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L-theanine during phenibut withdrawal?

manic88

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Jun 25, 2010
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Im on the tail end of a rather nasty phenibut withdrawal. I've just done 14 days and the effects are lingering but everythings getting alot better. I have some of the anxiety i had prior to phenibut and today picked up some L-theanine to see if it would work. Heard some positive stories. Although very subtle a dose of 300 mg had an effect im rather confident wasn't a placebo. Because im still experiencing lingering symptoms of the withdrawal such as a mild yet annoying shaky feeling, could the use of L-theanine interrupt the recovery of gaba receptors and cause any problems itself? Last thing i need is to use something that will cause any kind of withdrawal or major rebound itself.

Any help would be much appreciated.
 
I'm not sure but I have heard it's great for benzo withdrawals and non-addictive, rebound symptoms I'm not sure about.

I know how you feel, I've been down the phenibut path and it isn't pretty. I did find though that after getting off it that I had a lot less anxiety than I did beforehand and that's without any supplements or drugs to help.

It couldn't hurt to wait a few weeks and see how you go.
 
Hi manic88. I think using L-Theanine should be vine. It is very mild, so I would not worry about any substantial prolonging of the phenibut withdrawal. If nothing else it may help take the edge off, which may be accounted for by it's subtle (relative to phenibut) pharmacology, in addition to any placebo effects you may experience (no harm in embracing the power of placebo :) !). Good luck.
 
I'm not sure but I have heard it's great for benzo withdrawals and non-addictive, rebound symptoms I'm not sure about.

I know how you feel, I've been down the phenibut path and it isn't pretty. I did find though that after getting off it that I had a lot less anxiety than I did beforehand and that's without any supplements or drugs to help.

It couldn't hurt to wait a few weeks and see how you go.
l-theanine is not a benzo.
 
Jesus, you're right. I need to sliw down.
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I'm in phenibut withdrawals right now, and 300mg of l-theanine is holding me really well. I hardly even feel the withdrawal symptoms atm.
 
How long were guys on the phenibut and what was your dosage? Im wondering where the usage range is at with regards to dependence so I dont go there.
 
This time around, only 1 month, and not even every day.

Dosage varied for me, but more or less 4-6 grams a day, which is high.
 
Dexter -- Your best bet is to get Klonopin or Valium and or Taurine/Theanine (megadosed) and taper down for about a month or two.

You could also look into memantine, for it it helps immensely with excitatory rebounds. At my graduation I took 1.5 mg of Klonopin and probably had 7-8 drinks without a hint of rebound anxiety the following days of cold turkeying. This applies a lot to xanax as well.
 
Ya, I'm supposed to get clonazepam today, but just for a few days. I've abused GBL and 1,4-BDO heavily in the past. I've read about you guys talking about memantine a number of times and have yet to even read up on it. Definitely something for me to start looking into.

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L-theanine is really messing with my sleep. I keep waking up every hour, essentially on the hour. I feel well rested though. If I didn't take any, and woke up often like this, that would not be the case.

edit - I sleep better than I deep before now. L-theanine only disrupted my sleep for the first couple days I started taking it.
 
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DexterMeth: How did your detox go? So L-Theanine alleviates phenibut w/d symptoms? Real good to hear. I'm about to start a mild (after a 2 week binge of around 2g/day, following a 5 day xanax binge) phenibut withdrawal right now and I have some L-Theanine powder so I'm gonna give it a try. What really complicated things for me is I caught a flu or a cold or something a day after quitting the phenibut. I always get sick at the worst possible times lol. I hear gotu kola is real good at alleviating benzo withdrawal symptoms so I'm gonna try that out too. From what I've read, chamomile is a partial agonist of the same GABA_a receptor xanax binds to but its virtually non addictive so I'm gonna try taking massive doses of chamomile tea too. I read somewhere that its far more potent when smoked.

Another thing Dexter, did you use the l-theanine during the initial acute withdrawal or did you use it to manage the PAWS?
 
Can't you just taper off the phenibut? Seems like the simplest solution.. but I've never tried or had to(only have had very mild phenibut w/d).

Also l-theanine does like nothing for benzo w/d for me.. idk. Not sure how I see it would help perceptibly since benzo withdrawal is so severe and l-theanine is.. well l-theanine. Maybe for short term benzo w/d of low doses or something. or for while tapering.

DexterMeth: How did your detox go? So L-Theanine alleviates phenibut w/d symptoms? Real good to hear. I'm about to start a mild (after a 2 week binge of around 2g/day, following a 5 day xanax binge) phenibut withdrawal right now and I have some L-Theanine powder so I'm gonna give it a try. What really complicated things for me is I caught a flu or a cold or something a day after quitting the phenibut. I always get sick at the worst possible times lol. I hear gotu kola is real good at alleviating benzo withdrawal symptoms so I'm gonna try that out too. From what I've read, chamomile is a partial agonist of the same GABA_a receptor xanax binds to but its virtually non addictive so I'm gonna try taking massive doses of chamomile tea too. I read somewhere that its far more potent when smoked.

Another thing Dexter, did you use the l-theanine during the initial acute withdrawal or did you use it to manage the PAWS?


also I wouldn't be surprised if your flu/cold was simply withdrawal, as benzo w/d can manifest itself almost identical to being sick. Chamomile helps, but then it when it wears off you are left feeling more agitated than before... it can help you get to sleep as long as you fall asleep in time though. I wil have to try gotu kola(I am trying to taper off 3mg clonazepam/day). I noticed that CDP-choline helps a lot, as does piracetam(somewhat oddly). L-tryptophan can help or make it worse.. I havent figured it out. I've isolated vitamin B12 as the most irritating BY FAR during benzo use, no other vitamins have near as much of an uncomfortable effect. Not even activated B6(p5p), or the other Bs have much of a negative effect unless >~500-1000%dv was consumed for me. Vitamin D might make it worse.. idk it's hard to tell because of how the benzo side effects seem to come and go anyway.
 
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Ya, I'm supposed to get clonazepam today, but just for a few days. I've abused GBL and 1,4-BDO heavily in the past. I've read about you guys talking about memantine a number of times and have yet to even read up on it. Definitely something for me to start looking into.

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L-theanine is really messing with my sleep. I keep waking up every hour, essentially on the hour. I feel well rested though. If I didn't take any, and woke up often like this, that would not be the case.

edit - I sleep better than I deep before now. L-theanine only disrupted my sleep for the first couple days I started taking it.

I'm sure you're much better now, but I feel I should recommend Magnesium, especially before sleep. It seems to compete with calcium essentially acting as a channel blocker (ligand-gated). I take ZMA (a combination of zinc, magnesium and Vit B6) before bed, and it worked wonders when I'd been taking a bit too much Etizolam not too recently. I threw in a gram of tryptophan in one night too which kicked it up another notch.

I'll have to get some L-Theanine in for next time too! I was going to get some anyway though, just for it's general usefullness.
 
The WDS are completely gone now (from phenibut).

It ended up only lasting ~3 days (closer to 2).

Chamomile helped the most, but if I had valerian and kava, I would have definitely used them.
 
I wil have to try gotu kola(I am trying to taper off 3mg clonazepam/day). I noticed that CDP-choline helps a lot, as does piracetam(somewhat oddly). L-tryptophan can help or make it worse.. I havent figured it out. I've isolated vitamin B12 as the most irritating BY FAR during benzo use, no other vitamins have near as much of an uncomfortable effect. Not even activated B6(p5p), or the other Bs have much of a negative effect unless >~500-1000%dv was consumed for me. Vitamin D might make it worse.. idk it's hard to tell because of how the benzo side effects seem to come and go anyway.

Another herb to look into is bacoba monneira. Theres evidence to suggest it upregulates GABA_a receptors. I came across a very interesting substance: 7,8-dihydroxyflavone.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100125173459.htm
From what I read, it may replace all the current antidepressant and anxiolytic medication in the future because it is so effective at treating anxiety and depression (it works in a matter of days as opposed to months like SSRIs) and has none of the associated side effects. It also stimulates neurogenesis and accelerates recovery from neuropathy. I suspect benzos cause neuropathy and thats the reason why some PAWS last such a long time.
 
neurontin makes phenibut withdrawals go away almost completely...i was amazed at how well neurontin worked...u fellas should try it out..
 
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