Amber Hollingsworth, an addiction counselor with 15+ years' experience, says Kratom can cause physical dependence and withdrawal similar to opiates. While it might theoretically help people taper off opiates, it often fails because it doesn't address psychological addiction. She doesn't support criminalizing it.
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So if you're online and you're watching videos about Kratom, you're probably looking at one of three issues. Number one, you might want to know if it's addictive or not addictive. Number two, you might be trying to figure out whether or not Kratom is a good thing to use to come off of pain pills, heroin, or other opiates. Or number three, you might be curious about the whole debate about whether or not Kratom should still be legal. Well, I'm gonna weigh in on all three of those topics in this video. For those of you don't know me, I'm Amber Hollingsworth. I'm a master addiction counselor, and I've been in the field for more than 15 years. But before you freak out, don't worry. This is not a scared straight type of video. I am not here to talk a whole bunch of bad stuff about Kratom. Oh, and by the way, if I call it Kratom, please forgive me. I'm always saying it wrong. And the people I treat in the groups that I see, they are always making fun of me for it. Okay, I'm working on it. It's Kratom. I'm trying. I got it. Okay. But since it's such a hot topic, I thought you might be interested in the opinion of an addiction counselor on this substance, because there are tons of videos and information out there, a lot of people telling about their own stories and experiences with this, and the reviews are sort of, like, all over the board. So I thought, hey, I might as well weigh in, too. Let's start by talking about whether or not Kratom, to I say it right, hopefully I did. Is addictive. I'm definitely a believer that you can be physically dependent on something and not be addicted to something. Like, for example, I sometimes say, like, your grandmother could go out tomorrow, fall, break her hip, be put on pain pills, and get physically dependent on pain pills. As in, if she stopped taking them, she might have some withdrawal symptoms, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's addicted. What I really think of more than anything else is, does the person crave it? Are they using it to solve some sort of external problem? Do they feel really, really crappy without it? Do they obsess about it? A lot of those are the things that come into play when you think about psychological addiction. And so I can tell you for sure that Kratom definitely meets the criteria both for something that can make you physically dependent. You will have withdrawal symptoms if you take Kratom. Every day. It's very similar to the withdrawal symptoms you'd have if you came off of any kind of op, runny nose. You feel depressed, you feel shaky, you have difficulty sleeping, you don't have any motivation, you pretty much feel like crap. It's kind of like having the flu, but worse. And it goes on for what feels like forever. So having said all that, I think maybe it's a good time to move into issue number two, which is, is it okay to use Kratom to come off of pain pills and or heroin? So what I'm going to say to that is theoretically I could see where that would work, but practically I could also see where that's going to run you into some problems. Because Kratom is very similar to any other kind of opiate or pain relieving type agent. It can definitely help reduce the withdrawal symptoms from coming off of pain pills and or heroin. So a lot of times people feel like this is a really good stepping down process. And like I said, in theory I could kind of see where that would work. So you could kind of stop taking one thing, take Kratom and then taper your way down on that. But to properly come off of Kratom, you have to do that really slowly as well. You have to sort of inch down, inch down and inch down. And to be real honest with you, what I have found is that people that have drug and alcohol problems have a real hard time sticking to a real regimented program like that. Because even with the best of intentions, it's like you start notching down, notching down, but then you're just having a really bad day, a bad craving hits, you get offered something else and you start sliding back. It's honestly not all that different than the idea of being addicted to pain pills or heroin and thinking, I'll take a little less and a little less and a little less and a little less. If it were only the physical dependency part, that would work pretty well. When you're thinking that way, you're probably not taking into account like the thinking part of addiction, which is essentially what addiction is. It's distorted thinking. It's less willpower when it comes to a substance. It's a whole bunch of stuff. It's cravings, it's tolerance, it's a lot of complicated mess mixed up in there. And that's why I say the idea of that working in theory, I'm going to give that a thumbs up. The idea of that working in a practical sense and I'm gonna kind of Give that sort of a thumbs down because in my experience, if you are addicted to pain pills or heroin, you can address that physical part, but unless you really address that psychological part, it's probably not gonna be very effective. Okay. And so lastly, I told you I would weigh in about my thoughts about whether or not Kratom should still be legal. Do I think it should be illegal? You know what? Probably not. Okay. Yeah. I'm a drug counselor and I do think it can be problematic for a lot of people. I've had some people who liter to see me because that is the drug of choice. Not I was using something else and then I started using this to come off. Although that's happened a lot. But that was the actual drug that the person was addicted to that they came to see me to get off of. Yes, it can and will be addictive if you have those tendencies, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I think it should be illegal. Here's the deal. Addiction isn't about the substance. I don't care what it is. I don't care if it's Kratom or, or heroin or Xanax or weed or whatever. It's never about the drug. And so I don't think that you can beat addiction by making things legal, illegal, all of that kind of stuff. It is about an inner issue, and I don't think that you can fix inside problems with external solutions. I'm the first one out there to want to try to help the situation. I'm definitely the leader of that parade. But let's be logical about it. Those aren't the issues and those things aren't going to fix the problem. So whether or not that it's legal, illegal, can be prescribed, can't be prescribed. I honestly don't have a strong opinion about that. Lots of people take it and don't have any issues whatsoever. Just like a lot of people drink alcohol and don't have issues. Just like a lot of people smoke weed and don't have issues. Just like a lot of people take pain pills and don't have issues. The issue is never the drug. It is the addiction. And don't get me started. I know I can get all keyed up about this. You know, we're all busy running around fighting the war on drugs. Wrong war, people. We shouldn't be worried about the war on drugs. We should be worried about the war on addiction. The question is, is it an actual effective solution for you as a person or for your loved one? Now, I know this is a controversial topic and I want to hear what you have to say too. So definitely leave me your thoughts and ideas in the comments below. Have you taken Kratom? Do you know someone that's taken it? What's their experience been like? Good, bad, problem, not a problem. I want to hear all about it.
