Phenibut withdrawal or depression

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I bought some phenibut back in April to help with sleep problems I was having while coming off long-term meds (quetiapine), I ended up using it a lot more than I planned (because it's very addictive and creeps up on you like that), sometimes up to 4-5 days a week and up to 1.5 to 2g daily.

I basically ate around 40g in 3 months, which isnt a huge amount compared to some, but definitely enough to cause tolerance and withdrawals - which I had started to experience a few times without realising what was happening. I then stopped cold turkey when I realised it was starting to mess me up.

Went through the 7 day withdrawal, felt normal again with sleep patterns returning and then everything went downhill again about a week later - been like this for 2 to 3 weeks now. I cant get a decent night's sleep without waking every 2 hours or so (even after the gym etc). My med's arent helping any - motivation has nose-dived along with libido, stress levels are up, plus I'm not wanting to socialise that much, chat up women go to the gym etc - all stuff I usually enjoy.

Basically I feel like I'm back in some kind of depressive episode, driven mainly by my broken sleep patterns making me feel shitty in the day time. This depressive / apathetic state feels more like a dopamine deficiency rather than serotonin, with no end in sight at the moment. Most people seem to bounce back from phenibut quickly, then again, most people taper off it!

I've been trying 5htp, l theanine, valerian and nothing seems to be resetting my brain chemistry.... getting a bit worried about down longer-term down regulation of gaba/dopamine receptors. I bought some bacopa monnieri and ZMA the other day for sleep, as well as experimenting with amino's like l-tyrosine to boost my dopamine.

This is going to sound slightly batshit; because I'm convinced some of my problems have been worsened by coming off this stuff cold turkey... I'm half tempted to re-order a small amount of this phenibut bollocks just to get my sleep and mood together for a bit then taper off. Obviosuly, this is very risky because if my gaba receptors are temporarily screwed more phenibut could make me much worse.

Anyone any ideas?

 

[velmwend]

Lack of sleep's gonna make you feel like shit. I have insomnia and I deal with it by taking some gabapentin a few days, some etizolam a few days and some pheinbut once a week. Don't have to be the same of one thing all the time because you'll get addicted. You could try, for eg: 1 or 2 mg etiz for 2 nights a week, 1g phenibut for one, nothing for one (night after phenibut) and gabapentin for three. Talk to your gp about gapapentin - great sleep aid. Maybe even try a herbal preparation for one night. Nowt wrong with a bit of pheni, I've been taking it for two years, but only once a week (twice at the very most) and never experienced any reduction in effects. But if you're prone to get too dependent on it, may be worth staying away from it? Dunno. get your sleep pattern stable and see how you feel during the day - shit sleep can make you depressed.