once a week should be fine. I know of one member who succesfully sticks to that schedule. For the past few months Ive been using it haphazardly and randomly, kind of one month on, 10 days off, 20 days on, 10 days off, i think im about 2 weeks 'on' currently. I dont really want to be carrying on like this for much longer, whilst stopping kratom after relatively short stints is far from brutal, it takes me a good 10 days until i feel fully alright mentally (by my own standards) again.
The physical w/ds are neglible, and miniscule, weird cold buzz on the back of my shoulders and some days can feel drained and severeley lacking in motivation. At least its warmer now, was allways freezing cold on non kratom days before and could never warm up. But from what i gather Kratom is relatively forgiving if you dont use too much for too long. Some people use huge amounts of super strength extracts for years, and the w/ds they get seem to be in a different league, as kratom affects a number of different brain functions and receptors; Adrenal, opiate, and also has SNRI properties.
I think the adrenal effect is the strongest, you can really feel it in stimulating strains like red vein thai, and if you miss a nights sleep then red vein thai will comfortably and easily see you through the next day, but when you stop taking it your energy levels can be very low for a while, and the brain and body takes time to re-adjust. The longer you take it for the more 'out of whack' all these brain functions and receptors can become and the longer it takes them to re-adjust back to normal.