Take a month off the chems and exercise regularly during that time

Without drugs your body moderates moods and emotions naturally based more or less on what is beneficial or harmful (good things might be connecting with friends, succeeding at a challenge, good food, a comfortable or beautiful environment). Thinking positively is incredibly helpful too.

With drugs though, your feeling of good and happiness is skewed out of balance so only drugs will give you that feeling.

Drugs artificially elevate mood by flooding the brain with neurotransmitters such as dopamine, distorting your sense of well-being and preventing your body from producing these feelings naturally.

It might not be easy but your body will return to normal rythms and emotions with time and healthy habits.

I’m not your parent, and I don’t want to take any substance away from you without your consent.

That said, feeling like you can’t experience joy while being sober and lucid is extremely sad. And I say that as someone who has experimented with substances! Without any judgement, I think a therapist will help you far more than the effects of any drug…

Exercise & fresh air & sunshine & nutritious food. As a bonus, it costs nothing! Aside from the cost of food which we all need anyway, so might as well spend our money on healthy food instead of the other options.

I think that when you “poison” your brain with easy dopamine like candy, fastfood, alcohol, drugs, endless scrolling, etc you will shift the internal goalpost of when something feels good. Compared to these easy sources of “joy”, life just isn’t that interesting. The scale changes to the point that normal things cannot longer provide enough jou to be worth it.

Personally I’ve been trying to constrain myself a bit on these easy sources of “empty happiness”. Things that do give me joy without ruining my brain are, among others: running, music festivals, listening to nice music, looking back at something cool I made, making something cool, playing videogames, chilling with friends (though this usually involves alcohol). These things definitely don’t reliably provide joy, Most of the times they’re just “nice” but definitely not amazing. But every now and then I get hit with that dopamine rush and it’s all worth it.

When you become addicted to something, taking that something will often bring you back to baseline due to the cravings you have when not doing that addictive something. At least that’s how I see it. It’s like when smokers say they feel less stressed when they smoke, but really they just feel normal when they smoke because the addiction stresses them out when they’re not smoking.

Alc and thc in the long term both suppress your ability to be happy without them. Your brain gets so use to them that once they are gone it doesn’t know how to maintain your dopamine levels properly.

My biggest advice. It’s ok to be sad, it’s ok to be bored. Infact it’s good to be bored on occasion. It drives passion and energy. Learn to take care yourself. Be gentle when you’re sad, talk with family, exercises, hand with friends. If you’re bored or sad it’s generally your bodies way of telling you that the environment your in needs a change. Being sad or bored or anxious doesn’t have to feel like the end of the world. It takes practice but it’s achievable. You just need to be vigilant and mindful of your emotions

You need a comprehensive detox. Both those substances are depressants. When you’re off the drugs, you’re not so much sober as hung over. It takes a while for the effects to wear off. The hangover is a bad time but it takes a lot longer than a day for your body to fully recover.

“Dissociative drugs make me happy.” Perhaps you have anxiety, depression, etc. Yeah, life sucks right now too. But always being high isn’t really a solution. Therapy, antidepressants, friends, and family can help but I can’t begin to guess what your situation is.

Never smoked weed or had a drop of alcohol here!

Honestly, your question is somewhat unsettling, as I’m not sure it is exactly healthy to only feel joy while under the influence of chemicals, so that might be something you should ask a medical professional about.

That said, surely you experienced joy as a child before using weed/alcohol at some point in your life, right? I guess in a lot of ways, I still feel that same spark of happiness or excitement I did when I was a kid. The things that sparked it may have changed somewhat, but the same feeling is there.

If you can’t feel joy with substances that means you’re an addict. You need professional help probably.

But speaking more generally, your issue is you think ‘happiness’ is an emotional high you have to chase. What you don’t get is that happiness isn’t some intense feeling of joy… it isn’t. It’s the ability to self-regulate and to stop chasing the highs and the lows. It’s realizing the ‘bland’ feeling is good. You should be feeling bland.

Make sure you are also doing fun and nice things for yourself while sober, and not just reserving it for when you’re high. Expectations and associations make a big difference, if you’re taking a drug with the intention and belief that it will make you feel a certain way, that alone might make it work.

Except for alcohol, which will make often you feel like shit even if you expect it to make you feel good. Congrats on quitting.

I am in the same boat as you, but I agree with the other comments that say weed will make you ok with anything. Weed has always seemed like a good option for me due to (multiple sources of) chronic pain, but I can absolutely tell that it has affected me negatively over the years. I need a substantial lifestyle change at some point in the near future… I need to reorganize my entire life, and also need to stop being a fat piece of shit.