fueledbykava
Kava enthusiast
Hey all, I wanted to reach out to the community based on some recent observations I've made given a very strange reaction I've seemed to have to a certain type of Kava. I've been a Kava consumer for a few years now, off and on, and variably consistent, but usually at least a couple to a few times per week. I've also taken a new job which has been highly stressful at times, and coupled with other stresses of life, found myself consuming Kava every day for a week or two at a time.
Being somebody who doesn't like to feel dependent on a substance in order to cope, when I would reach 4-5 days of use, I would purposefully cut back and give myself some time off of it.
This has never been an issue in the past, however with one variety of Kava (from a Kava Forums-approved vendor, not some cheap Amazon-only brand), I've recently experienced significant psychological and physiological withdraw symptoms which set in the day after, lasting 3-4 days.
These symptoms included extraordinarily high anxiety to the point I could barely eat or sleep, random bouts of crying and depression throughout the day, and profuse sweating when undertaking mild physical activities. I needed to reach out to a psychiatrist, beings that I was not sleeping for multiple days and couldn't work. After about a week's time of abstinence and time off of work, I was able to sleep, eat, and the depression symptoms subsided.
I am not blaming the kava explicitly, given my brain chemistry and physiology will be different than others and from what I have read and experienced over the past few years, this was not a normal reaction to Kava. However given the use of it to cope and unusually high levels of stress I was already experiencing, I was wonder if anyone else has ever had a similar reaction. I figure that this might not be something that many folks would want to come forward with since Kava is usually so well tolerated, but I wanted to be a voice for anyone who might have experienced something similar to know it may not have just been them, as well as to contribute towards our overall knowledge of this plant, even if this is an edge case. This was also a highly heady-chemotype kava for what it's worth.
Thanks all
Being somebody who doesn't like to feel dependent on a substance in order to cope, when I would reach 4-5 days of use, I would purposefully cut back and give myself some time off of it.
This has never been an issue in the past, however with one variety of Kava (from a Kava Forums-approved vendor, not some cheap Amazon-only brand), I've recently experienced significant psychological and physiological withdraw symptoms which set in the day after, lasting 3-4 days.
These symptoms included extraordinarily high anxiety to the point I could barely eat or sleep, random bouts of crying and depression throughout the day, and profuse sweating when undertaking mild physical activities. I needed to reach out to a psychiatrist, beings that I was not sleeping for multiple days and couldn't work. After about a week's time of abstinence and time off of work, I was able to sleep, eat, and the depression symptoms subsided.
I am not blaming the kava explicitly, given my brain chemistry and physiology will be different than others and from what I have read and experienced over the past few years, this was not a normal reaction to Kava. However given the use of it to cope and unusually high levels of stress I was already experiencing, I was wonder if anyone else has ever had a similar reaction. I figure that this might not be something that many folks would want to come forward with since Kava is usually so well tolerated, but I wanted to be a voice for anyone who might have experienced something similar to know it may not have just been them, as well as to contribute towards our overall knowledge of this plant, even if this is an edge case. This was also a highly heady-chemotype kava for what it's worth.
Thanks all
