

Some kratom users report they take it to sleep, and while some note improved sleep benefits and pain relief from different strains, the qualitative difference among kratom varieties is very much up for debate. Kratom doesn’t show up on common drug tests, though there definitely are kratom drug tests on the market. She even goes to the gym three times a week, where she uses a treadmill or elliptical machine and occasionally works out with a trainer.ĭeMott’s case may sound miraculous, but she’s not alone. These days, she feels good enough to leave the house and walk her kids to school (or drive, if the weather is uncooperative). Her kratom, puchased on the internet, sits near the coffee and her other supplements. Usually, she drinks her tea in the kitchen. She prepares one cup at a time by mixing a teaspoon of leaf powder into a mason jar of water. Today, DeMott drinks kratom tea four to six times a day, depending on her level of pain. “They were really happy to hear that I found something more along the lines of an herbal supplement instead of taking all these powerful narcotics.” “They were 100 percent supportive,” she says. She’s even stepping down the steroidal anti-inflammatories she takes for lupus. With their blessing, she’s gone completely off opioids and benzodiazepines. A friend from her chronic pain support group on Facebook introduced her to kratom, and the decision to try it, she says, changed her life.ĭeMott’s doctors are astounded at her improvement since she started taking kratom two years ago.

“I would be lucky if I could make it from my bed to the couch, and I just wasn’t very present in my kids’ lives,” she says.ĭeMott attempted suicide in 2016, at which point it became clear that something desperately needed to change. To get her life back, she turned to a little-understood herb from Southeast Asia that is currently legal but may not remain so for long. But where modern medicine fell short, alternative medicine offered hope. “Even with all this stuff, I still had no quality of life,” she says. Throughout this time, she took an extensive daily cocktail of 24 medications - including morphine and oxycodone for pain and benzodiazepines for anxiety - to treat the physical torment that held her back from leading a normal life. I had to use a cane to walk and get around.”

“Getting dressed consisted of putting on clean pajamas. “I was unable to get dressed, brush my teeth, or take a shower in the same hour,” DeMott tells Inverse. Over the next few years, DeMott was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and Sjogren’s syndrome, each of which brought even more pain and discomfort. Life was hard for her - recurring infections, fainting, rashes, and searing pain throughout her body - but matters would get worse for the stay-at-home mother of two. She was just 27 and had been diagnosed with lupus. Six years ago, Kim DeMott was staring down a lifetime of disability.
