Quitting kratom whilst using Xanax

[PocketLady]

I need some advice regarding poly addiction and the best options here. My brother (seriously, I am posting on his behalf because he has too much anxiety and issues to do his own research at the moment) has chronic pain which has caused him to become dependant on both kratom and benzos. He is taking kratom 3 times during the day and Xanax in the evening and sometimes a very small dose of Xanax before bed. He is having issues such as emotional blunting and is starting to feel like a shadow of himself. He would like to feel better and in an ideal world would get off both, but due to his pain, he basically feels unable to quit the Xanax right now. His quality of life would be very poor as he would be unable to do so many basic things due to the pain (in his arms/shoulders/wrists).

He feels like the kratom isn’t really doing much for him anymore and is considering quitting it. However, the problem is that he gets withdrawals from the Xanax during the day. The kratom covers most of this, though he still doesn’t feel great and has some anxiety etc. He doesn’t really feel that functional until he takes his Xanax dose at 6pm. I want to help find him the best solution so that he is able to manage his pain and also be in the best mental state possible but it’s a tricky situation. If he were to quit kratom, it seems like he would need a day time Xanax dose to manage the withdrawals, but he is obviously concerned about becoming even more dependent on it. Does anyone have any idea how dangerous or harmful this would be? Do you think there are any other options we haven’t considered?

He has been unable to get doctors to prescribe him anything and is self medicating. He has also been unable to get any real help from addiction specialists (although he has tried) as no one really understands kratom. Doctors are clueless so he is basically on his own with this. Appreciate any advice anyone might have. Thank you

 

[Jerry Atrick]

I need some advice regarding poly addiction and the best options here. My brother (seriously, I am posting on his behalf because he has too much anxiety and issues to do his own research at the moment) has chronic pain which has caused him to become dependant on both kratom and benzos. He is taking kratom 3 times during the day and Xanax in the evening and sometimes a very small dose of Xanax before bed. He is having issues such as emotional blunting and is starting to feel like a shadow of himself. He would like to feel better and in an ideal world would get off both, but due to his pain, he basically feels unable to quit the Xanax right now. His quality of life would be very poor as he would be unable to do so many basic things due to the pain (in his arms/shoulders/wrists).

He feels like the kratom isn’t really doing much for him anymore and is considering quitting it. However, the problem is that he gets withdrawals from the Xanax during the day. The kratom covers most of this, though he still doesn’t feel great and has some anxiety etc. He doesn’t really feel that functional until he takes his Xanax dose at 6pm. I want to help find him the best solution so that he is able to manage his pain and also be in the best mental state possible but it’s a tricky situation. If he were to quit kratom, it seems like he would need a day time Xanax dose to manage the withdrawals, but he is obviously concerned about becoming even more dependent on it. Does anyone have any idea how dangerous or harmful this would be? Do you think there are any other options we haven’t considered?

He has been unable to get doctors to prescribe him anything and is self medicating. He has also been unable to get any real help from addiction specialists (although he has tried) as no one really understands kratom. Doctors are clueless so he is basically on his own with this. Appreciate any advice anyone might have. Thank you

Hello there and thank you for reaching out.

I am not speaking from experience with benzos or kratom but from reading Bluelight I have learned that benzos have horrible withdrawals as does kratom. It sounds like he could be using kratom to alleviate his benzo addiction and in turn using benzos to alleviate his kratom addiction. Quite the pickle.

Sorry, that is the extent of my knowledge. Hopefully some other folks can chime in and give some tangible advice.

Thank you for helping your bro. Unfortunately when doctors are ignorant of certain substances, they will say stupid shit like, "just quit" without understanding the implications of how awful and even dangerous withdrawals can be. Best of luck

 

[Merek]

I need some advice regarding poly addiction and the best options here. My brother (seriously, I am posting on his behalf because he has too much anxiety and issues to do his own research at the moment) has chronic pain which has caused him to become dependant on both kratom and benzos. He is taking kratom 3 times during the day and Xanax in the evening and sometimes a very small dose of Xanax before bed. He is having issues such as emotional blunting and is starting to feel like a shadow of himself. He would like to feel better and in an ideal world would get off both, but due to his pain, he basically feels unable to quit the Xanax right now. His quality of life would be very poor as he would be unable to do so many basic things due to the pain (in his arms/shoulders/wrists).

He feels like the kratom isn’t really doing much for him anymore and is considering quitting it. However, the problem is that he gets withdrawals from the Xanax during the day. The kratom covers most of this, though he still doesn’t feel great and has some anxiety etc. He doesn’t really feel that functional until he takes his Xanax dose at 6pm. I want to help find him the best solution so that he is able to manage his pain and also be in the best mental state possible but it’s a tricky situation. If he were to quit kratom, it seems like he would need a day time Xanax dose to manage the withdrawals, but he is obviously concerned about becoming even more dependent on it. Does anyone have any idea how dangerous or harmful this would be? Do you think there are any other options we haven’t considered?

He has been unable to get doctors to prescribe him anything and is self medicating. He has also been unable to get any real help from addiction specialists (although he has tried) as no one really understands kratom. Doctors are clueless so he is basically on his own with this. Appreciate any advice anyone might have. Thank you

I have experience with kratom addiction and withdrawal it’s no joke kratom withdrawal is debatably worse then opioid withdrawal cause it lasts much longer it can last 2-4 weeks, kratom has anti psychotic properties too it quitting cold turkey can cause psychosis it gave me a severe psychosis, I’d strongly recommending tapering the kratom, cut the dosage down by a quarter and stay on that dose for 1 week then, cut it down another quarter and stay on that for one week and repeat the same process and eventually come off the kratom, I’d recommend he starts taking high doses of CBD, CBD is a safe non addicting chemical that has calming effects which may help him reduce the amount of benzos he takes during kratom withdrawal, CBD also has pretty good pain relieving properties, kratom withdrawal isn’t life threatening and should be alright tapering at home if he plans to come off the benzos however he should go to the hospital for tapering/detox, cold turkey xanax withdrawal or even too fast of a taper can be fatal.

 

[Vastness]

I'm not 100% sure what the best approach is but there are a few options. Firstly as has been said, obviously he has to be a lot more careful discontinuing xanax, although that said, the way you described his dosage does not, to me, scream danger, although I am expressly not a doctor or medical professional of any kind. It would be helpful to know milligram amounts since "a small dose" is kinda vague. Thinking about it I'm also curious how he can exactly tell that he experiencing withdrawal from xanax while he is withdrawing from kratom. Isn't it more likely that he is just feeling the withdrawals from kratom?

If he has the option I would try to switch to a longer acting benzo - or, possibly - and this advice is some that I'm a little wary of giving, but, I'm just trying to think what I would do in this situation - which, minus the chronic pain, which is a definite complicating factor - is one I've been quite a few times, finding myself addicted both to kratom and benzos at the same time, and having to juggle withdrawal symptoms - just take a little extra xanax for a while to ride out the kratom withdrawals. Or, probably tapering is a good move, as mentioned above, just personally I have never had much luck tapering kratom and have usually had to quit cold turkey at some point when I just get sick of it. I have tapered benzos though which unfortunately is just a necessity, or if I am able to get gabapentin I usually switch to that for a while. I did quit both kratom and a daily diazepam habit fairly harshly once using just gabapentin to manage the seizure risk but it still involved a lot of sufferring and maybe was not advisable, I think if I was dealing with chronic pain as well I may not have been able to do it. Also I'll add I've never been especially dependant on a short acting benzo so may have had a slightly easier time in that sense. Regardless though, as I see it it would make more sense to deal with the kratom addiction first, primarily because it is just a less dangerous one. I hesitate to say it's "easier" because it's hard to quantify and in some ways, minus the seizure potential, I've found kratom withdrawal to be acutely harsher than quitting benzos in the short term, which also sucks but in a different way, being both somehow more subtle and also longer and more drawn out, with a whole host of side effects that are easy to mistake for "just the way you feel about life" like increased anxiety, anhedonia, etc... but with kratom it is a kind of comfort to know that even though you feel really shit, you're almost certainly not going to die from it, I've found, at least.

 

[Merek]

I'm not 100% sure what the best approach is but there are a few options. Firstly as has been said, obviously he has to be a lot more careful discontinuing xanax, although that said, the way you described his dosage does not, to me, scream danger, although I am expressly not a doctor or medical professional of any kind. It would be helpful to know milligram amounts since "a small dose" is kinda vague. Thinking about it I'm also curious how he can exactly tell that he experiencing withdrawal from xanax while he is withdrawing from kratom. Isn't it more likely that he is just feeling the withdrawals from kratom?

If he has the option I would try to switch to a longer acting benzo - or, possibly - and this advice is some that I'm a little wary of giving, but, I'm just trying to think what I would do in this situation - which, minus the chronic pain, which is a definite complicating factor - is one I've been quite a few times, finding myself addicted both to kratom and benzos at the same time, and having to juggle withdrawal symptoms - just take a little extra xanax for a while to ride out the kratom withdrawals. Or, probably tapering is a good move, as mentioned above, just personally I have never had much luck tapering kratom and have usually had to quit cold turkey at some point when I just get sick of it. I have tapered benzos though which unfortunately is just a necessity, or if I am able to get gabapentin I usually switch to that for a while. I did quit both kratom and a daily diazepam habit fairly harshly once using just gabapentin to manage the seizure risk but it still involved a lot of sufferring and maybe was not advisable, I think if I was dealing with chronic pain as well I may not have been able to do it. Also I'll add I've never been especially dependant on a short acting benzo so may have had a slightly easier time in that sense. Regardless though, as I see it it would make more sense to deal with the kratom addiction first, primarily because it is just a less dangerous one. I hesitate to say it's "easier" because it's hard to quantify and in some ways, minus the seizure potential, I've found kratom withdrawal to be acutely harsher than quitting benzos in the short term, which also sucks but in a different way, being both somehow more subtle and also longer and more drawn out, with a whole host of side effects that are easy to mistake for "just the way you feel about life" like increased anxiety, anhedonia, etc... but with kratom it is a kind of comfort to know that even though you feel really shit, you're almost certainly not going to die from it, I've found, at least.

Although kratom withdrawal can’t kill you it can be dangerous in other ways, quitting kratom cold turkey can cause delirium/psychosis which can be a huge problem doesn’t happen to everybody but it happened to me and it was a medical emergency I had to go to a mental ward cause I was going insane from kratom withdrawal.

 

[Loco_Liv]

I need some advice regarding poly addiction and the best options here. My brother (seriously, I am posting on his behalf because he has too much anxiety and issues to do his own research at the moment) has chronic pain which has caused him to become dependant on both kratom and benzos. He is taking kratom 3 times during the day and Xanax in the evening and sometimes a very small dose of Xanax before bed. He is having issues such as emotional blunting and is starting to feel like a shadow of himself. He would like to feel better and in an ideal world would get off both, but due to his pain, he basically feels unable to quit the Xanax right now. His quality of life would be very poor as he would be unable to do so many basic things due to the pain (in his arms/shoulders/wrists).

He feels like the kratom isn’t really doing much for him anymore and is considering quitting it. However, the problem is that he gets withdrawals from the Xanax during the day. The kratom covers most of this, though he still doesn’t feel great and has some anxiety etc. He doesn’t really feel that functional until he takes his Xanax dose at 6pm. I want to help find him the best solution so that he is able to manage his pain and also be in the best mental state possible but it’s a tricky situation. If he were to quit kratom, it seems like he would need a day time Xanax dose to manage the withdrawals, but he is obviously concerned about becoming even more dependent on it. Does anyone have any idea how dangerous or harmful this would be? Do you think there are any other options we haven’t considered?

He has been unable to get doctors to prescribe him anything and is self medicating. He has also been unable to get any real help from addiction specialists (although he has tried) as no one really understands kratom. Doctors are clueless so he is basically on his own with this. Appreciate any advice anyone might have. Thank you

Hello friend! I’m glad you are there for your brother and able to reach out for him. All I’m saying is from experience. I am 30 years old and have been on Benzos for about 7 years, now. Before I was pregnant I had gotten on them around the age of 17. Klonopins. I got switched to Xanax after getting out back on medication after giving birth and finished Breast Feeding. I have been diagnosed with severe anxiety and Depression. I also found out about Kratom a few years ago, I’ve always felt that if I wanted to wean off of the Benzodiazepines I would use Kratom, it helps me through my day. I’ve gone all day taking no anxiety medication, and been taking Kratom through the day. Don’t have him stop taking the Xanax, even though he’s not prescribed, he can have horrible withdrawals and your body can have a seizure. He needs to see a Dr to get the medication his body really needs. For pain and as well as anxiety. I know it’s hard to get into see a physician even if you don’t have insurance. But tell him to take the Kratom to help him if he’s going to get off the Benzos. It’s a hard journey, but just trying to get him the help he needs will help him in the long run, and make him feel like he can live again. I hope this helps! Keeping you guys in my prayers.