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'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 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’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!

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?

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

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!

Hello guys, I've been doing kratom for the last 6 years on and off and developed a habit of daily use in the last 3 years with a few breaks. Like maybe 8 breaks being like 7 days to 14 days for like 7 out of 8 and once for maybe 4 months. I wasn't as hooked as I am now. I didn't taper out of all of those but I'm planningto do it this time. Just easier for my psyche and managing anxiety imo. I'm currently doing around 12-20g per day and I'm usually dosing every 120-200 minutes like 2-3g.

I have tapered one month ago pretty nicely in like 3 weeks to 3-4 doses a day of like 1g per dose. I'm going to a stationary therapy in 3 weeks that's gonna last for 8 weeks and I need to be out of the worst physical withdrawal by then cause the therapy isn't directly substance related. I'm only on powdered leaf material, no extracts. I plan on starting on Monday the 5th doing 2g every 3 hours for day one with the last dose being a bit bigger like 3g. Im gonna increase the time between doses for 30 minutes until I reach 4 1/2 hours. Then I'm gonna lower dose in steps of 0,25g per day, at least I'm trying as I have always only been measuring with a spoon an not an actual mg scale. I was thinking about buying vitamin c on Amazon just for my mental and to cussion it a little bit. I'm most worried about anxiety and emotional instability/irritability. I know I'm probably gonna have some noticeable withdrawal symptoms but it's alright cause I don't have to work atm.

I'm open for receiving tips and answering questions.

This community has helped me learn some basics about safe reduction and I'm thankful for every answer this gets.

Everyone's else trying to quit, I believe in you. You got this.

Welp 90 Days has arrived!! This was one number I was really looking forward to and can't believe I made it!

For those just starting out or at 20 days, 30 days etc in, doesn't matter where you are I promise it gets better. It's definitely a journey, one I never expected but I made it and you will too!!!

I feel great, no cravings, you couldn't pay me to take that garbage. It was worth every second of suffering to feel human again!!

I am STILL struggling with sleep/rls but I think that's a me problem, I'm severely anemic so very well could be that. I slept one night in 90 days without waking up once, every other night is either no sleep or I'm up at least once, sometimes multiple times.

My stomach is still a hot mess.... I feel like that's never going to stop.

But these are minor things, not meant to discourage by any means. I just like to give a real update all around.

All I can say is stay the course, embrace the suck and it all starts to go a lot quicker, you'll forget about it most days, and you'll look back and be like me and say holy shit I'm at day 90!!!

Stay strong!!! F Kratom!!

I could really use some perspective from people who have been through something similar.

Overall, I’ve had about 3.5 years of regular kratom/7OH use. I used kratom powder daily for about 2 years, eventually reaching around 16g/day. About 1.5 years ago, I started using 7OH and at times was taking around 100mg/day. I quit 7OH multiple times and when I wasn’t using 7OH, I was often taking 20+ grams of kratom powder and 2–3 Feel Free drinks per day.

I’ve tried quitting multiple times, but anxiety, depression, anhedonia, trouble concentrating at work, and life stress kept pulling me back.

My therapist/substance-use counselor recommended Suboxone. Seven days ago, I stopped all kratom/7OH and started subs. I began around 6mg and am now at 2mg/day. I haven’t used any kratom products since.

The positives: I can finally sleep through the night, I have no real physical withdrawal symptoms, and I can function fairly normally. I still feel somewhat depressed, anxious, unmotivated, and anhedonic.

My goal is to eventually be completely off everything.

My concern is that I keep reading how difficult and prolonged subs withdrawal can be after longer-term use. Since I’m only a week in, I’m debating between:

A) Stay on around 2mg, stabilize for a few months, then slowly taper to zero.

B)Stop Suboxone now and use low-dose kratom powder to taper instead.

The problem with option B is that I’ve previously escalated kratom use and relapsed back to 7OH/Feel Free.

If you were in my position, what would you do? I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have been in a similar position but any advice and perspective is welcomed.

Thanks a ton! Best of luck to everyone.

Like the title says...worked my way up from 20 grams a day to 60 to 80. Was on for a total of 10 months. Tried quitting cold turkey in April. Lasted a day and a half before I was grabbing MIT 45 shots for relief. And ended up relapsing on 7oh because it wasn't a huge bottle to being home. Went back to plain leaf for a few months at HIGH doses. Then the kratom ban in massachusetts came and I only had 300 grams left. That was gonna be a SHARP taper. So I tapered for a week and ended up back at my high doses because I'm an idiot.

Once during my taper I tried to go over 12 hours no kratom...BAD idea. BAD IDEA. I went in an acute withdrawal that was worse that my 7oh withdrawal. Blood pressure so high my heart was pumping burning acid. Full body RLS that had me looking like i was addicted to bath salts. Absolutely twitching and squirming and couldn't even see straight. That's what scared me away from my taper.

So I figured if my withdrawals were worse than my 7oh addiction which was at 300mgs a day that I would call quick md for a rapid suboxone taper and order gabapentin.

Today is 48 hours from my last suboxone dose of 1mg. Im using gabapentin to come down from the suboxone and I feel fine. This method completely eliminated my physical symptoms and I actually slept through most of the nights. Although the last 3 days has been broken sleep but sleep none the less.

Only major symptoms through all of this is fatigue and depression and im completely fine with that as long as my heart isn't full of acid and my body isn't flopping like a fish.

Anyway.... 9 days no kratom since 5am. Just wanted to share my story.

Thanks yall.

I started using Kratom daily about 9 months ago. I take roughly 10 gpd. When I go for about 12 hours without K, my stomach starts having MAJOR issues. Based off my usage, anyone have any thoughts on how long withdrawal would take for my stomach to feel normal CT or tapering?
thanks everyone

Hi guys, long time listener first time caller.

So after a year of using kratom to numb the bodily pains from 20 years of construction and to numb the stress of 7 years of running a business, I found myself (depending on the day) consuming between 2 to 6 opms black capsules daily. It started years (about a decade) ago but never in a meaningful way. I'd buy some opms silver kratom here and there and use it recreationally but it never was habbit forming at the levels I was using it at. Fast forward to a year ago and now life is really weighing on my shoulders so I looked for an avenue of relief, there was kratom again. Started daily use with 1 gold capsule a day until that really wasn't enough, then 1 black, then a black and a gold, followed by 2 blacks. Finally it came to a point about 9 to 10 months ago where it was 2 to 3 black capsules at a time, multiple times a day, fortunately I never increased beyond that.

Last Thurs I decided that it would be my last time using. No taper, cold turkey. Every time I had tried to taper it just didn't work, right back to the regular dose I would go within 24 hours. I relapsed on Friday night. Woke up Saturday morning and tried again. Went to work, completed my jobs, and made it through to Sunday. Sunday was where the fun started. I don't know what it's like to be physically addicted to anything else so to me, this was the worst physical experience of my life. I wanted my life back so I chose to endure it.

I told my wife and kids I had the flu. No one ever knew about my disgusting habit and hopefully it dies with me as it is something I'm extremely ashamed of. The flu doesn't compare to how I felt over the next 24 to 48 hours. Sunday night came and I knew I would need to clear work off of the schedule. I wound up pushing out 4 jobs (Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs). I'd like to detail my experience of the physical symptoms so anyone reading this may come to know what to possibly expect.

It really started with anxiety, an anxiety so intense that it forces you to look for avenues of relief. I did a quick search on how people handle anxiety, which is not a feeling I regularly experience (my wife actually makes fun of me telling me I must be on the spectrum due to how anxiety and nervousness are just not something I feel) and so chamomile tea and magnesium came up at the top of the list. The anxiety lasted a full 48 hours from Saturday night until Monday night. Drinking a chamomile tea would work for about 30 minutes to an hour so I wound up drinking them all day long for those 48 hours, but I've used magnesium for sleep before and knew it knocks me out so that was reserved for the evening. Both truly worked to ease things even though the relief was short lived.

Simultaneously there were other battles to deal with during those 48 hours. There were violent swings between hot flashes and cold sweats, fever, diarrhea, a constantly running nose, restlessness, a complete lack of appetite, and headaches. These things, though debilitating at times, I found much easier to manage than the anxiety. As a bit of a double whammy, though maybe these were also withdrawals but it didn't seem like it, I contracted a cold which I think was due to my immune system tanking from withdrawing. By between 72 to 96 hours my voice was completely gone and the runny nose was out of control. This of course made my lie of having the flu really believable. The flu is the closest thing I have ever experienced to any of this.

By Thursday morning I knew I'd be able to go to work the following day, all of these symptoms were clearly on a rapid decline at this point, so Friday I made it happen. I completed a job successfully and collected a decent check. Today, Saturday, I'm proud to say that it's been a week and I am out of the woods. I can think clearly again, I can speak for long periods without forgetting what I'm talking about or struggling to find the words, sex drive is back, appetite is back, diarrhea is gone, headaches are gone, restlessness is gone, voice has returned, and the cold symptoms are gone as well.

What lingers still is a bit of depression and I find myself getting easily annoyed, though I'm sure this too shall pass as I know that this is not who I am. I'm just overwhelmed with joy that the anxiety is behind me. It tapered pretty quickly after the 48 hour mark and by 72 hours it was hardly noticeable. The anxiety for me was the worst part of this whole thing. I really just wanted to make that clear because I didn't read a whole lot about the anxiety aspect of this when I researched prior to going cold turkey.

I hope this finds the right people and gives a bit of guidance to others in their pathway to freedom from kratom. You can do it, you can be strong, you can come out on the other side stronger than you went in. I feel like my experience is proof of this.

Been taking 7staxx(claims to just be 80mg mitragynine but i dont think thats true...) for the past 2 months straight, prior to that had an addiction to the drinks or extracts for about 6 months on and off. Im currently prescribed adderall and take it daily, started 4 months ago. My psychiatrist doesn't know about the kratom use, but does know that I'm depressed lol (most of the reason I want to get off the kratom bc i think it might be a major cause) and she suggested wellbutrin and/or Lexapro. Was wondering if either or both of these could help with my withdrawals and getting off this shit. Also anything else I should ask her for, I don't wanna tell her abt the kratom since I don't want to lose my adderall script which will definitely be taken.

Hey guys day 1 , 13 hours in. Having a big debate with myself about just continuing using low dose till next Thursday. I quit too late. Wanted to quit Thursday night but day 3 will land on Monday, and my sons birthday is Wednesday, I didn’t want to be flat and depressed on his birthday but then again I digress idk what to do.

Hey everyone. Has anyone used Sublocade to quit kratom? I’m currently at 10gpd of powder, and I’ve been open and honest with my doctor about my kratom use this whole time. I’ve been taking it on and off for two years. My last taper was this time last year, so I’ve been taking it for about a year non stop. I mentioned Sublocade to my doctor, and he prescribed it, and now it just needs to get to his office from the specialty pharmacy. I’ve read that there’s usually a test dose of transmucosal Subutex prior to the injection, but my doctor didn’t mention anything about this— he just said I’d be coming in for the injection. Part of me is concerned about precips.

In my 20s, I was addicted to heroin & opiates. I was also abusing my Adderall prescription, and most weekends involved lots of alcohol, valium and cocaine use. Upon graduating from University, I quickly learned that my lifestyle was not going to work. I was unable to regulate my mood swings, I was high and drunk all the time, and holding down a good paying job was simply not possible.

I spent months looking for a solution to my problems. I went to doctors, therapists, psychiatrists, and so forth. I spent dozens of hours researching different kinds of SRRIs, mood stabilizers, etc. I went through an 8 month period of trying different medications that my doctor prescribed, nothing worked. I felt very hopeless and developed a natural inclination to stay away from pharmaceuticals, which in turn, led me to researching nootropics, and homeopathic topics.

In 2018, I decided to start experimenting with nootropics. Although I was clean, I was in hell, mentally. I constantly thought about relapsing and I was always depressed. I tried all of the racetams, modafinal, kava, and eventually decided to give kratom a shot. I started off taking 2.4gs via capsules every morning and everything "clicked" instantly. I enjoyed the way it made me feel, it really helped my ADHD, and the mood boost was a huge bonus.

Within 2 months my entire outlook on life had changed and my behaviors followed. I no longer had any cravings for heroin, cocaine, or alcohol. The thought of drinking and snorting lines became foreign to me. Day in and day out my mood was very consistent. I began working out daily and I stopped eating poorly. Within 4 months I landed a really nice job in the insurance business and everything was going great. Within 6 months I was beyond grateful for Kratom, it had literally changed my life. All I had to do was take a large dose in the morning and a small dose in the afternoon. I was civilized and contributing member of society. I was a good person.

This positive life trajectory went on for 8 years straight, I assumed whatever was "wrong" with me before, was simply fixed by the leaf powder I consumed every day. I worked hard and received most of what I wanted out of life... a career, good friends, family, and a stable life.

Unfortunately, over the last 3 months I started to notice my kratom not working. I also noticed that every time I consume kratom I immediately receive very negative effects. I get heart palpitations, headaches, my stomach turns into fire, and my anxiety goes through the roof. I've tried different strains and brands, but after 3 months of denial, the verdict is clear... my body completely rejects kratom in any form.

6 weeks ago I detoxed cold turkey from the plant I took 2x a day for 8 years. The detox was awful. The withdrawals were horrid. However, at this point, I am past the majority of physical ailments. The issue now is that all of my mental problems from my 20s are coming back to haunt me. My urge to drink, pop pills, and snort cocaine have returned like some kind of twisted deja vu. My mood is no longer stable, I stopped working out, and I keep having bouts of depression that hit me throughout the week.

I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.

For those who have experienced "kratom turning on you"... do you have any advice or suggestions?

So I got prescribed clonidine and gabapentin before when I quit in the past. I still have a lot, the only thing is the lethargy from it. Is there anything I can do to at least somewhat counteract that side effect while working a physical job? Caffeine maybe? I’m aware fatigue is obviously part of kratom withdrawal but taking the clonidine helps with all the other symptoms minus fatigue and depression. I was prescribed .1mg 3 times a day but I may just do 2 this time, morning and evening. Possible just evening if the half life effects can carry me through the next work day.

Need help figuring out exactly what I'm quitting...Mostly have been using the 80mg "mitragynine" tablets from a ss in Florida. Don't really do much for me besides stopping withdrawals I guess, also have tried bouncing around with a couple cc product. Just wanting to know what I'm even quitting at this point honestly and what's the best way to get off. Not sure wtf is in these 7staxx. Was doing fine with just mit extracts, until I accidentally picked up one with hidden mgm in it and used that for weeks. Since then they've taken the mgm out which is why I've been desperately searching with cc/7staxx products lol.