love2driveinct
Kava Enthusiast
So I'd love to know what others think as far as the younger set go... can a 19/20 year old handle the responsibilities of kava?
Kava for College Students
- Thread starter love2driveinct
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love2driveinct
Kava Enthusiast
I ask because my college student daughter suffers from anxiety and mild ADHD. Sometimes she has a hard time even getting up and facing the day, so she misses class and her grades suffer. She is also a very good friend of Mary Jane. They hang out together every day and I think their long-term friendship has made the anxiety much worse, although she would claim that it is actually helping. I'd like to see her not relying so heavily on a substance (er, "friendship") that is giving her a chronic cough, ruining her clothes, chipping away at her relationships, causing panic attacks due to lack of funds, and allowing her to hide from her true feelings and issues and not dealing with them.
Any thoughts? Am I crazy to think I could convince her to spend a little less time with Mary Jane and a little more time with Kava? (And on that note, do Mary and Kava get along? Or is that a disaster waiting to happen, like alcohol and kava?)
Any thoughts? Am I crazy to think I could convince her to spend a little less time with Mary Jane and a little more time with Kava? (And on that note, do Mary and Kava get along? Or is that a disaster waiting to happen, like alcohol and kava?)
Krunkie McKrunkface
Kava Connoisseur
I believe so, yes. And the more mature and intelligent the young adult, the better it would work.
My son who just started grad school has mild social anxiety and he finds kava to be a godsend. And a lot of fun. He even quit drinking alcohol almost right away once he discovered kava.
Oh, they do get along [kava and mj], but they each potentiate the other so if combining one should use 1/2 the amount of each that one would usually enjoy. IMO.
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Zaphod
Kava Lover
I don't see any reason that a 19 or 20 year old couldn't handle kava....I did a lot "worse" at that age.
That being said you would have had a hard time convincing me to give up Mary for kava at that age. Your daughter would need some real strong motivating force to switch. I do believe the longer you take kava the less desires for Mary she would have but again it would take her wanting to give it up and really drink kava regularly to be able to do a wholesale switch from one to the other. Does she want to give it up?love2driveinct
Kava Enthusiast
Excellent. Glad to hear all of this. So happy for your son -- that is fantastic!
My daughter is intelligent, but not very mature at the moment. I'm still deciding whether to wait until she is home in May for the summer before even suggesting this. I should be far more experienced and knowledgeable by that point. Hopefully!
love2driveinct
Kava Enthusiast
No, she doesn't, even though sometimes she questions whether it is more of a problem than a solution. She's very caught up in the anxiety-relieving effects of it every evening, not to mention the social aspect.I don't see any reason that a 19 or 20 year old couldn't handle kava....I did a lot "worse" at that age.
I just thought it would be nice to offer it up as an option, especially one that mom and dad would willingly finance.
Zaphod
Kava Lover
Gotcha, can't hurt to have her try it. If she can get a few people together to do it as a social event it would provide an even better support system for switching. If the group she hangs out regularly smokes, then I would think they would have no problem getting them to try a kava night instead.
Krunkie McKrunkface
Kava Connoisseur
That's a good plan, IMO. I think you would want to have a bit of experience under your belt before trying to offer her any kava and be able to answer her questions or guide her. But I think the potential to help her is very encouraging, so you probably want to stick with that plan. In the meantime you can learn more so as to make the odds of success more likely. I would take the approach of "you might enjoy this, I do" rather than "you MUST drink this!!!!"
Krunkie McKrunkface
Kava Connoisseur
excellent plan, offer it as merely an option that is available to her.
Intrepidus_dux
Kava O.G.
I get really excited about younger people trying kava. It’s just so much safer than alcohol. As for mary jane, I’ve only mixed those friendships on a fee occasions and in small hesitant amounts. It seemed fine, but the mary was so so small. I’m not sure if Kava would be a good replacement for mj, but it would definitely be an amazing addition to most young adult’s lives.
I have kava circles with my friends and it’s a great time. We’re a bit older (30s age group), but not terribly far removed from the college kids. We’ll often sit around and chat or play video games or board games. For an mj fan, I would present it as “a psychoactive plant like mj”....that should spark some interest. It’s mych better for anxiety than mj in my opinion. I have a friend with depression who can’t do kava daily, but still enjoys it on occasion.
I have kava circles with my friends and it’s a great time. We’re a bit older (30s age group), but not terribly far removed from the college kids. We’ll often sit around and chat or play video games or board games. For an mj fan, I would present it as “a psychoactive plant like mj”....that should spark some interest. It’s mych better for anxiety than mj in my opinion. I have a friend with depression who can’t do kava daily, but still enjoys it on occasion.
recentreturn
Kava Enthusiast
I think the "responsibilities" of kava would be much easier to handle than the impositions she is experiencing from friends like Mary Jane. The real question is whether she is ready for the taste of kava and effort it requires, with less "intense" results and the social shift it might involve if she is friends mostly with MJ's friends.
FWIW: I drank kava for several years as a teenager, and it caused no major issues (but I was only drinking socially, never alone; and only 1-2 times / week). Even my parents, who were quite strict, didn't seem to be very concerned (of course it kept all my friends sitting safe in the basement); I suppose the fact that they had visited Fiji might have also given them perspective.
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love2driveinct
Kava Enthusiast
Wow, what great perspectives and comments here. It's like a breath of fresh air. Thank you all. If this is what kava does to people, then I wish the whole world were drinking it. Think of how peaceful we could all be!
I wholeheartedly wish I had gotten into drinking kava during college. I knew of it, but didn't know of it's potential. Hindsight is 20/20, but unfortunately I took a liking to pain killers during college which did nothing positive to my life in any way. The absence of addiction is such a powerful statement in kava.
Krunkie McKrunkface
Kava Connoisseur
less intense results?
I somewhat beg to differ.
Kava can have very intense results. Not that you would want that all the time or even often, but it is an option. Nothing in life quite like a good ol triple ball of nambawan.
recentreturn
Kava Enthusiast
Well, I have no intention of returning to MJ and its been 15 years since I've touched it and I was always a lightweight. But I might have to order some Nambawan.
Plantacious
Kava Enthusiast
I do believe it has potential for abuse, so caution should always be taken as a younger individual.
ThePiper
Kava Lover
I mean at that age alcohol is typically flowing in excess anyway so kava is nothing to worry about, but I get what you mean because this is advice to your daughter. Im in my twenties and have been drinking kava in some form or another since my teens. For me it is mainly anxiety and off and on depression that attracts me to it.
I think it would be a great help for your daughter if it works for her. It may depend on just how close her relationship with this other girl is. I had a friend who is really close to her and he has some of the same issues you describe in your daughter. I encouraged him to drink kava to rely less on that girl and instead it was just treated as an addition. I am an advocate for that controversial lady but I cannot deny that she has really exacerbated my friend's problems and I don't think anyone or anything will convince him to quit anytime soon. I didn't really believe one could become addicted to Mary but I don't know what else to call it when someone is spending hundreds of dollars and making themselves unhealthy mentally and physically but refuses to see it. I hope your daughter isnt so reliant on that girl... But yeah never hurts to try kava and I feel certain it is a better alternative for anyone who is too close with Mary...
I think it would be a great help for your daughter if it works for her. It may depend on just how close her relationship with this other girl is. I had a friend who is really close to her and he has some of the same issues you describe in your daughter. I encouraged him to drink kava to rely less on that girl and instead it was just treated as an addition. I am an advocate for that controversial lady but I cannot deny that she has really exacerbated my friend's problems and I don't think anyone or anything will convince him to quit anytime soon. I didn't really believe one could become addicted to Mary but I don't know what else to call it when someone is spending hundreds of dollars and making themselves unhealthy mentally and physically but refuses to see it. I hope your daughter isnt so reliant on that girl... But yeah never hurts to try kava and I feel certain it is a better alternative for anyone who is too close with Mary...
love2driveinct
Kava Enthusiast
It is. I wish it tasted better, but I think the social aspect of it could be pretty fun if you planned it right.
I'd never heard of it until a month or so ago. I was in college a lonnggg time ago, though. It was all about drinking back then. I went to a Jesuit school, so drinking was part of the culture. Drugs were a non-issue.
love2driveinct
Kava Enthusiast
For sure, especially ones with addictive personalities. I shall tread carefully!
love2driveinct
Kava Enthusiast
She much prefers Mary to alcohol. She very rarely drinks because she hates the taste and the way it makes her feel. On the one hand, I feel like she is picking the lesser of two evils. In my opinion, alcohol is one of the things that is ruining our society, but that is another discussion. However, like your friend, she is psychologically addicted and making herself unhealthy. And spending hundreds of MY dollars every month so they can hang out. She uses it to help her with anxiety, but as I mentioned, I think it's actually made it worse over time. And now she's made her whole social world revolve around Mary and fears what a life without her would be like... all new friends? Starting over? That thought terrifies her even more. I am a staunch advocate for Mary when she is truly helping the right person with the right condition -- but I do feel it's a dangerously slippery slope for many, especially the young whose frontal lobes are not yet finished being developed and decision-making is not at its best.