I did start a thread on this, was hoping to get moral support for my attempt to quit kratom. Apparently the forum proper is not the place for that, so will give it a go here as advised by mod. I am hoping for comments and moral support during my withdrawal, so hope I can pull in some feedback once I get going with the withdrawal process. I will make forum posts as and when I need advice or practical tips or to share something that worked - this blog will be my place to ramble, and vent, and scream

But I hope to make it interesting too, kind of a story, I've always made sense of my life through stories... Anyway... At the moment I am planning ahead - this is my intro...
Chapter 1:
5-6 years ago I used to drink, and smoke. I gave up the smoking, and when I discovered kratom, the drink gradually phased out as I prefered the relaxed clarity that kratom gave me, not to mention the ability to get lots done in the stimulation phase.
Eventually I got fed up with the kratom, and quit that, too, and had a life free of drugs for a while. It was fantastic. Then some personal tragedies and difficult events happened, a supply of Oxycontin became available to me, and I thought what the hell, I need something to get through this, right? Wind forward a year and I was stuck with a 350mg a day Oxy habit, and had gone back on the kratom as well to help in between the occasional shortage of the hard stuff.
I Ct'd from Oxy and Kratom, did therapy, sorted myself out and totally turned my life around, I was running a lot, that was my new DOC I guess, but a healthy one. Then I got a trapped nerve in my back, it was agony... Having severed my oxy contacts long ago, I resorted to combining kratom and OTC codeine - at first for the pain, but then I enjoyed the buzz too. Then I bust my knee running, and suddenly there it was, a gap for the addiction to rush back in.
So for the last year I've seesawed between kratom and OTC codeine (prescription codeine when I can get it). I've tapered off the kratom several times, using the codeine, and maintained on codeine, and vice versa - but a lot of the time just combined them. Lately I've been off codeine for a month, just using kratom... I've CT'd a few times of kratom and then relapsed, because I couldn't get throught he freakin depression part of withdrawal with the responsibilities I currently have...
But when I say using kratom, believe me, I am talking a massive kratom habit. I quit the crap this Christmas just gone, as I was doing 50-100g a day plain leaf, and it was costing me a fortune - had about 2 weeks clean, then relapsed with some headshop extract while I awaited a new batch. My online vendor had some specials by the Kilo of kratom, I had cash, I thought, why not take advantage - I could just use responsibly, couldn't I?! Wrong. The first kilo was gone in ten days - so basically I was using 100g of plain leaf Indo a day - I chugged it to wake up, I chugged it to keep me going in the day, I chugged it to relax me at night. Every single day - because always I was reminded of the shitty RLS that comes on when I haven't dosed for 8 hours. And that's where I've been since January, using a hell of a lot of kratom... and having to use it because if I try to get past 2 in the afternoon my body starts trying to jump out of its own skin
I've tried to CT again but my motivation has been low, because with my present responsibilities, I know that even if I can get through the first 2-3 days I am going to have to be good to go by day 4, and the anxiety gets me every time. With Easter coming up I have managed to find a window of 10 days where I can more or less hole up and avoid social engagements and work pressures, and concentrate on getting off this shit.
Some will say it's only kratom, but it is a LOT of kratom - and having CT'd from an OXY habit I would say my kratom withdrawals have been comparable (though that could be a body memory from previous opiate withdrawals). I find tapering from kratom has worked, but my discipline is shot to pieces lately... too much stuff I've needed to do... The RLS/akathisia of kratom withdrawal is just the worst for me, followed by the depression which follows the acute phase. I think there is a huge psychological component in all this - because previously I had worked so hard to feel good, and so I just don't want to feel bad, even though I know some amount of suffering is the only way I can get off this now...
So, I have sourced some phenibut for the anxiety, and some kanna for the depression, and hope these will come in useful for my foray into yet another withdrawal. At least I have quit the combined codeine habit, maybe that will make things easier.
I got my last package of kratom through the mail today (another thing I am fed up with is that sense of dread if a package doesn't come, or if my vendor suddenly runs out of stock, etc...). I have about half a kilo of kratom, which I am going to do a short taper with into next week, and try to reduce the spikes in my system as much as possible. I have then set next Thursday as the last day of Kratom use. And then the adventure will truly begin.
I hope to use this thread to report on how it's going, and to keep me motivated. I do have a lot of inner motivation, but it surely may help if I get some support on here, as it would be embarrassing to come back and admit failure - typing accounts of the withdrawal process may also help me distract myself, and remind me of how shitty it is, if I start getting thoughts of occasional use again.
I cannot use opiates/kratom responsibly.
Apologies for a long opening post, and good wishes to anyone planning to quit any DOC, whatever it may be.
So, anybody out there reading?