dimlyFourOwls
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 23, 2010
- Messages
- 78
Kratom, nicotine, and schizoaffective disorder
Hi everyone. Soooo, it's been a bit of a mess. I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder about six years ago, in grad school, after I messed up the lab where I worked during a psychotic episode in the middle of the night.
Fast forward to today: I'm much recovered, my psychosis is much better (trace remnants, negative energy and threatening energy from people mostly), some social anxiety, general anxiety/restlessness. My most recent psychiatrist I've been seeing for about a year now. I was on olanzapine while taking heavy doses of kratom for a while with my previous psychiatrist whom I didn't tell about the kratom. I was self-medicating for the anxiety with the kratom but I had to keep increasing the dose to keep up with the anxiety, and eventually it stopped working but I kept on it. Up to 10 or 20 teaspoons of ground leaf a day.
Fast forward again: I've told my current psychiatrist I'm off of kratom, but I suffered severe withdrawal symptoms (waking nightmares, very vivid and with palpable pain and horror) during the process, so my family agreed I should taper instead of quitting cold turkey. (Side note: I'm not sure how prevalent the notion that tapering can be beneficial is for the medical complex. Anyway...). Now I am on two teaspoons a day, my psychosis is mostly gone, and my main remaining symptom is a short attention span and an ever-present restlessness. I have to get up from the computer every ten minutes to go outside and pace back and forth while vaping. Oh yeah, I also vape nonstop throughout the day. 3 mg/mL, 70/30 vg/pg. I'm able to do this because I'm on a 4-month medical leave of absence from work to treat my schizoaffective disorder and my house has windows which are capable of opening.
My psychiatrist is convinced it is the kratom that caused all my mental symptoms, after reading the first smear campaign google hit for kratom side effects and that's about it. He's done some more research in the background but I still don't know his sources. I don't hear people having problems with kratom but I've heard the normal dose is no more than three teaspoons ground leaf a day. I started using kratom around the same time I started grad school. My paranoia and psychosis peaked about two to three years into grad school.
I started smoking about four years ago in a mental ward in England (long story), went back home to the U.S., continued smoking for two years, then switched to vaping which I now continue to do.
My questions right now are: Can high doses of kratom cause psychosis? and; Can a constant low dose of kratom mixed with antipsychotics and nicotine cause restlessness/anxiety/short attention span?
I am currently on clonazepam (antianxiety, 0.75 mg/day), risperidone (antipsychotic, 5 mg/day), and buspirone (antianxiety, 30 mg/day). With my previous psychiatrist whom I did not tell about the kratom addiction, I was on a very high dose of and not responding to olanzapine. I switched my antipsychotic when I switched to my current psychiatrist, who I told about my kratom addiction which fueled his belief it caused my symptoms and who now believes I am clean (thought in reality I am at a low dose and continuing to slowly taper off).
Thank you for any information or opinions you have, and I can answer additional questions to clarify anything that was confusing in my post.
dfo
Hi everyone. Soooo, it's been a bit of a mess. I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder about six years ago, in grad school, after I messed up the lab where I worked during a psychotic episode in the middle of the night.
Fast forward to today: I'm much recovered, my psychosis is much better (trace remnants, negative energy and threatening energy from people mostly), some social anxiety, general anxiety/restlessness. My most recent psychiatrist I've been seeing for about a year now. I was on olanzapine while taking heavy doses of kratom for a while with my previous psychiatrist whom I didn't tell about the kratom. I was self-medicating for the anxiety with the kratom but I had to keep increasing the dose to keep up with the anxiety, and eventually it stopped working but I kept on it. Up to 10 or 20 teaspoons of ground leaf a day.
Fast forward again: I've told my current psychiatrist I'm off of kratom, but I suffered severe withdrawal symptoms (waking nightmares, very vivid and with palpable pain and horror) during the process, so my family agreed I should taper instead of quitting cold turkey. (Side note: I'm not sure how prevalent the notion that tapering can be beneficial is for the medical complex. Anyway...). Now I am on two teaspoons a day, my psychosis is mostly gone, and my main remaining symptom is a short attention span and an ever-present restlessness. I have to get up from the computer every ten minutes to go outside and pace back and forth while vaping. Oh yeah, I also vape nonstop throughout the day. 3 mg/mL, 70/30 vg/pg. I'm able to do this because I'm on a 4-month medical leave of absence from work to treat my schizoaffective disorder and my house has windows which are capable of opening.
My psychiatrist is convinced it is the kratom that caused all my mental symptoms, after reading the first smear campaign google hit for kratom side effects and that's about it. He's done some more research in the background but I still don't know his sources. I don't hear people having problems with kratom but I've heard the normal dose is no more than three teaspoons ground leaf a day. I started using kratom around the same time I started grad school. My paranoia and psychosis peaked about two to three years into grad school.
I started smoking about four years ago in a mental ward in England (long story), went back home to the U.S., continued smoking for two years, then switched to vaping which I now continue to do.
My questions right now are: Can high doses of kratom cause psychosis? and; Can a constant low dose of kratom mixed with antipsychotics and nicotine cause restlessness/anxiety/short attention span?
I am currently on clonazepam (antianxiety, 0.75 mg/day), risperidone (antipsychotic, 5 mg/day), and buspirone (antianxiety, 30 mg/day). With my previous psychiatrist whom I did not tell about the kratom addiction, I was on a very high dose of and not responding to olanzapine. I switched my antipsychotic when I switched to my current psychiatrist, who I told about my kratom addiction which fueled his belief it caused my symptoms and who now believes I am clean (thought in reality I am at a low dose and continuing to slowly taper off).
Thank you for any information or opinions you have, and I can answer additional questions to clarify anything that was confusing in my post.
dfo
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