What is the main thing you want to avoid with kratom?
Abusing it.
How does one abuse kratom?
Not understanding the purpose of kratom. Treating it like a recreational drug. Thinking “more is better”. Thinking you have to “work up to” a higher and higher dose as you go along. Treating it like a chemical thrill or party dope.
Kratom is not like heroin.
With opioids, people have to keep escalating their dose amount and frequency, until it gets ridiculous, socially compromising, inconvenient, interruptive, time-consuming, and costly.
Less is more. You’ll quickly be able to decide on the best amount and dose frequency. But remember: low doses are stimulating and high doses are sedating. So, based on what effects you require, you will adjust your dosing accordingly.
If you deliberately use an excessive amount of kratom, or take it way too often, you will have negative consequences. Luckily, though, our bodies will rebel against too large a dose of kratom. Your stomach will vomit it out, especially if it was taken with the toss and wash method.
Taking too much kratom, due to ignorance, or in an attempt to abuse it to hopefully get high, is probably the most serious issue. Kratom is not like opioids, benzos, and many other drugs. Less is more.
Our “How Much Kratom is Too Much” blog article goes into this topic of excessive amounts. Every person has different needs, so amount limits are hard to generalize about, but after a while, your body will tell you how much kratom it wants.
Also see our blog articles: “How To Determine Your Kratom Dose” and “Why Kratom is NOT a Recreational Get High Party Drug”.
Sometimes people, especially those who have used opioids, think kratom is just another narcotic. So the more you take, the better you’ll feel. This is not true for kratom. In fact, you can achieve the exact opposite of what you hoped for when you use too much.
It’s best to start low, with 4 grams per dose, for example.
In a very short time, your body will decide how much is not enough, how much is too much, and how much is just right. You may eventually find that you prefer red vein kratom, instead of white vein or green vein. You may even get specific on favorite growing areas. You may decide you prefer kratom from the Aceh, Borneo, or Bentuangie regions.
Taking too much kratom causes several problems:
ONE Expensive.
If you get your body adjusted to consuming large quantities of kratom, to keep taking it at this level will cost you. You’ll run out of kratom faster and have to keep buying more than the typical kratom user does. Lower doses won’t deliver much benefit.
You’ll save money by starting at a low dose and remaining at the lowest dose amount and frequency possible.
TWO Bowel trouble.
By putting huge amounts of kratom into your body, you may end up being constipated frequently. One way to counteract this is to drink way more water and move around a lot. Having difficulty with bowel movements is a serious issue.
THREE Dehydration.
Kratom is extremely dry. It’s not good to let any substance suck all the moisture out of your system.
You may have cotton mouth and be very thirsty. These are signs that the dehydrating properties of kratom are affecting your system. Be sure to greatly increase your intake of fluids. Plain water is fantastic to keep your body moving properly.
FOUR Tolerance develops fast.
Starting out with too large amounts of kratom will get your body used to such amounts. Your body will become adjusted to expecting that amount each time. This takes a while, but eventually you arrive at a point where smaller amounts do very little.
FIVE Stomach problems.
Too much of any bitter substance can be hard on your stomach. While bitterness sends specific signals to your system to perform various functions, too much bitterness will provoke nausea and vomiting.
Other bitter herbs and spices include cocoa, cinnamon, dandelion root, goldenseal, mugwort, gentian, chamomile, nutmeg, horehound, milk thistle, angelica, paprika, curry, wormwood, yarrow, peppermint, tansy, centaury, chicory, hops, and valerian.
SIX Addiction is more likely.
If you give your body too much kratom, it will receive some type of pleasure from it, and then, if you keep doing it, it will eventually cause addiction. A slower approach, a lower dosage, combined with skipping days and rotating strains, will help you avoid a debilitating craving that is disruptive to your life and damaging to your health.
SEVEN Wobbles.
Kratom wobbles is when you took too much kratom and your eyes won’t focus. They “wobble around”, bouncey, spinning, goofy, disorienting. Wobbles is a condition that can potentially be dangerous for driving, walking, or any activity. Best to lie down and wait it out, take a nap.
To summarize how to avoid making the worst mistake with kratom:
Research the topic of kratom and learn as much as you can about it.
Buy your kratom product from a reputable health food store, pharmacy, or online vendor.
Understand how low doses are stimulating, while higher doses tend to be sedating.
Go low and slow: begin with 3 or 4 grams per dose. 6 to 12 grams seems to be the average range of what people use. Once or twice a day should be enough frequency, but each person is different. Your body will let you know what’s not enough and what’s too much.
Abstain for a week or a month, once in a while, to do a reset, and ward off developing a tolerance.
Skip days.
Rotate strains.
Realize that some kratom strains will be stronger and faster acting than other strains. Even growing regions display different qualities. Many customers prefer kratom from Bentuangie, Vietnam, Borneo, Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesian, or Malaysian farms and jungles.
It’s not that hard to figure out, by trial and error, how much kratom to take.
Once you determine the best amount and dose schedule, you can stick with it for years, with no escalation, no increasing, no rising expenses month after month. This makes kratom totally different from, and safer than, such drugs as heroin, Oxycontin, Xanax, Fentanyl, and other narcotics and benzos.
Excellent article…but there is one more negative affect from taking too much Kratom that’s rarely talked about anywhere and I wish it would be brought up more but….large doses of Kratom over long periods can also cause “Photodistributed Hyperpigmentation” in your face, neck, arms and hands. Landon R. Powell wrote an article on this in the American Academy of Dermatology Journal, JAAD Case Report 2022;28:145-8
I can send you a copy of the article if you’d like