Caffeine boosts the metabolism (metabolic engine) which is the stimulating bit. Metabolism governs energy levels, mood, brain function amd hormones. Caffeine enhances all those things when it's used properly:
If you speed up your metabolism but without enough fuel (glucose, carbs) you get a crash, like what "caffeine done wrong" is described as in the quote above.
The core metabolic system involves the thyroid and mitochondria. Thyroid 'runs the show', mitochondria do the work, they turn glucose into energy. The keyterms to investigate are "support thyroid health" and "support mitochondiral health". Metabolic repair should be a fundamental part of all drug recovery & treatment protocols imo.
What's your actual motivation for using kratom? For fun? Mood support? Anxiety relief? From my perspective recreational drug use is just "uncontrolled self-medication", that can be for fun too!
Consider what Klonopin does (potent pro-GABA) and what it protects against (excitatory noise: adrenaline, glutamate, cortisol, histamine). Then address each of those things.
One direct way is to lower stress (cortisol) which immediately lowers adrenaline. Part of this requires acknowledgement of the body's most potent pro-GABA/calming substances (ie progesterone, pregnenolone, testosterone). These also lower histamine and cortisol so it's a win all around. The metabolism is responsible for making these things (cue metabolic repair you asked about in question #2).
When you're making plenty of those natural endogenous pro-GABA substances you don't need Klonopin.
Tbh it's alright as far as pharma drugs go but I'd consider the body's own built-in alternatives as better options. Just personal preference really.
I wish I knew how to multi-quote (I guess I'll try to figure out sometime but not right now cause I'm lazy lol). Some of this stuff relating to caffeine and metabolism is also interesting to me cause I'm pretty into intermittent fasting whenever I feel like I need to lose weight, which happens a lot. I'm really into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts so I like to keep my weight in a good range for if I ever compete again (I used to do a lot of tournaments but haven't in years) and overall I just find that as a middle aged dude I'm often putting on weight and needing to lose it again.
So yeah, if you have read about or know about fasting you'll know that they often recommend caffeine as an appetite suppressant and to speed up metabolism a bit I guess too which helps with weight loss, and Kratom does too as far as reducing appetite, though I don't know if it speeds up metabolism. Plus with Kratom it works better on an empty stomach so that becomes an extra motivator to fast when I'm on Kratom so it's great for times like right now when I am actually trying to lose a few pounds but also just want to use Kratom for its own sake.
But basically you seem to be saying that having too much caffeine without enough carbs and or glucose can make you more likely to have a bad crash from it right? If so, that's very interesting because I have noticed that my caffeine crashes are worse on days when I'm fasting even despite it helping as an appetite suppressant and to speed up metabolism.
That being said, I definitely do still get caffeine crashes even when I'm eating normally. I mean I'm not sure that when the caffeine wears off I'm not ALWAYS having crashes, I think they are just milder. Like, isn't a caffeine crash just the caffeine wearing off and you noticing it?
As for Kratom, it's all of the above lol. I love it recreationally and it's basically my favorite mind altering substance, but it also works better than anything else I've ever used for my anxiety and depression and I also have chronic knee and neck pain from martial arts-related injuries and work out a lot so it helps for that too.
But when you say the following I'm just not sure what your methods are for "addressing" (and generally lowering) bodily chemicals like adrenaline, glutamate, cortisol and histamine. You don't make any suggestions. I mean me personally, I do the Wim Hof method which is a combination of cold showers, ice baths and breathing exercises and it most definitely does some of what you are talking about, and I work out a lot and, as mentioned, I sometimes intermittent fast. But other than those things I don't know about other non-drug related ways to influence those chemicals like you are talking about here:
"Consider what Klonopin does (potent pro-GABA) and what it protects against (excitatory noise: adrenaline, glutamate, cortisol, histamine). Then address each of those things.
One direct way is to lower stress (cortisol) which immediately lowers adrenaline. Part of this requires acknowledgement of the body's most potent pro-GABA/calming substances (ie progesterone, pregnenolone, testosterone). These also lower histamine and cortisol so it's a win all around. The metabolism is responsible for making these things (cue metabolic repair you asked about in question #2).
When you're making plenty of those natural endogenous pro-GABA substances you don't need Klonopin."
I'd totally love to be able to not need Klonopin by controlling those endogenous pro-GABA substances, but other than the few methods I've mentioned (which aren't by themselves sufficient) I don't know how else to do it. It's very hard, and, as mentioned, FOR ME PERSONALLY my body reacts VERY badly to caffeine, so I know the number one thing I could do to make it easier for myself to taper off Klonopin and generally be more relaxed with lower cortisol is to at best quit caffeine and at the very least dramatically cut down.
I don't think I can quit caffeine entirely and I'm not sure I want to, but when I have been able to just drink like maybe 2 cups of tea or one cup of coffee a day I am SO much less anxious and more relaxed. Maybe caffeine is good for you, but I'm telling you that no matter how well I "use it", no matter what I eat with it etc, that it is bad for my anxiety (and really most stimulants other than Kratom are bad for it also).