Posted by Depression and anxiety can sometimes go hand-in-hand, such as with PTSD or C-PTSD. People may experience them as alternating states with little to no reprieve, or enough of a disturbance in their day to warrant some kind of remedy. Depression became the most common condition instead of anxiety as of the 1970s. And for 2,000 years, anxiety has been a subject of study from Greek and Latin philosophy to the DSM.
Self-treatment is common, although not all are legal, ethical, or desirable. If you are experiencing depression and anxiety and have spoken with a doctor about alternatives, you may be considering kratom. Here’s what kratom products does specifically for depression and anxiety and how it may help you alleviate the persistent stress and sadness negatively impacting your personal life and work.
How Depression and Anxiety Weigh You Down
Depression makes people feel like giving up and lying down, while anxiety makes them feel like running away. It can be a rough battle. Both conditions take focus away from life, decrease interest in activities, or make things too upsetting or stressful to handle. The following are neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) of the brain involved in depression and anxiety:
- Serotonin (5-HT), the happy chemical, regulates obsessions or compulsions, mood, sleep, and appetite. Depressed people lack a release of serotonin for things that they normally enjoy.
- Dopamine, which controls the sense of reward, accomplishment, or just plain fun, plays a role in depression.
- Norepinephrine (noradrenaline), which controls stress and focus, also plays a role in both depression and anxiety.
- GABA regulates calmness and the lack thereof is linked to anxiety.
- Glutamate is the excitatory neurotransmitter of the brain, imbalances of which are responsible for treatment-resistant depression.
Traditional Treatment for Depression and Anxiety
For depression, a typical prescription for psychiatric medication is any one of several available SSRIs. Some antidepressants also decrease norepinephrine, which is high during times of stress. To regulate anxiety, benzodiazepines enhance GABA to calm nerve activity.
There are some common side effects from these traditional treatments. Antidepressants or SSRIs can cause weight gain, fatigue, sexual dysfunction, upset stomach, or headache. Patients must consult their doctor each time they want to add a new medication or a supplement to avoid cross-interaction and harmful effects.
Why People Seek Alternative Remedies
Some people have already taken psychiatric medications and gotten all the use they could out of them, or they experience unpleasant side effects and don’t take well to them. Alternatively, their doctor may give them the ok to take supplements or remedies for anxiety and/or depression. Others may not experience anxiety and depression so severely that they feel they would need psychiatric medications, but still want something to give them calm and emotional uplift.
Enter kratom. Although it’s just one supplement or remedy among many, it has a long history of usage in Southeast Asia for its mood-boosting effects.
Kratom’s Effects on the Brain
Although kratom is in the coffee family and tastes bitter like tea, it is actually an opioid. That’s right: The leaves contain alkaloids that depress the central nervous system, making the user feel more relaxed and less anxious.
While a lack of serotonin and too much norepinephrine are common culprits, it turns out that GABA and glutamate are just as important, if not more so. Fortunately, kratom suppresses noradrenaline (norepinephrine) and increases serotonin and dopamine.
There is a caveat: Kratom also binds to opioid receptors to promote euphoria and calm. Users who take it too much or for too long risk impairing their coordination and feeling more depressed when they are not taking it, so it’s best to use kratom responsibly.
The Verdict: Kratom May Help
Many people self-treat depression and anxiety with kratom. It enhances feelings of happiness or euphoria, calm, and energy. However, it is dose-dependent: Low doses are stimulating, and high doses are sedating and pain-relieving.
For depression and anxiety, you want to get the dosage that will reduce stress, increase emotional resilience, and encourage a positive mood. So we suggest starting off with a low dose or half of a standard dose, gauging how you feel, then slowly increasing. We think moderate doses may alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety for many people.
Choosing a Kratom Vendor
You’ve decided to purchase kratom, but don’t know which vendor to choose from. How can you make sure you’ve selected a reliable vendor with high-quality kratom? We have an idea.
Strict quality control is key. AKA certification or GMP compliance is totally optional, leaving kratom completely unregulated. Many vendors state they do independent third-party lab testing, but this is not a requirement, and the results are not always comprehensive for potency and safety. The ideal is a manufacturer-direct vendor, so there are no middlemen to deal with and no white labeling or buying in bulk – leaving the vendor completely responsible for the processing and quality control. Real Botanicals offers this with a private SC lab.
Kratom to Lift the Blues and Stress Away
There are many reasons why depression and anxiety are major conditions today and often occur together, one of them being too much stress. People with these conditions and who do not respond well to traditional treatments or who find them lacking turn to other means, such as kratom. If you are looking for a trustworthy, manufacturer-direct vendor with precise dosage you don’t have to worry about, we recommend Real Botanicals for pure, potent, consistent, and clean kratom as capsules, or kratom and kava shots.
You might be interested in Real Botanical’s Kratom Alternatives.
Here is a review of the best Kratom Alternatives.