A South Carolina mom says addiction to Feel Free wellness tonics left her drinking vodka in bed and checking into rehab after her baby’s first birthday.
Meggie Austin, a 36-year-old yoga instructor and sobriety coach in Charleston, told The Sun she started the no-alcohol “feel-good” drinks shortly after giving birth to her daughter Ryder in August 2024, chasing energy and focus through sleepless newborn nights.
The bottles contain kava root and kratom. They were sold as a sober alternative meant to lift mood and help new parents keep up. Austin said she thought they were healthy at the time.
“I became addicted to Feel Free Tonics basically the week I got home from the hospital with my daughter,” she said.
“I took the drinks to give me energy and focus, they made me feel like I could actually complete the tasks I needed to get done as a new mom.”
Her intake climbed fast. After she returned to work as a fitness instructor, she said she was downing as many as 13 bottles a day and estimates she spent $28,000 over nine months.
By February her body was rejecting the tonics. Austin described constant styes, red swollen eyes, and dried flaky skin. She said she saw five eye doctors trying to learn the cause.
Only after hearing others describe similar problems with the drinks did she connect the dots. She called it poisoning herself. Quitting took four months and repeated attempts, including a Dry January push at the start of 2025.
Withdrawal hit hard. She compared kratom withdrawal to waking up with the flu and getting hit by a bus, plus the worst anxiety of her life.
“I leaned heavily on alcohol to soothe those pains. By day two of getting off of the tonics, I was staying in bed all day with a hidden bottle of vodka.”
Alcohol became the next fix. Austin said she started finding reasons to drink earlier, then hiding it. She admitted choosing the bar over picking up her daughter, and hated herself when the toddler reached for partner Tim instead. Tim handled most of the childcare while she felt wrecked.
Six weeks after ditching the tonics, the day after Ryder’s first birthday, she checked into a 20-day rehab covered by insurance. She said her nervous system was shot and she had crossed a line she could not walk back alone.
Right after rehab she told herself kratom “wasn’t a real drug” and relapsed within a week. That failure pushed her into recovery meetings and open talk on social media. She said she has not taken the drinks or any kratom since September 2025.
“My daughter will never know a mother who drinks,” Austin said. She now frames her work as helping others skip the botanical shortcut and face the deeper problem.
Feel Free Tonics was contacted for comment and did not provide one in the report. Arizona’s attorney general has sued the company, claiming it illegally sold the kratom and kava tonics as “energy drinks” without disclosing risks of addiction and withdrawal. Kratom is not illegal under federal law in the United States.
Unregulated wellness bottles promising calm and focus still need plain-language warnings and real accountability, because “natural” marketing does not cancel chemistry or the bill that follows.
