Metta Beshar is a decent drug user/educator who has ADHD and went over his own addiction and widthdrawal in his video here:
Mind you it's a combined video where he tries 7-OH as well. Not everyone wants to watch a video so here's a chopped up cliff notes transcript:
Metta presents Kratom's American story as an "ethnobotany 101" case study. Every time a culture meets a new substance it has no experience with, it goes through a chaotic phase of not knowing how to use it in a responsible manner. Going from raw leaf to a powder, to extracts, and now 7-OH pills which are getting banned all over.
Metta is still on and off user and doesn't want to quit outright. He just dialed usage back. He describes Kratom withdrawal symptoms as runny nose, body aches, and insomnia like a less severe opioid-type withdrawal and says it's "not as scary as a lot of people think" but that it depends on how deep and how long you were in. Tolerance creep he describes as starting at 2–3g → 6g → 8g before dialing it back after 4-5 years. Some people get dangerous with it and go up to 28g or even 50g/day. He also described the typical experience I've had with chemically addictive substances where you constantly find reasons to "treat" yourself as a reward for doing something.
His active user experience:
- Onset takes about an hour.
- Very relaxed, "sense of peace"
- Aches and pains greatly reduced. He likes to take it after martial arts training.
- Feels like a "warm comfort blanket," almost like cuddling someone you care about
- Subtle overall, no noticeable change to his mental processes
- Sedating, ready for bed
The active compound in Kratom is called Mitragynin which is a partial mu-opioid agonist. You get the opioid feel (relaxation, mild euphoria, pain relief) but with a built-in ceiling so it stays mellow.
Nothing like K2, Don, since OP asked.