Can I suggest something? I'm no expert, but magnesium is often suggested for teeth grinding, and is great for me to get relaxed before bed. It's also an important electrolyte (often overlooked as such)-- part of what you need to replenish after a night of drinking. If you're interested, pick up some magnesium bisglycinate. This form is kind of expensive, but the most bio-available (and consequently doesn't cause too much, if any, gas or cramping... or shitting). It helps a lot with my anxiety.
Ironically, my diet was never healthier than when I was drinking too much, too often. I craved all the things that I was depleting, especially magnesium, and that my body needed to repair the damage I was doing to it. It actually taught me a lot about my body and what cravings for specific nutrients & minerals felt like. Nowadays I just drink a lot less!
I take kratom for anxiety—and because it significantly reduces my desire to drink—and I guess a lot of people take magnesium (in one of its many different preparations) both as an alleged potentiator of kratom and to relieve the common side effect of constipation. Fortunately, kratom doesn’t have an appreciable effect on my bowels in the doses I take, and my diet is fairly high in magnesium already by way of grains, greens, nuts, and beans.
> It actually taught me a lot about my body and what cravings for specific nutrients & minerals felt like. Nowadays I just drink a lot less!
That's great, actually! A lot of people don't know what specific cravings mean. Helps a lot with overall health because I know if I'm craving fried food I just need some good fats so I go and make something with avocado oil or what-have-you.
>I take kratom for anxiety
I've wondered about kratom before. How specifically does it help your anxiety, and how often do you take it? Does it impair any cognitive functions to any degree? (Could you take it before class or studying and still be able to focus well?)
It makes me less prone to runaway trains of thought, sub-panic attacks I guess you might call them. I can just chill and focus on what’s in front of me. It’s also great for relieving some chronic pain I have when ibuprofen doesn’t cut it; it’s maybe a step above naproxen, and I think the pain relief is part of the general stress reduction that I perceive as anxiety relief.
If I’m making capsules, it tends to last longer (4–5 hours, peak around 3 hours), so I may only take it once or twice a day as a general relief thing; if I mix it with a beverage (fruit smoothies in my case) and drink it, it comes on stronger but doesn’t last as long (3–4 hours, peak around 1–2 hours), which is better for PRN relief, but if I do that then I might end up taking it thrice or, uh, fource a day, which feels like too much, so I try to avoid that. It’s also good to take periodic breaks to avoid building tolerance.
Typically I take larger doses (6–10g) of “down” red varieties (Maeng Da, Thai, Borneo, Bali) for anxiety, pain, and sleep; smaller doses (3–5g) of “up” green/white varieties (Jong Kong, Thai) for stimulation, as a less anxiety-inducing alternative to caffeine. The difference between “strains” is noticeable but usually not that significant in my experience; dosage is typically more important. I recommend avoiding extracts—they can be more addictive as they can be 10–50× more potent than regular leaf powder (1–2% mitragynine/7-OH-mitragynine), and I find them less pleasant anyway.
It doesn’t cause any cognitive impairment that I’ve observed. For some reason it especially makes me want to write, which is great for documenting my code and figuring out a problem, but it doesn’t provide any real cognitive boost either. Taking a low dose before class might make you more energetic and social, but overall I don’t think it’d help or harm your focus much. Personally, when taking an “up” dose, I’d rather clean or go for a walk than go to class/work. Different people react differently, of course.
If you take too much, it’ll make you woozy, sleepy, and nauseated, which as you can imagine isn’t great for getting things done. If that happens, you pretty much need to drink water, eat food, lie down, close your eyes, wait for it to pass—or barf if you need to. Most people only take too much kratom once, hah—it’s highly unpleasant.
Kratom is not a wonder-drug—all it really does in my experience is take you from “not fine” to just “fine”. If you’re just looking to get “high”, kratom is not for you. It is habit-forming and can be addictive with frequent high doses or especially when taking extracts. Side effects may include constipation, more frequent urination, irritability, and (rarely) reduced testosterone in males. Withdrawal symptoms may include sweating, runny nose, diarrhea, dilated pupils, and elevated testosterone. Most people don’t experience most of these side effects or withdrawal symptoms, though.
Finally, and most importantly, kratom is under-researched and caveat emptor. There have been no confirmed cases of kratom alone causing death, but as a precaution it should not be taken in conjunction with other drugs or medications, and should only be purchased from reputable sellers; if you’re buying it in a smoke shop, make sure it’s a known, reputable brand in properly sealed packaging. My hope is that it will remain legal and be regulated for quality and purity in the future.
Interesting. More social sounds good. More writing is good. I'll probably try it and see how it affects me. The up variety will probably be better for me, since caffeine doesn't affect my anxiety if I have a single cup of coffee a day, and if I take downers I definitely feel relaxed but in a way that eventually causes some melancholy and sadness about the lack of work I feel like doing.
I'm always trying to find a way to feel relaxed without taking something that significantly affects other functions. A glass of wine on the beach is great. Two glasses and I can't sleep or do anything meaningful. Pot makes me full-on panic-- yes I've tried CBD oil, and it causes panic attacks of a lesser intensity.
Breathing exercises sometimes work, and maybe I haven't practiced enough (hey! good point, me), but it's not reliable enough so that I can do it anywhere (especially being so busy) and find relief.
There's always this underlying, gnawing anxiety. It's usually low-level enough that I can manage unless something unexpected happens-- which is often. In that case I have a few different things to manage but all of them result in someone being disappointed.
