Misc How long does it take to get addicted to GBL?

I've been taking GBL to sleep for the past week and a half. I tried to sleep the other night while sober but couldn't for some reason. I'm gonna stop taking GBL altogether soon enough but would I be right in assuming that a week and a half isn't long enough to become addicted? I hear GBL/GHB withdrawals can be fatal so I'm gonna make sure I'm not addicted if I abruptly quit.

oh man taking Gbl to slep is a bad idea..sure, it will work initially but then you wil have to start redosing in the middle of the night..plus the quality of sleep on gbl isnt that hot imo...xyrem users do not get addicted or suffer withdrawals with their twice nightly dosing so..

Have you been taking it 24/7 or only to induce sleep? You should be fine if it's the latter.
I'd be more concerned about a psychological dependence as the drug blends in so well.

You're asking for trouble. Quit while you're ahead. You're going to end up using it 24/7, capping, passing out then waking up every 2 hours. GBL addiction is far worse than heroin.
If you stop now, you'll feel uncomfortable for a few days, and have trouble sleeping for a while, but a week in a half is not that bad, so quit.

Gbl/ghb is Not as bad as heroin but it does suck. I suggest you stop while youre ahead as well. I would compare the wds to Alcohol if I had to more than anything. It will leave you feeling paranoid stiff and fucking psychotic that I know from personal experience. You are Not going to wd you may have restless nights though but do stop its really Lame

belfort said:

oh man taking Gbl to slep is a bad idea..sure, it will work initially but then you wil have to start redosing in the middle of the night..plus the quality of sleep on gbl isnt that hot imo...xyrem users do not get addicted or suffer withdrawals with their twice nightly dosing so..

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i agree with this. Waking up every 3 hours dosing Really really is not good sleep I remember timing my sleep and 3 hours was the max I would be comad for then wake up to redose. its not easy to stop or say no especially when its right there either

BananasAndOranges said:

Gbl/ghb is Not as bad as heroin but it does suck. I suggest you stop while youre ahead as well. I would compare the wds to Alcohol if I had to more than anything. It will leave you feeling paranoid stiff and fucking psychotic that I know from personal experience. You are Not going to wd you may have restless nights though but do stop its really Lame

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GBL withdrawals are far worse than heroin, just like benzo withdrawals are far worse, and 1,4-BDO is even worse. The only thing that makes the ceasing of long use barble is that the PAWS don't last as long as benzo withdrawals. I haven't looked into it, but I presume you can die from these kind of withdrawals as with benzos. That is not the case with opiods.

I think it takes a pretty long time. I was dosing GBL about ten times a day for over a week and I had no problem when I ran out. But I imagine getting addicted would be horrible, as GBLs duration is so short, you'd have to be continually dosing every thirty minutes or so. Io GBL is not really helpfull as a sleep aide, due to its short duration. I kind of think of it as the crack of sedatives. But who am I to say anything, I just made a thread about taking a ton of Benadryl to sleep and how it's been making me delirious. I would suggest, that if you are looking into gabaergics including benzos for sleep, to try out low dosages of Xanax. GBL acts upon GABA receptor B, so there is no cross tolerance. .5 mg of xanax (alprazolam) should knock you out if you don't already have a benzo tolerance. however, it is very possible to get addicted to Xanax in as little as two weeks so it's also not ideal. Valerian root and melatonin have worked in the past with some success for me, and they're far safer.

I call GBL the crack of GABAS myself, triazolam aside. It is certainly too short acting to use it for proper sleep. I forgot that it's just GABA-B. This will prove to be helpful to me in the future, addiction aside.

I definitely would not go past 2 weeks strait with alpraz, and even then, you're asking for trouble if you were dosing heavy with that (like 10mg +). I've seizured from taking 24mg a day for 2 weeks before, and (Znegative aside) 24mg, let alone 10mg is an extremely high dose.

I also reccomend the valerian and/or melatonin route.

@Znegative: Valerian hits GABA-A or B somewhat, correct?

Yah I believe that it does have some activity on GABA receptors though from what I've read, it's not realy very clear what it's doing. However it does work as a sedative, and is much safer than xanax. Jesus dude, 24mg a day! That's intense, at my peak use of Xanax I only used 10mg of Xanax a day and I thought that was a lot. It was crazy when it got to the point where I was taking three bars in the morning first thing, but damn it went well with coffee!

What's interesting to me is that I read somewhere that clonazepam is one of the few benzos to activate GABA B as well as A, so I'm wondering if it would be effective as a means to detox someone from GBL.

Interesting that you bring that up about clonazepam, because I used GBL and BDO with much success to get of clonazepam, so I'm certain it would work the other way around. In this particular instance though, I'd (gulp) rather use 1,4-BDO instead of GBL, because of how long it's half-life is, and certainly GHB over the 2.

"Gbl addiction is far worse than heroin"

Lmfao...they arent even in the same realm bro..sorry..dexter, have you ever kicked heroin?i assume you havent by what you are saying here..pure ignorance..

More than once.

Different drugs affect different people very differently and some people can have a much harder time withdrawing than others, plus there are SO many variables that go into what someone's experience would be like quitting any drug, including GBL and heroin. But in general most people seem to find quitting heroin or other opioids after long-term use and physical dependence much more difficult than quitting GBL, especially after only a week or 2 of GBL use.

When you are referring to "addicted", you should actually be referring to physically dependent, as they are 2 different things. People frequently mistakenly use "addicted" when referring to dependence-causing drugs to mean physically dependent, but that isn't correct, as being addicted to something can be solely mental and exist without any physical dependence. For example, someone can get addicted to anything, even things that never create a physical dependence (gambling, shopping, marijuana, etc). They don't go through the same kind of physical withdrawal symptoms if they quit, but they still have a hard time quitting. You can be addicted to a dependence-causing drug without being physically dependent, for example someone who uses heroin 1 or 2x a week. Being physically dependent means that your body has become accustomed to the drug and now needs it to function normally and that you will suffer physical withdrawal symptoms if you suddenly stop taking it.

From Wikipedia:

Frequent use of GHB/GBL, even when taken long-term and in moderate doses, does not appear to cause significant physical dependency in the greater majority of its users. In many people, quitting or temporarily abstaining from use of the drugs is achieved with minimal or no difficulty. However, when consumed in excessive amounts with a high frequency of dosing, physical and psychological dependence can develop.[8][9]

There are some reports of GHB/GBL users adopting a '24/7' dosing regime.[10] This is where the user has become tolerant to the effects of the drug, increasing the dosage and frequency of dosage.
For those users who do report withdrawal symptoms upon quitting the use of GHB/GBL, symptoms seem to depend on the dosage and the length of time the drug was used for. Light to moderate users often experience insomnia and sleep-related problems, whereas heavy, prolonged use can cause severe withdrawal symptoms similar to Benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome

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There is no way to know for certain whether you will have absolutely no withdrawal symptoms if you abruptly stop taking GBL after 10 days of use, as everyone is different and we don't know how much or how often you've been taking it, but it is very unlikely that you will suffer serious withdrawal symptoms. You may have some mental symptoms and cravings from being used to taking it, and you may have some trouble sleeping. Best idea (as with any drug) is to gradually taper your dose rather than stopping suddenly.

Well put.
I wasn't being specific at all.

A week or 2 of GBL is nothing compared to a week or 2 of heroin, by and large. Long term GHB/GBL addiction is horrendous. The dopamine rebound alone, even when one continues to use, is out there.

as long as it takes to shine them spinny golden rims sorry, im a not very funny ass i know

You could well be addicted already, If you haven't decided to stop already I'd suggest you do, it was the great, easily attained sleep that first started increasing my use of GBL until I was doing it 24/7. From such a short length of use I'd suggest that you may have a night or two of difficulty sleeping but not much more (assuming you haven't been addicted to it before, the withdrawals get progressively worse) however the longer you use it to sleep the more difficult it is to sleep afterwards.

It is well over a year since I last used GBL (which was for about 3 or 4 consecutive days - although dosing 24/7) and closer to 3 years since I used it over a longer time frame, yet I still feel as if my sleep is partially affected by my past use. So I'd suggest the less time you rely on it to give you some sleep the better.


Oh and sorry I've just read your post again - that doesn't sound like a long time to get physically dependant on it if this is your first time using it (you tend to get dependent more quickly each time you start using it) but it is certainly possible. Withdrawal symptoms can definitely get dangerous but only to people that have been using it 24/7 for an awful lot longer so don't let that put you off stopping, the most you'd be likely to experience would be some physical discomfort, anxiety and insomnia.

There is a massive thread on GBL withdrawal in the EADD section of the forum which might be useful to look at.

petzy said:

Have you been taking it 24/7 or only to induce sleep? You should be fine if it's the latter.
I'd be more concerned about a psychological dependence as the drug blends in so well.

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Only to sleep. I doubt I could get psychologically addicted to this stuff. It just makes me feel sick. I'm done with GBL, thats the last time I ever drink it. I'm worried though, the last dose I took was around 6 hours ago, I woke up after 2 hours and now I'm feeling weird. Will I be able to sleep tonight?

Swimmingdancer said:

There is no way to know for certain whether you will have absolutely no withdrawal symptoms if you abruptly stop taking GBL after 10 days of use, as everyone is different and we don't know how much or how often you've been taking it, but it is very unlikely that you will suffer serious withdrawal symptoms. You may have some mental symptoms and cravings from being used to taking it, and you may have some trouble sleeping. Best idea (as with any drug) is to gradually taper your dose rather than stopping suddenly.

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I was taking around 3 mL, waking up after 3 hours, taking another 3 mL and repeating this until I got around 9 hours sleep but in reality I was only getting a total of 6. If I had known GHB gives better sleep I would have converted the GBL into GHB.

EDIT: I haven't even taken any dexedrine today but I'm starting to feel weird like I did the past 3 days. I'm going to convert the last of my GBL into GHB and use the GHB to get a proper nights sleep. Thats exactly what went wrong. I said I've been taking GBL for the past 10 days but about 4 out of those 10 days I was using GHB and I felt fine. I need to get some sleep and use my remaining day and a half to study for my exams. Once the exams are done I'm quitting drugs altogether. I'm pretty depressed right now because I don't know what I'm gonna do after that. I am addicted to amphetamines and opioids. I'm not too addicted to opioids but I've been on dexedrine for 2 years. I don't know what the hell I'm gonna do. I wish I had just converted the GBL to GHB, that way I would have been able to study for my exams and everything woulda been fine. I slept on GBL last night and I feel like crap. When I slept on GHB, I felt fine the next day. If I can return to normal with GHB, I'm going to taper my way off drugs rather than quitting everything abruptly. At least until the summer when I don't have to go to college every day. Once my exams are done I'm quitting the opioids cold turkey though. I was only taking 240 mg dihydrocodeine per day so it shouldn't be too much of a withdrawal. Right now I'm staving it off with around 500mg of codeine a day.

You could definitely have some trouble sleeping at first. Just remind yourself that it will get better, how great it is that you've decided to quit now and how much worse the withdrawals could have been if you kept using it continuously for a longer period of time. You could try taking natural sleep and anxiety aids. I take a bunch of them: melatonin, kava, valerian, magnesium, 5-HTP, l-glutamine, l-arginine, etc. <I've listed them in order of how effective I personally found them to be if you need fast results (the last 4 tend to take a while of taking them every night to start experiencing effects, whereas the first 4 you will notice effects right away, within about 30min or so of taking them). They all really help with sleep and anxiety. Take them at night before bed so you won't be drowsy during the day, especially the melatonin. If you can just afford one I would try the melatonin or kava. The melatonin works best if you can get both instant-release sublingual tabs and time-release pills. But if you can only get regular or instant-release you could re-dose if you wake up during the night. All of these are safe to take long-term.

EDIT: Also if the reason you were taking the GBL in the first place was because you had insomnia, then of course it is going to come back when you stop taking it, likely even worse than before.

I usually sleep real easily. Its just on dexedrine that I have insomnia. I'm not taking dexedrine today so ordinarily I should be able to sleep. I feel like crap right now but don't know why. Maybe the sleep quality on GBL was poor so I'm sleep deprived.