Kratom & Antidepressants

[PMaC23]

Kratom used to work fantastic for me at 4-6g in 1-2 doses a day. Completely alleviated my depression and allowed me to stay focused in life.

In November 2017, I decided I wanted to quit Kratom and get on a more traditional medication to manage my depression. About 4 days after quitting Kratom, I started on a low-dose of Effexor (37.5mg.)

I stayed committed to not taking Kratom until the first week of January 2018. I was so frustrated at seeing zero improvement and started to feel like I was actually doing much worse for myself without Kratom. So as I said, when I quit in early November, 12g a day was working fantastic. But...despite a break that exceeded over two months, I seemed to have major tolerance issues all the sudden. I first thought the vendor was just sending me bunk. But I started trying different vendors, different colors, strains, etc., and discovered that it was absolutely not working for me at seemingly any dose.

As of today, I gotta say that Kratom has never even come close to the effects I had in 2017. It does help...but very weakly. I personally am finally convinced that it must have something to do with the antidepressant medication. I am in the process of testing my theory. I finished tapering off Celexa two days ago and have also tapered off Trazodone. I would think that if somehow these drugs were blunting the normal euphoria from Kratom, they should be out of my system over the next few days. I’m going to report back, but had anyone already been through this kind of process? That is-quitting an antidepressant and discovering Kratom started working normally again? I’d love to hear your experiences either way.

[CatfatherB]

I just did a quick reddit search and saw a post almost identical to yours, a guy quit kratom for effexor and started kratom back 2 months later and had the same results as you, I guess it is the effexor blocking the kratom.

[javagurl62]

I just did a quick reddit search and saw a post almost identical to yours, a guy quit kratom for effexor and started kratom back 2 months later and had the same results as you, I guess it is the effexor blocking the kratom.

Not the case for me. I've been doing kratom on and off since 2016 around the big ban-scare. I take Effexor, 150 mg a day. This one doc wanted me to take 225 mg a day. He also wanted me to take 1800 mg of gabapentin a day which I tried until I forgot to take it and noticed it. I didn't like that feeling especially when my panic was controlled at 150. I was still messing around with opioids and was actually in wd the day he examined me and declared me to have fibromylalgia. No, dude, you're poking me while I'm in wd and am ticklish to boot. You caught that my eyes were dilated. Anyhow jump to present, the opiods are at least 3 months in the rear view mirror. No booze in over a month. I decided to give up the gabapentin and the baclofen that I was also taking. Ever since the opies left the buiding, I have been having the best kratom experiences I have had in my entire time using it! I've also began reading the reviews on this forum and buying from some new vendors and having a lot of success with that. Plenty of people use kratom for anxiety and mood. I'm mostly in it for pain control but like a well balance range of strain colors, not just the usual reds.
I came back to suggest that the less is more rule might work for you. It did for me. I try to stay under 3 grams per dose which is important for me because I dose all day long because of the pain, which is coming back. I need a hip replacement and am trying to stretch the alternative therapies as long as I can.

[CatfatherB]

Antidepressants work different for everyone, maybe it is the effexor, maybe it's the kratom. All the dude can do is play with his dose, try different vendors? Maybe do a reddit search, there's a lot of anecdotes from veteran kratom users there, hope all goes well, keep us posted!

[javagurl62]

Exactly! I've found myself tweaking my kratom doseage depending on strain color and time of day. Dudes lucky he's only taking 37.5 mg of Effexor. That's a starter dose. Exactly what I began at after trying prozac and zoloft which had worked in the past but gave me side effects the last go around. Our systems change throughout our lives and even day to day. Definitely keep us posted!

[beathappening]

I'm on high dose Prozac along with several others and don't notice a difference. Meds like atorvastatin and propranolol did seem to affect it though. Effexor is notorious for being difficult to come of off and being hard on the body, maybe try switching to a SSRI or other antidep

[gravystainonmyshirt]

My mother had been on high doses of anti depressants for many many years and she finally got off of them cold turkey, which i dont recommend but thats what she wanted to do, and she says she hasnt been happier in years. She says the pills made her flat, not happy but not sad. She said yes, sometimes she gets sad, but then other times she is very happy, like how we are supposed to be, good times/bad times. She said she wished she got off of them a long time ago. Not saying you should, but if you can, it wouldnt be that bad an idea is all im saying. She thinks kratom helped when she got off of them , she quit smoking with chantix as well and is med free now

[Theanine]

Kratom used to work fantastic for me at 4-6g in 1-2 doses a day. Completely alleviated my depression and allowed me to stay focused in life.

In November 2017, I decided I wanted to quit Kratom and get on a more traditional medication to manage my depression. About 4 days after quitting Kratom, I started on a low-dose of Effexor (37.5mg.)

I stayed committed to not taking Kratom until the first week of January 2018. I was so frustrated at seeing zero improvement and started to feel like I was actually doing much worse for myself without Kratom. So as I said, when I quit in early November, 12g a day was working fantastic. But...despite a break that exceeded over two months, I seemed to have major tolerance issues all the sudden. I first thought the vendor was just sending me bunk. But I started trying different vendors, different colors, strains, etc., and discovered that it was absolutely not working for me at seemingly any dose.

As of today, I gotta say that Kratom has never even come close to the effects I had in 2017. It does help...but very weakly. I personally am finally convinced that it must have something to do with the antidepressant medication. I am in the process of testing my theory. I finished tapering off Celexa two days ago and have also tapered off Trazodone. I would think that if somehow these drugs were blunting the normal euphoria from Kratom, they should be out of my system over the next few days. I’m going to report back, but had anyone already been through this kind of process? That is-quitting an antidepressant and discovering Kratom started working normally again? I’d love to hear your experiences either way.

Whoa, Effexor is some horrible stuff! And you're also on Celexa and Trazadone? Jesus. What is blocking your Kratom is most definitely Trazadone! I can 100% guarantee you that one. That doesn't mean that there is not something else in your mad pharmacopeia mix which also blunts Kratom's effects, but the Trazadone is definitely the culprit here. Why would you chose those poisons over this beautiful leaf? Me no comprende.

Btw, someone mentioned that they were on Kratom and off all opioids. Well, Kratom is an opioid by definition. Just sayin....

[MorriesWigs80]

I take Lexapro, it doesn’t affect my Kratom dose. But I’m curious why what you’re describing would happen

[Theanine]

I take Lexapro, it doesn’t affect my Kratom dose. But I’m curious why what you’re describing would happen

Personal experience with Trazadone blunting Kratom’s effects, many things do.