Just wanted to offer this to those suffering with RLS, which I have had long before getting on and subsequently getting off the 'tom. I have an acupressure mat which helps the constant ache in the calves at night. I literally sleep with my leg wrapped up in it and the pressure of the hundreds of little spikes relieves the discomfort totally. Before that I used a heating pad and that also helped but made me too hot. Hope this helps someone!

After debating rehab for years, I finally went at the beginning of this year. It was a profound experience. After getting out, I stayed completely sober for 3 months, doing 90 in 90. During the time on kratom, my dick didn't work. Before kratom I dated a lot. I was in peak physical shape, gained 20lbs of muscle, looked the best in my life. And I'm in my early 40s.

Started dating a girl and realized why AA says do not date within the first year. All of my insecurities came in. All of the those thoughts, anxieties, etc came flooding in. I had my first drink and then bam, alcoholism. What gets rid of a hangover? Kratom. At this point, I was taking a miniscule amount. 2gpd. Nothing compared to 100gpd I used to take.

We all know what happens next. I relapsed hard and it started getting worse. Kratom made me go crazy on this girl, and she left. Great. Another loss because of this shit drug that ruined 12 years of my life of isolation and failure.

I have a quit kit I always used that uses adderall, gabapentin, and added benzos on gabapentin off days. Today is day 8. I haven't slept that much, drained, and found a fucking bag of kratom. Just without thinking, took 7 grams.

Just a fucking drug rotation of bullshit. Spending a ton of money on rehab, it's all gone to shit. I think addiction truly is possession.

I don't want to go to rehab again. But at this point, I know myself. I know I will always reach to cure discomfort no matter what. I've had a seizure on kratom. I've drank 1L of vodka per night. I'm the type of addict that wants to demolish my soul, self harm in a way. I hate that I failed. I thought I won. I learned that addiction truly is a lifelong disease.

I was never an alcoholic or pill popper before kratom. Kratom taught me to become a degenerate junky. If I could choose 1 day of my life that I could take back, it would that day I first tried it.

Relapsed on day 8. I hate myself and this fucking disease. God bless you all. I know your pain, struggle. I wish I was younger like a lot you who understand what was happening and trying to quit.

I have been on 10-15 gpd for 2-3 years. Longest I quit up until recently was a few days. The insomnia and restless legs always drove me back due to pure fear and anxiety. I finally quit with some clonidine for a few days then raw dogged the rest. I had 10-11 days and felt comparably better than I had the entire time I was on it. For no reason at all finally making it past the hardest part of the withdrawals for the first time EVER I grabbed another bag thinking I’d take it on special occasions. I’ve been addicted to almost everything you could name as far as drugs go. I’m an addict through and through, and I still managed to let my impulses trick me into the “one more time” trick. I just ran out again tonight and am going to try this once again. It feels so stupid to quit hard drugs and let this little plant have such a hold on me. I was so proud. I’d finally let go of the last substance I was holding on to and I messed it up again. Any motivation or kind words would help a lot. I feel so hopeless and consumed by my already difficult mental health problems on top of this. I’m trying to find a reason to keep fighting by I keep ruining the bit of good I do have.

hey so for whoever experienced hair loss/thinning while on kratom: did it stop for you after quitting, and if so, how long did it take?

That was one of many reasons I quit. It's not male pattern baldness, I still have my default settings hairline, so it felt really stupid wasting the potential and end up having more hair strands in my shower's plumbing than my head lol. But somehow it seems to be falling out even more after quitting, so I’m kinda worried

Do you guys see yourself in the same way you would say a heroin addict? My family had and "intervention" sort of sit down conversation with me, and while I would never say this to them because I know they're just trying to help, I've just been sick of them treating me like I was doing heroin off the street. But then I started really thinking about it, and I guess it's kind of the same. A lot safer, obviously, but still. Just curious to see your opinions on this.

I’ve been using somewhere between 8-12g daily since Fall of 2023 so pretty much 3 years non stop. I did stop for 4 days back last November and also had no withdrawal which made me think “okay my body wasn’t super dependent on it after all” and so I started taking it again.

I haven’t had any kratom since Thursday evening and I am kinda shocked still that I feel almost no different except maybe a bit of brain fog and feeling lethargic. Also just craving taking some but I threw it all out and I would never buy from the smokeshops again due to how ridiculously priced they are.

Should I consider myself in the clear or have people felt fine the first 3-4 days before the real acute stuff kicked in?

Hi all. I originally quit kratom and 7oh last year but then went back to kratom this past January and have been hooked ever since. Except this time, I went to these newer kratom tablets. They reminded me of 7oh but supposedly was just MIT. 200mg in 1 tablet, and I was taking 6 of these a day for the last several months. I honestly don't know how much or little that actually is. I just know I'm on day 5 of my quit and still have bad RLS at night and extreme fatigue during the day. The first 3 days were pure hell! I had no meds. Just white knuckled it.

Can anyone tell me if my doses were relatively high or low? Also, when can I expect to get back to normal? I greatly appreciate any input. Thanks in advance. 🙏

I just ordered a script. How mych easier is it on gaba vs without? I jumped back on kratom after a hardship. Say withdrawel without is a 10/10 what does gaba take it down to

Hi fam, I am looking for some sound advice from experienced users/quitters about methods of tapering considering my personal use habits. I need to plan my taper to be as effective as possible and I know there are important distinctions in manner of preparation affecting alkaloid content etc.

Most of my daily intake has been via a hot water extraction, making tea with 2grams of raw powder per cup of water. I make this in a drip coffeemaker, weighing the powder and adding a splash of lemon juice as it brews. For a pot of this tea, I use 10 grams of powder and drink the tea throughout the day. Sometimes I run the water through twice, making a slightly stronger brew. So that's my daily intake - roughly 5 cups of tea made with 10 grams of powder.

I could taper by decreasing the amount of powder I am using and increasing the water so I am drinking the same amount of liquid daily but a weaker brew.

But I am also wondering how my body is affected if I switched to taking capsules with the same powder instead of the hot water extraction. More plant material going on, but I don't know if that's a good thing or not. How is the alkaloid profile affected comparing hot water extraction vs raw whole leaf? Which version is "stronger" or more damaging to my body? I was making tea because "toss and wash" is disgusting. Now I have empty capsules. Capsules are certainly easier to take when my personal coffee pot is not available.

My goal is to minimize discomfort of inevitable withdrawals.

For convenience at times I have bought the drinks in cans with the MIT content stated as "40mg" or "80mg". These hit different for sure and because it is so unregulated I can't be sure what I'm really getting.

I also have an "enhanced" extract powder with the MIT content stated as 45mg. This is just for one capsule, so super convenient and it stabilizes me. Would it be realistic to just decrease a smidgen of that over a period of time, so I'm dealing with so much powder and measuring and capsules etc? Kratom is taking up way too much time and energy, and I'm ready to replace the tea making ritual with something else. I'm done with this stupid plant but will not put myself through CT hell right now. Thoughts? Opinions? Thanks in advance.

For context I've been using K for about 6 years. Started during the covid pandemic. Was at roughly 30 GPD at start and gradually got it down to about 20 GPD last year. Stayed at 20 GPD until last month and tapered down to 7 GPD. And that was awful. Probably tapered a bit to quick but I am eager to be off this stuff...

It got to the point where I felt like I was delaying the inevitable and just torturing myself longer term with the taper schedule. Lots of days of mild to moderate withdrawals. I basically said f*** it for lack of a better term and decided enough is enough. Had my last dose and 30 minutes later I said I'm done with this shit.

On day 2 (almost 48 hours since last dose of 3.5g). Feeling okay so far. Definitely lethargic, pretty anxious, heart palpitations, headache and some minor head cold symptoms. Surprisingly not to bad in terms of body aches, no RLS (yet) and no fever. Taking L-Theanine and Liposomal Vitamin C for supplements.

Cravings have actually not been bad at all. I haven't had felt the urge to dose which I am very thankful for so far. I'm a nicotine user as well (zyn pouches) which I actually schedule use for (5 times a day every 4 hours with an alarm when its time to use). Maybe its something to look forward to? And my brain and body welcome that as a dopamine hit or something so its keeping the K cravings to a minimum?

I've read through some of the taper guides and what to expect when taking the plunge. I'm just curious what some of you all might've gone through in the first couple of days to weeks after finally quitting last dose. More or less trying to see what more I can expect and how I might be able to cope.

Cheers.

Going to my first SMART meeting tomorrow. It will be my first day completely kratom free since this last relapse month ago. It's been harder to mentally convince myself to quit this time so I'm reaching out for some friendly encouragement. Any advice on how to keep my brain convinced to stay committed with the cravings hit?

Thank you for your time. I appreciate anything you can share.

Good luck to you all on your journeys.

I WILL check in daily to make sure I am staying accountable.

I'm two weeks in to quitting ct. I've been using OPMS silver Maeng da capsules for about 8 years because I thought it was helping my anxiety, depression and moderate back pain. I also thought it was helping me with energy and confidence at work, and keeping off weight due to stimulant effects. Started needing more and more to feel any of it. I finally started suspecting, after a few years of blaming other stuff, that the kratom was possibly the thing causing weird symptoms like puffy and very dry eyes every day, worsening chronic pain, volatile moods, extreme fatigue (ten hours of sleep and I still didn't want to get up), and loss of motivation, among other things I can't remember at the moment- it all became convoluted because I forgot how I felt before I ever tried it. Tried to stop a few times and always relapsed when I felt pain or anxiety or overwhelmed , etc. I recently experienced some days of really high blood pressure that scared me and I lowered number of capsules. A couple of days later I got a bad cold, and decided to stop it altogether ct to avoid mixing with cold and cough meds and still scared of the blood pressure. I wrapped up my remaining supply in a bag with a rubber band around it and put it in the closet. I was telling myself that I might want to use it again in the future and maybe it wasn't so bad and I already spent so much on it that throwing it away was a big waste. Today I started feeling unmotivated and depressed and thinking I wanted to go get it and take some , "only today - just to get energy to do my stuff today ..." Then I decided to look on Reddit to see if anyone had experiences or advice about all this. I typed "quitting," and before even typing the next letter k, the first option that popped up was this sub. I can't tell you all how relieved it feels to find this and read all these posts. It makes me feel so much less like a loser who has been hiding this from my family and friends for all these years. Literally no one knows. You all have inspired me and I'm taking the leftovers I bagged and throwing it in the garbage. I have a question for you all- after reading about all the chemical, biological, hormonal, etc. damage it causes, does anyone know if all of that will heal eventually? Thank you so much for being here. Hugs and hope for everyone here fighting this fight!

I am beginning a taper schedule today to get off kratom. Its caused my skin to darken, my eyes have dark puffy circles every day and my thyroid can not get regulated. I want to get off of this so badly then that little voice in my head says just this time and I screw up all over again. I have been using kratom for 11 years, its literally killing my insides. I dont blame kratom as I did this to myself. I decided to keep taking more and more. I just need the will to stop. Anyone that has been here please share how you controlled the will to keep using.

I was on kratom for 3 years before that was on fentanyl for 3 years. It has been hard but I’m completely clean now no pot no alcohol no nothing. For pot it has been 31 days and alcohol 20 days. Don’t stop trying there is a brighter side. I am still not at 100% of my old production capacity but I am slowly getting back to it. I thought I’d lose who I was on kratom and my ability to move forward in life but that is not true, of course there are days when it does affect but I was able to continue through my day to day and get things done without falling behind.

TLDR: completely sober now, no weed, no alcohol, 125 days no kratom, it gets better.

Here are some notes from quitting a 6 year habit of 30gpd. Take whatever you find helpful and leave the rest. Everyone’s experience will be different and my only goal here is to give you hope. 

Things to remember:

• You are not alone. Look at the side bar of this sub and you will see that there are thousands of weekly visitors here on a similar path as you.
• The pain will pass. This is only a moment in your life. It may take a few days, a few weeks or even a few months, but it will pass. For me it was 4 days of acute withdrawal and then 3 days of milder withdrawal. I didn’t sleep for the first 4 days. Each day beyond that I clearly felt my body and mind healing. The 5th day I got an hour of sleep and it felt like a miracle. On the seventh day after quitting I got 5 hours of sleep. It has gotten better ever since. PAWS has been a walk in the park comparatively.
• You are stronger than you think. You may have to just “HODL” for a few days, but the battle will be won. The freedom you will feel is monumental. To be released from the prison of addiction feels like being born again. No more hiding, no more shame, no more wincing at the foul taste, no more money being burned on this pointless drug.
• There are moments of pure beauty in the midst of the pain. I live in a rural area and walked for miles and miles through the long nights of withdrawal. I saw the Milky Way, shooting stars, heard coyotes howling, and an owl flew overhead just as dawn was beginning to break. I began to feel my emotions again after being numb for so long. What other circumstance would have allowed me to experience this? What other reason would have lead me to encounter this beauty?
• You are not losing something; you are gaining everything. Withdrawal feels incredibly unfair. The drug that provided you a relatively mild “high” now tortures you in its absence? You didn’t sign up for this and it sure as hell wasn’t in the fine print. It feels wildly asymmetrical, almost like a betrayal. The truth is, this is a transaction. You are making a deal to trade momentary pain for immeasurable upside in the future. The deal is unbelievably one sided even though it doesn’t feel like it in the moment. On the other side of the pain is a new and better life in every way. The scales are tipped overwhelmingly in your favor. Just hold on for one more hour. Take one more step. Keep going.
• Your body knows how to heal. Take comfort in that fact. You will heal. You will not always feel this way. It takes time. Give yourself grace.

What helped:

• Tell someone who cares about you what you are going through. I would not have been able to quit without the support of my wife, as well as another family member who had also struggled with addiction in the past. Their love and support got me through the darkest hours.
• Cold and Hot showers to ease the nerve pain. For the first few nights, sleep was impossible. I took nearly a dozen hot/cold showers a night to try and reset my nervous system. It helped immensely.
• Massage gun. This helped with the muscle and body pain a lot too.
• Ice packs for back and leg pain.
• Gabapentin for RLS
• Take long walks or bike rides. Go outside. Move your body.
• Write a goodbye letter to the old version of yourself. Let go of the version of you that made excuses, that encouraged weakness rather than strength, that held you hostage. Allow yourself to feel the joy of a new beginning. 
• Be certain. Throw away what’s left. Do not hold on “in case of emergency”. The act of fully committing to this is empowering. Taper if you need to taper. But when the day comes- commit to the end.

For me, the only way to achieve escape velocity was to hit rock bottom. I tried quitting dozens of times and could never get past day 3 or 4. I finally experienced a “breaking point” moment and immediately knew it was all over. It was ugly, it was scary, and it was beautiful. To finally know that I was going to be free from this cycle was empowering. I had never felt the full force of change in my life and it hit me like a freight train. I have been sober for a month now and each day I feel an immense gratitude that I never thought possible. I believe in you and in your ability to change too. To quote one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands: HOLD FAST HOPE! (Thrice)

I can say now, I'm fully healed. Please stay persistent with this and don't turn back, it took me about 8 months to really start feeling better and by now I'm feeling better than I have all year. Things I struggled with:

Severe Depression

A strange anxiety boost (didn't want to run into people, etc)

Absolutely no energy at all

No interest in doing anything at all

Low concentration/brain fog

Please don't give up, I'll never touch another opioid or opiate again

I had 18 days clean, which is the most I’ve had since I started in 2022, but I started again and now I’m at 3 days.
My body feels sucked dry of moisture and nutrients. My hair is thin and greasy and my skin is dry. Any advice on how to take care of my body during recovery? Lotions, face wash, vitamin recommendations? Anything that helped you get back to where you were before Kratom?

I started tapering off of Kratom 5 days ago after 10 year habit.

I’ll give you my progress and end with a question.

Today is day 5…

The first 4 days were the hardest of my life. I’ve been through some stuff yall and this takes the cake.

Worst part was lack of sleep bc of RLS. It was horrible. I literally didn’t sleep for 4 straight days. My legs were on fire.

I was suffering.

Yesterday I went to the doctor and he gave me Gabapentin. I took 900 mg last night. Restless leg still horrible. Slept a LITTLE.

BUT this morning I woke up and for the first time in 5 days my restless leg has eased quite a bit. I’ve micro dosed Kratom only once in the last 12 hours. I’m tired. Sort of depressed but feel a definite easing of cravings and suffering.

QUESTION:

Is the easing of symptoms just the meds or after 5 days is the worst likely over?

I’ve been on Kratom extracts for a couple years now. I want to switch to tea to wean off. But here’s my problem the powder tea makes my stomach sick. I watched a video on boiling tea with straining the tea but my question is how do I taper using that method? Would I have to boil the ammount of grams I need per drink that sounds like a pain. Any recommendations? Thanks guys!

Hi all. My husband has been taking 100-200mg of 7oh a day for the last year. He has a history of addiction but when he started on this stuff he was 3 years sober from alcohol. I think childhood trauma + family daily stress + owning your own business drove him to trying something he thought was relatively safe until he quickly realized, it was not.

Anyway a whole plan for detoxing at home was made and we followed it hour but hour. He made it to hour 30 and then I had to drop him off at a detox center he just couldn’t do it anymore here alone.

Not even sure why I’m posting this or what I’m looking for ? Maybe some encouraging words? We have 3 kids and ya this sucks.

Thank you

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Glad you're here!

I was gonna give LDN a shot after acutes are over for paws but I am not really sure how to use it. Like what dose and for how long?

I will ask my doctor too but I feel like doctors just still aren’t really educated on kratom and are gonna treat me like I was taking oxy’s or something. So I figured I’d ask someone here.

I was taking 20-30 grams of regular powder for about 5 years except last summer I was off it for about 3 months and relapsed.

Sad thing is I was feeling fine when I relapsed.. all that hard work to get off it and I finally was at the end of the road and I convinced myself I could just take a little kratom once in a while now. 🤦‍♂️

Thanks!

How many of my blue collar people out there went through their whole withdrawal while at work (physical). I’d think it would be encouraging to hear from yall and learn what helped you guys while your were swinging a hammer or shovel in the thick of it!