DOSE:

oral

Kratom

(daily)

BODY WEIGHT:

220 lb

I am a middle aged male with a very secret history of opiate abuse that started perhaps 6 years ago, when I felt the initial onset of a distinct depressive state. Without belaboring, I could NOT seek professional help for reasons I will not specify, so I turned to opies. As any opiate abuser will attest, opes work... for a while. My opiate of choice was the poppy pod, which has a terrific, long lasting effect, and of course, creates a very strong addiction. My pod ride lasted about 4 years, and at its worst I was consuming up to 10 tablespoons of high-grade powder per day just to continue existing normally.

3 or 4 kicks in that period demonstrated just how much Mother O had me in her grasp. Deep into one withdrawal episode, I researched Kratom, and decided to try it. I started small, perhaps 4 or 5 grams, then upped it as needed to moderate the opium withdrawal. A simple brewed tea is fine, you don't need to boil the hell out of it. Simply add boiling water to the leaves, steep, and SAVE the leaves for later in the day. As the day continues, cycle batches of boiling water onto the original morning leaves. Every milligram of the goodies would be gone by evening. I knew. The tea at that point will be a thin, very tepid, watery ghost of its morning self. Repeat the next day with fresh leaves.

The taste: After pod tea, Kratom was fine, actually pleasant. There is NOTHING on God's earth that tastes worse than pod tea.

Unlike users seeking euphoria with Kratom, its sole effect on me at that stage was to ease the discomfort. It worked. I could almost hear those Kratom alkaloids latching on to my opie receptors. Relief was fast, but short-lived, perhaps 6 hours at the most.

Over a 1 month period, I successfully transferred my O addiction to Kratom. Life with Kratom was infinitely better than pods. The side effects were much less, the cost, while high, not as bad as pods.

Fast forward 2 years to today. In that period, my Kratom consumption varied, 25g to 50g daily, but peaked at a kilogram per month. Crushed leaf was always the preferred brew, occasionally powdered leaf, always the 'standard' variety.

A short time ago I began to experiment with encapsulated super (15X, 50X, 250X, etc) extracts. Bad mistake. The extracts have a sharp and potent onset much closer to real opium than the leafy teas. I began to feel the euphoria I had sought for so many years, and once again my Kratom intake surged. Kratom's biggest downside is the short duration. I was strung out for months, riding a Kratom rollercoaster, up, down, up.... It sucked. I laugh at the 'it makes you want to do work' BS. All it makes me want to do is a detached, pseudo-knod, with a muddied, uncreative brain.

It was so bad I considered calling a Bupe Doc. 'Yeah, Doc, there's this funny tea I can legally use that has me in its claws. Called Kratom. I buy it through the mail. Yeah, it's legal.' All I'd probably hear would be peals of laughter and a 'suck it up buddy' from the Doc.

So four days ago I kicked Kratom. Standard opie withdrawal which I won't go into, beyond feeling like utter and complete shit. Today I am coherent enough (just some chills and detachment) to write this little essay. I don't know what the future holds, but it won't include Krat or opies.

My summary:

1) Kratom will successfully wean me from legal and illegal opies. Trust me, it DOES work.

2) I am now addicted to Kratom. I don't ever use anything except standard commercial leaf. The extracts are *too* good.

3) Life with Kratom is better than Life with Opes.

4) I believe God put Kratom on earth for one primary purpose - to help those who are slaves to the pod in all its forms.

5) The feeling and physical habituation is very similar to taking handfuls of Vicoden. May I suggest, with all due respect, WATCH OUT. This is a very real, very serious plant. If I am using Kratom more than 3 times per month, I may find myself in a very unhappy place.

Take care, everybody, God bless.

Exp Year: 2006	ExpID: 55648
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Sep 28, 2006	Views: 66,340
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Kratom (203) : Addiction & Habituation (10), Not Applicable (38)