group Support Therapy

A generally more affordable alternative to individual therapy is the participation in a peer support group. Ideally, you will join a group of people with similar world views and facing similar life challenges, and explore together what works and what doesn’t on the road to long term recovery and sobriety.

Group therapy generally occurs with 6-10 others, and there is most commonly a trained group leader who guides the sessions and offers insights where appropriate. Group sessions offer a number of benefits to addicts in recovery. Firstly, no one in this world is quicker to spot dishonesty or denial faster than another addict in recovery. You may get away with a lot of your manipulations (even the one's you're not aware of) in a lot of places, but in group they're going to call you on it, and you can’t deny their expertise either!

You can also learn effective and concrete strategies for staying clean. Exploring together what seems to help gives you some real world workable options to try when you feel you can’t go on anymore. Additionally, recovering together with a group of people you can get to know pretty intimately can offer a lot of encouragement and inspiration. Nothing keeps you going more than watching someone that you know struggles as you do, break free from addiction and really reap the benefits of sobriety.

Drug Rehab

A lot of people just can’t do it on their own, and either can't do it on an outpatient basis, or are just so tired of their problem that they want to start with the most intensive and effective therapeutic option to recovery.

Getting into a drug rehab program offers a lot, and although it is disruptive and it is expensive, sometimes you just need to get out of the environment of abuse, get into a safe and sober environment and start to learn what you'll need to know to stay sober over the long term.

In drug rehab you will get a comprehensive blend of individual and group therapy, MA style 12 steps meetings and drug and relapse prevention education. You also get the time away from abuse to gain self awareness over those things in your life that lead you to need to use. Without outside distractions you have the opportunity to focus all of your attentions on getting better, without all of the everyday concerns that normally distract your attention.

Drug rehab is a big commitment, but it also offers the best chance at recovery and a long future without marijuana.

Get Some Help

There is no shame whatsoever in getting help when you can’t do it on your own. Marijuana is a very addictive drug, and the cravings and temptations to use can overwhelm even the best of intentions. Through therapies and support, you can learn what you need to know to get off and stay off marijuana for good.