Phenibut addiction. Need help

[SamuraiBob20]

I'm not going to go talk much about myself unless anyone is interested, but I need some help trying to get myself stable on this stuff so I can start getting off of it.
Unfortunately, I've been stupid and haven't been recording exactly how much of this stuff I have been taking in this past month. I need to find out exactly what dose I need to take and how often to avoid withdrawals. From what I've heard they can even be deadly and keep me at a point where I'm functional and able to work.

Back in November I did record my usage and it looks like this

11/10
1:22am 1200mg
8:07am 1200mg
1:00pm 900mg
7:00pm 600mg

11/11
9am 2100mg
8pm 1200mg

11/12
6am 1800mg
9:00am 1200mg
2:30 1200mg
9:00 1200mg

11/13
6:00am 2100mg
3:00pm 1200mg
10:00pm 1500mg

11/14
5:30am 2100mg
11:00am 1200mg
5:00pm 1800mg
12:00am 1200mg

11/15
8:00am 2100mg
2:00pm 1200mg
5:00pm 900mg
9:00pm 500mg

11/16
7:00am 2100mg
9:00am 900mg
2:00pm 900mg
5:00pm 900mg

11/17
7:00am 2100mg
12:00pm 600mg
4:00pm 1250mg
6:00pm 600mg

11/18
7:00am 2100mg
10:00am 1200mg
4:00pm 1250mg
6:00pm 600mg

I believe my avg dosing has increased since then trying to make myself feel better. I just don't know exactly when and how much to even myself out. Everything I've read in other forums say to only take a full dose at once, others say take it 3x a day, others say I should just take it every 2 or 3 days and its just too damn hard to tell. The schedules above weren't working for me because my state has gotten much worse since then

Last night I took more than I should have in fear of withdrawal. My head feels like its getting crushed by pressure

I really need to try to do this without going to a hospital. Unfortunately I have too many responsibilities that need my attention and not enough money to afford it. If anyone out there has any advice they could give me on how to handle this crap I would really appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time to read. This stuff is a nightmare and I need to get myself healthy again.

 

[Mafioso]

Hey SB, I don't have much experience with phenibut first hand but I've dealt with benzo withdrawals more than I'd like to admit. After a quick search on google, the half-life of phenibut is claimed to be as short as 5 hours, similar to Xanax(alprazolam). So if that is the case, then I'd suggest dosing 2-3 times a day, once in the morning, once in the evening, and if absolutely needed once in the after noon. Try to be as consistent as you can with the times and dosages, this will help you stabilize and get a schedule back. Looks like you wake up early, so around 7-8am every day and again 2-3 hrs before bed. If you take an "emergency" dose in the afternoon, make sure it is substantially smaller and only what you absolutely need to remove or lessen withdrawal symptoms.

Finding the right dose that takes you out of withdrawal but doesn't get you high is a bit tricky. You were dosing around 5000mg-9000mg per day. You can probably initially make a pretty big cut to that dose, then from there slowly taper down dropping the dose every week or two. The length of time between dropping dose and how much you drop will depend on your body and how much you want to take. Basically you are going to want to put yourself into mild withdrawal, then find the dose that just barely takes you out of withdrawal or makes withdrawal bearable. Do not go above that dose unless emergency or absolutely necessary. After a week or two, your tolerance should drop making smaller doses more effective. This allows you to slowly lower your dose while only experiencing mild WD symptoms. It's far from a walk in the park, but it's also a long ways from the hell that is full benzo WD.

The tricky part is finding the dose that works for you and sticking with it. You'll likely have extreme urges to take more to completely remove WD, maybe even feel the relaxation that the high can bring. The problem is that if you give in to those urges you will never make any progress. It literally feels like I am losing my mind when I step off benzos, rebound anxiety spikes and my stress response becomes exaggerated and overly sensitive.

Keep us updated, we are here to help.

 

[Xorkoth]

I've been addicted to phenibut three times, and am currently (on every other day right now - I got back on it because I got myself addicted to GHB and I needed phenibut to get off that). How long do you feel phenibut for, and how long does it take to reach full effect? For most, phenibut takes a good 4 hours or longer to reach full effect, and it lasts for ~24 hours, but some people seem to be affected differently where it only lasts like 5 or 6 hours and comes up rather quickly. For me, it's the former - I take it in 3 or 4 doses separated by 1 hour between each dose, and it lasts for about a day and a half before it's totally gone. For me, since it lasts so long, I can step down slowly but surely. Once I feel comfortable dosing every other day, I feel pretty stable and I just reduce my dosage a little bit each time until I try to skip the second day and take it every 3 days. It's fairly painful at first but after a few times I start to just get a down day on the 2nd day without it, with transient anxiety and a depressed mood. After a little while I feel comfortable on every 3 days. At that point I can jump off and I have about 2 weeks of discomfort before I'm pretty much over it.

When you're doing it every day, it can be harder to make the jump to every other day. My recommendation is to figure out what dose makes you feel alright, and stick to that dose. Take it all in 2-3 doses, relatively close together, once a day. Right now you're spreading it evenly so that you're constantly having some level of it in your system, but the way to start working your way down is to just have one peak per day, and then some time with less of it your system. Looking at your dosages, it seems like 3.5 to 4 grams is where you might want to start. So I'd say try taking 2 grams in the morning, then 1 gram an hour or two later and .5 grams an hour or two after that. Then don't take any more until the next day. Maybe the amount you need to feel pretty good is more or less than that but I think that's a good place to start (phenibut can be hard to judge because it takes so long to reach effect). Then when you find a good dose, reduce it little by little. To make the jump to every 2 days, maybe try every 1.5 days first, when you're ready. As in, take it first thing in the morning, then the next time, wait until halfway through the day. Then try to ride that through the next day and take it again the next morning (so that you've taken it twice in 3 days, about evenly spaced apart). Basically just keep track of how much you're taking, and try to reduce and increase the length of time between dosages.

For me, phenibut withdrawal consists of a lot of anxiety but not tremors/seizure activity. I once had to cold turkey it after dosing about 3-4 grams every day for a year and it sucked, but I got through it without any seriously concerning symptoms. But it is extremely uncomfortable. However I have talked to people who had tremors and felt like they were going to have a seizure so it seems like some people react to it that way. All of my advice assumes that for you it takes hours to come up and lasts a long time.

Another thing you could try, if possible and if my method is proving too challenging to stick to, is using baclofen to help. baclofen is also a GABA-B agonist so it will block most of the withdrawal (phenibut also blocks calcium ion channels like gabapentin does so it has 2 methods of action). baclofen is a prescription but it's a very low schedule. Baclofen is also addictive but I have used it to more quickly stabilize and jump down to dosing phenibut less often. If you could get ahold of some baclofen, you could dose phenibut one day, then baclofen the next instead of phenibut. Then phenibut, then baclofen. If you do this a few times, not for too long, you may then be able to stick to just dosing phenibut every other day baclofen out. Then after stabilizing on that, you could do the same process to cut to every third day (ie, take phenibut, day off, then the next day take baclofen instead of phenibut, then repeat the pattern, do this a few times and then cut out the baclofen). This has worked for me before the last time I was on phenibut a couple of years ago, to get from every other day to every 3 days. Cutting out a day is the hardest part of getting off phenibut, but also the most important, in my opinion.