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Newbie - anxiety?

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drylightning

drylightning

Kava Curious
I'm brand new to kava - looking for help with anxiety/panic disorder and currently take a benzo and an SSRI. (Have for years...prescribed.) I'm hoping kava can help, as I'm going through a bit of a rough patch. Long term, it'd be great to get off them, of course.

I bought paste, kavalactone capsules, and tincture from Kona Kava Farm before reading the bad reviews here. Just received the package today. Should I bother? Or should I wait for the micronized Samoa and Borongoru that I bought from Kalm With Kava?

Thanks!
 
Groggy

Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
drylightning said:
I'm brand new to kava - looking for help with anxiety/panic disorder and currently take a benzo and an SSRI. (Have for years...prescribed.) I'm hoping kava can help, as I'm going through a bit of a rough patch. Long term, it'd be great to get off them, of course.

I bought paste, kavalactone capsules, and tincture from Kona Kava Farm before reading the bad reviews here. Just received the package today. Should I bother? Or should I wait for the micronized Samoa and Borongoru that I bought from Kalm With Kava?

Thanks!
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Welcome to KF, you will definitely get better results with KWK, you may experience some reverse tolerance or maybe not. I haven't tried the products you've mentioned buying before the Kalm with Kava so I can't really give you advice on it. Maybe someone that has can give you advice on it. Generally speaking those products don't work very well or if they do, the effects may not last very long.
 
drylightning

drylightning

Kava Curious
Thanks! I ate some of the paste - made my mouth nice and numb but no effects other than that. A few hours later I took two capsules. Nothing. I think I bought garbage.
 
drylightning

drylightning

Kava Curious
Thanks! I hope the good stuff works. I tried the paste again almost an hour ago and feel nothing. (Maybe a bit more chipper than usual, but nothing that would be passed on for generations by several cultures. Not to mention inspiring a nice internet forum.) Tomorrow I'll get my Gaia candies and hopefully they'll help to destroy anxiety. Soon my micronized from KWK too!
 
Krunkie McKrunkface

Krunkie McKrunkface

Kava Connoisseur
drylightning said:
Thanks! I ate some of the paste - made my mouth nice and numb but no effects other than that. A few hours later I took two capsules. Nothing. I think I bought garbage.
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Or it could be your body just hasn't adapted yet. Took my body two months of daily drinking at first before I got anything.

Also, the candies will not destroy your anxiety, except by a fluke and a miracle. What they do is taste good, make you feel nice, and for some people it can really take the edge off anxiety, or damp it down for a short while (20 -60 min or so) so you can get through a terrible wrk meeting or whatever, or just enhance the enjoyment of a walk in the park.

Fwiw my wife had anxiety and kava did fix it but it took 7 or 8 months of daily drinking before it was "fixed." it will go a lot better, IMO, if you approach with reasonable expectations of what kava can do for you and what that involves. A lot of people give up quickly because "success" however that is defined isn't instant. It will not, barring a miracle, happen that way. In that sense, kava is just like any other medical treatment for anxiety ( or depression,). It is more a course of treatment than a single-dose symptom zapper.
 
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T

TrevC

Kava Enthusiast
drylightning, I'm fairly new to Kava myself. Just wanted to chime in because I nearly gave up on it, after steadily increasing doses daily for a while. But finally got to a point where it *hit* and when it did... it really did. I thought "THIS is why I started trying Kava!"
It wasn't a "drunk" feeling, I wasn't unable to function, etc. It was a really nice, uplifting (almost euphoric) sensation, and was a tremendous way to relax after work. I'm still trying different Kavas, with varying degrees of success. The one that seems to be most consistent for me is Kavafied's Kava Supreme. I originally overlooked it simply because it was on Amazon Prime... and I imagined it sitting on a shelf getting dusty. But I'm glad I gave it a chance!

The initial dose that really hit me (and this may seem like a ton to you) was 40 grams. I built up to that slowly, disappointed every time until I got there. I've seen people mention using two tablespoons and comparable amounts. Really would be delighted if I could do that, but it just does nothing for me. That said, when Kava Supreme came in, I tried it at 25 grams and it was splendid.

As you may already know, having an empty stomach is really important. I also find, as others do, that some type of milk/fat as an emulsifier for the kavalactones to bind to really helps, as opposed to using only water.

Keep at it! :)
 
drylightning

drylightning

Kava Curious
I appreciate the responses!

I have a tendency to worry (shock!) about what the effects will feel like, so having no effects can get me worked up sometimes, thinking maybe I do/maybe I don't, wondering if it'll increase anxiety, etc. So, I will just have to accept that I may not feel anything for a bit and see what happens.

No magic bullet, huh?
 
T

TrevC

Kava Enthusiast
drylightning said:
I appreciate the responses!

I have a tendency to worry (shock!) about what the effects will feel like, so having no effects can get me worked up sometimes, thinking maybe I do/maybe I don't, wondering if it'll increase anxiety, etc. So, I will just have to accept that I may not feel anything for a bit and see what happens.

No magic bullet, huh?
Click to expand...
For me, K@ was the thing that - just over a year ago - changed me. For the better, I'd have to say, though I give warnings now that IF USED DAILY, your body will become dependent on it. That's where I'm at now. Granted, I rotate strains and use magnesium, so I've kept my tolerance lower than most people who've used it for over a year. In general, I don't recommend it because it's kindof a sucky feeling to be tied to a substance. (I'm currently tapering down now.) That's why Kava is unique and wonderful: Your body never becomes dependent on it and, if anything, there's a "reverse tolerance" effect at play, instead of a tolerance that builds rapidly. Hang with Kava, my friend. You'll eventually find what amount works for you, under what conditions. It's worth it. :)
 
drylightning

drylightning

Kava Curious
Today I received micronized kava from Kalm with Kava but I have not tried it yet. Yesterday was a rough day and evening I ate some kava.com paste early in the day, about noon. Then throughout the afternoon I nibbled on candies (the kind discussed on this forum that's considered pretty good.) No noticeable effects. By the time I got home from work I was feeling really wound up Nervous as though I'd drank a lot of coffee. This lasted until bedtime and into today (I still have heightened anxiety as I type this, actually.)

So the quality micronized borongoru is just sitting there because I'm reluctant as hell to try it given yesterday's experience.

I may be overreacting, and some of the anxiety may be psychosomatic, of course

Thoughts? Still hope for me and kava?

Thanks
 
Groggy

Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
drylightning said:
Today I received micronized kava from Kalm with Kava but I have not tried it yet. Yesterday was a rough day and evening I ate some kava.com paste early in the day, about noon. Then throughout the afternoon I nibbled on candies (the kind discussed on this forum that's considered pretty good.) No noticeable effects. By the time I got home from work I was feeling really wound up Nervous as though I'd drank a lot of coffee. This lasted until bedtime and into today (I still have heightened anxiety as I type this, actually.)

So the quality micronized borongoru is just sitting there because I'm reluctant as hell to try it given yesterday's experience.

I may be overreacting, and some of the anxiety may be psychosomatic, of course

Thoughts? Still hope for me and kava?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Mix yourself 2 tablespoons of the Borongoru and see how you feel. I had a lot of anxiety before I started drinking kava. It was what I wanted the most from kava. It was going to be kava or Benzo's and back then alcohol as well.
 
drylightning

drylightning

Kava Curious
Fortunately, I quit drinking years ago when first prescribed benzos. Drinking made the next day intolerable.

But, damn, it would be fun to get krunked while my wife and friends get drunk.
 
Sam Handwich

Sam Handwich

Kava Enthusiast
drylightning said:
Fortunately, I quit drinking years ago when first prescribed benzos. Drinking made the next day intolerable.

But, damn, it would be fun to get krunked while my wife and friends get drunk.
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For me being around drunk people while drinking kava is super annoying unless they are the quiet, chill kind of drunks, or maybe that's just me.
 
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