Some people like to learn from actual kratom users. They want to hear kratom stories before deciding about using the herb themselves. This article contains several real-life kratom stories that give you a window into what it’s like to use the supplement so you can determine if kratom might be right for you.

Kratom Stories: Jennifer Van Blunk

silhouette of people on beach during sunset

A Naval Career Cut Short

Jennifer Van Blunk dreamed of a naval carrier but, sadly, an injury during basic training shattered her dreams The physical pain of the ongoing injury caused her to fall into a downward spiral of opiate addiction. Her favored drug was Suboxone.  She just couldn’t get clean despite years of struggling until she discovered kratom.

Jennifer’s story about first discovering kratom:

I was in the Suboxone doctor’s office. There was this one girl that I used to ride up to the doctor’s office with. She asked me, the one day, we were sitting in there, she’s like, “Did you ever hear of this stuff called kratom?” I didn’t know what the hell it was. But I was curious, so I looked it up, did a little bit of reading on it.

tables and trees on park

Philadelphia, PA

So, I went over to a head shop in Philly. I paid $45 for fifteen capsules of some type of “silver”. It was expensive but I had no idea. I didn’t know any better. That day I took all fifteen capsules within three or four hours and it didn’t do anything. I was completely unaware of how kratom worked. You know what I mean? If you’re uneducated, you just go and do something, you don’t know the whole process. It did nothing, so I thought it was a bunch of bullshit. That’s one of those hippy things, it’s not gonna work for me, I need actual chemicals and stuff like that. 

Jennifer Learns About Kratom Strains

A couple of months later, I ran into a friend of mine from high school, a woman I haven’t seen in 20 years. We were talking, and it ended up she had the same problems I did with the Percocet and everything else. Her position was further than mine. She went to the heroin and stuff like that. Regardless, she was taking kratom at that point. She’d been on it two or three years. She explained it too be about the different stains and colors, and when and how to take it. 

So, she gave me a couple of bags of it. I was still skeptical. 

For me I was on opiates for ten years, give or take. My body ended up beat up. Trained to need these chemicals for years and years. 

You have these people who, you’ll give them kratom, and they’ll try it, and they’ll say it was good. They’ll try it once in the morning, and that’s it. So, they’ll end up relapsing and going back to the pills. 

Kratom Stories: Coming Off Opioids

a kratom story about fighting opiate addiction

Opioids and Kratom

When you’re coming off [opioid] medication, you need probably two or three teaspoons every two or three hours. That lasts for the first week or two, depending on what you were coming off. Suboxone, by far, is the worst to come off. Even heroin addicts don’t need the amount of kratom that people coming off Suboxone do. 

Getting Clean with Kratom

It took me a year and a half before I had absolutely no withdrawal feelings whatsoever. A full year and a half of kratom use, all day, every day. Every month, my kratom use would lighten up a little bit. When I first started, as soon as I woke up, I had to take it. Six months into it I could be awake for a half hour before I felt that need. A year into it, I could be awake for a couple hours before I had to have it. Three years later I wake up and I don’t even think about it until my back starts hurting, or my foot starts hurting, or I’m miserable for whatever reason.

You must give your body time to heal. So many addicts want an immediate, overnight cure. They think this is what it’s supposed to be, and it’s not like that. You must put in the time and the work.

I had to spend a year and half, two years taking kratom every day to get to the point where my body pretty much doesn’t even remember the effects of the Percocet and everything for 10 years. That’s a pretty good trade off if you ask me. I got off easy. And my recovery was painless. Don’t get me wrong, the emotional stuff, you have to go through that on your own, and that’s a personal process for everybody. The physical part was painless.

Kratom Stories: Chad Goodwin

bigstock Drug Syringe And Cooked Heroin 76081889

Getting Clean After Overdosing

Chad Goodwin struggled with a six-year opiate addiction. He overdosed twice on heroin. As his life spiraled out of control, he learned about kratom.

Chad states: I got kratom for the withdrawals, and it helped me out so much. But then after that, I thought, it helped me get off it, but I didn’t think it was going to make my life as positive as it’s made it. So, I was totally clean off everything for at least six months. I had some [kratom] left over. I was using capsules at the time, and I took some. I was like, “Holy crap!” I don’t want to do more and more and more and more. It pressed that button that I’m talking about. I did capsules for a while after that. Eventually, I switched to my powder with orange juice.

Staying Clean

I hadn’t looked back since. I haven’t bought a single street drug. I have not been blackout drunk since I started with kratom. I’ve drank a couple beers here and there. But I really don’t care about alcohol that much. I feel like I use [alcohol] as it’s intended to be used. It helped me in so many areas.Green’s my favorite. Usually in the mornings I’ll do a white and green mix. Then at lunchtime I’ll do a straight green. And then at nighttime I’ll do a red.

I do eight grams at a time. Some people say that’s too much. But I’ve experimented with different doses and that’s just what works for me. I never get the wobbles. I never get nauseous. That’s just how it is.

It’s crazy how that works right? It gives you energy, but it also eases my social anxiety at the same time.

And with the pandemic, I know a lot of people that say kratom helps your immune system. I’m not saying it would help anything, but I personally haven’t been sick in almost three or four years since I’ve used it. I used to get two or three colds a year. Now I haven’t even had a cold. I have a little bit of allergies but that’s about it. It’s got to be something there.

Kratom Stories: A Mother’s Tale

woman in wheelchair and her kratom storie

Addiction to Prescription Drugs

This mother’s daughter suffers from the painful genetic disease Ehrler’s Danlos syndrome. Basically, she lacks sufficient collagen in her bones and joints so is broke to break sand dislocations. Sadly, the disease is extremely painful so to cope with the discomfort her daughter started to use prescription pain medication and quickly became addicted to the harmful and dangerous drugs. Kratom became a way to kick the opioid habit and cope with the pain. (1)

The Impact of Prescription Pain Killers

One mother states: 

Things kept getting worse and worse. She was like a zombie, always sleepy. She would lay down and fall asleep. Sometimes she’d try to eat, and she’d go to sleep, too. She just wasn’t my daughter anymore. I said to her, ‘These doctors are going to kill you.

Then her main doctor retired, and nobody wanted to touch her. The other doctors didn’t want to prescribe pain medication anymore, and no matter how many Vicodin she was taking, they weren’t helping. She was hurting so much.

Discovering Kratom

“Then this kid we know told her about kratom. He used it for fun, but he said it was good for pain and told me where to get it on the Internet. She didn’t want to use it at first, just like she didn’t want to take pot. But finally, she decided to try it.

She had to sample a few different kinds, because some of it would work for her and some of it wouldn’t. Like, the white vein kratom didn’t work for her at all, and the red vein didn’t, either. But the green vein one did work. There are different strains of the green, and she takes one during the day and another one when she knows she’s not going to be going anywhere. She takes spoonfuls with something citric: lime juice or orange juice or something like that. It was trial and error, but she figured out what worked for her.

How Kratom Helped?

grayscale photo of woman holding dog

Living Painfree

She’s so much better now. Before, she was sleepy and lethargic — always tired, always hurting. Now, it’s not like she doesn’t have pain, but it’s controllable. And her face: She looks alive. She’s not sleeping all day. And she can really tell the difference. She’ll say, ‘You see those drug addicts on the street, where they’re slumped over and stuff? That was me.’ It was basically like she was a heroin addict. But she weaned herself off all the pills. She was sick for two weeks. But she’s so much better.

It’s been about a year and a half since she started taking kratom, and I just feel like my daughter is alive again. It’s not cheap but thank goodness we can buy it by the kilo.

These darned feds who are trying to stop kratom have no idea that they’re playing with my daughter’s life. She said to me, ‘Mommy, if they ever make kratom illegal and I can’t use it, I guess I’ll kill myself.’ That’s what a lifesaver it’s been for my family. She was angry, depressed, and now she’s not. This stuff has saved my daughter’s life.

Conclusion

As you can see from these three kratom stories, the herb has a significant impact on many people’s lives. Please contact My Kratom Club to learn more.