Quitting Kratom cold turkey is definitely the fastest way to kick the habit, so why doesn’t everyone just do it that way? Well, because it can be a pain, literally. If you can afford to feel sick for a week or two, then cold turkey is a great option. But most of us have jobs, kids, and other obligations that require us to be at least somewhat on our game. For these folks cold turkey isn’t a good option. For others, it might be the only option.
Once you commit to quitting Kratom (or to drastically reducing your Kratom tolerance), you might feel super-motivated to do dive right in and make it happen, thinking that “quitting cold turkey” is the way to go. And maybe it is the best way for you to proceed. But there are those who suggest cold turkey might not be the best way, and we agree. At least it’s not the only way. (More on that in a minute.)
When it comes to quitting anything, cold turkey is always the fastest. “Going Cold Turkey” just means stop using 100% all at once. Some swear it’s the best way is to go because it happens all at once and allows the person to throw away their stash and deal with the problem head-on. Going “cold turkey” is the quickest way to kick the habit, but it’s also the most painful. Depending on how much Kratom you’ve been taking and how long, your withdrawal symptoms may be too painful to continue functioning at the level you need to. If you can’t afford to deal with 1-3 weeks of feeling sick and depressed, tapering might be a better option for you.
This is one reason why people don’t quit. They can’t afford to spend a week or two feeling absolutely miserable. They have jobs, kids, lives, and sacrificing their energy and happiness is just too much to handle. If this is you, perhaps a better way to approach kicking your Kratom habit is by tapering down your dose (link to new “tapering” article Pat Wrote on 9/22/2018).
Reasons to Consider NOT Quitting Cold Turkey:
A decent case can be made to taper your Kratom reduction—rather than going cold turkey—because, for one thing (and it’s a big thing), people develop dependency on Kratom in the first place is because of the alkaloids (known as Mitragynine) in Kratom—the plant chemicals that work on the brain’s opioid receptors.
If you quickly drop these chemicals from streaming to your brain daily (and let’s face it, your brain got used to that stream increasing over time, daily), and you suddenly put on your Farmer John overalls and divert the entire stream to somewhere else—by going Cold Turkey—then your brain will respond by delivering withdrawal symptoms to you because there’s been an MAJOR INTERRUPTION in the amount of outside stimuli your brain’s been receiving.
To avoid (or at least drastically reduce) withdrawal symptoms associated with quitting Kratom, you’ll want to seriously consider tapering instead, which can be relatively painless. On the other hand, if you simply reduce the amount of Mitragynine reduction a little bit each day (reducing the volume of water in the stream), slowly, then your brain won’t freak out and try to alert you (more like BEG you) not to reduce the Mitragynine levels it has come to love, and will instead remain calm and not send you the nasty withdrawal symptoms to try to keep you in line with what it wants.
This is why we provide a Kratom Reduction Chart and even a Kratom Reduction Kit for people who want to quit Kratom over time, to reduce the nasty withdrawal symptoms associated with quitting cold turkey. We think it’s best not to go cold turkey and to instead take a more measured approach to quitting for the reasons stated above.
Quitting Cold Turkey Can Be Miserable
If you think quitting Kratom is anything short of annoying—and sometimes downright miserable, at least for a few days—then you might want to check out what people have to say on reddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/quittingkratom/. This site provides a good general discussion that can give you insight in to what you might expect by going cold turkey, and what you might experience by taking the more measured tapering approach that we recommend.
Good luck on your journey to quitting Kratom, or at least reducing your tolerance to Kratom. We’re here to help you meet your goals.