Quitting Kratom or Managing Your Tolerance Can Be Easy

16 min readJul 27, 2018

Kratom: A Great Friend or A Horrible Master

Kratom is a wonderful plant with many medicinal uses. People have been using Kratom for thousands of years for increased energy and reduced pain. In the Western World, Kratom is somewhat of a new kid on the block. People are using it to curb their opiate withdrawals and escape heroin addiction. Others are using it to kick coffee habits. And some are just using Kratom recreationally.

There is a lot of information on the internet about Kratom. In my opinion, most of it is biased. Why is this? It’s because most of the information you can find with a quick Google search is published by companies that are selling Kratom. It’s in their best interest to promote Kratom and talk about how great it is while neglecting the negative side effects and potential for addiction

If you’re reading this article, you probably know what Kratom is. You might even be interested in figuring out how to solve your Kratom problem. This article will teach you all you need to know about how Kratom works in the brain, why it can be addicting, and how you can stop using it without experiencing too much pain.

My Personal Experience with Kratom

I first discovered Kratom while working as a carpenter building a house in Oregon. I was chatting with a coworker one day talking about how I thought I was addicted to coffee. I was drinking 3–4 cups per day and if I forgot to drink it, I would get a bad headache by the afternoon. My coworker suggested I try using something called Kratom to help stop drinking coffee.

On my way home from work that day I passed a store that had a giant sign in the window that said: “Kratom Sold Here”. Here’s an actual picture of the store I’m talking about:

I stopped in and told the guy what I was up to. I wanted to try Kratom and see if it would help me kick my coffee habit. It just so happened that there was about to be a government vote to make Kratom illegal. Because of this, the store owner was dumping their stock of Kratom for super cheap. He offered me a Kilo for $100. I bought it not understanding how much that really was…

The next day I woke up in my normal zombie-like state and went to brew some coffee. Where the coffee beans usually are I found a large bag of Kratom. “Oh ya!”, I thought, “Time to see if this really works.”

Well, it did. I took a small dose and within 30 minutes was zooming around the house getting ready to go to work. I felt great! Not only did I have an energy boost as I would from coffee, but I felt somewhat euphoric like today was going to be a good day.

The feeling lasted all day. I still got the headache characteristic of coffee withdrawal, but with a couple of ibuprofen, I was able to ignore it.

I followed the same routine for the next 30 days. It was great that I was able to kick the coffee habit that easily. By day 30, however, the feelings of the energy of euphoria I had experienced from Kratom on day one would no longer last all day. In order to keep the feeling going, I had to take another dose at lunchtime. This is where my tolerance began to show itself.

After another month or so, I was taking 3 doses per day. I felt great, but I was beginning to get tired of having to eat so much of this powder. At around the 60-day mark, I decided to take a break. I woke up one morning and didn’t take any Kratom. In the absence of the energy and euphoria, it was a pretty lame day. The real monster of withdrawals reared its ugly head when I tried to sleep that night. I couldn’t.

I would sleep for a little while then wake up drenched in sweat. This pattern repeated itself until morning. When it was time to get up, I felt absolutely terrible. I would have done anything to escape this feeling, so I took some Kratom. Within 20 minutes I was feeling better. I was still tired, but I had some energy and felt like it was going to be a good day. “Shit”, I thought, “I’m addicted to Kratom.”

Over the next few month,s I tried to quit a few more times. Each time ended the same as the first with me taking Kratom to escape the sickness. I did a lot of research online about Kratom addiction and how to overcome it. I discovered a lot of people talking about tapering. Some people said they were able to quit Kratom entirely without feeling any withdrawal symptoms. I was intrigued.

Over time I was able to get my doses down to ~1g, 3x per day. It began to get difficult to accurately measure out doses. Sometimes I wouldn’t feel like I took enough so I would take more. Though I was able to reduce my dose, kicking the habit entirely was still a challenge. It was so hard to make myself take the right amount 3 times per day, especially when I wasn’t feeling all that great.

Another factor that made it hard was the money factor. Typically when you buy Kratom, the more you buy, the cheaper it gets. When you buy really small amounts, the price is ridiculous, at least where I was buying it. This led me to buy more and having more around than I needed. This resulted in a constant temptation to take more than I should have, which I often did.

Looking back, I wish there would have been some way to make it easier. These thoughts are what gave me the idea of a Kratom Taper Kit. A kit someone can order in the mail that is customized to their dosage and time of use that has clear, simple instructions about how to use the kit and pre-weighed out doses that one can take in order to have a near-perfect tapering experience.

My goal with this website is to help people overcome their Kratom addictions as painlessly as possible using education and customized tapering kits to designed to assist people with reducing their tolerance and practicing responsible substance use.

Why Kratom is Addictive

Like a lot of substances people put into their bodies, some of the chemicals in Kratom have addictive properties. In order to understand why, we need to understand the effects Kratom has inside the brain. We also need to understand how addiction works and why people become addicted to things.

The Chemicals in Kratom

Kratom, a plant native to Southeast Asia, has been used by people of this region for a long time for the management of pain and opium withdrawal. In the West, Kratom is increasingly being used by individuals for the self-management of pain or withdrawal from opioid drugs such as heroin and prescription painkillers. — American Osteopathic Association, December 2012, Vol. 112, 792–799.

Among over 20 active ingredients found in Kratom, two are responsible for most of the effects as well as the tolerance and addiction potential. These are Mitragynine and Hydroxymitragynine. These chemicals have over a dozen studied effects on the body. The most notable effects are the binding of the μ-opioid receptor. “Main activity on μ-opioid creating opiate and analgesic effects and physical dependence.” — Source

What this means in normal-person terms is that the two main chemicals in Kratom act similarly to the way opiates act in the brain. This is why Kratom and opiates have similar effects and similar withdrawal symptoms.

Dosage

According to the cited study, a small dose of Kratom is considered to be 1–5 grams of plant material. A medium-high dose is 5–15 grams. It’s not uncommon to read stories of people taking much higher doses as high as 30+ grams. When it comes to dosing kratom, it’s difficult to apply measurements that apply to all types of kratom. There are just too many factors that go into potency. A good rule of thumb when trying a new type of kratom is to start with a low dose and see what happens. If you desire more effects, try a medium dose, and so on. Work your way up slowly giving your body time to adjust and allow you to experience the full effects of the dose you’ve taken. The dosage rules I follow can be seen in the chart below. This is based off of my experience using a white maeng da kratom, which is considered a very powerful strain.

Half-life

When ingesting substances, it takes time for your body to process and get rid of them. The term used to measure this is “half-life”. The half-life of a drug is how long it takes for your body to get rid of half of the drug in your system. According to this study, the half-life of Kratom is ~24 hours on average. For some it was 7 hours, others 48 hours.

In my own personal experience, the more tolerance you have, the quicker your body gets rid of the drug and the shorter the half-life. In my experience it’s about 6 hours or so.

Tolerance: Your Body Gets Used to Kratom

The definition of tolerance according to drugabuse.gov is:

“Tolerance occurs when the person no longer responds to the drug in the way that person initially responded. Stated another way, it takes a higher dose of the drug to achieve the same level of response achieved initially.”

Another way to explain tolerance is by using coffee as an example. Perhaps you have experienced this yourself.

When you drink coffee for the first time in your life, you probably bounce off the walls. You might even feel a rush of euphoria, feeling absolutely amazing. If you drink the same amount of coffee for 30 days, by day 30 the effects won’t be nearly is notable as they were on day one.

If you double your dose and drink two cups, you’ll probably get that feeling again of energy any euphoria. After 30 days of drinking 2 cups the same pattern will likely return.

This is because your body has built a tolerance to coffee, or the active ingredient in coffee, caffeine. Your body is used to the caffeine being present so it has adjusted to having that much caffeine. Your body always wants to get back to baseline. It’s a mechanism built in to help us adapt to our environment.

When your body has a tolerance to coffee, coffee won’t affect you that much. If you don’t drink any coffee, you might experience negative side effects like low energy, irritability, and headaches. These are called withdrawal symptoms. Your body has gotten used to having caffeine, so when there isn’t any caffeine, it doesn’t know what to do.

After some days have passed without drinking coffee, your body will adjust back to normal and your tolerance will be reduced until, eventually, you’ll be back where you started on day 1.

With this basic understanding of how tolerance and withdrawal works, you can see how building a tolerance to something can lead to withdrawals. This means the key to not experiencing withdrawals is to not build a tolerance.

Kratom Addiction = Kratom Tolerance + Compulsive Behavior

According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the main characteristic of addiction is the:

“inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response.”

People who have a Kratom addiction are those that have built a tolerance and will experience withdrawal symptoms if they stop using. To avoid the pain of withdrawals they will not be able to abstain from using Kratom even if they really want to stop.

If you would like to stop using Kratom but don’t because you don’t want to experience withdrawals, you have a Kratom addiction.

The Negative Stigma of Addiction Makes This Worse

Nobody wants to admit they are an addict. It’s a dirty word. I know it was for me. The thing is, it’s not something people should look down on. It can happen to anyone that doesn’t understand what they’re doing when using addicting substances.

If you have an addiction and are afraid to admit it to friends and family, that’s okay. You don’t have to. You can find a lot of support online from other people who have been exactly where you are. Here are some fantastic resources for finding people who understand your troubles and can help keep you accountable on your journey to freedom from addiction.

When Kratom Use Become a Problem

A person can use Kratom for a long time and not consider it a problem. Even if they build up a tolerance, it can still be managed and used effectively. The same goes for coffee and cigarettes. Just because you have a tolerance to coffee doesn’t make you a coffee addict. Like Coffee drinkers, there are many people that use Kratom over long periods of time and are highly functioning in society. I wouldn’t classify these people as Kratom addicts.

Withdrawal Symptoms

It’s not until one experiences difficulties stopping their Kratom use that tolerance can be classified an addiction. Deciding to use Kratom every day for energy and pain relief is not the same as compulsively using it to avoid withdrawal symptoms. The avoidance of withdrawal symptoms is the main reason why Kratom addicts can’t kick the habit. The main symptoms of Kratom withdrawal are:

Irritability
Dysphoria — feeling uneasy and unsatisfied with life
Nausea
Hypertension — high blood pressure
Insomnia
Yawning
Rhinorrhea — runny nose
Myalgia — muscle aches
Diarrhea
Arthralgias — joint pain

If you do a little research on opiate withdrawals, you will see they are almost exactly the same. For this reason, treating these substances similarly is a good idea. A lot of Kratom promoters will argue that Kratom is nothing like opiates, but the facts tell an different tale. Even though Kratom is not technically an opiate, its effects on the brain are similar as are the withdrawal symptoms.

Duration of Withdrawal Symptoms

If one quits using kratom abruptly, they will begin to experience withdrawal symptoms as soon as their last dose wears off. How long before they feel normal again depends on a lot of things. The biggest determining factor is your overall health. If you have healthy eating habits and drink a lot of. water, you will have an easier time than someone who does not. Exercise can also play a key role in speeding up the healing process of the body. Generally, the worst physical symptoms will last 1–2 weeks while the milder physical and mental symptoms can last as long as a few months. Healthy nutrition, exercise, and a positive attitude can help greatly. The best thing to do to get through this phase is to stay busy. Sitting around basking in your pain and suffering is probably the worst thing you can do. There are many reasons why people decide it’s time to quit using Kratom. Sometimes it’s personal reasons like stinky breath, Kratom powder stains, or just wanting to stop spending money on it. Some reasons are even more serious like health problems and the feeling of being trapped.

Health Problems

There have been many reported health problems associated with long-term or heavy Kratom use. A lot of these are discounted by Kratom promoters because there haven’t been any real clinical studies on Kratom. That may be true, but when it comes to your health, you shouldn’t discount evidence because it isn’t 100% scientific. In my opinion, it’s best to be cautious.

Liver Failure

Though rare, there have been some reports of liver failure among heavy users of Kratom. Scientific research has shown that “Chronic use of kratom recreationally has been associated with rare instances of acute liver injury. The onset of injury is usually within 2 to 8 weeks of starting regular use of kratom powder or tablets, with symptoms of fatigue, nausea, pruritus and dark urine followed by jaundice.” — https://livertox.nih.gov/Kratom.htm

Another cause of Jaundice (liver failure) was reported by https://aasldpubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hep.27612. The subject was a 58 year old man who had been ingesting 1 tablespoon of ground Kratom leaves per day for 90 days before his psychiatrist noticed symptoms of jaundice.

While there hasn’t been a lot of research on this, someone with a history of liver problems should be weary of using Kratom. Heavy alcohol drinkers should also avoid Kratom.

Other Health Risks

Since there haven’t been any major scientific studies on the effects of Kratom, it’s hard to find conclusive evidence about the health risks associated with its use. Having said that, it’s not hard to find anecdotal reports online about users experiencing many negative effects on their health that they associate with Kratom. Some I have found are:

Hyperpigmentation of the cheeks
Tremor
Anorexia
Weight loss
Psychosis
Anxiety
Depression
Insomnia
Constipation
Stomach problems
Vision problems

Freedom: The #1 Reason to Overcome Addiction

Addiction is often referred to as a monkey on one’s back. This is because it’s impossible to escape. Feeling sick if you don’t ingest something is a sad state to be in. People will often do anything to escape the effects of withdrawals even if it means lying, cheating, and stealing from their family and friends.

The freedom that comes along from overcoming addiction is worth finding a way to quit completely. If you are feeling trapped and are ready to find a way out, we are ready to help you climb out of the hole you’ve dug for yourself.

The Fastest Way to Quit Kratom: Cold Turkey

When it comes to quitting anything, cold turkey is always the fastest. “Going Cold Turkey” just means stop using 100% all at once. Some swear it’s the best way is to go because it happens all at once and allows the person to throw away their stash and deal with the problem head-on. Going “cold turkey” is the quickest way to kick the habit, but it’s also the most painful. Depending on how much Kratom you’ve been taking and how long, your withdrawal symptoms may be too painful to continue functioning at the level you need to. If you can’t afford to deal with 1–3 weeks of feeling sick and depressed, tapering might be a better option for you.

This is one reason why people don’t quit. They can’t afford to spend a week or two feeling absolutely miserable. They have jobs, kids, lives, and sacrificing their energy and happiness is just too much to handle.

If this is you, perhaps a better way to approach kicking your Kratom habit is by tapering down your dose.

Tapering: Pick Your Comfort Level

In my opinion, tapering is the most reasonable way to reduce tolerance and quit using Kratom. The idea is simple. Carefully control your consumption level, slowly reducing the amount you take until you’re able to stop without experiencing unbearable withdrawal symptoms.

Tapering down your dose allows your body time to adjust to the change. It’s a common strategy used by doctors to wean patients off of medications.

Tapering takes careful planning and a lot of self-discipline. Since you will be taking smaller doses than you’re used to, you will be feeling slightly worse than normal. If you can’t fight the urge to take more, you might need to find someone to keep you accountable.

If you have the time and enough Kratom, tapering down your dose might be the best solution to your Kratom addiction problem.

The Right Taper For You

There are a lot of ways you can taper your dose. The amount you reduce your dose each step of the way depends on your body’s reaction. It’s important to pay attention to your body. It will tell you what’s going on if you listen.

There may be some outside factors that will determine the length of your taper. Maybe you are going on a trip soon and you don’t want to take Kratom with you. Or, maybe you have a drug test coming up for a new job. Whatever it is, you can plan your taper around these life events.

Is Quitting Kratom Too Much to Do Alone?

Overcoming an addiction can be very challenging. Quitting cold turkey might be considered the easiest way because you don’t have to worry about regulating doses and sticking to it over time. It’s easy to go a day or two and find yourself misplacing your reasons for quitting and going right back to your old habits. But, going cold turkey is painful and can have a negative impact on your daily life. It’s a lot to handle by yourself. It can be difficult to stay accountable to yourself.

If this is the case for you, you need to find someone to hold you accountable. With the negative stigma around addiction, it’s understandable if you don’t want to share your addiction with friends and family. If this is the case for you, there are tons of online communities centered around Kratom addiction where you can find hundreds of people who have quit or are trying to quit using Kratom.

In these places you will find all the support you need on your journey. People here can even help keep you accountable.

Here’s a list of online communities that will help you:

It will still be up to you to be honest with your support group even if you fail to follow your plan, therefore you still have to hold yourself accountable. For this reason, I believe it’s best to tell a close friend or family member what you’re going through so they can hold you accountable even when you don’t hold yourself accountable.

How to Use Kratom Responsibly

Kratom is addicting, yes, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used responsibly. Like alcohol, it can be used in moderation with little to no negative side effects besides a little hangover. Most of the time there’s not even a hangover.

The key is to understand how tolerance works and stay tuned into your body. If you are using Kratom regularly and start to notice the effects are diminishing, take a break. Let your body reset so when you use it again, you get the full effects you’re looking for.

Also pay attention to the reasons why you’re using it. Just want to relax once in a while? Probably a good option. Use it for pain relief instead of Tylenol? Also reasonable. But, if you’re using it because you feel like crap all the time, perhaps it’s more responsible to figure out why you feel like crap and solve that problem first. Kratom does not cure anything, it only treats the symptoms.

Kratom can be a fantastic friend. It can also be a cruel master.

Be careful. Stay safe.

Originally published at www.kickkratom.com.