Abstracting a bit: this is the problem with all addiction. Ever tried to imagine never going to the pub with your pals again? Ever tried to imagine not partaking in the happy hour drinks in the office on a particularly successful friday? These events are woven into the social fabric of society and they are now off limits (at least in their fullest extent) to someone trying to kick an alcohol addiction.
A stoner trying to imagine how watch a movie or play a game with friends faces similar issues.
A cocaine addict can't imagine going dancing all night without a pick-me-up.
It isn't that any of these things are real necessarily. People don't drink at bars all the time, or play games without drugs, or dance the night away without stimulants just fine. It's that the social setting, the friends and the general expectations of one's groups are all part of the understanding. It isn't just "do the same thing without the external influence", it's "those things are built in part around the external influence". It takes a lot of lifestyle change for addicts to successfully quit. Those who aren't tend to not understand, because their social world, and their view/understanding of the world isn't built around the addiction, so it is hard for them to understand that it isn't just removal of one part of an otherwise unchanged existence.
A stoner trying to imagine how watch a movie or play a game with friends faces similar issues.
A cocaine addict can't imagine going dancing all night without a pick-me-up.
It isn't that any of these things are real necessarily. People don't drink at bars all the time, or play games without drugs, or dance the night away without stimulants just fine. It's that the social setting, the friends and the general expectations of one's groups are all part of the understanding. It isn't just "do the same thing without the external influence", it's "those things are built in part around the external influence". It takes a lot of lifestyle change for addicts to successfully quit. Those who aren't tend to not understand, because their social world, and their view/understanding of the world isn't built around the addiction, so it is hard for them to understand that it isn't just removal of one part of an otherwise unchanged existence.
It's terribly difficult.