How are you able to take 2-3 day breaks from 7-OH and not go into WD? I mean for me, now with plain leaf sometimes it could take 2-3 days for WDs to show up, but then they'll happen for over a week.I understand it, you’re kind of stuck in that loop. When I was taking kratom, I’d take my night dose and by the morning I’d already wake up in WDs.
From my perspective, you have two choices. One is to stop it once and for all and either just raw dog life or find another substance that’s less addictive, like weed (a medical strain or whatever works for you).
The other option is to come to terms with it and keep a steady dosage that doesn’t interfere with your life but it won’t give you all the benefits. That’s the thing with all substances: at first you get all the advantages (analgesia, mood boost, social lubrication, etc.), but after a while they fade.
So if you can come to terms with keeping a steady low dose, you’ll probably keep something like the analgesia, but lose the mood boost and the rest. I don’t think there’s really an in-between with it.
As for testosterone concerns, I get it. I see it all the time with friends who use opioids low testosterone, low sex drive, etc. I’m on TRT, so I don’t really get those side effects anymore. If you’re at the right age, it might be something to consider.
I’m a bit hesitant to recommend this, but I used to be dependent on kratom too waking up in WDs every morning and it also got to the point where it felt gross and I couldn’t even get it down. I stopped for almost a year, and now I use 7-OH. It’s a lot more potent and has most of the benefits of kratom (even more, honestly), without most of the downsides except for testosterone.
I take breaks from it usually 2–3 days off every week. I haven’t noticed any withdrawals with it, not sure why, maybe because of its short half-life. I also don’t escalate the dose. I take around 2.5 to 10 mg max, usually around 7.5 mg, and I feel good there.
I think I have a relatively healthy relationship with it. Still, I’m a bit hesitant to recommend it because of all the horror stories around it but if it works for me, maybe it could work for someone else.
I don't see myself being able to take tiny doses of Kratom unless tapering because the mood boost is entirely what I'm after and not the pain killing effects, although I will probably need those eventually for injuries I have.
I would like to try TRT for a bunch of reasons not even just related to Kratom but it's a big decision and I also don't think I can afford it now. At some point I might though.
I'm definitely not never going to do Kratom again either. I see no other options that to keep doing what I already have which is enjoy it sporadically then force myself through the WDs and then stop for periods of time even while dealing with the inconvenience it causes me simply because I like it too much to entirely quit. I could try for one dose a week or something and use Naltrexone to enforce that, but I'd probably slip up eventually.
The only other option I see is becoming SUPER comfortable with tapering. It might be possible, but my WDs last so long that usually I just want them over with so I go cold turkey, but MAYBE if I wanted to really be able to use Kratom frequently i could practice tapering so much that I could get to a point where I'd rarely be in WDs that would be uncomfortable enough to really slow my lifestyle down. Are you or do you know anyone who has gotten to that point?
Also, you mention sleeping on Kratom and I have never been able to sleep unless my last dose has worn off like AT LEAST 5 hours prior to bedtime. It's FAR too stimulating for me. The reason this worries me is cause I have injuries that will get worse over time cause I do martial arts and now our fucked up doctors won't prescribe opioids anymore and when I've been in pain I've found the time I need relief most is when I'm sleeping, so I'd need hydro or oxy which is what I was prescribed for past surgeries/injuries, but these days they'll almost never prescribe that shit and I won't go the 7-OH route to see if I can sleep on that because I know I'll get too addicted. Anyways, it probably won't be legal for long.
Seriously, how do you manage to sleep on Kratom with how stimulating it is? Can you only sleep on 7-OH or can you actually sleep on plain leaf powder?
