Circumventing GABAergic addiction by switching between GABAa and GABAb drugs

[Mycotheologist]

For the past 2 months, I had been in a vicious cycle of using phenibut for 2 weeks, then using benzos for 2 weeks and last Friday, I used xanax and diazepam (mainly xanax as I think I had a paradoxical reaction to diazepam) to rapidly taper down. My last dose of xanax was 0.25mg which I took on Saturday and while I didn't sleep the previous night, last night I got 8 hours of natural sleep so I believe I am more or less off the GABAergics. In my experience this approach works. I theoretically knew that phenibut doesn't exhibit cross tolerance with benzos but since both classes of drugs suppress glutamate, I thought a kind of combination addiction effect would occur but thats not the case. Taking either of these classes of drugs for 2 months straight would have resulted in me having a moderately harsh withdrawal from tapering down rapidly like that so I believe I avoided getting physically depended on either of these classes of drugs by switching between them like that. Do physicians use this approach to circumvent physical dependance? GABAergic drugs are insanely addictive in my experience but there are multiple classes which don't exhibit cross tolerance. For example, a patient with anxiety and/or insomnia could use alprazolam for a week, then baclofen for a week, then pregabalin for a week, then maybe kavalactones for a week etc.

 

[xxxyyy]

yes, there is no cross-tolerance between the two. that being said using either more than once or maybe twice a week is just asking for trouble.
the withdrawal from a heavy 3-month GBL habit was the most horrendous thing i've ever experienced. benzos didn't do shit, alcohol didn't do shit, the only thing that lessened the WDs was high-dose baclofen (300-400mg a day).
also pregabalin and gabapentin have a mechanism of action completely different from gaba agonists.
benzos are a great, indispensable tool for panic/anxiety disorder, or to facilitate a come-down. getting physically addicted to them however is a world of pain. same goes for GHB which is every bit as horrible in withdrawal.
also, GABAa agonists seem to induce rapid tolerance, whereas GABAb agonists have a much slower build up in my experience.

 

[mrflowers00]

this doesn't work

 

[Mycotheologist]

yes, there is no cross-tolerance between the two. that being said using either more than once or maybe twice a week is just asking for trouble.
the withdrawal from a heavy 3-month GBL habit was the most horrendous thing i've ever experienced. benzos didn't do shit, alcohol didn't do shit, the only thing that lessened the WDs was high-dose baclofen (300-400mg a day).
also pregabalin and gabapentin have a mechanism of action completely different from gaba agonists.
benzos are a great, indispensable tool for panic/anxiety disorder, or to facilitate a come-down. getting physically addicted to them however is a world of pain. same goes for GHB which is every bit as horrible in withdrawal.
also, GABAa agonists seem to induce rapid tolerance, whereas GABAb agonists have a much slower build up in my experience.

Which benzos and what dosage did you take during the GBL withdrawal? GBL and phenibut are both GABAb agonists and tolerance to these drugs builds faster than anything I have ever encountered. Besides baclofen, what other GABAb agonists have you tried?

 

[debaser]

It will work to a certain extent, but not sufficiently IME.