Cassiopeia
Newbie
Hi all,
I've been lurking on the forum for some weeks now, learning about kava, and wanted to thank you all for having such a knowledgeable and friendly community.
So I recently tried kava for the second time (I had tried it many years ago, it had no effect but I was clueless about the preparation, boiling it for really long amd probably taking way too little). I got micronised kava from Kalm with Kava. My main aims were to decrease anxiety, improve insomnia, and cut down on weed (I successfully used weed to cut down alcohol some years ago, but now I'm a daily smoker).
So, I had some the day before yesterday, but I made the mistake of using some energy drink to wash the taste down - I hardly ever drink caffeine, but that's all I had and I was too anxious/lazy to go to the shop and buy juice. I had read about kava and caffeine not mixing that well generally, but I thought it wouldn't matter much since I consumed less than half of a small can in total (over the course of a few hours). Boy I was wrong. I've since read that kava may inhibit the breakdown of caffeine, and that's what it felt like - super jittery, super anxious, as if I had had three cans and not just a half. I ended up trying to take more kava to help the anxiety, and ended up taking a bit too much and being sick .
I woke up with a lot of anxiety the next day, and thought I'd try using kava to help - since in my mind it was the caffeine that had been the main cause of anxiety. I had some borogu first, which did nothing, but later in the evening had some loa waka, which helped my anxiety and put me to sleep.
This morning I woke up with rebound anxiety again. For the record, I never get anxiety in the mornings, and I find it hard to wake up before 10 - even though I have trouble falling asleep, once I'm out I can easily sleep 12 hours - but I was up at 7 with churning anxiety in my stomach. Ive done some research and it seems rebound anxiety is very rare with kava. I am disappointed because i really hoped this could be it for me. I wanted a non-addictive substance that i could take to help me with occasional anxiety and frequent insomnia. And, it does help, but the rebound anxiety would make it addictive for me, since taking more gives relief.
Any opinions on this? Is kava just not for me, or should I experiment some more? Could it be the lingering effects of the caffeine kava combo from 2 days ago?
I've been lurking on the forum for some weeks now, learning about kava, and wanted to thank you all for having such a knowledgeable and friendly community.
So I recently tried kava for the second time (I had tried it many years ago, it had no effect but I was clueless about the preparation, boiling it for really long amd probably taking way too little). I got micronised kava from Kalm with Kava. My main aims were to decrease anxiety, improve insomnia, and cut down on weed (I successfully used weed to cut down alcohol some years ago, but now I'm a daily smoker).
So, I had some the day before yesterday, but I made the mistake of using some energy drink to wash the taste down - I hardly ever drink caffeine, but that's all I had and I was too anxious/lazy to go to the shop and buy juice. I had read about kava and caffeine not mixing that well generally, but I thought it wouldn't matter much since I consumed less than half of a small can in total (over the course of a few hours). Boy I was wrong. I've since read that kava may inhibit the breakdown of caffeine, and that's what it felt like - super jittery, super anxious, as if I had had three cans and not just a half. I ended up trying to take more kava to help the anxiety, and ended up taking a bit too much and being sick .
I woke up with a lot of anxiety the next day, and thought I'd try using kava to help - since in my mind it was the caffeine that had been the main cause of anxiety. I had some borogu first, which did nothing, but later in the evening had some loa waka, which helped my anxiety and put me to sleep.
This morning I woke up with rebound anxiety again. For the record, I never get anxiety in the mornings, and I find it hard to wake up before 10 - even though I have trouble falling asleep, once I'm out I can easily sleep 12 hours - but I was up at 7 with churning anxiety in my stomach. Ive done some research and it seems rebound anxiety is very rare with kava. I am disappointed because i really hoped this could be it for me. I wanted a non-addictive substance that i could take to help me with occasional anxiety and frequent insomnia. And, it does help, but the rebound anxiety would make it addictive for me, since taking more gives relief.
Any opinions on this? Is kava just not for me, or should I experiment some more? Could it be the lingering effects of the caffeine kava combo from 2 days ago?