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Anhedonia/Emotional blunting from Gaba b drugs

phenibut10

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Dec 24, 2016
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So its been almost 4 months now since I went cold turkey off a heavy phenibut addiction which lasted for about 8 months, during that time i would take 32 grams a day. Now im here 4 months later still with anhedonia/emotional blunting/ and cognitive fog. Did anyone else recover from symptoms similar to this. The worse part is not being able to feel any emotions, all I really want is my emotions back....
 
First, it is not uncommon for folks with severe dependency on gabaergic substance to struggle with what you are experience during the first six to twelve months of abstinence.

The thing is though, your emotions are there, they are just very difficult for your conscious mind to perceive at any given time. Have you tried cultivating a mindful awareness meditation type practice? It would certainly help enable you to get in touch with your emotions.

You might also want to look into NMDAr antagonist therapies, like using ketamine (it has been shown to be helpful in treating those with severe alcohol use disorder, which is very similar to what you're dealing with), or utilizing some other kind of empathogens? Something like ayahuasca might help jumpstart your sense of connection with the world and reduce the anhedonia you're experiencing.

I'd strongly suggest looking into NMDAr antagonists and trying those in terms of a pharmacological approach. Behaviorally, I strongly suggest you check out mindfulness meditation techniques and develop your own practice. Exercise, healthy sleep patterns and a balanced diet also can help a lot when it comes to improving your mood. Same goes for making sure you spend enough time with people you enjoy the company of (isolation is the near enemy to recovery).

What kinds of things are you doing in your everyday life to increase your wellbeing and prioritize your health? Have you thought much about what you want your goals to be regarding your life and recovery?
 
I never felt emotional blunting or anhedonia when I stopped GHB after a week of daily use. I don't know if that's "long enough", though, and perhaps I did but just didn't notice it because I was also using shatter/bupe at the time (and probably also meth)
 
This reply is extremely late but somehow I just noticed this post got replys now. Thanks everyone for your replys. The weird thing is that sometimes I can feel emotions such as love, or pleasure in my dreams but when I wake up I'm back to this emotionless/anhedonic state. Right now I'm 6 months 6 days off the phenibut after going cold turkey so I'm hoping I will start feeling at least some emotions again soon, at the moment I'm thinking of looking into ketamine in a few weeks to see if it can help me feel again even if I can just feel for a bit. I do have hope I will recover in time but for now this does seem like paws. The odd thing is I never knew phenibut could have paws but I guess in a small amount of people who take high doses of phenibut, if they get off cold turkey it can cause paws. I've only met 2 other people who had protracted phenibut withdrawal and 1 guy said it took 6-8 months to feel emotions again and another guy said it took about 2.5 years. It just sucks waking up to what feels like the same day every day since I'm emotionless and can't feel pleasure out of anything or look forward go anything...its like I have no dopamine response or something or an emotional blockage. Anyways at the moment I'm going to the gym 4 days a week but im going to look into trying meditation again since I stopped doing it about 4 weeks ago. My goals for life in recovery is to live healthy as possible. My goals after recovery are to do everything I never had the chance to do that I can possibly afford and lots of nature stuff. Having emotions is better than anything money can ever buy so I look forward to the day they come back because I'll never take anything in life for granted again. Anyways thanks for your replys.
 
Sounds like it is a good time to look into medical treatments for depression or whatever the clinical language is for what you're dealing with. It could very well be an asset in your accomplishing the goal's you're identified for yourself.

What is your diet and sleep like? It's great you're working out. Are you able to spend much time outdoors currently?
 
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