hey @Derick-Ledermann welcome to the #kratomapp! How long have you been taking kratom?
hey @Derick-Ledermann welcome
Hello! Thank you for the welcome message. I stumbled across this community while searching for info on growing mitragyna speciosa. I’ve only been on here for a few minutes, but already I can tell it’s a friendly community.
My Story:
I’ve been taking Kratom for 4 years to manage my chronic back pain. The pain started when I was 17 years old (I’m 28 now). In high school it got so bad that I often had to go home early because I couldn’t handle the pain of sitting in class. Over the years I’ve been to countless doctors, undergone dozens of blood tests and imaging, taken drugs like Lyrica and Cymbalta, and tried just about every treatment out there (injections, physical therapy, mindfulness, exercise, yoga, CBT, self-hypnosis, meditation, massage therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic, etc.). No doctor has ever been able to uncover an explanation for the pain. One doctor said I have “myofacial pain syndrome,” which is essentially just a fancy name for “unexplained muscular pain.”
Between the ages of 18-24, I was prescribed insane amounts of opioids. My doctor kept upping and upping my dose every visit as my tolerance increased, but the pain kept getting worse. By the time I was 21, I was on two 100mcg fentanyl patches and 8 pain pills every day. I felt hopeless. Looking back, I can’t believe how reckless my doctors were. And this wasn’t one of those shady pill mills; I was at one of the top pain management hospitals in the country. It is shocking how easy it was for me to access these drugs, especially considering I never received an actual diagnosis.
Then I discovered Kratom. Thanks to this miracle plant and a new pain doctor, I was able to slowly taper off all opioid painkillers. Surprising, as my doctor lowered my dosage, my pain level didn’t increase. It actually went down! Kratom alleviated the pain and helped me avoid withdrawals while tapering off opioids.
Today I take around 4mg of Kratom 3-5 times a day, depending on my pain level. Thanks to Kratom, I’m able to manage my pain better than ever before. I am so grateful to have found this amazing alternative treatment before it was too late. I can’t imagine what my life would be like today without kratom.
Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to share my journey and how Kratom changed (or even saved) my life.
@will Thank you! The hardest part was giving up control of the only tool I had at the time to manage the pain. The painkillers didn’t get rid of all the pain, they allowed me to get through the day. It was hard enough attending college and working with constant pain, so I was terrified that my life would become unmanageable if we lowered my dose. I couldn’t imagine life without medication. Fear and anxiety play a big role in chronic pain.
Thankfully my doctor was very supportive and took things slowly. He promised that my pain levels would decrease—not increase—if we lowered my dose. This didn’t make sense to me. I was just barely getting by with the extremely high dose I was on; how would lowering it make things better? I was scared, but I had no choice. My doctor was going to taper me down whether I liked it or not. Thankfully he went very slowly. It took almost two years to fully taper off everything. Miraculously, as I reduced my dosages, my pain level did not increase—the pain actually went down, just like my doctor had promised would happen. It was sometime during this time I discovered Kratom.
I’ve actually never tried making tea! I always use the “toss and wash” method. Do you find that tea produces a stronger effect?
@Derick welcome, love to hear stories like yours. I personally don’t notice much difference in effects between tea and T&W, maybe a bit quicker onset with tea.
Lots of different methods for making tea, but I’m lazy and simply microwave water in a cup until it starts to boil and then stir the powder in. My main reason for tea is to be sure that any biological contaminants are killed off.