What determines withdrawal severity?

What determines how bad a withdrawal is depends on how much you used and for how long.

Imagine you have a favorite toy that gives you superpowers when you play with it all day, every day. But one day, you stop playing with it, poof, your superpowers disappear, and you feel really sad or even grumpy. That’s like withdrawal!

If you played with the toy a little bit, like once in a while, then stopping isn’t too hard, maybe you just miss it a tiny bit.

But if you played with it all day, every single day, and it made you feel super strong, then when you stop, your body feels like it’s been robbed of its powers. That means the withdrawal will be stronger, more sadness or grumpiness.

If you only played with the toy for a week, stopping won’t hurt as much as if you played with it for months or even years. The longer you used something, the harder it is to stop, kind of like training for a big race and then suddenly having to run without warming up!