Zack was self-medicating with cannabis
Zack always thought he could handle all his complications without any help.
This is one of his character flaws, he has come to realize.
A year ago, he finally started going to therapy, and Zack confesses that it was long overdue. He was so hell bent on doing most people alone, it hurt him in the long run. Therapy isn’t the right option for most people, and for years Zack thought it wasn’t right for him either. He tried to bury his complications with booze and cannabis, and for a while he was so numb that he thought he was improving even though he wasn’t. When Zack smoked cannabis all day long, he stayed high and forgot about his complications for a while. When the cannabis wore off, his complications were still right there waiting for him. My therapist Dr Kim said he was self-medicating with cannabis and whiskey and needed to taper off. He prescribed some pills for him to take, but Zack didn’t like the way they made him feel. While he knows Dr Kim is actually helpful with his mental issues, Zack knows the pills are more harmful than cannabis ever was. I decided to trust my instincts as well as resume self-medicating with cannabis, but he did stop drinking alcohol. Dr Kim didn’t like his choice, but Zack stood his ground, partially because cannabis is non-addictive, which wasn’t true about the pills he wanted him to take. Why should Zack risk developing an addiction to these new medications when he can keep treating his stress with safe, delicious cannabis instead?