My biggest regret when deciding to quit kratom was not having a plan in place beforehand. As soon as I decide anything in life, I just go for it and this made the process more uncomfortable than it needed to be for me.
I saw my doctor the first full day off having any kratom as I was feeling absolutely miserable and hadn’t slept a minute the night before. I was desperate for any prescription that would make the pain of kratom withdrawals disappear. Spoiler alert, there are no magic pills, prescribed or over the counter. I should have been more selective with the doctor I chose though as this one wasn’t familiar with kratom and he wasn’t very experienced with withdrawals in general.
Throughout that week I was prescribed Pramipeloxe, Naltrexone, and Gabapentin. I felt even more psychotic like I wanted to crawl out of my skin on these medications more than I did before I took them.
I didn’t take any one of them for more than a couple days as nothing was having a positive effect on me. The one saving grace about this doctor is he didn’t prescribe me Suboxone (a narcotic commonly prescribed for opioid use disorder) even though I had asked for that specifically. Through my research after the fact, I learned of horror stories of Suboxone aiding in people’s ability to quit kratom or opioids but then becoming dependent on Suboxone and not being able to get off the Suboxone without severe withdrawals as well.
After about 3 weeks sober of kratom and not on any other medications, I was very disappointed as I was having post acute withdrawal symptoms from kratom (PAWS).
I started to think that maybe life was better on kratom because I didn’t feel much better off of it. I was on the brink of caving but thankfully I had a close relationship with my OBGYN who knew I was desperate for a doctor who could help me, and he got me a referral to a psychiatric practitioner. It was obvious to her I was experiencing (PAWS). I had not known that before that moment.
Since I wasn’t using kratom, we did not focus on the addiction but what would make me feel better as a whole. She prescribed me Prozacac (SSRI) for my depression and Ativan (Benzo) just at night for insomnia and anxiety. A month later, I was feeling back to my old self but it didn’t come without side effects. My libido was gone from the SSRUI and when my 30 day supply of the Ativan was up, I had to go through unexpected and mild withdrawals from that.
I do believe there are some medications when used sparingly that can be helpful, but from personal experience I wish I hadn’t put my faith in them. I believe I would have been better off without taking any prescribed medications for kratom withdrawals but that is not the case for everyone who is addicted to kratom.
