Quitting phenibut journal

How's the taper going? Still decreasing?

Hope you are well.

Thank you for keeping me accountable I very much appreciate it. Down to 3,930mg but have been stuck in that range for the past few days. Been feeling really on edge lately, not sure if its the phenibut decreases or not. My intuition says its not, since these arent big decreases, but then again, maybe it is, since my GABA system is shot due past gabapentinoid and benzo abuse. Getting off this junk seems hopeless in some regards but it is doable.
 
Thank you for keeping me accountable I very much appreciate it. Down to 3,930mg but have been stuck in that range for the past few days. Been feeling really on edge lately, not sure if its the phenibut decreases or not. My intuition says its not, since these arent big decreases, but then again, maybe it is, since my GABA system is shot due past gabapentinoid and benzo abuse. Getting off this junk seems hopeless in some regards but it is doable.
You seem to do substances at high doses (phenibut, methadone) ,crazy high doses…

i just tried phenibut the other day after hearing you describe its affects, for me it was a chill pill ( i took 500mg) it just mellowed me out cor about 6-8 hrs, kinda like a valium, beer and a joint would feel when i was young , and ill take your word gor it on how addicting it is and limit my use to once every few weeks ,
 
Thank you for keeping me accountable I very much appreciate it. Down to 3,930mg but have been stuck in that range for the past few days. Been feeling really on edge lately, not sure if its the phenibut decreases or not. My intuition says its not, since these arent big decreases, but then again, maybe it is, since my GABA system is shot due past gabapentinoid and benzo abuse. Getting off this junk seems hopeless in some regards but it is doable.
I hear ya there. Tapering is so tedious as we can't really see the results and it takes so darn long. I know how hopeless it can feel. But you haven't stopped tapering even if you have been stuck at the same dose for several days. All we can do is keep our eye on the prize.
 
Down to 3,928mg tonight.

I think i need to try to take some bigger jumps and see how its tolerated. Like maybe -10mg at a time

I haven't woken up with my skin burning yet, which is the hallmark of phenibut for me, so thats good.
 
Down to 3,928mg tonight.

I think i need to try to take some bigger jumps and see how its tolerated. Like maybe -10mg at a time

I haven't woken up with my skin burning yet, which is the hallmark of phenibut for me, so thats good.
How do you do 2 mg less , are you weighing it out of a bulk package ?
 
@negrogesic youre doing it! Well done, I really do think you’ll feel much better when you’re off it completely, the decrease in music appreciation won’t last and it’s probably more because you’re focusing on it.

I think it would be better do do a blind taper. Can your GF not help you for the first few weeks/month? You really should be able to drop more than what you’re doing. I realise you’re apprehensive about it though.

Your kidney issue/thirst is interesting. What about urinalysis results??
 
It will take forever only coming down a couple mg a day / week. Need to go down like a 100 mg a week to ever really get off this stuff .
 
3,952mg (down 4mg), its going ok 👌

Would like to get to a point where im doing some bigger numbers, like going down 10mg/day we'll see.

One problem is that I have a dextroamphetamine prescription, which has some sort of GABA-B antagonistic (or rather anti-baclofen) properties. With baclofen being simply chlorophenibut, the combination is going to make this a bit harder for me.
I didn't realize this about dextroamp. I take Baclofen as well 20mg a day, and Vyvanse. And I recently started taking phenibut. First time I took it was 1.5g and I got good effects, but the next two times weren't that strong at the same dose even after skipping a day.

I took 2.5g today, I've still got a few hours till real effects but I already feel a little bit looser. But this must be why I don't get strong effects from Baclofen and I need the higher dose of phenibut
 
I didn't realize this about dextroamp. I take Baclofen as well 20mg a day, and Vyvanse. And I recently started taking phenibut. First time I took it was 1.5g and I got good effects, but the next two times weren't that strong at the same dose even after skipping a day.

I took 2.5g today, I've still got a few hours till real effects but I already feel a little bit looser. But this must be why I don't get strong effects from Baclofen and I need the higher dose of phenibut

Yeah check it out:


And the description of phenibut as a beta-phenethylamine "antagonist" is interesting:


Interestingly when I take a big dose of dextroamphetamine (50mg+) I get an initial wave of physical anxiety/restlessness and notice my skin burning in a manner very reminiscent of phenibut withdrawal. Amphetamine decreases the function of the GABA-B system so perhaps sort of throw myself into phenibut withdrawal in those cases.
 
@negrogesic youre doing it! Well done, I really do think you’ll feel much better when you’re off it completely, the decrease in music appreciation won’t last and it’s probably more because you’re focusing on it.

I think it would be better do do a blind taper. Can your GF not help you for the first few weeks/month? You really should be able to drop more than what you’re doing. I realise you’re apprehensive about it though.

Your kidney issue/thirst is interesting. What about urinalysis results??

I would but don’t trust her ability to do it, she's bound to mess it up, not quite clever or responsible enough for that task 🤯

And I had some blood work and a urinalysis done recently, blood calcium was a bit high, may be parathyroid gland dysfunction. Or alteratively, the phenibut is dehydrating me. Gonna check it again in maybe a week, will run PTH and vitamin D levels along with it to rule out parathyroid dysfunction.
 
There is definitely some cross-tolerance between baclofen and phenibut, both being similar acting GABA b agonists. The difference between them is tolerance to phenibut happens almost immediately, and tolerance to baclofen takes a lot longer after being on it daily for a while. Phenibut also takes around 90 m-2 hrs before any effects start to be felt, compared to baclofen that takes 15-30 m to feel it.

The few times i tried baclofen as a substitute for phenibut it didn't feel like it covered all the symptoms, particularly the hallmark phenibut paresthesia. Will switch to baclofen most likely at some point however.
 
You could try to switch to pregabalin and taper that down, for me it has only mild withdrawal and I am taking 600mg+/d for months now.
 
I would but don’t trust her ability to do it, she's bound to mess it up, not quite clever or responsible enough for that task 🤯

And I had some blood work and a urinalysis done recently, blood calcium was a bit high, may be parathyroid gland dysfunction. Or alteratively, the phenibut is dehydrating me. Gonna check it again in maybe a week, will run PTH and vitamin D levels along with it to rule out parathyroid dysfunction.
What about electrolytes? Can you order up your own blood panels? I can PM you with a recommendation of what I’m thinking if you want.

Baclofen, whilst close to phenibut, will not cover your withdrawal. I also would never advise someone to go on a high dose of it even if it was to taper. I do think switching and tapering down from pregabalin/gabapentin would be a good idea when you’re at that level.
 
What about electrolytes? Can you order up your own blood panels? I can PM you with a recommendation of what I’m thinking if you want.

Baclofen, whilst close to phenibut, will not cover your withdrawal. I also would never advise someone to go on a high dose of it even if it was to taper. I do think switching and tapering down from pregabalin/gabapentin would be a good idea when you’re at that level.

Yeah I order my own blood work usually. Electrolytes were fine. The work up was pretty extensive. Second time I've had blood calcium levels that were too high (adults shouldn't consistently have calcium levels in the blood above 10mg/dL really, regardless of the reference range). So i'm going to wait a bit, avoid dietary calcium, and retest it along with PTH and vitamin D when I'm well hydrated. If the calcium is still elevated, regardless of normal PTH (which I assume is normal), gonna have to see an endocrinologist. It may have been dehydration, my albumin was elevated which can cause phantom hypercalcemia
 
Damn if you aint just full of good information, I mean this. Evertime I see a post of yours my immediate reaction is "This is gonna be over my head". :LOL:
Peace bro. Good stuff.
 
if you drop 25 mg a day, you'll be off of it by 160 days, less than half a year away.

In the medical field, they would surely say, oh yeah with a taper that slow no one will feel anything!

But in my experience while tapers are immensely helpful, the brain needs to heal, and once the drugs are gone, I feel it.

This winter when I went from 140 mg of methadone to subutex and a 9 day taper I was still sick as fuck for 3 weeks. I guess that's obvious that was going to happen though.

Do you have someone close to you willing to do a blind taper? Meaning they decrease your dose at random or some set way they determine and tell you it won't be more than say 1% of your dose? My methadone clinic offered blind tapers where it was a coin toss if you dropped 10% of your dose or not, and they wouldn't tell you if you did. I had 140 mg just about memorized in the amount of liquid was in the cup though so I'd eventually see it was less and my brain would tell me I wasn't getting enough. That's why I never opted into it

Best of luck Negro
 
Yeah, blind tapers can be very helpful to circumvent nocebo but then it should be always the same amount of liquid/pills too.

I am currently quitting morphine and relapsed countless times because of the shitty PAWS feeling but I'm not completely sure what's withdrawal and what's nocebo because there's no clear scheme, sometimes I manage just one day, sometimes four or five without morphine or kratom so.. I could indeed use a blind taper.

With 25mg/d there should be little noticeable, at least with the equivalent dose of pregabalin I wouldn't feel a bit, could even progress faster.
 
With 25mg/d there should be little noticeable, at least with the equivalent dose of pregabalin I wouldn't feel a bit, could even progress faster.
Yeah with pregabalin I can do every other day when tapering off without problem.
 
Top