So
@Krunkie McKrunkface , why do you drink Kava? (By the way, "for shits and grins" would be an acceptable answer.
)
Short answer: for shiggles, aka shits 'n giggles, which I agree is nothing to sneeze at and a perfectly valid dreason.
Long answer:
It was a last ditch attempt for my wife to deal with anxiety from a stressful job before going to the heavy hitters in the pharma world. I was determined to try the kava first as a guinea pig to figure out how to actually make and drink the stuff, and to make sure it was safe and wasn't just some placebo (you know, "herbal remedies" like echinacea preventing colds and stuff).
I quickly noticed my dreams were amazing, and oneironautics has been a hobby of mine for some time, I figured I'd keep drinking just for that (and I still do, it's amazing as a dream enhancer).
After a few weeks, she mentioned she'd read somewhere that some people drink larger doses sometimes because that feels good, so I had to check that out. Ahem. Well, you know my name, you can figure that whole story out.
Also, after a couple of months I noticed a whole bunch of changes happening and now, after six months my whole life is transformed and I look and feel completely different. I was an obese alcoholic suffering from a lifelong inflammatory condition. All that was dealt with. Oh, and the dandruff, too. And a bunch of other stuff. And it worked on her anxiety, too.
Now, I'm not saying it has had no effect on me in regards to anxiety just because I never suffered from anxiety. I've gone from not having anxiety, a kind of neutral position, the absence of anxiety, to some sort of positive condition where I have I dunno what the word for it or if there is one, but it's the opposite of anxiety. Calm? Maybe that's all it is, but like Kavasseur says in one of his videos "we take our relaxation really seriously" this is real serious relaxation, real serious calm. It's not just a body at rest without anxiety, it's a thing, a positive thing.
I also love Kavasseur's line "I didn't know I was an alcoholic till I stopped drinking." I like that on a bunch of levels, because I didn't "quit" drinking, like a deliberate act, I simply idn't drink any more, kava mada me stop drinking and it happened gradually but quickly and definitively and also painlessly and with no side effects and no regrets. Also, because I didn't have any "problem" with drinking, I always assumed I was not an alcoholic, but I look back now and figure I must have been, and that the whole point is pretty much mooted by kava. Kava allows me (and really encourages me!) to be who I am and who I am is not an alcoholic.
Sorry, TMI? I tend to talk a lot....
I am lucky in that I have just about the least stressful job in the universe (librarian in a village out of Norman Rockwell, the library is adequately funded and well used and appreciated and I'm widely appreciated by my community, which I am proud to serve). I also don't have any family problems or other problems that most people unfortunately have to face. In part I'm so happy because I am very very lucky, despite having no right to be. I spent years being troubled by that before I just learned to accept it and not fight it and be grateful. It just didn't seem fair. It still doesn't. But letting that render me dysfunctional wouldn't help anyone be better off no matter how much it served the interests of justice or fairness.
Finally, I would say that I drink kava 95% for health reasons and 5% for pleasure. The pleasure aspect appears more salient now, but that's part of an initial phase I'm going through as my body resets to where it should have been.
