I actually forgot to reply, but here?s my experience with Etifoxine:
- It sort of feels like a benzo but without the tranquillised headspace that you get with basically all benzos. An other way of putting it is that you can feel the Gaba-A activity and the anxiolysis, but you don?t feel like you?re actually on a benzo because you don?t experience that particular headspace. It doesn?t really feel like you?re on anything at all, you just feel like your sober self but without anxiety
- Anxiolysis is good. You just feel very calm with maybe a touch of sedation (sometimes I noticed a slight sedative effect other times I didn?t) . I noticed that it induced a general feeling of calmness more than anxiolysis, so for instance when approaching a social situation I still got a toned-down version of my usual anxious thoughts, but I had a strong feeling of calmness nevertheless. By way of comparison, I find that benzos tend to kill apprehensive thoughts completely, for better or for worse. To some degree I actually prefer to have those mild thoughts so long as they?re accompanied by a calm reaction.
- Cognitively you can function fine on this, unlike benzos, you get anxiolysis without cognitive impairment
- Dosing twice within a day was not a good idea. For me, this led to the second dose feeling uncomfortable every time. It seemed to induce fatigue rather than the pleasant sleepy type of sedation that benzos induce. I would also feel very depressed until the 2nd dose wore off (negative thoughts, bleak mood, anhedonia etc.; no idea why) This could be a side effect that goes away with daily use, I never used it on consecutive days.
- I had a weird interaction with mirtazapine - the surface of my skin started to feel as if it had fiery pins and needles and my nerves felt hot, I was getting rapid muscle twitches too
- I tried combining it with Tramadol. I should note that Tramadol is one of my favourite drugs and is more euphoric to me than Oxycodone. This is because for me I get potent opioid action from its metabolite, and I seem to be able to get the euphoric serotonin releasing properties too. Well Etifoxine completely killed the fluffy serotonin-opiate high of Tramadol and ruined the good mood that Tramadol always puts me in. I was trying to counter the ?on edge? feeling I sometimes get from Tramadol from its norepinephrine action
- I combined it with GHB during a methamphetamine comedown it and I didn?t experience any signs of respiratory depression. It was a pleasant combination . I usually experience an anxiety rebound as the gbl wears off which I did not when combined with Etifoxine . Also whilst using only gbl at the tail end of methamphetamine , I would still feel a bit uncomfortably stimulated, with Etifoxine and gbl I didn?t feel that at all.
- You can?t feel it ?come up? or ?come down? unless you?re in a panic attack , it just subtly fades in and out. You kind of just realise it?s no longer acting by those anxious thoughts filtering back in again slowly
- I noticed first effects at about 25 minutes. Lasted for about 5 hours or so for me.
If this truly poses no issues with dependence then I have found the anxiolytic wonder drug. For me it does the job of benzos but without all the sides of those. Anxiolysis isn?t quite as good as a benzo but it?s not far off and it deals with my more mild-moderate anxiety issues effectively. Only issue is that I seem to be only able to take it once daily in the morning because my second dose is always bad news for some reason. Can?t take it in the evening or it seems to react with my daily mirtazapine . I can?t see Etifoxine as giving anxiolytic relief to other drugs without killing the high like benzos do and phenibut doesn?t , seeing as it totally ruined my Tramadol high . Although curious as to whether Etifoxine would counter the desirable effects of stimulants as much as a benzo would .
