Four days ago I had the opportunity to try PCE fumarate and I ended up plugging 10mg. I combined with phenibut, which I had been taking (~1.1-1.2g FAA) almost every day for the past month. My mood was really good before taking the PCE. I had a low-level hypomania and felt really positive about my life. My ability to verbally communicate had been getting better with each passing day of phenibut. It's ironic because while phenibut nukes my ability to concentrate or think abstractly, it maxes out my verbal processing ability and I'll deploy phrases and words in the moment that I would never access otherwise.
As soon as the PCE started hitting I lost contact with all my emotions. Everything became completely neutral. My brother called like every other day, but I didn't answer because I knew I would be stumbling over my words. Another friend called and told me I sounded depressed. I hated the state I was in.
Throughout the day it gradually became less unenjoyable, as the visual effects became more prominent and the headspace became less dissociating but more stimulating (and slightly more psychotic as well). It was actually not really stimulating at all for the first few hours, but at 12 hours in it was quite stimulating and I was thankful that I hadn't taken more.
To be fair, I don't think phenibut combines that well with dissociatives (off-the-top I've also combined it with K, MXE, and 3-Cl-PCP) because a subset of its effects intersects with a subset of the effects of dissociatives. The effects comprising this intersection are generally enjoyable, so that upon adding the dissociative you simply add the effects of dissociatives which lie outside of the intersection, and (at least at this point in my life) I find these added effects rather uncomfortable.
In the days that followed I can't say the PCE provided much of an afterglow. Instead I've felt I was recovering ever since. Dissociatives have always seemed to nuke my verbal processing, so ever since I've been trying to get back to the high point that phenibut was providing in that regard. They also compromise my semantic object recognition (i.e. the attachment of labels to an object in the visual scene) which is a function implemented in the the
ventral visual stream. For example, when quickly turning my head an object will enter my field of vision and be classified as a cat even though I instantly know this is incorrect. Another thing that dissociatives tend to do is make me overanalyze interpersonal interactions, to the point of being far too concerned with the other person's perception of me. It isn't at all a positive effect and is just another reason why I feel like they are not constructive to me at this point.
As I've already sort of alluded to, it's difficult to tease apart the qualitative subtleties of dissociatives while on phenibut (due to the effects common to both of them). I know this wasn't so much of an analysis of the effects of PCE and I apologize for that, but I figured that given its rarity I would document my experience nonetheless.
