Kratom is a plant in Southeast Asia (Borneo, Thailand etc.). The leave are ground up into a powder, and you can buy it on the Internet--on Amazon and various other sites. From the Wikipedia article: "Kratom behaves as a μ-opioid receptor agonist like morphine and is used in the management of chronic pain, as well as recreationally."
It is legal in most places, and you don't need a script to get it. In fact, I have yet to find a doctor who has even heard of it.
I have used it every day for the last year. For awhile, I had a bit of constipation with it, but after switching to a different strain, and taking some extra magnesium, that problem completely cleared up. As of now, I have no side effects at all. I don't feel at all drugged from taking it. My mind is perfectly clear. My reflexes are normal. I can drive, and do everything I would normally do.
I take a half of a teaspoon of the powder, dissolved in orange juice, every three or four hours during the night--sometimes more often. (There are no timed-released leaves.) A half of a teaspoon is a little under a gram. I usually take a total of 4-5 grams during a 24 hour period--sometimes more, sometimes less. I definitely take more when I fly. I have children across the country in California, and in Hawaii, so I often am on long plane rides. I pack the powder into capsules for the trips, and take a little over a gram every two hours. That allows me to fly in perfect comfort. Again, no side-effects, except that I feel a bit mellow when we land
If the WED attack is especially severe--around one in the morning is the time for that--I sometimes need more than a half a tsp. But usually I'll start with one half a tsp. around 6. pm., take another one around 10, another one around one in the morning, and then one around 4. Except for the one a.m. call, I can usually go back to sleep quite quickly after taking the kratom, and I usually patch together about six hours of sleep a night--sometimes a bit more. Since I'm retired I usually nap for a half an hour as well, so I think I'm getting enough sleep.
I will also sometimes take a little in the afternoon too if I want to be able to curl up on the couch and read, or if I'm on a long car trip.
It's not perfect, and I am very aware that I'm taking a substance for which there is no quality control. But it is allowing me to live my life without too much interference from my WED, which had become pretty debilitating. Before I started using the kratom, plane rides were torture, and I was lucky to get 2 -3 hours of sleep a night.
I have never taken any prescription meds. for WED (the DA's really scare me) and have taken very few opioids before at all--just very occasionally for surgery, and then just for a short time. So I don't know if it would be as effective for someone who has been on other medications. I'll add that I also take 400 mgs. of L-theanine and various vitamins and supplements too every day.
At any rate, I'm happy to answer to answer any questions. So far, for me, it's close to a miracle drug.
Mary