Gabapentinoids Phenibut Megathread

[waffle-head]

I haven't tried Phenibut but have been wondering the effects of daily low dose administration...does anyone have experience with 250mg - 500mg daily? I'm curious if it would have mild antidepressiant effects or does it wear off too quickly requiring redose throughout the day? I've been very interested in Phenibut for a while, but I kicked a long term benzo habit six years ago and went through terrible withdrawal and as a result already have a lowered siezure threshold and don't want to exasperate the issue, not am I looking for a new addiction. I know most users say they don't feel anything at low doses but I'm not certain if they literally feel zero effects or if they're just not getting strong enough effects. Any insight would be most appreciated!

I wouldn't dose daily. You're asking for trouble, you'll become dependent very quickly and feel no effects after a few weeks. 1-2g per week, on a special day, or night -perfect!!

 

[Solipsis]

The OP only says phenibut binds to GABA_B but it actually has higher preference for binding to and blocking VDCC's which is how pregabaline (Lyrica) and gabapentin (Neurontin) work - phenibut is a gabapentinoid like them.

Phenibut similarly has neuropathic painkilling effects at doses lower than those producing e.g. muscle relaxation which is rather pronounced in baclofen (the latter is indeed mostly a GABA_B agonist and negligible as a VDCC blocker).

This tentatively confirms that phenibut but does not only prefer binding to VDCC's but also primarily acts thanks to that.

So, while you could consider that at the rather high doses plenty of people use phenibut the GABA_Bergic effect may become relevant (meaning at that point it has dual action)... but given this information it seems better to say it is mostly and firstly like pregabaline and not so much like baclofen.

Yeah it's confusing because sure it is still an anxiolytic... and phenibut does have properties and a way one should use it that makes it in some ways comparable to gabaergics. Also usually when you read about gabaergics it's about GABA_A agonism like benzos have, which is what most sedatives do. And yes phenibus is an analogue of GABA. But it is a mistake to just think phenibut is a gabaergic.

 

[strity1994]

Been taking phenibut daily 2g for a week now. If I skip a day, I will have no sleep and feel like shit next day!

 

[Solipsis]

Phenibut use should be cycled to prevent dependency like that... why don't you taper it? Then don't take it too many days in a week if you decide to use it sporadically after that... although they act quite differently benzos also should only be used sporadically or if daily for a limited period if necessary. But yeah benzos are rougher in a lot of ways, many have heavier effects but also heavier withdrawals.

I unfortunately don't know where I placed my phenibut or if I still have any...

 

[strity1994]

Phenibut use should be cycled to prevent dependency like that... why don't you taper it? Then don't take it too many days in a week if you decide to use it sporadically after that... although they act quite differently benzos also should only be used sporadically or if daily for a limited period if necessary. But yeah benzos are rougher in a lot of ways, many have heavier effects but also heavier withdrawals.

I unfortunately don't know where I placed my phenibut or if I still have any...

I'm gonna stop it cold turkey when the doc says I can exercise again (had an injury) I see him next week so I'll keep going till then before i assess my next step. Yeah it's gonna suck ass but if I can exercise, wd won't be so bad you know?

 

[Solipsis]

To clarify: you said you switched to gabapentin about a week ago? That is what you said in the other thread, but here you say you are still taking phenibut daily?

Hopefully you aren't taking the gabapentin on top of it, or have you been able to very much reduce your phenibut dosage by taking gabapentin is what you're saying?

 

[strity1994]

To clarify: you said you switched to gabapentin about a week ago? That is what you said in the other thread, but here you say you are still taking phenibut daily?

Hopefully you aren't taking the gabapentin on top of it, or have you been able to very much reduce your phenibut dosage by taking gabapentin is what you're saying?

I reduced my Gabapentin dosage by taking phenibut. I took Gabapentin for a long time and stopped it. Now I take phenibut

Yes before a week ago inwas on Gabapentin then switched to -------> Phenibut

 

[Mycophile]

Been taking phenibut daily 2g for a week now. If I skip a day, I will have no sleep and feel like shit next day!

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you to stop after day 4 and it seems that you didn't.

If you don't stop soon it's going to be worse and worse.

Read Pinpoint's thread "My Phenibut Affair".

That shit scared me away from EVER getting addicted to Phenibut.

He got full blown auditory hallucinations, some psychosis and a bunch of other REALLY bad shit.

You are better off not sleeping tomorrow or at least tapering.

It's just going to get worse and worse.

You needed to read about this shit BEFORE you started doing this.

Now that you didn't, you need to stop sooner rather than later or you it will just get exponentially worse as time goes on.

 

[Mycophile]

Phenibut use should be cycled to prevent dependency like that... why don't you taper it? Then don't take it too many days in a week if you decide to use it sporadically after that... although they act quite differently benzos also should only be used sporadically or if daily for a limited period if necessary. But yeah benzos are rougher in a lot of ways, many have heavier effects but also heavier withdrawals.

I unfortunately don't know where I placed my phenibut or if I still have any...

I'm going to be honest I've taken Klonopin daily for years, though at one point I was forced to stop for 9 months and it was NOT good...NOT in the sense of WD cause in fact I got almost no WD at all...but because my anxiety disorder came back.

I do it under doctor's supervision and have never had negative side effects.

Everyone says not to do it, but my anxiety disorder comes back with a vengeance if I don't for any lengthy period of time.

I skip doses every now and then with the goal of SOMEDAY hopefully getting off of them, but for me there are more advantages than disadvantages.

I just always feel I have to mention it when someone says the old "never use benzos daily" line.

There are some people who are just better off with them...and unfortunately I am one of them.


However, from both what I've read and what I've experienced Phenibut withdrawal SEEMS to occur MUCH more quickly in that I've never heard of people getting benzo withdrawal from using for a week or less but I have heard of it happening with Phenibut.

If he used Klonopin for a week I think he'd be fine, but using Phenibut every day for a week or two will IMO probably have MUCH worse rebound effects and WD than low dose Klonopin for a week or two.

 

[Lobsterbutch]

There is a TLDR; version of my story at the end If you don't want to read my Novella of a post:

I've read a lot of things about Phenibut and frankly it annoyed me how miss informed they are. I've been reading about people taking doses like 300-500mg. This dose won't do anything. Maybe if it's your very first time then I can see how someone might see some effects. I personally take 10 grams a day, yes 10grams. At this dose it completely abolishes any and all anxieties especially socially. When I take this does I can talk to anyone about anything when without it I would be filled with fear and anxiety and not want to talk to anyone and life's obstacles seem like some huge monster. It makes you a motivated beast. I've been taking this dose every single day for years just about and I have never had any kind of tolerance issue or negative side affects. Frankly, a high dose of Phenibut turns you into a confident and very sociable person who doesn't stress about anything and can handle anything. It's really a super drug. Any dose over 12.5 grams however you will experience some nasty side effect and you won't get the results I've stated above. You must drink a good amount of caffeine with it however for you to feel its maximum effects. For example I drink two rockstars every day with it and maybe some coffee later. Because of its absolutely unbearable taste I always mix it with cranberry juice. I do 5 grams in one cup and 5 in the next. For best results wait 10-15 minutes between drinks. Slowly build up to 10 grams because If u go too fast and take to much for your tolerance it will make you vomit all day long. Try upping the dose by a gram or two everyday. Do not take Phenibut with any opiates or benzos. Opiates will make you vomit all day mixed with Phenibut. Mixing benzos with it is not a good idea either from what I've read but I haven't tried it because I don't see the point. One awesome side effect is that when you crash about 12 hours later (the Phenibut effects at this dose last 12 hours or beyond.) But the come down makes you very tired and is exellent for falling asleep especially if u have sleep troubles. Also do not mix it with Gabapentin because they will fight it out in your brain and you won't have a pleasant result. Sometimes it makes my stomach feel uncomfortable, so it would be a good idea to go to your doctor and tell them you've been really nauseous and ask for promethazine. It works wonders and is the best nausea med available. I take 50mg if I'm feeling nauseous. I take my Phenibut 2 hours before work cuz it takes a bit to kick in, go kill it at work, then go home and sleep. It will give you such a great nights sleep. The withdrawals if you want to call it that are easily handled with some Gabapentin say 3-4 grams and maybe the same or a little more the next day. And you will be feeling nice and normal mentally after that. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask (or possible flame) me. I am by no means a doctor or intending to tell anyone to use these drugs nor do I indorse it. I'm simply stating how I do it and the results I get. Hope you enjoyed the post, I'd love to hear your feedback. Thanks

Don't take this the wrong way, but this is a pretty misguided statement........I've done quite a bit of phenibut; I started in late 2014. The first time I took it was when I was just hanging out at a friends house. He had phenibut, and having heard a great deal about it, I asked for some. Didn't notice a damn thing all night and ended up dosing ~3g by the time I went to sleep, made up of compulsive 250mg doses every 20-45 mins.

I woke up feeling amazing. My pupils were almost completely dilated, I could hardly walk, I felt VERY happy, I wanted to talk to everyone whether I knew them or not, and I had an intense feeling of empathy. The strangest sensation I experienced was that my dick felt like it was on the verge of busting a nut (orgasm). I ended up driving around for 4 hours just because I wanted to listen to music and smoke cigs. Even though phenibut is an anxiolytic, and is believed to act on the GABA system, I felt extremely wired, had a hard time sleeping (not because of being stimulated, sleep was bad because I had so much I wanted to do and had so little time. However, I would sometimes find myself nodding off whenever seated/laying down.

It started off at ~2g-4g per dose, but I immediately started a dosing regimen of parachuting the phenibut every morning at ~8am-10am. Using every day my tolerance blew up to 15g-20g per dose. I never even attempted to cycle my phenibut use and I never bothered to weigh my doses, figuring that the good 'ole "eyeball" technique was working well (Disclaimer: Not weighing your doses and taking phenibut every day, is STOOPID AS PHUCK!).

One weekend something shitty happened that made me look for an escape to oblivion. I had a small amount left (8g? Idk), but I had another shipment scheduled for Mon, so I just went ahead and dosed the rest of my phenibut Sat night. Sunday wasn't awful, but I was sad. The kind of sad thats melancholy and yearnfull for the past; reviewing old memories was giving me the sensation of having lost something important.
I snapped awake Mon sweating and feeling total dread. My shipment was to come in the mail that day, so I spent all of my time staring out the window and compulsively refreshing the USPS tracking info to see where it was. I was shaking so bad that I dropped several glasses, Poured scalding coffee on my dick, and could see my entire body shaking in the mirror. Some beer temporarily calmed me down, but only made me feel worse after an hour. The mail was late(ish) and I got the shipment at 3pm and I was no longer sick.

I had no idea how bad the withdrawal syndrome would be, so when I did find out I was terrified of stopping. I started to taper, and It was relatively comfortable. Started at 8g/day and every 3 days I'd drop the dose 500mg. I got off of it, and other than some sadness and mild anxiety attacks upon getting to work, I was off of the phenibut.

The above took place in Feb 2015, and sometime in Dec 2015 I decided to supplement my tianeptine sodium use with phenibut to relieve some symptoms that came with tianeptine dependency. This time I started with low doses (~500mg-2g). When I decided to use the dose I used earlier in the year, I had a day full of narcolepsy, alcohol like intoxication, and my short-term memory was mostly fucked; I'd start doing one thing and in the process I'd forget exactly what I was doing and why I was doing it. The worst was sleeping through my several alarms, rushing to work late, forgetting basically EVERYTHING every 5mins, and worst of all, I'd catch myself falling asleep right in the middle of talking with a customer AND standing......somehow the client and my co-worker didn't notice. I fell asleep at the wheel and narrowly avoided dying from hitting a tree, which took my side mirror and all the paint out of the drivers side of the car.

After all of that, I slowly increased my dose from 500mg to 2g /day. I was afraid to experience overdosing again because it honestly would have gotten me fired had anyone noticed, not to mention that its intoxication almost caused me to die from its narcoleptic effects.

I started to realize that I was becoming more and more depressed as my tianeptine use (and tolerance) exponentially increased. I also realized that upping the dose of phenibut relieved those symptoms. My tianeptine use was completely out of control; I was using ~10g-15g/day towards the end. However, my phenibut use plateaued at ~2g-4g/day, which FELT low to me relative to how big my doses were during my first run. These phenibut doses kept depression away, but its efficacy would wear out after 7-8 days and I'd have to bump up the doses.

I realized that this dependance would only ever give me a great deal of pain, and that happiness was impossible if I didn't quit. I decided to quit with a taper. But it was impossible for me to responsibly taper the tianeptine, and one of my orders for tianeptine was accidentally cancelled. Forced cold turkey. The tianeptine withdrawal sucked so bad that I totally forgot about the phenibut. I was downing 100's of loperamide pills and trying every single opiate withdrawal remedy I could find to get some relief. Finally, after calling the Suicide hotline, I went to the hospital.

They began treating me for my tianeptine withdrawl, but no one really knew what it was. They dropped me in the psych ward, gave me only antipsychotics, and completely cut me off from the world. I was 'Ok" for the first few days, but on day four I was shaking and very uncomfortable, which made me realize I hadn't mentioned the phenibut. I didn't want them to think I was drug seeking because I suddenly had addictions to shit I apparently didn't feel like mentioning, so I kept it to myself. On the 5th night I started seeing people outside trying to get into my hospital room through the 3rd story window. I saw guns and thought we were about to be robbed. Later I saw my employer play a movie on my ceiling about how they were going to ruin my life for using and lying to them about it. I thought all the nurses were actually evil students who were using me as an test subject for violent experiments......and there were rabid pit bulls running around the hospital hunting for me.

I had essentially started having some really severe delirium and started having mild(ish) seizures while in the psych ward. The delusions lasted 2 days but the shaking stopped after 24 hours. I got out in early Feb and I've been feeling better since then.

TLDR Version Below:

MORAL OF THE STORY: I was only taking phenibut in low doses (.5mg-2mg), but when used every day without breaks I had horrifying withdrawal symptoms ranging from delusions, hallucinations, talking word salad, and having SEIZURES from it.

Phenibut is basically NEVER safe to take with any amount of regularity, the withdrawal is nasty and worse than a lot of the harder drugs I've withdrawn from.

 

[MDPV_Psychosis]

Anyone ever take a one off dose of phenibut just to help with a night of sleep? Would anyone say that phenibut can be counterproductive for this use (I notice a lot of people saying they find phenibut energizing)?

If you were to take a dose of phenibut to help get a restful night of sleep then how much would you dose (assuming no tolerance)? And how long before falling asleep would you dose? 1 hour or more like 3 to 4 hours before sleep? Would you expect any additional grogginess the next morning or anymore difficulty waking up, at your usual time, then normal?

Thank you.

 

[Mycophile]

^^^^^^^

Thanks for your post LOBSTERBUTCH.


I only read the last few paragraphs and the TLDR but I got enough from your story to confirm what I already rightfully believed about Phenibut and Strity1994 SHOULD TAKE NOTE because he is still using after a week and doesn't seem to know what he's in for.

I mean me personally, today is my 2nd day of use this week, I used 4,000mgs yesterday and 2,600 today, I MIGHT do another gram but that will be IT FOR A WEEK.


I've personally learned that NO MORE than 8 grams a week is REMOTELY ok.

I will never exceed that and from that amount I've never had issues.

Phenibut seems to be criminally misunderstood in terms of it's addiction potential and I'm not even sure how many hospitals realize it so it's up to people like us on these forum to explain it.

You may be able to get away with a few grams a week...MAYBE even up to 8 like me....but you CANNOT use Phenibut DAILY without running into SERIOUS problems even in the short term.

I'd even say that REGARDLESS of doses if you are ingesting ANY amount of Phenibut more than 3 days a week (and depending on doses that could and often is TOO much) you are overdoing it and NEED to stop.

I think some people who are overdoing it think it's just like overdoing alcohol or Kratom or weed or whatever but it ISN'T guys.

This stuff is of another variety of drug and another strength entirely.

Keep your use to a MINIMUM or it WILL catch up with you.

 

[Mycophile]

Anyone ever take a one off dose of phenibut just to help with a night of sleep? Would anyone say that phenibut can be counterproductive for this use (I notice a lot of people saying they find phenibut energizing)?

If you were to take a dose of phenibut to help get a restful night of sleep then how much would you dose (assuming no tolerance)? And how long before falling asleep would you dose? 1 hour or more like 3 to 4 hours before sleep? Would you expect any additional grogginess the next morning or anymore difficulty waking up, at your usual time, then normal?

Thank you.

Interesting question cause i have found it CAN help but can also hurt and it will be counterproductive if you EVER use more than 8,000mgs MAX in a week IMO.

The one thing which does NOT help is if I combine too much of ANY other sleep med to my Phenibut.

I take Melatonin every single night...usually 3 and 3/4ths milileters but if I exceed 3 ML of melatonin with my Phenibut it seems to give me a shitty night's sleep and it's too many drugs and just knocks me out and I wake up groggy which you don't want.

Likewise, SOMETIMES lately I have been taking 2 benadryls/simply sleep to sleep but I will NOT EVER sleep well combining it with Phenibut, let alone Melatonin as well.


As for dosage...it depends on tolerance cause I have a pretty high tolerance for Phenibut.

Like I enjoy hanging out on doses between 2,500 and 3,400mgs of Phenibut and that is too high for some so I can't rightfully tell you what the best dose is FOR YOU.


MY ADVICE: figure out what dosage you could feel Ok BEING AWAKE ON and then go above it by anywhere from 0.5 (half a gram) to a gram but probably not more than that.

Like, if you like just watching TV on 2,000mgs go to 2,500mgs or 3,000mgs.

If you tend to prefer 1,000mgs go to 1,700mgs or 2,000mgs MAX.


FOR ME Phenibut takes about 2 hours to kick in.

So if I was taking it for sleep I am going to want to be SURE it's kicked in before bed so if you want to go to sleep at 2AM I would take it at 11 or 11:30 PM and that way it should be taking effect around 1AM and you should be out like a light by 2AM.

IF I GET THE DOSAGE PERFECTLY...which doesn't always happen....I am lucky enough to get this "extra energy" the next day where I might only sleep 6 hours but wake up feeling like I slept eleven hours and in a great mood!!!

Just kind of feeling like a little kid, just jumping right out of bed ready to start the day the second my eyes open.

There IS supposedly a science behind WHY this happens but I don't really understand it...something to do with GABA and it is NOT sustainable or something you can expect or happen multiple days in a row BUT it can be just fine IMO to do one night or less a week.

So yeah....I suggest NOT mixing in ANY other drugs (weed is probably ok) but no sleeping drugs....NOT exceeding your normal dose by more than a gram....a few hours before bed....that should work well for sleep in my personal experience.

 

[strity1994]

My Phenibut Affair (Really F'n Long)

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you to stop after day 4 and it seems that you didn't.

If you don't stop soon it's going to be worse and worse.

Read Pinpoint's thread "My Phenibut Affair".

That shit scared me away from EVER getting addicted to Phenibut.

He got full blown auditory hallucinations, some psychosis and a bunch of other REALLY bad shit.

You are better off not sleeping tomorrow or at least tapering.

It's just going to get worse and worse.

You needed to read about this shit BEFORE you started doing this.

Now that you didn't, you need to stop sooner rather thank later or you it will just get exponentially worse as time goes on.

My Phenibut Affair (Really F'n Long)

This is a story of a journey I took over the past 4 months on a mission to find sustainable zen. With the advent of WebMD, Wikipedia, forums and the never-ending flow of information found on the internet these days I, like many, have become something of an internet doctor. I diagnose myself free of charge and waive all rights to sue for malpractice. So in an attempt to replace my previous hard drug addictions with a natural, legal alternative I stumbled across a product called Phenibut. I had heard of it before, but with heroin and benzodiazepines flowing in the front door who has time for obscure chemicals with funny sounding names? At this point though I had been off the hard stuff for several months, but I still wasn't feeling 'right' - whatever that is. So for $20, shipping included, I took a chance. I waited for that brown UPS truck and in the meantime I read everything I could about this miracle cure. By the time it arrived I signed for it like I was putting my signature on the Declaration of Independence. I had predetermined that 2 grams was the best starting dose and thus with a plop-plop fizz-fizz I was back on tour.


The first effect I noticed that I couldn't write off as placebo was a curious giddy feeling when interacting with people that afternoon. It was an MDMA-like empathy that caused me to draw out conversations much longer than they needed as if I was drinking in the nectar of sociability. Now, I am a salesman by trade, but I'm actually a closet introvert with a self-conscious form of anxiety. In fact I got into sales a decade prior at the behest of a therapist. It was his thought that throwing myself to the wolves, so to speak, would allow me to deal with my anxiety issues. It worked like a charm - at least I thought it had until I realized I was self-medicating with opiates and benzodiazepines to succeed. But I digress, back to the Phenibut. In addition to the empathy I was in an excellent mood. I don't mean a 'it's Friday night and I feel all right' mood, I mean an 'all is right with the world, my career, my life' mood. It was truly magical after months of feeling 'off' due to the PAWS phase of recovery.


That night after re-dosing another gram something told me to get on my elliptical at home. Something also told me to bring music - lots of music. Let me tell you, never have a felt such manic happiness from exerci- scratch that, from anything - and yes I've done MDMA. That night was bliss. I'm no exercise buff so this was a strange deviation from the norm. I assumed I had achieved some sort of runner's high and I continued on that elliptical until I could bare no more. I felt amazing. No anxiety yet fully cognitively functional. In fact I was beyond functional - I was 'takin' care of business' at a whole new level - nothing could stop me, nothing could bring me down. Thus began my love affair.


Now, I had been warned via internet forums and postings about the withdrawal, but when you feel this good your brain cares not what some nerds on the internet are blabbing about. I was one bad motherfucker. I was the guy from the movie Limitless and I could do no wrong. If you were of the opposite sex and above a 4/10 you were gonna get the shit fucked out of you with my eyes. If I got the chance to speak to someone who would listen they were going to hear all about everything on my mind at approximately 120 words per minute. I felt as though I had finally found 'it' - that perfect mix of stimulation, mood enhancement and anxiolysis with no side effects - at least not yet. Music and exercise as well as eating healthy and socializing became a religion for me. This further lulled me into a sense of 'this is forever sustainable and healthy to boot' mindset.


A couple weeks went by in what can only be described in retrospect as a hypomanic state. Everything I said was the word of God himself and I owned every place I went. I was the god damn CEO of bosses and the world was my oyster & my playground as long as my servant, Phenibut, was by my side. My friends loved the new me and my family felt that I was the perfect son. I started running each night, music pumping, singing to the stars and not giving a damn about anyone who saw. I quickly worked up from 2 miles to 5 miles to 8 miles. My body was looking great - I had never felt better in my life.


One sunny Sunday summer morning I woke up and dosed like every other day. Something inside me, much like the voice that first told me to get on that elliptical, told me I should spend the day running to the beach. Now, the beach is 15 miles from my house. This seemed like an exciting challenge and now looking back on it I was in a full blown hypomanic state. It was like a 12 hour MDMA peak, I shit you not - 80 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, heading to the beach, not a care in the world. The only care I had was the thought of why other people weren't as happy as I was. Each person I passed who said 'hi' back to me gave me a rush of bliss as if they had just awarded me the Nobel prize with a simple acknowledgement of my existence. That day came and went and boy was I sore the following day. What I didn't realize is that Phenibut rapidly depletes Potassium and could've landed me in the ER had it not been for my copious intake of health food.


Eventually side effects reared their ugly heads - I had cramps in my limbs often and woke early, albeit refreshed, but knowing full well that 4 hours of sleep per night may become an issue. Another side effect began to make it's presence known, which was a bloated mid-section. I always had a flat tummy, except for the time I had used Gabapentin, which caused water retention, so I assumed it would go aware upon cessation of Phenibut. But wait, how could I stop? The new and improved me is dependent on this chemical to sustain my newfound lifestyle. I had a day or two when I ran out and the Express shipment didn't arrive until a day after it was supposed to - holy shit. It was bad. I knew I was in for a real treat. However, thanks to my previous addiction my brain had already had close to a decade of experience coming up with ways to get what it wanted just one last time in a never-ending fashion.


Alas I was dosing on a 24/7 schedule and it wasn't keeping me out of withdrawal and when it did I would still have nasty GI side effects and pains in what I assume to be my organs - not a good sign. I became nervous that perhaps taking my anxiety & fear department completely offline was preventing me from making the logical connection between Phenibut and serious bodily harm. I couldn't believe that what had happened to everyone else was actually happening to me. I just wanted to be back out on that sunny Sunday summer morning again. The days that I would search the internet for answers to why I was so happy all the time and if it was unhealthy to be so fucking happy that you shit rainbows. That was the magic that was lost now and no matter what I tried it wouldn't return.


I was consuming at least 10 grams per day, so I attempted to taper in a futile fashion. The pull to take more with the hope of one last hoorah was too much. I waited until a holiday weekend when I knew that I would simultaneously run out and be unable to get an overnight shipment delivered until halfway through the following week. I work Monday-Friday so I scheduled the withdrawal to begin early Saturday and hopefully peak sometime on Sunday or Monday. I brought nothing but what one would find in Mr. & Mrs. Average's medicine cabinet. That was a mistake. What came that Sunday was a preview of what I'd imagine hell would be like. It was a constant non-stop panic attack with the most bizarre delusional paranoia that combined itself with torturous bodily sensations that played into the paranoia to make you truly believe you were dying. Sleep was non-existent and the few half hour blocks when you did pass out from exhaustion were horrifying. The most realistic nightmares I've ever experienced and they were totally mindfucking in an 'Inception' style where you'd wake up, jump out of bed and immediately fall off a cliff and into the pits of hell - nightmares within nightmares within nightmares ad naseum.


By the time the night was over I literally could not differentiate between reality and nightmare - I was psychotic with no prior history of psychosis. Now, normally nobody is as logical as me - I have a mind like steel trap - or so I thought. While all this was going on I had absolutely no desire to interact with anything or anyone. Nothing I used to do was the least bit satisfying, people were like poison, the thought of exercise made me nauseous, and my appetite was lower than a meth addict's. I felt as though my personality had died and gone to hell. My attempts to tell people to stay away due to 'the flu' were successful, but at the time I truly believed they hated me and knew I was nothing but a big, fat phony. The stress that my body was undergoing caused me to develop a terrible cold just to, you know, put the cherry on the shitcake. However the first sign that God still existed was when the world's longest panic attack ended roughly 48 hours in - gone without a trace - granted with no cessation of other symptoms. Once the anxiety lifted I was left with a strange dopaminergic stimulation that actually felt pretty damn good, at least during the day. My nights were still filled with full on psychosis with OEV/CEV - not the good type, schizo-style voices, and hellish hallucinations of every sort. Of course you were forced to be awake for every moment of it lest you spend what feels like eternity living in a movie called 'Nightmare' starring yours truly.


Thankful beyond thanks at day 7 I was back to normal - what ever that is. I still had trouble sleeping through the night and still had strange thoughts from time to time, but my anxiety is noticeably less than when I started the Phenibut. I've chalked this up to the idea that MY PERCEPTION of anxiety has forever changed. No more do I see transient daily anxiety as a threat. So in a way Phenibut has helped cure some of my psychological issues by showing me that the anxiety that I do live with is something to be scoffed at for it is weak unlike the hell that I knew. This was an unpleasant-beyond-words way to learn this, but a week in hell should yield years of serenity. Any time I get anxious I think back to that 48 hour panic attack and the nightmares which my memory has somehow encoded to the section of my mind called 'shit that happened irl' - in other words they were nightmares which were vivid and real enough to cause PTSD in those prone to it. The bloating has slightly subsided but I cannot help but think I may have caused some damage to my liver or kidneys. I will be getting blood tests shortly.


Nobody knows about this experience other than my current therapist who didn't even know what Phenibut was and wrote it off as some bad reaction to a homeopathic drug - I didn't attempt to take that conversation any further. The family and friends who knew I was taking some sort of powder stuff assumed it was a supplement for exercise, which I guess you could kind of say it was.


So would I recommend Phenibut to anyone? Yes, in fact, I would. For the lessons learned alone I would say yes. I would never deny anyone the happiness and bliss that this chemical provided me, not for anything in the world. It was magic - at first. You quickly learn who you are, who you could be, what you need to do to become who you could be - and if you're like me - you actually become who you could be before the cons outweigh the pros. I have made lasting improvements in my personal, financial, business, and family life. Unlike a drug like heroin that isolates the user into a lonely death, Phenibut brought out the best in me.


This all happened a couple months ago and I've been clean ever since. So why am I writing this experience now? Well you see, I'm an addict. What I mean to say is that I have 1000 grams of Phenibut on my doorstep right now and I don't know how this story will end but I know where it begins and I want to get this on paper while I'm in my right state of mind so that it may perhaps help, entertain, upset or enlighten.


Time to see how deep this rabbit hole goes...

 

[strity1994]

There is a TLDR; version of my story at the end If you don't want to read my Novella of a post:





Don't take this the wrong way, but this is a pretty misguided statement........I've done quite a bit of phenibut; I started in late 2014. The first time I took it was when I was just hanging out at a friends house. He had phenibut, and having heard a great deal about it, I asked for some. Didn't notice a damn thing all night and ended up dosing ~3g by the time I went to sleep, made up of compulsive 250mg doses every 20-45 mins.

I woke up feeling amazing. My pupils were almost completely dilated, I could hardly walk, I felt VERY happy, I wanted to talk to everyone whether I knew them or not, and I had an intense feeling of empathy. The strangest sensation I experienced was that my dick felt like it was on the verge of busting a nut (orgasm). I ended up driving around for 4 hours just because I wanted to listen to music and smoke cigs. Even though phenibut is an anxiolytic, and is believed to act on the GABA system, I felt extremely wired, had a hard time sleeping (not because of being stimulated, sleep was bad because I had so much I wanted to do and had so little time. However, I would sometimes find myself nodding off whenever seated/laying down.

It started off at ~2g-4g per dose, but I immediately started a dosing regimen of parachuting the phenibut every morning at ~8am-10am. Using every day my tolerance blew up to 15g-20g per dose. I never even attempted to cycle my phenibut use and I never bothered to weigh my doses, figuring that the good 'ole "eyeball" technique was working well (Disclaimer: Not weighing your doses and taking phenibut every day, is STOOPID AS PHUCK!).

One weekend something shitty happened that made me look for an escape to oblivion. I had a small amount left (8g? Idk), but I had another shipment scheduled for Mon, so I just went ahead and dosed the rest of my phenibut Sat night. Sunday wasn't awful, but I was sad. The kind of sad thats melancholy and yearnfull for the past; reviewing old memories was giving me the sensation of having lost something important.
I snapped awake Mon sweating and feeling total dread. My shipment was to come in the mail that day, so I spent all of my time staring out the window and compulsively refreshing the USPS tracking info to see where it was. I was shaking so bad that I dropped several glasses, Poured scalding coffee on my dick, and could see my entire body shaking in the mirror. Some beer temporarily calmed me down, but only made me feel worse after an hour. The mail was late(ish) and I got the shipment at 3pm and I was no longer sick.

I had no idea how bad the withdrawal syndrome would be, so when I did find out I was terrified of stopping. I started to taper, and It was relatively comfortable. Started at 8g/day and every 3 days I'd drop the dose 500mg. I got off of it, and other than some sadness and mild anxiety attacks upon getting to work, I was off of the phenibut.

The above took place in Feb 2015, and sometime in Dec 2015 I decided to supplement my tianeptine sodium use with phenibut to relieve some symptoms that came with tianeptine dependency. This time I started with low doses (~500mg-2g). When I decided to use the dose I used earlier in the year, I had a day full of narcolepsy, alcohol like intoxication, and my short-term memory was mostly fucked; I'd start doing one thing and in the process I'd forget exactly what I was doing and why I was doing it. The worst was sleeping through my several alarms, rushing to work late, forgetting basically EVERYTHING every 5mins, and worst of all, I'd catch myself falling asleep right in the middle of talking with a customer AND standing......somehow the client and my co-worker didn't notice. I fell asleep at the wheel and narrowly avoided dying from hitting a tree, which took my side mirror and all the paint out of the drivers side of the car.

After all of that, I slowly increased my dose from 500mg to 2g /day. I was afraid to experience overdosing again because it honestly would have gotten me fired had anyone noticed, not to mention that its intoxication almost caused me to die from its narcoleptic effects.

I started to realize that I was becoming more and more depressed as my tianeptine use (and tolerance) exponentially increased. I also realized that upping the dose of phenibut relieved those symptoms. My tianeptine use was completely out of control; I was using ~10g-15g/day towards the end. However, my phenibut use plateaued at ~2g-4g/day, which FELT low to me relative to how big my doses were during my first run. These phenibut doses kept depression away, but its efficacy would wear out after 7-8 days and I'd have to bump up the doses.

I realized that this dependance would only ever give me a great deal of pain, and that happiness was impossible if I didn't quit. I decided to quit with a taper. But it was impossible for me to responsibly taper the tianeptine, and one of my orders for tianeptine was accidentally cancelled. Forced cold turkey. The tianeptine withdrawal sucked so bad that I totally forgot about the phenibut. I was downing 100's of loperamide pills and trying every single opiate withdrawal remedy I could find to get some relief. Finally, after calling the Suicide hotline, I went to the hospital.

They began treating me for my tianeptine withdrawl, but no one really knew what it was. They dropped me in the psych ward, gave me only antipsychotics, and completely cut me off from the world. I was 'Ok" for the first few days, but on day four I was shaking and very uncomfortable, which made me realize I hadn't mentioned the phenibut. I didn't want them to think I was drug seeking because I suddenly had addictions to shit I apparently didn't feel like mentioning, so I kept it to myself. On the 5th night I started seeing people outside trying to get into my hospital room through the 3rd story window. I saw guns and thought we were about to be robbed. Later I saw my employer play a movie on my ceiling about how they were going to ruin my life for using and lying to them about it. I thought all the nurses were actually evil students who were using me as an test subject for violent experiments......and there were rabid pit bulls running around the hospital hunting for me.

I had essentially started having some really severe delirium and started having mild(ish) seizures while in the psych ward. The delusions lasted 2 days but the shaking stopped after 24 hours. I got out in early Feb and I've been feeling better since then.

TLDR Version Below:

MORAL OF THE STORY: I was only taking phenibut in low doses (.5mg-2mg), but when used every day without breaks I had horrifying withdrawal symptoms ranging from delusions, hallucinations, talking word salad, and having SEIZURES from it.

Phenibut is basically NEVER safe to take with any amount of regularity, the withdrawal is nasty and worse than a lot of the harder drugs I've withdrawn from.

Thanks for sharing dude... This is my 3rd run with phenibut. (All happened this year)

My 1st run was 2g/day , lost my job when I ran out of phenibut pills and experienced extreme paranoia/anxiety. Though everyone at work, especially my boss, was out to get me.

My 2nd run, now jobless with a butt load of spare time. I had an endless supply of phenibut (1KG powder) and would eyeball my doses. And one pooint, I passed out for a day and a half and woke up totally fucked up. This run eventually ended with me in a psych ward.

Now I'm on my 3rd run, 2g/day since ~week ago.

Now I haven't mentioned the positives: someone could tell me my family died, and id probably come up with a witty joke and make them laugh. Phenibut makes me feel super cool. Almost too good to be true feeling.

 

[CosmicG]

I am still baffled at the amounts taken by some of the people here. I'll take a gram every three days and that is it. If I try to take it more then that I start to feel like complete shit in all ways possible. Bad tension headaches and upset stomach if I go beyond 1.5 grams followed by the worst hangover the next day. And I consider myself to have a pretty big GABA tolerance. It's good when it's good, but things seem to go south quick with phenibut. Strange drug.

 

[Mycophile]

Thanks for sharing dude... This is my 3rd run with phenibut. (All happened this year)

My 1st run was 2g/day , lost my job when I ran out of phenibut pills and experienced extreme paranoia/anxiety. Though everyone at work, especially my boss, was out to get me.

My 2nd run, now jobless with a butt load of spare time. I had an endless supply of phenibut (1KG powder) and would eyeball my doses. And one pooint, I passed out for a day and a half and woke up totally fucked up. This run eventually ended with me in a psych ward.

Now I'm on my 3rd run, 2g/day since ~week ago.

Now I haven't mentioned the positives: someone could tell me my family died, and id probably come up with a witty joke and make them laugh. Phenibut makes me feel super cool. Almost too good to be true feeling.

So basically I am getting the idea that nothing in Pinpoint's thread about his 48 hour panic attack complete with insomnia and full blown psychosis and paranoia with open eye visuals (sounds like they WEREN'T fun) and auditory hallucinations has scared you off from what you are doing.

You know you can DIE from Phenibut WD right???

But now you are asking how to potentiate Heroin, Ambien and Vodka which is already probably a lethal combo and should potentiate eachother just fine.

Why wasn't heroin enough for being confined to bed for 2 weeks??

Don't take this the wrong way, but seeing as losing your job and ending up in a psych ward didn't help you and none of this shit has helped you learn you sound like the kind of guy who needs to end up in the hospital for an extended stay for something EVEN WORSE to learn...and still that might not be enough.

I mean dude, who needs to ask how to potentiate the combo of heroin, vodka and Ambien??!?!

 

[Mycophile]

I am still baffled at the amounts taken by some of the people here. I'll take a gram every three days and that is it. If I try to take it more then that I start to feel like complete shit in all ways possible. Bad tension headaches and upset stomach if I go beyond 1.5 grams followed by the worst hangover the next day. And I consider myself to have a pretty big GABA tolerance. It's good when it's good, but things seem to go south quick with phenibut. Strange drug.

Some of their doses seem high to me, but yours also seem pretty low.

I usually do end up taking 4 grams by the end of a day w/ Phenibut, but I start low.

High doses put me in a pretty out of it state, low doses are more of a stimulant.

 

[Lobsterbutch]

Anyone ever take a one off dose of phenibut just to help with a night of sleep? Would anyone say that phenibut can be counterproductive for this use (I notice a lot of people saying they find phenibut energizing)?

If you were to take a dose of phenibut to help get a restful night of sleep then how much would you dose (assuming no tolerance)? And how long before falling asleep would you dose? 1 hour or more like 3 to 4 hours before sleep? Would you expect any additional grogginess the next morning or anymore difficulty waking up, at your usual time, then normal?

Thank you.

The reading I've done on phenibut is that the drug was developed by the russians for cosmonauts. They decided to use it instead of diazepam or other anxiolytics because it provided anxiolysis without sedation and cognitive impairment (at the reccomended dose, which is around 250mg but i cannot remember exactly what it was). So its not GREAT for sleep but it does help quiet the mind, so there is that.

 

[Lobsterbutch]

exactly, it seems that the mechanism of action that phenibut has causes some interesting effects in terms of forming a physical dependancy. From what I understand it works on PEA sites, dopamine sites, and GABA sites, and I seem to remember reading it had action at NMDA sites and calcium voltage channels. I think because of all of the stuff it does in the brain, people can take the max dose once or twice a week and be relativley fine. However, if someone starts taking say, 250mg, every night before bed for a few months, they would probably experience, at the minimum, some very uncomfortable anxiety, feelings of sadness, feelings of general panic, shaking, sweating, and some unpleasant insomnia.

At the dose of 250mg/day, I'd have a hard time believing that someone would be getting an extremely noticeable effect, probably mild anxiolysis, a little help sleeping maybe (or paradoxically some mild stimulation, it seems to have two heads like this), and maybe some muscle relaxation. Hardly seems like it"d be worth the trouble.

Of course, if you take a low dose of a benzo long enough you'd get nasty discontinuation symptoms at the very LEAST. But it seems that since phenibut is so unique in its method of action, the physical dependancy sets in quickly (same with tollerance), and because of the different systems it acts on the withdrawal end up being complex.

You basically pay significantly more for the "up" that phenibut gives with the withdrawal syndrome thats at least 2X shittier than the high was good.