I ended up on this forum because I have been using Feel Free for the last 8 months, and I wanted to make my own mix because $8/bottle is too expensive for me. (I had been paying about $4.40/bottle with a discount.) I see, though, there a lot of negative feelings about Feel Free. I can understand that given it's addictive nature, and I am pretty skeptical myself about the use of K@, having read many stories online of addictions. Although I've let a number of friends try it, I'm a little hesitant, and I usually warn them about the addictive nature of K@, and that it's a pseudo-opioid (my own term).
My own experience is that it was one of the things that helped me get through a pretty rough time (my wife passed away last year), and that it has not been noticeably physiologically addictive. I've quit for a week a couple times without any noticeable physiological side effects. Though I'm guessing it has probably affected dopamine levels in some way, and I probably need to do a dopamine reset at some point. I've used it nearly every day for the past 8 months, from 1/2 bottle ~ 2 bottles, depending on the day. (If it's a 4:1 kava:K@ ratio as indicated in podcasts, I guess that puts me at about 250 ~ 1000mg of K@/day (according to the 2600mg listed in the post above). Seems that's a pretty small dose compared to what many people in the K@ world use, so I'm guessing that's why no noticeable physiological withdrawal symptoms.
I'm very disturbed though to hear that this was being handed out for free to college students and more or less sponsored by the college. :-/ Stories like that, and the lack of transparency on their site make me pretty hesitant to ever recommend someone try them again.
Nevertheless, one of the reasons I've stuck with the kava/K@ mix is that it makes me feel much like a cup of coffee--energy and hope and creativity--without the jitters or crash that I get a few hours later from coffee. As far as I can tell so far, my energy levels seem have seemed more balanced on days I drink that instead of coffee, and I've decreased the amount of coffee I drink (maybe 1-2 cups/week). That's one of the reasons that I'd like to keep using some kind of kava/K@ mix as an energy drink. But I guess I should phase it out for a while and try some other things!