Opioids Kratom Cold Turkey + Taper

[kangaroojackaroo]

Hello All.

I have a lovely 3 day weekend ahead of me, and I am going to utilize it to my maximum benefit: Currently consuming 2 tsps Kratom, 3 times daily,(approximately equivalent to 14 grams daily) Alternating bewtween Maeng Da and Bali. This habit has lasted roughly 4 months. Anyway, the point I was making above with mentioning the 3 day weekend is that I would like to kick off my taper with 3 days of straight cold turkey. I then plan to begin dosing again Tuesday Morning when the weekend ends, thus starting the taper.

The reason I am doing a taper is my job is relatively stressful, and working during cold turkey w/d is not really an option. I must also mention that the reason I am quitting is because I have a very good job, with great benefits, but has a very strict drug policy. This job also presents many opportunities for travel, and I would like to quit so that when these opportunities arise I can take advantage of them without concerning myself with feeding my habit. I must also mention that I have zero access to benzodiazepines for the w/d or taper. Phenibut is also not an option for me, as I have fucked around with that for an earlier attempt at quitting and realized that Pheni withdrawal is too much of an interesting experience and much worse of a withdrawal to go through in my own opinion.

If I kick off my taper with 3 days cold turkey, I am planning on my initial taper dose on Tuesday Morning to be 3 grams(roughly a little More than a tsp). I will take this dose 3 times on this day, equaling a total of a little less than 10 grams for the day, then decreasing my dose by 1 gram each consecutive day until I reach a dosage of zero.

So my point is: If I go cold turkey 3 days, do you think 10 grams per day is a good starting dose for the taper? Should I start higher? Lower? Any opinions? Experiences?

 

[Zerwas]

Hey k-j,

since I am pretty much on the same dose of Kratom at this moment and also want to quit here my opinion:

I think it is useless to go cold turkey for three days if you plan on using again. Either stay abstinent after that or taper down before you quit.
The way you plan it you will suffer harder and not even get the benefit of being clean after that, plus the outlook for another withdrawl.

I understand your job position because I couldn't quit because I had to be able to work too but this plan of yours is counterproductive to your goal.
Especially if you have any Kratom left. You will take it if the cold turkey WD gets bad and then achieve nothing.

I can recommend to get some Gabapentin or Lyrica, they both can eliminate a lot of the intensity and symptoms of a Kratom withdrawl.

My plan is on tapering down from my usual 4g to 3g 3x a day, then 3g only twice a day and then quit using the former mentioned Gabapentin, Loperamide for the shits (not in high doses) and maybe some MCP and/or Dominal for sleep.

 

[pbuilder]

I think if you are going to go cold turkey for three days, then you should start on tuesday with 1.5 grams 3x a day at most. Why 3 grams 3x a day after you've already cold turkeyed 3 days. Its excessive. Unless you subconsciously still wanna get high on your taper.
Imo you should take the bare minimum to make withdrawals bearable after your cold turkey, no more.

Good luck.

 

[Oakstone]

I've taken short to long breaks with kratom several times, and I've found that just slowly tapering off really works quite well. The most major withdrawal effect I've gotten from doing that is just boredom, sometimes with a tinge of depression. (Though that goes away quickly.)
Personally, I'd recommend cutting down the amount of *times* you take it per day first (even if that means slightly increasing the other doses), then once you're at one dose a day, slowly decrease the size of the dose until it's fairly small (a couple grams), then just cut it off completely.

 

[hroark]

I was on a similar dose for about 5 months and I just stopped cold turkey, after 3 days you'll be through the worst of it, I worked through it with Imodium for the shits and drinking a ton of water. I went to bed as early as possible and if I couldn't sleep I would take a Gravol (Diphenhydramine) or 2 to knock me out. It's really not all that bad, I don't miss it at all now (it's been 3 months) it's a shitty drug anyway.
Good luck.

 

[Zerwas]

hroark: Did you experience nausea and/or vomiting? Because that is my main concern. I can deal with everything else but not being unable to eat. It makes the lethargy even worse.

From my experience lower doses than 2g do not help much and I feel shitty anways so I'd kick from 3g. Also taking less than 2 doses a day results in withdrawal in the evening or in the middle of the night.
I will report here with my progress. Only took 4g so far today and plan on taking another 4 and then 3 grams over the course of the day.

 

[kangaroojackaroo]

Much appreciation for the replies Zerwas, pbuilder, hroark, and whoever else might reply. After considering the opinions, I decided will be doing the taper method from the start, as you're right that It does seem foolish to cold turkey, then jump back on. Oakstones suggestion to cut down on the amount of times per day I dise is an interesting one, and I like it because it not only cuts the amount of Kratom intake, but also reduces the act of the habit. Hroark congrats on being done with the stuff, and you're right, it is a bit of a shitty drug lol, nothing like tsp after tsp of downing the most putrid powder to touch my tongue. "Chasing the dragon" with Kratom is just silly and so futile. Zerwas, keep us updated on your taper and progress. Pbuilder made a good point about takin the absolute lowest dose needed, because my(as with many others) main struggle with tapers is that it is so easy to try and reach for that buzz.

 

[kangaroojackaroo]

Update to a few week old thread: About a week after I made this thread, I got discouraged over some personal issues etc etc. and jumped up to about 20g a day.

I did, however, aquire diazepam, and for the past five days, I've taken 5mg diazepam 6 times daily; 800mg Motrin PRN; and maybe used 2mg immodium once or twice in the last five days, and in effect performing a very comfortable Kratom taper, whilst still being able to work. I must also mention that I have been exercising as much as possible during this whole process, which has mitigated much Of the boredome I get from not catching a Kratom buzz.

As a result, my Kratom intake is at 5g per day, a substantial decrease from before. I will not be taking anymore Valium, and I will now be cutting my Kratom intake by 1g a day, or .5, depending on how confortably it can be done.

 

[Wants2Nod]

Good to hear man! For future reference, honestly, at 15 grams a day you'd be fine going cold turkey. You'd appear to have a cold to people, real runny nose, maybe a bit of a loose stomach, and be a bit anxious, but the symptoms would not be debilitating by any means.

If you could get access to gabapentin, even at low doses I suspect that it would totally get rid of any withdrawal symptoms you'd have at your level of kratom use.

 

[Zerwas]

Good job dude! 5g per day is really not much and I also think that ou should be able to quit that with just minor symptoms.
I try to take this as a role model since I went back to Buprenorphine after doing Tramadol/ Benzos additionally to the Kratom... But the new shipment arrived today and I will do the switch on the weekend.

Good luck on you furter way!

 

[EnlightenedOne1]

My suggestion would be to CT it...THe wds last 3-5 Maximum... My habit was up to 60 grams of day of plain leaf and 5 grams of 50x extract from a premium vendor....Amazing herb, but not for people with addictive personalites like myself....There was no point in 3 days of abstinence just to start a tapering protocol...that makes no sense...I tried to taper and eventually flushed $400 of kratom down the toilet.

 

[HeadHigh]

Hope you're doing well Kangaroo! I also just recently finished a taper from 10g of kratom a day down to 0. I personally did 15% of the original dose off for 3 days at a time. This took me just over 2 weeks to complete and i never felt any withdrawals. Once you get down to about 3 or 4g once a day, then you can drop it cold turkey and just maybe not sleep as well for one or two days. But either way, hope you stay clean this time, and i hope you get a chance to travel soon!