New to kava, longterm effects on anxiety ?

[kavadiet]

Hi there

Im new to kava but already tried like 40 times and the effects are awesome general, I use it primarily for my generalized anxiety disorder with very good results.
I only wonder if it won't increase my anxiety in the long-term as I read it activates the GABA-receptors, like benzos which does the same thing and is helpfull for short-term anxiety but it will increase it in the long-term.

Does anyone of you long users noticed it makes there anxiety worse long-term ? All I noticed is last couple of days of intense night sweats after a kava binge night could be something different. I rather play safe

 

[BulaJones]

I have been using kava for about two months and have found that my baseline anxiety is getting better every week. This week I ran out of kava and while I am waiting for my shipment I am not overwhelmed with anxiety.

I have also been wondering why kava doesn't seem to be addictive like benzos. I did a little googling and found this thread on another forum. My understanding is benzos and kava both play with our GABA-A levels, but they go about it in different ways. This might be why kava is not addictive and may even have long term beneficial effects. Keep in mind my background is math/stats/cs not toxicology/biology/etc. There are others on the forum that can probably give you better info.

As for the night sweats, I have never had them with kava....only alcohol. It might be helpful to know how much kava you are using and if you are using it with anything else that might interact (benzos, alcohol, etc).

 

[nhoeg]

Hello @kavadiet and welcome to the Forums,

I have used kava for anxiety for about 8-9 months with multiweek breaks in between. It has not made my anxiety worse long term. If my anxiety is bad for a period, even when I drink kava, it is typically because of an ongoing event in my life that ruins the ongoing kava experience.