I've smoked exactly one joint in my life. I don't think I got high at all and didn't enjoy the experience. But I'm curious to know what folks find enjoyable about it. Does it just chill you out? Does it make you feel like you don't have a care in the world? I don't think I'd ever try smoking one again but idk I'd maybe try edibles in a vegan brownie or something.
It's a pretty variable drug from person to person, some people do it to relax but for me it doesn't work that way and I'm definitely not alone. I wish it did sometimes, because that's what I use drinking for which is obviously much worse for your body.
For me, a previous poster who said that it increases the novelty of your experiences I think put it well. When I go through phases where I am using it, it's more to look at the world through an interesting new lens rather than to unwind (your brain makes new connections, e.g. revisiting old favorite movies or games or whatever can help you appreciate them in a new light). But this can be a double edged sword - the increase in the...immediate intensity, I guess I'd call it, in your experience can also bite some people in the ass. If you have existing anxiety for instance, it can make those thoughts much harder to shake off. And if you're in a stressful external setting, that can seem scarier and harder to cope with. It's why I only use weed on and off, and when I do I do it fairly occasionally. But again, for some people it just makes them feel calm and relaxed - it's a weird person-to-person drug like that!
Also be careful with edibles if you're new to the experience. They can come on MUCH stronger than smoking if you're not careful - it's hard to regulate how high you're getting until it's too late, since there's a long delay between ingestion and feeling stoned.
i also have a committed relationship with anxiety and have had some anxious times with weed. i've definitely noticed my experience and usage was different than most of my friends, regardless of strain/cultivar. i know a lot of people that say it makes them want to be lazy all day, and that is not my situation at all. if i am on my own, i will tidy up my entire house and/or organize a workspace at a nice steady and thoughtful pace. there's some kind of nexus where weed, anxiety, and energy all come together and let me spend hours on something productive but typically mundane. i literally used to wake and bake every sunday and deep clean my entire house with music on, and it was probably my favorite day of the week due to this.
i will partake in a group setting if i feel comfortable and have calm/chill friends around, but it wasn't really the "party" drug for me the way it can be with others. as an older person, i smoke less often and tend to "use" it to get things done in a more enjoyable way.
i have a friend that likes to get blazed for pretty much everything, including work, meeting new people at bars, sit down dinners with his parents [who do not like nor approve of his heavy use]. i can't even count how many times i have been invited to roast a jay with this clown expecting to be just sitting around shooting the breeze afterward, when suddenly we're going running to some big family dinner and i have to summon my preternatural ability to appear, converse, and behave normally with older people looking to catch up with me.
i do not get the appeal, but he seems to really love being secretly stoned as shit around a group of people who aren't. seems like a waste of a good time to me, but people are different.