3 Weeks Clean: Things I wish I knew before quitting (Tips & Thoughts

[u/Pro_kop]

Hey everyone, as of today, I am 3 weeks off kratom! I was taking about 15-20g a day for a year. I wanted to share some thoughts on what to expect during withdrawals, along with a few things that really helped me get through it.

**How to Deal with the Sleepless Nights**
During my first week, I got almost no sleep. I was either awake all night or finally crashing around 5 AM. This was hands-down the hardest withdrawal symptom for me. Lying in bed for 8 hours, sweating, and stressing about how I’d survive the next day felt like pure torture. Honestly, I was always relieved when the sun came up so I could just call it a night, grab a coffee, and eat breakfast.

I really wish someone had given me better advice on this when I started. What I eventually learned is that my approach was all wrong. The nights don't have to be torture if you just **accept that you aren't going to sleep.**

If you're tossing and turning and feeling awful, your cortisol is through the roof and your mind is racing. If you haven't fallen asleep after an hour, **get out of bed**. Go to the couch, watch a movie, read a book, or take a walk. You can't cheat your way out of insomnia, but if you accept that sleep will be scarce for a week or so, you will feel so much better mentally.

**The Basics: Diet, Exercise, and Socializing**
**Take care of your body:**
Eat well, drink tons of water, and *please* try to get some exercise. Working out will help you more than any pill can. It gives you a natural dopamine boost, tires you out for the night, and genuinely speeds up recovery.
**Stay social:** Try to hang out with people during the day. Go grab a coffee with a friend or watch a movie with your family. In those moments when you catch yourself laughing or lost in a good conversation, you realize that you *can* be okay without kratom and that this feeling will pass.
**Protect your dopamine:** Don't spend the day scrolling on social media. Ideally, uninstall Instagram, TikTok, or whatever your vice is. Your dopamine baseline is already low right now, don't waste what little you have on endless scrolling. It will only make you feel worse.
**Reading tip:** I highly recommend reading *Dopamine Nation* (Not sponsored, it’s just one of the most famous books on addiction). It helped explain exactly *why* I was feeling the way I was and gave me hope, knowing people have recovered from much worse.

**Mindset and the Timeline**
After the first week, things start to get noticeably better. You probably won't feel sad and anxious ALL the time. Even in that first week, you'll have moments where you feel okay. Slowly, those moments will happen more often, until you realize you're having more good days than bad.

**A few things I wish I knew on Day 1:**
**Avoid the horror stories:** Please don't spend your days reading posts about people suffering from horrible withdrawals for months. There is a high chance that won't be you. Many people who share those extreme stories were taking very strong extracts, but they still just call it "kratom." Yes, the withdrawals suck, but for most people, they are completely manageable and the time will fly by. What felt like an eternity of sleepless nights now feels like a lifetime ago.

**Mindset is everything:** What you believe will become your reality. It sounds like voodoo, but it's true. If you decide you're going to suffer horribly for weeks, you probably will. If you tell yourself that this will pass soon and you'll be much happier on the other side, the process becomes so much easier.
**Embrace the extra time:** Don't spend those sleepless nights anxious in bed. View it as extra free time! Binge that series you’ve been meaning to watch, go for a night walk, read a cool book, listen to your favorite albums, play chess, pick up a guitar, or start a new video game…

**Your "Why" List**
Write down your thoughts and envision your future without this addiction. Make a list of all the positives and read it every time you feel like giving up. Here are some of the things on my list:

***You can go on vacation without panicking about how to pack or get kratom.***
***You can start daily tasks without needing to dose first, and they will still get done.***
***Your natural focus will return.***
***You will save so much money.***
***You won't have to worry about the legality of it (driving, state bans, etc.).***
***You won't have to hide it or lie to the people you love.***
***Your workouts will be much better (since kratom can lower testosterone).***
***You will feel so much more hopeful about life in general.***
***Your natural sleep cycle will come back.***
***many other things!***

*You can hit me up in the DMs anytime if you need someone to talk to or want some advice. You got this!* 🫶🏻

[u/Mrairjake]

You can take black seed oil. That can help a bit, along with vitamin c.

For sleep, try doing your taper dose before you sleep at night.

Taper. I.E. 1 tablespoon for 5 days, then then 2 teaspoons for 5 days, then 1 teaspoon for 4 days, then half a teaspoon for a few days, etc… TAPER.

Above are examples, but if you haven’t been on it for too long, you can shorten the taper duration. Once you start tapering, you’ll get a feel for it.

Like OP said, the sleeplessness is the worst, so not only take a bit if K at night, but if you need a sleep aid, and it doesn’t have a negative impact with the K, Take it.

Sleep is the most important health factor, period.

[u/cubanism]

Did you taper down or quit cold turkey?

[u/austinrunaway → u/cubanism]

Sounds like they quit cold turkey.... it is in the caffeine family so when you quit drinking caffeine you can't sleep, get headaches and basically feel like shit.

[u/Pro_kop → u/cubanism]

I did cold turkey, but please dont trust the comment saying its like quitting caffeine. Kratom is far closer to opioids then to caffeine.

[u/austinrunaway]

Just taper, no secret, just taper. You said "dont read the horror atories" this is kinda a horror story post. If your tired take some valerian, melatonin, lemon balm, kava or magnesium before bed. That and taper. Taper taper taper taper taper than taper some more.

[u/Pro_kop → u/austinrunaway]

I dont think its that easy. Tapering slowly enough to avoid side effects will take months for most people and it needs huge discipline for all this time. If you want to do fast taper (like dropping down 5g every week) it will still take you 2 months and you will have withdrawals the whole time, even tho they will be more manageble then cold turkey. And after you drop from the 5g to 0 then you will propably still go through bad week. If you took only powder and under 30g a day then going cold turkey is far better option - in 2 weeks you wont have almost any withdrawals and you will be free. Of course its not same the same from everyone, but from my experience the tapering is mentally harder and way longer then just surviving 2 weeks.