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I know they say kava isn't addictive

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24601

24601

exit stage left
I know they say kava isn't addictive, but something's telling me I should take a break for now. This is the second time in a couple of months where I have overdone it. I've never heard of anyone else experiencing this before, and my "overdoing it" is another person's regular night, I seem to be very sensitive to lower dosages - but I find that if I go really heavy and then get nauseated and stop, I have a couple of days after stopping where I feel fluey - like alternating cold and hot, no appetite. My eyes also get very swollen and sore, every single time. I really enjoy how kava affects me, until it gets to this point. It can be debilitating, I called in sick to work yesterday because I felt so awful. It doesn't seem to matter the strain of kava, or even whether it's micro or traditional prep.

This can't be normal, so at least for now I'm going to stop kava for a bit and get my liver levels checked. And if and when I decide to restart it, if I can't manage to reduce the dose so I don't get sick, maybe kava isn't something I should be using right now.
 
Ligermeat

Ligermeat

Warm and Fuzzeh!
When one drinks alchohol, throws up, passes out at he bar, and wakes up with a throbbing headache he know he overdid it. Kava isn't like that. Depending on strain and chemotype, kava seems to have a very high "ceiling of unpleasantness", that is, it takes a lot of it to star feeling bad.

Maybe with the heavy stuff, you might get nauseous and throw up if you drink too much. But the light kavas have never given me any nausea other discomfort ever. There's really no such thing as "too much kava". As a matter of fact, Fijians are known to consume shells going into the double digits in a single night!
 
Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Kava Connoisseur
Listen to your body!. Kava does not sound like it is for you. Sadly.. but I can say for sure it is not addictive.

Take a break for sure . You won't have withdrawls.. idk what that is your experiencing but I get that while drinking kava if i go to hard for a while.
 
Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Kava Connoisseur
Yeah I would say cannabis has a larger possibility of withdrawls in the form of anxiety etc. If you smoke daily for months . But negligible ... kava doesn't seem to have any...
When people who get dermo stop it seems to get worse for a few days untill it leaves the system
.
This is most likley what your experiences are in my opinion. But exaggerated from others because kava clearly effects you differently
 
24601

24601

exit stage left
Yeah it's weird, I don't know why kava affects me like this. It's too bad, because at least for the first few days, the effects are enjoyable. You're right that if it was some sort of withdrawal the symptoms would go away with more kava, and they don't. Maybe I'm just too sensitive to it.
 
Jonathan

Jonathan

All Hail Leon
Literally anything can be psychologically addictive to people with addictive personalities, from kava, to MJ, to picking your nose, drinking a certain type of juice, or really anything else. The fortunate part about kava, as others have said, is that there are no withdrawal symptoms. You may miss it, but you won't experience any increase in anxiety or uneasiness above base levels you felt before.

If you find you think you're overdoing something, in my humble opinion, that's a sign to look deeper than just the thing itself. Hope you feel better from the symptoms you described though...
 
Q

queenbrookemaddox

Newbie
Yes, it's possible to overdo kava. Don't know why someone said it isn't. People talk about kava like it's perfect and never has side effects but that's not 100% true. Sounds like you're pretty sensitive. Also, kava doesn't hurt the liver as long as there isn't any other parts of the plant being consumed. Here's a good article on the liver damage myth: http://reset.me/story/the-ban-on-kava-and-the-bogus-liver-damage-scare/ You should definitely take less, but your liver is most likely fine.
 
Ligermeat

Ligermeat

Warm and Fuzzeh!
queenbrookemaddox said:
Yes, it's possible to overdo kava. Don't know why someone said it isn't. People talk about kava like it's perfect and never has side effects but that's not 100% true. Sounds like you're pretty sensitive. Also, kava doesn't hurt the liver as long as there isn't any other parts of the plant being consumed. Here's a good article on the liver damage myth: http://reset.me/story/the-ban-on-kava-and-the-bogus-liver-damage-scare/ You should definitely take less, but your liver is most likely fine.
Click to expand...
What I meant was that you can't overdo kava like you can with other drugs. You overdo booze, its gonna be REALLY unpleasant, and possibly deadly. You overdo kava, the worst that happens is you dry heave and fall asleep.
 
Groggy

Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
Ligermeat said:
What I meant was that you can't overdo kava like you can with other drugs. You overdo booze, its gonna be REALLY unpleasant, and possibly deadly. You overdo kava, the worst that happens is you dry heave and fall asleep.
Click to expand...
I'll add to your post and say you may feel drunk like effects (briefly, about 30-40 minutes max) & possibly throw up, which happened with me once or twice. But those times I really pushed the envelope.
 
Q

queenbrookemaddox

Newbie
Ligermeat said:
What I meant was that you can't overdo kava like you can with other drugs. You overdo booze, its gonna be REALLY unpleasant, and possibly deadly. You overdo kava, the worst that happens is you dry heave and fall asleep.
Click to expand...
I gotcha. But it sounds like that's not true for OP. That may be true for most people, but not everyone. Also OP, did you buy noble kava? Kava that isn't noble can cause sickness sometimes.
 
Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Kava Connoisseur
Lol most stuff that affects someone so drastically different than others in this case would probrably have killed the person or been much worse .. so the fact that this is the exception still isn't too bad and adds to kavas saftey in my mind lol.
 
Kojo Douglas

Kojo Douglas

The Kavasseur
Addiction can take different forms. You can be addicted to sugar, to sex, to keeping your silverware drawer in perfect order, to obsessing over whether you did or didn't turn the oven off, to heroin, to crystal-meth, to crack, and to Kava.

But then there are addictive substances.

That is where we need to make the clarification in this argument. Kava is not an addictive substance. There are no withdrawal symptoms, no cravings, nothing in the chemical compounds that you can become addicted to. But if you have an addictive personality or obsessive-compulsive disorder, you might find yourself drinking more Kava than you need too. But that's not an issue with the Kava.

(Not meant to shame people who have these kinds of problems. I've had addictions before that I had to seek counseling for).
 
kavadude

kavadude

❦ॐ tanuki tamer
Setting aside the addictiveness debate, I have come to several points where I was frustrated with the kava and took a week+ long break. Absolutely nothing wrong with it
 
Last edited:
Edward

Edward

Aluballin' in the UK
Kava Vendor
24601 said:
I know they say kava isn't addictive, but something's telling me I should take a break for now. This is the second time in a couple of months where I have overdone it. I've never heard of anyone else experiencing this before, and my "overdoing it" is another person's regular night, I seem to be very sensitive to lower dosages - but I find that if I go really heavy and then get nauseated and stop, I have a couple of days after stopping where I feel fluey - like alternating cold and hot, no appetite. My eyes also get very swollen and sore, every single time. I really enjoy how kava affects me, until it gets to this point. It can be debilitating, I called in sick to work yesterday because I felt so awful. It doesn't seem to matter the strain of kava, or even whether it's micro or traditional prep.

This can't be normal, so at least for now I'm going to stop kava for a bit and get my liver levels checked. And if and when I decide to restart it, if I can't manage to reduce the dose so I don't get sick, maybe kava isn't something I should be using right now.
Click to expand...
I'm not completely sure I understand the question? You feel ill when you overdo kava. So don't overdo it, find your comfortable level and stick to that. Sorry if that sounds harsh, not intended to be at all, just helpful, friendly advice based on your post.
 
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