What are phenibut PAWS like

Mycotheologist

Bluelighter
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Apr 8, 2012
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I was on phenibut for 2 weeks then I used xanax for 1 week and when I quit the xanax, there was no acute withdrawal (thats the reason I took it), I haven't missed a single nights sleep since stopping. Its been 5 days since I stopped the xanax so that would be 11 days since my last dose of phenibut. For the past few days I've felt alright but I'm having ups and downs, right now I feel pretty good but I get these waves of mild depression and restlessness that last a few hours. Does that sound like phenibut PAWS?
 
Thanks. Its only been 7 days since I quit the xanax so a bit of mild depression and anxiety is nothing. Shouldn't be too long until I'm at baseline.
 
Its quite a bizarre withdrawal I'm having. About an hour after posting my previous reply, I went into a euphoric state and I've been in it ever since. It would be cool if this signals the end of the PAWS but I suspect thats not the case, its probably just a wave. Can't complain at all though, getting unexpected 8 hour waves of euphoria during a withdrawal makes it a whole lot more pleasant.
 
Condumbpope: How long do you usually expect these symptoms to last for when you have them? Its been 1 week since I stopped and the symptoms don't seem to have decreased in intensity since, although its hard to guage.
 
2 weeks in my opinion is nothing to worry about. I wouldn't except nothing major from that. I had used xanax on and of 2 weeks before I used them many months every day and didn't feel any major withdrawals with that kind of use. After about half year of everyday use I had bad withdrawals but they are over allready. I haven't had any PAWS. I did very rapid taper and you can read it in here on my threads. Phenibut I had used one year about 5g a day with 300mg lyrica. I will be soon start to lower the dose and propably will be telling it here how it goes.
 
Thanks a lot jambabomba. From what I've read, most people like yourself, recovery relatively quickly after benzo use but there are some horror stories on the internet, enough to encourage me to avoid benzos if possible from now on. Haven't read anything about pregabalin/gabapentin addiction but phenibut withdrawals are nothing to worry about from what I've read. Also, in my experience both z drugs and benzos completely circumvent any acute withdrawals from phenibut. I'm surprised phenibut worked for you for that long. It produces unpredictable effects in me, it usually works well for a few weeks then it starts stimulating me like mad for some reason. What happens is it stimulates me for about 4 hours just after it kicks in, then it relaxes me but I ended up getting pretty sleep deprived at the end of my last 2 week binge because I kept mistakenly dosing a couple of hours before bedtime then redosing when I couldn't sleep. Like I said, this only starts happening to me after at least a week of daily use. Maybe I was just taking too much, I'd usually ramp my dosage up to 6g in a matter of weeks. I like phenibut, it has shown me a unique state which I had never experienced before (well GHB induces some elements of it) so for that I'm grateful but my experimentation with GABAergics is done.

This morning I woke up feeling pretty normal, the closest I've felt to baseline in a while. I took a leap of faith and took 20mg of dextroamphetamine as a test. Usually during a GABAergic withdrawal the stimulation from this drug would be unbearable and I would be flooded with anxiety but its been 1hr now and I feel calm and relaxed. Definitely a good sign. However, I best wait another few hours before making an conclusions.
 
^^phenibut is a strange drug..one day i can feel very stimulated on 2 grams and then the next feel very sedated..thing is, when i feel stimulated off phenibut it is not a tweaked out anxious feeling like stims give, its a very calm yet energized feeling similar to GHB..phenibut started off giving me great sleep but after using awhile it has caused sleep problems...my sleep is sound but im not sleeping long..using it for 2 weeks i doubt would cause too harsh withdrawals much less PAWS type symptoms..

btw neurontin works miracles for phenibut withdrawals..
 
You won't get them.

Ive known no cases of PAWS through phenibut abuse, especially in those short durations of usage you described. I've been addicted to both baclofen and phenibut at different and varying stages of my life, noticed nothing of the sort after the WD's stopped.

Neurontin works great for banzo withdrawal, too. I miss my 3200mg a day script.
 
Thanks a lot jambabomba. From what I've read, most people like yourself, recovery relatively quickly after benzo use but there are some horror stories on the internet, enough to encourage me to avoid benzos if possible from now on. Haven't read anything about pregabalin/gabapentin addiction but phenibut withdrawals are nothing to worry about from what I've read. Also, in my experience both z drugs and benzos completely circumvent any acute withdrawals from phenibut. I'm surprised phenibut worked for you for that long. It produces unpredictable effects in me, it usually works well for a few weeks then it starts stimulating me like mad for some reason. What happens is it stimulates me for about 4 hours just after it kicks in, then it relaxes me but I ended up getting pretty sleep deprived at the end of my last 2 week binge because I kept mistakenly dosing a couple of hours before bedtime then redosing when I couldn't sleep. Like I said, this only starts happening to me after at least a week of daily use. Maybe I was just taking too much, I'd usually ramp my dosage up to 6g in a matter of weeks. I like phenibut, it has shown me a unique state which I had never experienced before (well GHB induces some elements of it) so for that I'm grateful but my experimentation with GABAergics is done.

Yes there are horror stories and I was also scared to do quickly taper because of them altough I have done cold turkey from benzos also from 2008 but then I hadn't used as regularly and had switched xanax and clonazepam etc. (I used multiple benzos then) to diazepam before I stopped it could turkey from 20mg/day. I did have anxiety and unreal feeling then that lasted many months or even to year 2010 but I now maybe believe that those protracted withdrawals weren't necessarily related to withdrawals from benzo use. I now think that my symptoms were actually because my brain weren't healthy to start withdrawal at that time and that caused biggest problems. I believe that horror stories comes from a sick people or from people who had really used massive amounts (ex. >10mg xanax per day) and do very rapid taper or cold turkey. When I say sick people I don't mean to be disrespectful but I mean people like me who has maybe brain chemistry somehow wrong to start with. Ex. chronic fatigue syndrome where has been thought that glutamate might play a role and some doctors think that to healthy brain it is not a problem to come off from benzos but if your brain chemistry has some problems wich benzos has alleviated then withdrawal really can be brutal and that's what I mean. So I think it isn't necessarily benzos (or other gabaergics) wich are the root of exceptionally hard and long withdrawal problems but roots are problems in messed up brain chemistry that benzos has alleviated. Sorry my english, it isn't my native language and I don't have a time to use dictionary at the moment.

And by saying above I don't mean that healthy people don't get withdrawal symptoms. Obviously everyone will have but severity of them is depending maybe on ones brain health.

You were wondering how phenibut has worked for me that long. I really feel that phenibut has helped me tremendously. I could work and do my hobbies and other things in life much better with it because it alleviates my anxiety and other that kind of problems so good that my concentration and energy is free to do normal things. I really would like to use phenibut all my life.

My tolerance hasn't maybe rised because I have normally dosed it only on time per 24h period. But one or few times a week allso have used bigger doses like 10g so I have dosed several times per day then. Other reasons might be that I have used magnesium citrate all the time with it about 800-1000mg per day. And also I have used most of the time tramadol with it 100-400mg/day. I suppose that as tramadol has some NMDA-antagonist activity it might help with tolerance also. I don't have any evidence about that though. Also I have used L-theanine if that matters something..
 
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