Social anxiety and kava

[kl.RounderIII]

Hey kavalounge, first let me say how thankful I am for finding this place. It looks like such a great place for kava kava information.




























I've been lurking for quite a while but I finally decided it was time to make an account!
So recently I've been having a problem with social anxiety, nothing extremely severe, but getting bothersome.
I've seen a lot of talk about kava's benefits for social anxiety, but not a specific thread about SA. 
I first tried kava a couple of years ago with capsules (vitamin shoppe and gaia), and it seemed to help social anxiety a little. But now i'm realizing that I should give the real stuff a try.
I just recently bought the 30g jar of paradisekava's 2012 extract, and I'm building up my kava glands, i've noticed slightly more effects over 3 days of taking it, but no major effects really. I know building the reverse tolerance can take some time, so i'm being patient
But my main question is: What Kava would be worth giving a try for social anxiety?

Thanks

 

[Dan]

Hi RounderIII.   Kava is ideal for me for many reasons but most of all for the fact that it really helps obliterate any social anxiety I might have. 

Others will have their favorites for social situations, but there are three reliable strains I'd recommend:

1) Bula Kava House's Fu'u
2) Kava by Rex's Vanuatu3 (KBR's Tongan Pride is also great.)

(Both of these are kavain-rich varieties.)

3) Nakamal at Home's Wow!  

(This variety feels both high-kavain and high-DHM; not sure about its chemotype, however.)

I do think any reasonably effective kava will help with this kind of anxiety.  Just don't drink too much in a social situation!   When I go overboard I start slurring my words and basically lose all of the mental acuity that is part of kava's original charm.  Either way, sounds like you're on the right track; extracts are great but nothing in
my opinion can quite replicate the power and body-and-mind satisfaction of a brew made
from root.

 

[Vekta]

For Social Anxiety that is just " getting bothersome" any of the ones Dan suggested will work great. Nakamal at Home's wow kava has a reputation of being a heavy hitter. You might not need something as OP-ed as that but there is nothing wrong with jumping right in to the deep end of the kava bowl.  Just don't make any plans for the day you try it out in case it really hits you like a truck.(smiley: laugh)
As for me I find that Kava varieties that are more balanced between physical and mental effects work best for my social anxiety. If I could only have one kava to use for my social anxiety I would use Boroguru from Bula Kava House. You can prepare in 15-20 minutes and just get a mildly relaxing brew or spend a couple hours preparing it and get krunk off ya butt cheeks!(smiley: happy)

 

[kl.RounderIII]

Ok thanks for the responses guys.





























How bad were both of your social anxieties before starting to use kava? I ask this because I think i have mild to moderate anxiety and don't feel it is severe enough to go to meds. No panic attacks, just noticable discomfort in social situations, negative thoughts, nervousness, etc. Nothing debilitating.

 

[Dan]

Social anxiety's never been debilitating for me, either.  But I've always been friendly, but shy, and have needed a push sometimes to metaphorically get me out the door and into whatever being-around-people situation is at hand.  

Kava is great because if you do it right you actually want to get out there and talk to people - friends, acquaintances, strangers alike.  A lot of drugs flip the extrovert switch for normally introverted people, of course.  It's just that kava is relatively innocuous.

 

[Vekta]

I've had it for years but it was never diagnosed or treated due to a lack of medical insurance. It still hasn't been officially diagnosed because again...medical insurance issue. For the brief period that I was able to get medical help I was told that prescription drugs would most likely not help me and had a very high chance of screwing me up far worse. In a round about way they did me a favor.



It really sucked going through the end of grade school, middle and high school not knowing exactly what the issue was. Social anxiety never came up during that brief period I had medical help. It wasn't until college that I was tested for a learning disability that indirectly uncovered that there is a strong possibility that I have social anxiety. The stress of being in crowded lecture halls and labs as well as keeping up was one of the triggers for panic attacks that would cause me to just walk out in the middle of a lab assignment or lecture and not show up again for up to 3 days at a time. I had a very understanding biology professor at the time this break down happened so I was given some space to put myself back together. Sometimes I was a paranoid wreck that was afraid to come out of my room and face just my own family. Afraid of what I still don't know but crowds and people just became an abstract blur where everything sounded like it was underwater...muffled, like that.



I don't know...I guess it was pretty bad officially diagnosed or not. By the time I was in college it had gotten to the point where it was pretty damn disabling and there was no way I was going to try and live with that for another day if I could find anything to help stop it. I was lucky, I never went through the hell that Benzo's can be. I saw a few of my friends go through that.

 

[kl.RounderIII]

well i ordered some Fu'u a  few days ago, and have been consuming once or twice a day, didn't get too much effect--but tonight i upped the amount I had, and WOW. I don't know if I'm krunked....or not, but let me just say any more effects would be too much haha.






























Thanks guys, this may be a new tool for coping with social anxiety. This is definitely a nice feeling!

 

[Steve]

Started to get some good feedback about the kava candy to help with social anxiety.  One customer wrote:

"Wow! I ordered these
a couple of weeks ago bc I have issues with anxiety now and then.
Today was a very high anxiety day and my family was also causing me a
lot of stress. . . I was almost at my breaking point when I remembered I
had some of these Kava Candies so I figured it would be a good time to
try them out. Omg, that internal anxiety shakiness when away with in
minutes! I feel so calm and amazing!!!! I will definitely be a long
time customer, thank you!
Oh, customer service was also top notch! Thanks again!"When anxiety is really hitting you, the candy can help curb that overwhelming feeling. (or at least get you out of the 'RED ZONE')  i used to just chew on dry root (like a toothpick) Nothing major in a sense but seemed to help my overall easiness. I had a friend that would always have a little bag of powdered extract and rub it on their gums.  It is just an easy way to keep the lactones in the body and stabilize for lack of a better word.

 

[kl.midas]

When anxiety is really hitting you, the candy can help curb that overwhelming feeling. (or at least get you out of the 'RED ZONE')  

As someone who suffers with social anxiety, I can say that's a pretty good summation of what the candies can do. They're never going to completely wipe away the type of extreme anxiety that I feel in certain situations, but they can take enough of the edge off to allow me to cope. That's a huge thing for me, to have something I can pull out of my pocket to get me through such situations. I'm going to order more of these after I move to my new address

 

[Prince Philip]

I tend to be most social on Fire Island, and least social on anything ISA.