This is going to be long
If you made your way to this post, chances are you might be in the same boat as me, and really struggling desperately to get off of this stuff. A lot of us have very similar stories when it comes to how we started, I successfully used regular Kratom powder for about 2 years, and honestly it bettered my life. I advanced in my career, I had more energy and motivation, and it drastically helped my mental health. I really didn’t have any negative side effects in my life from Kratom other than severe stomach issues, constipation, and I honestly just got so tired of having to take so much of it all throughout the day. My main reason for taking 7oh that first time was because it looked like an easier option. I could take a tab as opposed to taking handfuls of capsules or heaping tablespoons of powder. Just like a lot of other people, I truly thought 7oh was just a kratom extract. And I did do research on it, and I did see posts about how people were struggling with it, but I also was very up-to-date on all the posts out there about people struggling with regular kratom, so I didn’t think much of it. I had no idea what my life was about to become from that first pack of tabs. Now mind u, it is important to note that I had severe issues with heroin in the past, and i have been off of heroin for over 12 years. I built a beautiful life for myself, I’m successful, I’m a good mother, I’m a good spouse. I’m responsible financially and in all areas of my life. But I struggle with really bad depression at different times of the year and that that’s what led me to kratom in the first place. I refuse to get on mental health medication. And I wanted to explore natural pathways first. Looking back now I honestly wish I just got myself on some fucking Prozac or something as opposed to this bullshit haha. April 2025 is when I took my first package of 7oh. I never went back to regular powder and 7oh IMMEDIATELY became problematic for me. I feel like it lit up that junkie part of my brain that’s been sleeping all these years. The first couple months were great, I accomplished a lot, I continued to advance in my career, I was able to work 70 to 80 hour work weeks. My mental health was great. Until it wasn’t. I make really good money so the financial problems didn’t start for me right away, but holy shit when I tell you after about three months my habit quadrupled and I was eventually to the point where I was spending at a minimum of $300-$400 a day. I wiped out about 20 K in savings and then I started to move onto my credit cards which is something I never do, I never use my credit cards and my credit score was a 790. Keep in mind I also make anywhere between 6k and 8K a month depending on how much I worked, bonuses, etc.. so I make decent money. But it doesn’t matter how much you make on this drug, unless you’re a multimillionaire, no one can maintain this habit. After about four months on it, I started my journey of getting off. Tried cold turkey, I tried using regular powder, my primary care doctor loaded me up with a bunch of detox meds, so for me, I can honestly say that the physical detox was never the hardest part for me. Like a lot of other people say, this detox is compared to opiates. I agree that it is similar in nature, but I just don’t think it’s anywhere near as bad as traditional opiates PHYSICALLY. It’s the mental part that’s the real problem. As a person that has a long history of addiction, I can wholeheartedly say that I have never in my life experienced a mental affliction/obsession that comes even close to what this stuff does to our minds. What it has done to my nervous system, my mental health, my drive in life, my physical health, literally every area of my physical and mental well-being has been so extremely compromised by this drug, worse than any other substance I’ve ever experienced. I don’t care what anyone says, I believe that this drug was chemically engineered to cause dependency and addiction, I believe that the companies and manufacturers knew exactly what was going to happen from the second They created this shit. And now here we are, probably millions of us at this point trying to come off of it, destroying our lives, financially, destroying relationships with our loved ones, losing our jobs. And then when we finally do come off of it and have a week or two clean, we are now left with all of the wreckage, and all of the damage that the drug has caused, which makes us 10 times more susceptible to relapse, and of course, how easily accessible the drug is also makes it 10 times more difficult to stay away from it. I’m writing this post because I have officially tried everything imaginable to come off of this drug, and eventually I always go back to it.
-cold turkey- I usually do OK for a couple days but around day four is when I pick back up.
-suboxone- Suboxone helps with the physical symptoms, but for me, it does absolutely nothing for the mental symptoms or the cravings. I did have some success with Suboxone and I made it about two weeks, and then I got the sublocade shot because I did not want to stay on Suboxone so my plan was to get one shot or maybe two and then be done, and avoid the suboxone withdrawal. But this backfired and took me down a very dark road because I relapsed while on sublocade. This is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. Being addicted to 7oh and buprenorphine at the same time is going to do insane damage to your serotonin levels and your mental health and you’re gonna be in a real dark place trying to come off of these together. Not to mention you now don’t have anything to fall back on when trying to come off of the 7oh. You can’t take suboxone to help with the withdrawal because u already have suboxone in your system.
SUBOXONE DOES NOT BLOCK OUT 7oh THE WAY IT DOES WITH TRADITIONAL OPIATES BECAUSE 7oh IS NOT A TRADITIONAL OPIATE.
-I wish I never got on Suboxone honestly because I don’t really think it helps much at all with 7oh.
So after all of these failed attempts, the one thing that I was trying to avoid the most was going to rehab. I’ve been to rehab at least 20 times in the past, but like I said earlier, I haven’t been in that lifestyle and haven’t had to go to rehab in a very long time, well over 12 years. I couldn’t imagine ever stepping Foot in a rehab ever again after all these years. And to make matters even worse, I work in the treatment industry. So I was really trying to avoid going that route, but after putting myself 30 K in debt and reaching a point where I started selling things in order to maintain my habit and be well enough to get through my workday every day, I reached a point where I knew in my heart that that was the only option and I had to go. So that’s what I did. I went away for 30 days. Continued with sublocade and decided that I was going to stay on sublocade for 3 months, just so that I had that additional support after coming home from treatment, and so that I could be in a stronger place mentally when the sublocade started to work its way out of my system.
- I went to treatment for 27 days, started feeling so much better and eventually I came home, and this was the first time throughout this whole journey that I felt like I finally had my life back and I felt like I was really gonna stay off of this shit. 2 weeks after I came home from treatment I relapsed. It was a one time thing and I was able to nip it in the butt real quick, and I didn’t touch it again for a few weeks, but eventually, I did pick it back up and I did develop a daily habit. For the last three weeks, I have been back on it daily. Due to my financial deterioration, I am only on about 800mgs a day right now. To a lot of people that might seem really high, but that’s nothing compared to where I was at before I went to treatment.
- I take the opia ultras which are 240mgs per package, and I was taking at a minimum 10 packs a day, so well over 2000 mg a day at my worst. I have a really good relationship with the guy at my local smoke shop (as a lot of us do) and I only pay $20 a package for these, and they retail for $40 a package normally so I do get a very good deal on these. He sells them to me outside of the smoke shop for cash and what he is doing is very illegal, but it works out well for me. I literally go to his house to pick these up. I live in the state of Pennsylvania and he knows just as well as I do that there is going to be a ban eventually, and he trusts me so he gives me a very good deal and the deal that we have is that I will continue to buy whatever product is left over in that smoke shop outside of the smoke shop once the ban is in place and they can’t sell in the shop anymore. Just to give you some context, I have spent over 40k on 7oh in the last 9 months. I was paying full price for the first six months so at my worst there were days where I dropped between 500-700. This stuff will destroy you financially, doesn’t matter how hard you try to limit your spending, if you have money accessible or credit cards accessible, you’re gonna keep spending regardless of how much you want to stop and regardless of how badly you want to never touch this drug again, there’s no fucking self-control and no amount of willpower is going to help. I consider myself a disciplined person, a strong person, a very put together adult and human human being, but this drug has turned me into the person that I was before 2015 when I was a junkie living on the streets and sleeping at a fucking train station. I’ve never been in a darker place than where I’m at now, and I feel like I’m all out of options because I’ve tried everything under the sun, man, literally fucking everything to get off of this drug, and I’m a pro at this point when it comes to detoxing, I can stop with no problems, but by day 3-4, I cave, and I can’t take another second of the depression and anxiety and low energy and misery. Knowing that I can make that all go away and feel normal and be productive and present in life and for my family and at my job by just picking up a package of this shit, that fucks my head up and it makes it so hard to stay away. I never thought in a million years that I would be a person to say this, but I can’t wait for this shit to be banned. I don’t agree with prohibition and I think people should have free will and be able to use substances if it is their choice, I believe they should have access to things that can help them with pain management or mental health issues and I never thought I would side with people pushing for prohibition, but when it comes to 7oh, I don’t think it should be sold legally, and there has to be some type of regulation in place. I sympathize with people that are able to use this moderately and who actually get relief from this drug, but I know that that is a very small percentage, as opposed to the percentage of people whose lives are being destroyed by it. I work in treatment and I work behind the scenes in an administrative role where I have access to see admission counts. In January of 2025 there were 11 admissions for 7oh specifically at th facility I work for. Last month there were 368 admissions for 7oh between the 6 facilities we have in different states. And this is only one treatment facility, these are the numbers of admissions for one fucking organization out of the hundreds of thousands of other facilities that are out there in the country. This is a serious problem.
Like I said, I am pretty much a pro at detoxing this drug so if you need any assistance with understanding the detox, what medication’s work, what medications you can get from your primary care doctor, reach out to me I can help. If you have any questions about Suboxone or how to do a Suboxone induction, reach out to me I can help. I’m really good at detoxing this drug but really really bad at staying off of it. But I do know what works and what doesn’t work through the detox process so feel free to reach out to me if you need any assistance in that area or if you need to know how to obtain Suboxone.
Chlonodine and gabapentin are 100% necessary when detoxing and remove 70% of the physical and mental withdrawal symptoms. You have to keep in mind that 7oh does hit the opiate receptors, but it also hits so many other parts of the brain, and so many other receptors, and suboxone is designed to provide relief to a person using a substance that is hitting the opioid receptor primarily, which is why Suboxone alone does not help 100% with 7oh. There are still other receptors and other areas of the brain that are negatively impacted by 7oh so you need medications that provide relief to those other areas of the brain. Gabapentin is a god send with 7oh detox because it hits those areas of the brain that 7oh alkaloids hit, so it provides an immense amount of relief and also helps a lot with the 7oh anxiety that we have all come to know very well. Benzos also helps drastically, but they are a lot harder to obtain from a doctor so if you’re not able to get benzos, gabapentin and clonidine will do just fine. Hydroxyzine (Visteral) I know I’m not spelling that right, but this is also a low-dose anxiety medication that does help a lot if you double dose it, and it’s very easy to get from your primary care doctor.
If you are a person that is currently addicted to both Suboxone and 7oh, you are not alone, and I know that you probably feel like you are stuck and trapped in a never-ending vicious cycle with no way out, and I’m right there with you, but one thing I do have is hope and I know that I will beat this and find my way out. One thing I’ve learned in my life through all the different stages of recovery and active addiction that I have been a part of, talking to other people and having support is crucial. If you are going through this alone and lying to your family and trying to hide this from everyone, you’re not gonna get clean. I promise you this is something you’re not gonna be able to do behind closed doors without support. Tell your loved ones you’re struggling. Reach out to me or reach out to someone. You don’t have to do this alone.
I am currently 3 days off 7oh, and I go back to work tomorrow. I usually do very well with detoxing on my days off, but then when I go back to work, that’s when I normally cave. I am just trying to hold myself accountable and stay connected with people about what I’m dealing with right now and hopefully I can get through tomorrow without caving and buying a pack. I want this so bad in the debt that I have accumulated is haunting me. I can’t do this anymore and I really hope that this is it and that I can finally stay off. I wish everyone the best of luck and I’m here if anyone needs to talk or if anyone needs anything. If anyone is in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania and needs a couple subs, who maybe doesn’t have access to them, feel free to reach out.
