A psychological addiction is not always a 'weak-mind', some people are pre-disposed to do certian things regardless of their moral integrity. Also, a safe level of opiate use before getting addicted is zero. No offense OP, but I have seen just about every user I have ever seen say the following:
1. I will only use on the weekends, which led to
2. I will only use every other day, which led to
3. I use everyday, but at least im not doing heroin, which led to
4. I know I use heroin, but at least I don't shoot it, which led to
5. I shoot heroin, at least it's cheaper than oxy!
Not saying you will turn out this way, but it's a good possibility.
Couldn't say it better myself. This very quote right here should be stickied!!
I'm currently on step 2 with kratom. Kratom is a little less addicting in a physical sense, however the psychological aspect is there 100%. I went through this with pod tea last summer, very much in the same way. Only one small ~10g cup on the weekend, to one cup and a redose, then several cups a weekend, then friday morning before work became part of my "weekend", so did mondays after, and eventually I found myself using on wednesdays too simply staying clean on thursdays and tuesdays. All this while, using more and more every time due to tolerance QUICKLY building. It hit me when I downed a 40g glass of tea on a wednesday morning before work, and barely felt it, only to have irritability and cold sweats start hitting me. I was addicted and need to check myself befo' I wreck myself...and I did. Stopped cold turkey, the withdrawal turned out to actually not be all THAT bad and I didn't use any opiates for several months. I felt really good about myself for pulling this off.
Now, I've moved onto kratom, which is much less addicting but still habit forming (emphasis on
habit). I started just like with pod tea, only weekends, but then my contract ended with the company I was with (expected) and basically just got to kick it at home for ~4 months. I decided to allow myself to use every three days, as in a cup on Monday, not use 'till Thursday, etc.. That evolved into every other day, and to be honest I've been pretty good at maintaining that. I have now landed a new job and in preparation for this, I allowed my kratom supply to run out before I thought about ordering more, as to force myself to not use because at this point, I must say I am quite psychologically addicted. So far it's been 6 days since I last used and I have felt minor symptoms like fatigue, slight irritability, maybe a hint of anxiety, but really all in all the worst part is the simple cravings. I'm hanging out here at home, nothing I need to do, pretty broke with nothing to do, and kratom normally is my solution to being so bored. This is good though, because it's already gotten easier and knowing I've done this before with something tons more addicting gives me confidence.
I ordered more kratom and am still waiting for it to come. Any physical withdrawal symptoms have completely subsided and all that's left is a craving. However, the best thing all along has been staying busy. If you simply stay busy, your mind will be off it. That's why I was using starting work again as a milestone for tapering down. I still plan to use kratom, but I'm going to go back to my weekends only rule. This is an important job this time so there will be NO getting high before work. It should be easy for me to curb my habit this time.
