Should you take a T-Break?
Why take a T-Break?
If you regularly use cannabis to feel “high,” you may want to consider taking what’s known as a “T-Break” or “Tolerance Break” where you stop using THC for a period of time, whether that’s just a few days or perhaps a couple months. Because it is possible to build a tolerance, a T-Break can be used to reset your system so that your body doesn’t need as much cannabis to achieve the same effects you’re currently experiencing.
How does a T-Break work?
To understand why a T-Break works the way it does, it’s important to know that your body naturally produces its own version of THC to support your endocannabinoid system, which keeps all of your other systems in balance. This system is made up of receptors all over your body, and its health is influenced by our diet, exercise, stress levels, and hormone cycles. If your body isn’t making enough of its own endo-cannabinoids (like the one similar to THC), then you can supplement with phyto-cannabinoids found in cannabis (such as THC).
However, cannabis has a biphasic dosing response curve, meaning that up to a certain point, increasing your dose will increase its effectiveness — but past this peak point, increasing your dose will actually make it less effective. This is because at the peak point, you are simply fulfilling a deficiency and bringing your body back to a balanced state. Past this point, however, your endocannabinoid system can start to feel overwhelmed and begin over-correcting; it may stop producing its own version of the THC or even start shutting off receptors in an effort to maintain that peak point of balance.
This means that when the cannabis has left your body, your endocannabinoid system may be in worse shape than it was before, causing you to want to use cannabis again in order to feel “like your normal self” — and this time more frequently and in higher doses because you’ve unintentionally moved further away from your peak point of balance.
Why taking a T-Break works
Your endocannabinoid system is literally your balancing system, so it is constantly adapting to your body’s current environment (whatever it may be) to maintain inner harmony. Taking a break from THC encourages your endocannabinoid system to turn back on receptors and produce more of its own endo-cannabinoids again rather than rely on outside phyto-cannabinoids.
Because your endocannabinoid system plays a role in everything from mood to sleep, appetite, and more, taking a T-Break can be uncomfortable at first — but when you’re thinking of giving up on day 2, remember that you are helping remind your body how to create and use its own version of THC to naturally keep you at (or at least closer to) that peak point of balance…which is probably why you like using cannabis in the first place!
Endocannabinoid tone
All that said, your peak point of balance may be different from day to day based on various factors affecting your endocannabinoid tone. Endocannabinoid tone refers to the overall health of your endocannabinoid system, which is influenced by how many endocannabinoids your body is producing, how quickly your body is breaking those cannabinoids down, and how many receptors are turned on to receive those cannabinoids. Your endocannabinoid tone is impacted by many things:
- Diet: Your body creates endocannabinoids from a balanced ratio of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.
- Exercise: Enjoyable exercise, such as yoga, boosts endocannabinoid production. (Note that exercise that you consider stressful may actually strain the endocannabinoid system.)
- Stress levels: By living in a chronic state of stress, your endocannabinoid system is being constantly triggered and can’t keep up with re-balancing your body.
- Hormones: Endocannabinoids levels can fluctuate throughout a woman’s menstrual cycle, as endocannabinoid levels are strongly linked to estrogen levels.
This means that while one hit off that bowl put you in a perfectly balanced state last night, missing your regular workout, eating fast food at lunch, or even having an extra-stressful event today could cause you to need 2 or 3 hits to achieve that same level, balanced feeling as the night before. Because of this, it’s important to not make your level of consumption purely a habit; instead, always tune into your body and notice how you’re feeling in that particular moment, then stop consuming when you’ve reached your peak point of balance.
Should I take a T-Break?
Only you can decide if you should take a T-Break. You are the only one who knows what balance feels like for you, so you are the only one who can recognize whether or not living in your peak point of balance has become dependent on cannabis — and then you are the only one who can decide if this is something that needs to change.
There are many reasons to consider taking a T-Break: perhaps it’s too expensive to maintain your current level of cannabis consumption, or maybe you’re experiencing unwanted negative side effects such as short-term memory loss or sluggishness more frequently. But for some medical marijuana patients (especially the severely ill), taking a T-Break may not only be unnecessary because they are using it to reach their peak point of balance rather than get “high” by pushing past it — but it may be completely out of the question because they are so far from their peak point of balance that their endocannabinoid system truly needs outside supplementation just to be functioning at all.
To be clear: needing cannabis is nothing to be ashamed about. There are many factors outside of your control that affect your endocannabinoid tone, and when cannabis is used mindfully to simply bring your body back to its peak point of balance rather than push past it into “getting high,” it is an incredibly effective medicine. But for anyone who decides to use cannabis at some point or another, understanding how it works in your body will help you have the experience you’re seeking while also being prepared for the potential consequences.