i'm generally pro drug freedom but it does really bother me that kratom is so widely sold all over the place now while at the same time flying under the radar so nobody really warns you about quite how bad it is or how much it can fuck you up and there aren't significant enough warnings on the packaging about how addictive it is. by the time i ended up in the hospital i was in such intensely bad withdrawal they said it rivaled fentanyl and that's what they'd have guessed i was on if they didn't know. i was in the emergency room for days. i was diagnosed with incredibly severe opioid use disorder and given a pretty aggressive dose of buprenorphine that i'm still on 10 months later like its Bad. it turns out kratom isn't just "like an opioid" it actually triggers your brain the same exact way and exhausts the same receptors and you WILL give yourself OUD if you aren't really fucking careful with it. don't start taking it as an opioid alternative, i promise it's not a good alternative. by the end of my addiction i was spending hundreds of dollars (that i didn't have! that could've been rent!) a WEEK on it, and i hadn't been high in months. i almost died. it's just not worth it. if you're gonna do it please please be safe and watch for the signs.
