The Ultimate Guide to Tapering and Quitting Kratom

A Way to Quit Kratom Without Suffering From the Withdrawal Symptoms

It’s called tapering and it’s literally a reverse of what you’ve done to get to this point…

If you need to talk to someone right away, contact the National Helpline.

By far the most important thing when it comes to sticking to your plan to quit is support. If you don’t have people in your life to support you, check out a private Facebook community of people who are going through the same thing you are. Click here to check it out.

This article will tell you everything you need to know about why Kratom is hard to quit and how the tapering process works. Once you understand the mechanisms, I’ll explain how I tapered successfully so you can see how it’s done. To summarize what you’re about to read:

1. Kratom: Why is it hard to quit?
2. What is tolerance and why does it happen?
3. Quitting: Cold turkey vs Tapering
4. The Three-Step Kratom Taper Kit
   1. Step One: Measure Your Doses (Don’t have a scale?)
   2. Step Two: Organize doses weekly (Need a container?)
   3. Have a solid plan (Free taper chart)
5. Write down your reasons for quitting
6. Use peer pressure and social support
7. For those wanting to continue using Kratom

 

Kratom: Why is it hard to quit?

Despite what the Kratom vendors say, Kratom is 100% addicting. It’s addicting in the same way coffee and tobacco are addicting; the same way some pharmaceuticals are addicting.

Before you get too alarmed, you should know that quitting, or even reducing your level of dependence, is relatively easy as long as you understand how this stuff works. You can handle this yourself with a solid plan in place. Keep reading to learn how to formulate your own plan.

First, you need to understand why Kratom is addicting in the first place and what that means for someone who finds themselves experiencing withdrawals when they stop taking it.

 

What is tolerance and why does it happen?

It’s very simple. The first time you took Kratom you felt some effects. You really liked the way it made you feel so you decided to take it every day. After a week or two, or maybe months or years, you had to take more to feel the same effect.

What is happening is your body is getting used to the Kratom. Your body is an amazing machine that is always trying to reach equilibrium. It wants to be at baseline and is always working to get there. That’s another way of saying it’s adapting to your environment.

When you add Kratom into the mix your body gets to work trying to get back to normal so it makes adjustments to the new substance. Over time your body gets used to having that substance around and you notice the effects less, so you take more.

As you take more your body adapts more and eventually, your body assumes this substance is here to stay and builds procedures to deal with it.

If you suddenly remove this substance from your body, your body has to adjust back to normal but it takes a while. During this time you will feel different. The things you feel are deemed negative by your brain so you end up “suffering”. The symptoms are called withdrawals.

 

Quitting: Cold Turkey vs Tapering

How much Kratom did you take today? I’m guessing it was a lot more than you took on day one, am I right? Imagine if you took this much on day one. Would you have been sick?

The same works in reverse. Your body is used to this regular amount you take every day. If you stop all at once, your body is going to have to adjust, but it takes a while. This is why you feel different. I say different because if you didn’t know what was going on or already recognize these feelings as bad then you probably wouldn’t think much of it and would just think something weird was going on.

Speed vs Comfort: You can’t have both

Like many things in life, you can’t really have your cake and eat it too. If you want to quit Kratom and be 100% back to normal in less than 2 weeks then you are going to have to sacrifice your comfort. Addiction is an odd thing and this is the physical side of it.

It’s kind of like having a cold or mild flu. The catch is you know you can make it go away by taking a little Kratom. It plays a weird mental game with your mind and you can start to feel like you’re losing control. You have a life to live. You can’t spend a week feeling grumpy and sick.

Luckily, cold turkey isn’t the only option. There is a technique called tapering that people have been using as long as there have been humans. Have you ever heard of weaning a baby off of mother’s milk? Feeding is reduced slowly until one day the baby is 100% independent of the mother.

Now it’s time for you to wean yourself off of Kratom. All you have to do is slowly reduce your dose day after day until you are able to stop completely without feeling any discomfort. Your body will adjust slowly just like it did on the way up.

Keep reading and I’ll show you exactly how I did this for myself a few years ago.

 

Updated Strategy 7/25/2020

So, I’ve been taking Kratom for a long time now. I’ve quit more times than I could count and have learned some things. This update will give you what I believe to be the best strategy based on my experimentation. I’ll leave the old strategy here too because it worked for me once upon a time. I’ve just got a lot more sophisticated over the years.

First of all, you need to level with yourself. Why are you taking Kratom? Why is it a problem for you? Is it something you want to quit forever or are you just trying to get more control over it?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you navigate these waters. Knowing yourself is the best tool in your toolbox. Don’t assume other people know what’s going on with you. Only you do, so listen to yourself and be honest with yourself.

Okay, so about a year ago I started taking Kratom again. It helps me with my job when I have to work really long days doing physical labor. The tolerance builds even when I take only a few grams per day. There’s no getting around it. I always draw a line in the sand when I get to the point where it starts to disrupt my sleep. Sleep is important to me and I don’t want to have to take Kratom to sleep. That’s too much for me. So this is what I do:

1. Take a 2 Day Break from Kratom

I usually time it so it’s on a weekend or some sort of vacation. I get some legal marijuana candies and I eat them in the morning. I go 48 hours with zero Kratom. It sucks, but in this two day period my tolerance gets cut in half. This is a huge boost when tapering because tapering takes a long time. I found that 48 hours is enough to take my dose from 15 grams per day to 6 grams per day comfortably.

2. I Make My Own Capsules

I bought a thing on Amazon that allows me to make 100 capsules in less than 10 minutes. I used to weigh my powder and put it in a container but that got messy. I don’t like messy. So capsules it is. The cool thing about Capsules is that you make them all the same. The ones I make are about .5 grams, so I can measure my dose by the number of capsules I take.

3 I Taper by Reducing the Number of Capsules by 1 Every Two to Three Days

From here I count out my capsules for each day and reduce the number of capsules by 1 every two to three days. Sometimes I need to adjust and take an extra or sometimes I won’t finish them. It’s a really solid way of tapering and takes a lot of the work out of it. Weighing powder is messy and time-consuming.

That’s pretty much it. It’s not very complicated. I keep reducing the number of capsules until I’m either done or at the tolerance level I’m comfortable with. What I like about this strategy as opposed to a straight taper is that it’s much faster. I can go from 15 grams per day to Zero in ~3 weeks and all the thinking and setup happened in the first 2 days.

If you want to do the same thing, you’ll need a couple of things. First, you’ll need the capsule maker thing. Here it is on Amazon. Second, you’ll need capsules. I buy those on Amazon too.

If you want to learn more about tapering, keep reading. If you’re ready to get this shit done, then get yourself set up and do it! It’s not that bad. The two days, in the beginning, are the hardest part but it’s easier getting through it knowing that it will be over soon. It’s the best way I’ve found so far and I’ve tried literally everything… Good luck! Reach out to me if you have any questions.

 

 

 

 

The Three-Step Kratom Taper

I’m going to recap some concepts just to make sure you totally understand what’s going on. Once it clicks for you all of this will be intuitive and easy to implement.

How the taper works:

Quitting Kratom is like going on a road trip. It takes a while to get where you’re going. You can go really fast but the ride will be bumpy and probably make you feel car sick. Alternatively, you can go slow and have a nice ride, but it will take a bit longer. It’s up to you how fast you go, so you are in total control over your comfort level.

Why it works:

The reason you feel like garbage when you don’t take Kratom is that your body has built up a tolerance to the chemicals found in this plant. It’s become dependent on the presence of these chemicals to feel normal. When the chemicals aren’t around, your body is wondering what’s going on and it causes you to feel bad.

When you reduce the presence of these chemicals slowly over the course of days or weeks, your body adjusts to each tiny change and usually, it’s too small for you to even notice.

Step One: Measure your dose by weight

I have a saying that goes, “You can only change that which you can measure.” What it means is this:

If you want to take less Kratom, then you have to know how much you are taking now.

How do you measure your dose? Do you weigh the powder? Do you take capsules? Or do you use a tablespoon?

When I was taking Kratom every day I was using a tablespoon. Once I started weighing my doses I realized that a tablespoon can hold a lot of Kratom and each time it was a different amount. I was taking 10g+ 4 times a day for months. No wonder I couldn’t sleep through a night without waking up to take a spoon full of Kratom…

When I got smart I bought a cheap kitchen scale off Amazon and started measuring the amount I was taking. I was immediately alarmed and empowered. Now that I saw the numbers I felt like I could take control over my Kratom intake.

I don't sell scales but they're cheap on Amazon.

See it on Amazon

Step Two: Separate your doses for a whole week at a time

Option 1: Using Capsules

If you ever bought Kratom capsules then you know they are much more expensive. That keeps most people buying the powder. A great alternative is to make your own capsules. You can purchase empty capsules as well as a tool to fill to fill them for around $20.

The cool thing about capsules is that they make it really easy to reduce the amount of Kratom taken very slowly. When I filled some capsules they weighed in at about .5 grams per capsule, so if you were taking 2g per dose, you would take 4 capsules. When it comes time to drop down a half gram, you just take one less capsule.

If you have been eating Kratom powder then you know how uncomfortable it can be. Capsules is a surefire way to make it easier to control yourself.

 

Option 2: Using a pill container to hold the powder:

The next critical tool I used is a simple 4×7 pill container. I was able to put 1-8 grams in each compartment and measure out my doses for the entire week. I didn’t do this at first, but I found that my willpower wasn’t strong enough to do it manually each time. I always ended up taking more because I wanted to feel good.

By using the container, I only needed willpower once per week. I could measure 28 doses that slowly got smaller for a whole week and then relax and know I was on the right track.

This pill container on Amazon is the best one I’ve been able to find. The original one I used kept opening on its own which was a nightmare… Reaching into my pocket to find the powder all over was rather disappointing. That’s why this one with the latch is key.

Having these little 4-compartment containers are an amazing tool. You can take it to work with you and not be tempted to take too much because you have already limited yourself.

A container like this works best with toss and wash. If you have capsules, then you might not need the container as it likely won’t fit all you need for each day. Get creative and find a way to measure it out ahead of time so you don’t have to rely on willpower alone.

Have a Plan

But, how do you know how much to put into the compartments? You need a tapering chart. When I tapered myself years ago I created a chart so I knew exactly how much to measure out for each dose, each day. As I measured the Kratom and put it into the container I would cross off that line on the chart. It was very easy to see where I was, where I had been, and where I was going.

If you need help creating your own chart, download this example one I made based on the one I used. You can customize it to fit your dose and situation.

Note: Even when you taper slowly, the sensitive people among us might still notice slight withdrawals. I know I did. I think a lot of it is mental. If you focus on something hard enough your brain can make it seem real even when it isn’t. I truly believe that if you stay busy, exercise daily, and eat healthy food, you can get past the uncomfortable feelings with ease. With that said, there are a few supplements that have been known to help.

 

You’ve Got the Power: Write Down Your Reasons!

You can do it. With a solid plan in place, it’s easy to see how you can get to where you’re trying to go. The only thing that can stop you is yourself.

Take a moment to write down your reasons for quitting or reducing your intake.  You might even hang it on your wall or share it with someone close to you. It’s important to keep these reasons in mind as you progress through the days and weeks to come.

It’s easy to slip into an old mindset and get stuck with the current problems you face. You might slip up and that’s okay. If you fall off the bike, just get back on and keep riding. Hardly anyone succeeds on the first try. It often takes multiple tries to succeed at anything,  so expect setbacks and be okay with that. Remember, it’s never a failure until you give up.

 

It’s Okay to Ask for Help

One of the most powerful tools at your disposal is social support. The simple act of telling someone whose opinion matters to you about what you’re trying to do will give you a huge boost of energy and willpower. Use the power of peer pressure to your advantage.

Another benefit of telling someone you trust about your mission to quit Kratom is that they might give you some extra support to help you get through the toughest moments. If you don’t have anyone in your personal life you want to talk about this stuff with, there is a forum connected to this website where you can talk with others going through the same thing you are. Reddit is also a great place to find a community of like-minded people all trying to quit Kratom.

 

For Those Wanting to Continue to Use Kratom

You may not want to quit entirely but rather just be more in control over your intake and use. While I don’t condone the use of Kratom or use it myself anymore, I understand a lot of people don’t want to quit entirely.

This tapering strategy can be used to control your dose and dependence so you can manage yourself wisely as time goes on.

Be safe. Be responsible. Be your best friend. If you were your best friend, what would you recommend you do? Do that.

God bless you all and I wish you the best of luck. You can do this.