I'm new to the forums and posted a bit of my success story in my introduction, but I can elaborate here.
I've been drinking kava for about a month, starting infrequently and then increasing in regularity as I found the positive effects. I have suffered from anxiety my entire life, and I've been dealing with anorexia for 10 years. A few months ago I started my own business mixing and selling tea blends. To get the herbs I use in bulk, I found a supplier close to me geographically. One day while trying to think of new tea flavours, I was browsing her list of herbs (she lists the positive health benefits of everything she sells) and read her listing for kava. I felt like I had to try it. My first purchase was pieces of cut root, which I tried to make into a tea. It was unsuccessful, I felt no effects, but I kept trying, next time buying powdered root.
I'm still getting used to preparing the kava, I have a muslin bag and I put two tablespoons in the bag and then massage the bag in a cup of cold water for 10 minutes, and that seems to work most of the time - I seem to remember when I tried it with warm/hot water it might have worked a bit better so I'm going to try that again today and see. The effects are variable, sometimes more potent than others, even when using the same batch of kava.
The biggest success I have found since adding kava to my life is with the anorexia. I'm on a waiting list for treatment, and there was some messiness where the treatment centre lost my referral, and I was feeling pretty hopeless about improving, and then a friend died due to complications from her eating disorder which hit very close to home. But since I've began drinking kava more regularly, I find myself able to eat at least a little bit more, and even though I'm not gaining weight, I've managed to stall more weight loss. And while the eating disordered part of me is not happy about that, the kava part of me feels like things will happen as they are meant to happen, when they are meant to happen, and that I'll generally be ok, after all, I've made it this long.
The only problem I am having is the cost. I guess I need to shop around, maybe the close proximity and fast shipping of my current provider is too expensive and I could find it for cheaper elsewhere. The next time I have some spare cash, I'm going to try one of the more well known suppliers. I'm also thinking of purchasing some tincture from a health food store in my neighbourhood, just to see if that has any effect.
I guess the whole point of this is, I am glad to have found kava and a community of people who can guide me along my way. I really think I've found something that can change my life. I have been on benzos for the anxiety for about a year and I'm really hoping to finally taper off of them with the help of kava. The frequency that I'm drinking it has increased a lot lately, but I'm hoping to find a routine, maybe a cup or two of kava at night to wind down several times a week. I'm just in such turmoil right now that it's hard to resist something that makes life feel liveable again. I think kava can help me get my feet back under me, and then I can develop a routine for my kava consumption.
I really find the preparation of it soothing, too. Something about timing the 10 minutes and squeezing the bag under water and feeling the soft oily kava inside reminds me of being a kid and playing with sand at the beach.
Thank you all for being here.