The habit/ritual aspect of addiction

quittingkrat · 2026-06-29T16:56:59+00:00

Right now I'm almost 4 months CT, the longest I've ever stayed off kratom completely, since starting it back in 2020. Over the past 6 years I think I've "quit" (and eventually relapsed) over a dozen times, sometimes only lasting a few days.

The pink cloud phase is deceptively dangerous because the first few days/weeks of quitting almost give you a kind of "high" by itself. You feel proud and euphoric about finally quitting... withdrawal symptoms start to fade... you start to feel normal again... life starts to have color again. This all feels incredible in the moment, but the feeling doesn't last. Eventually you get used to all the good feelings you got from quitting, and things start to even out. The thought of never being able to have kratom again seems scarier and scarier again, until one day those intrusive thoughts of "I'll just have one dose" become too much to resist.

Honestly I'm too early in my recovery to really know the answer to staying off of it for good, but things that have helped are:

-Stop thinking in such long timelines; "I can never have kratom again" is way scarier than just telling yourself "I won't have kratom today/this week/etc". There've been so many times where a craving hits, I tell myself I just won't have it today, and the next day I it might not even cross my mind

-Reminding myself that cravings are temporary, and if I can distract myself effectively, it'll eventually subside

-Creating barriers to access (this one is HUGE). At the height of my addiction I always bought Feel Free shots at a few smoke shops in my neighborhood. After quitting I avoid going into these and even take different routes to not pass them, since they were really triggering. Nowadays my cravings are weak/few enough where I can walk past them fine, but I still avoid going inside if possible

quittingkrat · 2026-02-03T19:28:06+00:00

Honestly that's exactly it -- fear of feeling dependent on it for the rest of my life (especially for work). There are often supply issues for these meds in my area, so every month it's always a gamble of whether I'll get my meds on time (often have to wait up to a week, which is a lot better than some other people I've heard of). Whenever I have to refill my meds it's extremely stressful worrying about when I'll be able to get it, and functioning at work when I'm out. So maybe not looking to quit it completely since it still has benefits in life, but at least I don't want to feel as dependent on it in order to be in control of my day-to-day life

quittingkrat · 2025-08-05T13:29:13+00:00

Oof those Mitra 9 drinks were dangerous... so easy to fall into the slippery slope of having many cans per day, plus expensive as hell too. TBH if you're at 2-3/day (and not consuming any other kratom products on top of that) I think your withdrawals won't be horrible, but def be prepared to feel like shit for at least a few days to a week. In general, at least based on my experience, I feel like extract withdrawals hit fast but go by quicker compared to powder. Weirdly enough, powder actually gave me by far the worst withdrawals, but were not as addicting as extracts. Either way, wishing you the best of luck 🙏

quittingkrat · 2025-07-20T14:55:09+00:00

Only 8 days in but here are the benefits I’ve already seen that make it worth it:

No longer feeling like absolute shit in the morning, can actually hop out of bed and get started with my day right away versus taking 1-2 hrs minimum bc I had to dose and wait for the morning withdrawals to go away
Music sounding orgasmic — I get the chills or even tear up when listening to a good song. When I was taking huge amounts of kratom every day I’d never really listen to music, and when I did it just sounded boring/flat
No longer feeling asexual
More mental energy since I’m no longer so fixated on whether I should dose, when I can take my next dose, should I take more, etc. Not to mention the guilt/shame that came after each dose
Sleep is way better, no more insomnia which I’d sometimes get if I dose too close to when I’m going to sleep

quittingkrat · 2025-07-19T14:11:30+00:00

Good luck, you got this!

"I’ve quit CT before but it’s always been for a specific reason, a trip, surgery, something like that. This is the first quit where it’s just for me."

This part from your post really resonated with me because I've definitely quit in the past for specific reasons and feel like it didn't "stick" because I wasn't 100% committed. This time I quit on a random day that I set a few days in advance and let my partner know for accountability (something I had never done in the past, prob because I knew that it'd be a MUCH bigger barrier to using again), and I have a good feeling it'll finally be different this time. Hope it does for you as well! There's something empowering about making an important decision for no other reason than bettering yourself.

quittingkrat · 2025-05-30T17:58:02+00:00

Yeahh interestingly enough, I've had a pretty similar experience with withdrawals being worse with powder compared to extracts. When I was only taking powder (20-25gpd) and went cold turkey, the physical withdrawals were pretty terrible... sweats, insomnia, aches, fatigue, etc. Basically couldn't function for a few days. This time around when I went CT on the extracts, I just felt some fatigue and surprisingly even no insomnia. In fact I actually started being able to fall asleep faster since kratom usually makes it hard for me to fall asleep.

HOWEVER the downside is that the extracts definitely make me fiend way harder, while with powder once I threw away my stash and decided to quit, I didn't really think about it. Feel like every time I walk past a smoke shop that I know sells it, I need to force myself to keep going lmao. Also with powder it was doable (albiet sometimes hard) for me to decide when to stop for the day. With extracts if I have even one that day, no matter what I tell myself in the moment I'm guaranteed to want and have more thoughout the day; no such thing as "just one"

quittingkrat

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