Thomas2060
Kava Curious
I've been consuming kava nightly for the last 2.5 months straight, except for a few days when I had a stomach bug. I just ran out of kava and decided I'd take a little time off from it. I hear that's a good thing to do once in a while for your liver's sake, and it was just getting a little old.
The last two nights I did not have any kava. I did not feel any psychological withdrawal, if anything, it felt like a nice change of pace. But the next morning after stopping, I woke up feeling pretty off, like I'd had a terrible night of sleep, but also very intense dreams. I've never had trouble falling asleep after using kava, but sometimes I suspect my sleep quality is not very good with some strains. This might explain the vivid dreams, if kava was disrupting or preventing a proper REM cycle.
What's less easy to explain is that I've also had moderate body pains since stopping. It's the sort of general aching all over that you feel with a cold or flu, except I don't feel sick at all. I don't have any other symptoms of cold or flu, just the body pains, and I'm carrying on my daily activities with no issues other than annoyance and worry. It does seem a little milder today than it did yesterday, and obviously I hope it continues to trail off.
Although I'd consumed kava nightly, the brand and strain of kava has varied quite a bit. Some nights I've prepared a really strong batch, others were weaker, emptiness of stomach varied, etc. So there are a lot of variables at play, making it hard to pin the symptoms on any particular type of kava. I'm attributing it more to a general pattern of use. The variables also make it unlikely that kava was successfully masking an underlying condition 100% for the last few months.
Has anyone experienced this, or have any ideas? All the threads I've found here talking about withdrawal really downplay the idea, with most claiming that they never experience any withdrawal symptoms from kava. I don't doubt that some people consume it with no issues as they claim, but I highly doubt that kava is some miracle plant that is entirely free from withdrawal issues (as many here seem to imply). The timing is too precise for me to attribute my issues to anything other than kava cessation. Any thoughts appreciated!
The last two nights I did not have any kava. I did not feel any psychological withdrawal, if anything, it felt like a nice change of pace. But the next morning after stopping, I woke up feeling pretty off, like I'd had a terrible night of sleep, but also very intense dreams. I've never had trouble falling asleep after using kava, but sometimes I suspect my sleep quality is not very good with some strains. This might explain the vivid dreams, if kava was disrupting or preventing a proper REM cycle.
What's less easy to explain is that I've also had moderate body pains since stopping. It's the sort of general aching all over that you feel with a cold or flu, except I don't feel sick at all. I don't have any other symptoms of cold or flu, just the body pains, and I'm carrying on my daily activities with no issues other than annoyance and worry. It does seem a little milder today than it did yesterday, and obviously I hope it continues to trail off.
Although I'd consumed kava nightly, the brand and strain of kava has varied quite a bit. Some nights I've prepared a really strong batch, others were weaker, emptiness of stomach varied, etc. So there are a lot of variables at play, making it hard to pin the symptoms on any particular type of kava. I'm attributing it more to a general pattern of use. The variables also make it unlikely that kava was successfully masking an underlying condition 100% for the last few months.
Has anyone experienced this, or have any ideas? All the threads I've found here talking about withdrawal really downplay the idea, with most claiming that they never experience any withdrawal symptoms from kava. I don't doubt that some people consume it with no issues as they claim, but I highly doubt that kava is some miracle plant that is entirely free from withdrawal issues (as many here seem to imply). The timing is too precise for me to attribute my issues to anything other than kava cessation. Any thoughts appreciated!
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