I have successfully “quit” Kratom 3 times – Which is not to say I have won the battle with Kratom addiction but does point to the fact that Kratom is extremely addictive and difficult to stay off. I wrote a whole book on the matter. There’s lots of good reasons to quit, and if you’re reading this, you’re all to familiar with the many reasons why it’s best to get off and stay off. The Kratom community will have you believe you simply abused Kratom rather than admit the very substance itself has a drug-like nature and carries all the same risks for dependence and addiction. More people than not are finding themselves in the all too familiar situation of Kratom consuming their life, and creating a nasty and pervasive network of negative side effects – side effects that can no longer be ignored. You’re in a position where Kratom has ran its course and the positive therapeutic effects have all but dissipated, leaving in its wake the sinking feeling that it’s time to bite the bullet and come off for good.

Maybe you’ve tried to quit only to be met with horrific withdrawal symptoms you’ve never experienced before. Perhaps you find it difficult to abstain from psychologically. Maybe you have no idea what to expect. Whatever the case, this post will serve as the foundation of your journey and shed light on the process every step of the way.

Deciding to quit

You’ve recognized there’s a problem and that’s the first step. By some stroke of blind luck you took a look in the mirror and had the emotional intelligence to understand the errors of your ways. I say this because Kratom scoops you out from the inside, leaving only a husk where life and vitality once dwelled. This is good because it means you’re not totally dead on the inside and have some ability to recognize your body, how it feels, and the many ailments you deal with on a daily basis thanks to Kratom – which could include Depression, apathy, low motivation, no sex drive, and probably extreme irritability – all hallmark characteristics of the long term Kratom experience. Kratom may have served some purpose at some point, in fact you probably found it quite helpful (and it was), but this is no longer the case and the conditions you used Kratom for are now magnified and worse than ever.

Recognizing the root cause and deciding to quit is the first part of this journey.

How to do it

The next step is of course actually quitting Kratom and leaving it in the dust. Like a runaway caravan, you toss it overboard and observe the Kratom getting lost in the dust and dirt – its once looming and large figure now shrinking ever so smaller as you put great speed and distance between you and the green monster – that massive Kraken.

But how exactly does one accomplish such a feat? The simple answer is you throw away your Kratom and never take another dose – because it can and does boil down to those drop dead simple terms. Throw away your Kratom and never take another dose. Easier said than done?

Well, maybe.

But that it is indeed the first step. Throw it all away. Step 1.

This step could be met with a bit of resistance. Perhaps you don’t find it easy to ditch your entire stash. You may ask yourself if you’re over reacting, or if this is a life change you really want to make. Take warning – this is the Kraken, The Jinn, Satan, the addiction in your head playing tricks on your mind. Because deep down you know what must be done. In no uncertain terms, the Kratom is now an anvil around your neck, a Kraken with immense crushing power dragging you deeper and deeper into that brimey deep…

So best to flush it and not overthink.

Withdrawal symptoms

What happens next? After flushing your stash there’s a sense of accomplishment, that feeling you get when you know you’ve done the right thing. Suddenly you’re invigorated with strength and power – because for the first time it’s you who’s calling the shots. Celebrate this moment and bask in the glory of making the right choice and following through with your plans.

The glory doesn’t last forever though.

What’s coming down the tunnel will test your grit and willpower…

This is why it’s crucial to develop a potent disgust for Kratom. You have to come to hate the thing so much, to be so disgusted with what it did to you, that no matter what you power through to the end. Without this disgust the journey will be much harder, especially once the withdrawals kick in. Without disgust and firm resolve, it’s unlikely you’ll see this goal through to completion.

Kratom withdrawal comes in 2 stages. The first stage is the acute stage, meaning this is where they will be strongest and most debilitating. I do not want to scare you, it’s entirely possible you get off fairly easy. A lot of people do, but a lot of people don’t. The factors determining the difficulty of this stage include how much Kratom you were taking, and for how long. Consider someone taking 10 grams for a year will have it easier than someone taking 40 grams for 5 years. I’ve been on both sides and can tell you there’s a real difference in difficulty between those 2 spectrums.

The first couple days of withdrawal are usually the easiest. Kratom has a long half life so it can take quite some time to fully leave the body.

I thought I was going to get off unscathed because the first couple days of quitting Kratom were easy…

Then came day 3.

Symptoms range from mild to debilitating, and can present a gambit of physical ailments including sneezing, cold/flu symptoms, headaches, diarrhea, nausea, low energy, hot/cold flashes and restless legs. These are just the physical symptoms. Psychological symptoms are also very common but they tend to only crop up in the later stages of withdrawal.

This acute stage can last anywhere from 1 – 2 weeks. The good news is they do go away with time, once again usually in a week, but sometimes up to 2.

There are some practical tips I can give you for this stage. First, if you can take some time off work that is ideal. At the very least plan to quit around a time when your worldly obligations are at their lowest. Depending on your level of dependence you’re not gonna have much energy for anything, and you’ll be feeling like absolute dog shit for a solid week. That’s okay. Have all your shopping done for the week or month or whatever you feel is appropriate. Tie up the loose ends and get ready to hunker down. Tell as few people as possible if any, they will likely not understand. Treat it like you would treat having the flu and stock up on your favorite foods and beverages, even though you may not feel like eating much.

A typical day during withdrawals might involve dragging around the house with no energy in the tank whatsoever. You might be sneezing, but in general you just feel ran down. Nights are the worst because the restless legs make it impossible to sleep. You toss and turn all night, unable to find rest in any position. Lack of sleep drops your daytime energy even lower. Luckily you do tend to pass out from pure exhaustion alone. Consider yourself lucky if you get more than 3 hours of sleep at night for a while. For the first week you feel like a walking carcass but the physical symptoms do start to improve after 7 days.

PAWS

If you can make it through the first week pat yourself on the back because the hard part is over, but in some ways the war is just beginning. At this point you’re starting to sleep better and energy systems are coming back online. You’re getting a sense of forward progress. You may even have really good days where you feel extra invigorated, leading you to think you’re out of the woods – but don’t drop your shields yet. The physical symptoms may have reduced significantly but psychological symptoms like Depression, anhedonia, anxiety, and apathy are starting to show their teeth. It’s common for many long time users to develop periods of extremely low motivation, and perhaps Depression. Personally I went through periods of total psychological deadness, as if I entered into a mental faraday cage where no positive signals could penetrate my brain. I’ve long said the psychological deadness and Depression are by far the worst withdrawal symptoms – and in my case lasted much longer than any of the physical symptoms.

For those of you who used Kratom to manage Depression or anhedonia, this is where you’re most likely to crack. The Kraken has exposed a most vulnerable chink in the armor and will exploit it to the best of its ability. Stay strong and power through.

For the first 30 days you’re going to experience a rollercoaster of symptoms and emotions. A frustrating aspect of Kratom withdrawal is having a really good day, followed by a very bad day. You may even have a few good days in a row and then be hit out of nowhere with terrible symptoms once again, as if the Kraken temporarily retreats only to reload and resurface.

These extended periods of feeling good are often referred to as the “pink cloud phase.” This is a phase used to describe feelings of great positivity in the beginning stages of drug withdrawal. There’s a number of causes for these feelings. One is chemical dysregulation. Your brain is trying to balance itself and in the process elevates certain neurotransmitters – which is only a temporary rest stop until things recover to baseline. You are also experiencing very real feelings of accomplishment, as if you have a new lease on life, and a sense of pride for doing something difficult you never thought you could do. All of this can contribute to multiple days of feeling very good – but all good things come to an end, and suddenly you’re hit out of nowhere with a very bad day.

Don’t worry, these bad days are also temporary. Just keep going.

Supplements and drugs

There are a few supplements and drugs which can serve as “helpers” in your quitting Kratom journey. I’m going to be honest though, at best supplements will improve symptoms by 10%. This makes them just valuable enough to spend the money, but they are far from bulletproof remedies. In my experience, the key to success is simply accepting a moderate amount of pain, and gritting through at all costs.

I will however mention a few things that helped me:

Kava Kava – This one helped the most at night. I’d make a strong batch just before lying down for the night. Combined with Melatonin and magnesium, this stack afforded me a few hours of sleep I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Learn to prepare Kava the traditional way and make it as strong as you can.

Vitamin C – There’s a lot of research using high dose Vitamin C to mitigate opiate/opioid withdrawals. I used 5 grams of Ascorbic Acid 3 times a day to mild success. Definitely not a silver bullet but does help. You can use liposomal vitamin C if the ascorbic acid is too hard on the stomach.

Phenibut – Use with caution. I used a small amount of Phenibut on a day where I couldn’t motivate at all and the Depression was at its most brutal. Phenibut reliably animates the carcass – but not without consequences. I stress using small amounts for a single day at the most, otherwise you find yourself in a deeper hole than you started. You certainly don’t want to trade a Kratom addiction for a Phenibut addiction.

Coffee – Some people don’t recommend coffee but I found it scratched a similar itch as Kratom. I never drank coffee when I took Kratom, but I found myself drinking copious amounts when I came off, as if my body regarded it as medicinal. It definitely helped with energy levels but if one of your withdrawal symptoms is anxiety or irritability it’s best to avoid stimulants of any kind.

Agmatine – Lot’s of people use Agmatine to potentiate Kratom. I found it only reduced the euphoric aspects of my doses, but I did find it useful for managing cravings after I quit. If I was having a craving for Kratom I’d take a Gram of Agmatine. It also doubles as a decent anti-depressant. I didn’t find it helped with withdrawal depression but some do.

NAC – I use this similar to Agmatine. It reduces cravings and also overactive thoughts. Sometimes I’d be in a space where my thoughts would get the best of me, and they’d turn dark and neurotic. NAC has always reduced the intensity of such thoughts and brought me back to earth. Can be helpful during Kratom withdrawal.

Gabapentin – Gabapentin is a prescribed drug for nerve pain but also really effective for Kratom withdrawals, especially to manage anxiety and restless legs. A lot of people swear by it. I’ve used it plenty of times but never for Kratom withdrawals.

Clonidine – Clonidine is an antihypertensive medication and said to be one of the more effective medications for Kratom withdrawal. It’s not a narcotic and non-addictive which makes it preferable to other drugs. It’s used to treat high blood pressure but also has significant positive benefits for many of the more nasty Kratom withdrawal symptoms. It can reduce anxiety, hot flashes, and also makes restlessness at night more manageable. The RLS is arguably one of the worst symptoms you’ll experience coming off Kratom, and Clonidine is reported to be very effective at reducing the intensity.

Other notable mentions would include Black Seed Oil, DLPA, Ashwagandha, lemon balm, Taurine, L-Theanine and probably many others. Once again I stress that supplements will only help to a mild degree as you’ll quickly find out. The prescription drugs are stronger and as such will have more of an effect but are harder to get. Keep in mind the prescription drugs including the Phenibut should be seen as only temporary band-aids – not something you’re going to be on for the rest of your life, or even beyond a week for that matter. Phenibut and Gabapentin will all have a withdrawal process of their own if you choose to use them long term, and some even say Clonidine has a nasty and unpleasant rebound anxiety.

Scrawling the days

You’ve probably heard the saying “day by day” and that’s exactly what this is. You take it day by day. Everyday you don’t take Kratom is a win. Every day you power through the pain brings you one step closer to total victory. There will be some days you feel like cracking and giving in. There’s not much a post like this can do to help you in those situations. Rest assured, there will be many hard moments and that’s fine. But each time you conquer a craving or a tough moment, you train your brain to make the next challenge just a little easier. Soon enough you’re brushing off cravings like they’re nothing, and next thing you know you realize you haven’t thought about Kratom in a long time.

It’s important to count your days, but as I joke in some of my videos, it’s also important to at some point stop scrawling the days into the prison wall. You’ve all seen the movies where the prisoner quite literally scrawls the days into the wall. At some point you have to walk out and never look back. Stop consuming Kratom content, stop looking over at your old smoke shop, stop engaging in behaviors that make you want to use Kratom, stop scrawling the days into the wall. That was your old life, and now you’re tasked with starting something new.

I called this quit Kratom in 30 days because I believe if you can make it 30 days, you’re pretty much in the clear. Sure, there will be challenging moments ahead but you’ve done the bulk of the work.

Now all you have to do is stay the course.