Misc Tapering off of Phenibut

[Liptona]

Hi I just stumbled across this forum and glad I did, as it is so good to see so many people helping each other out. I am currently tapering off of a 5-6 month daily phenibut habit. At my peak I was taking as much as 8-9 grams a day. I have successfully tapered down to about 2 grams a day as of today. I take about 0.6g in the morning, 0.3g in the middle of the day at the onset of any anxiety, and about 1g at night. The WD's at the moment are not too bad at all and I am wondering, if I continue a slow taper, is there a possibility that when I make that final jump off of phenibut completely, would I still get a horrible withdrawal? If it helps any the product I am using is somatomax which also contains GABA as well as a few other ingredients, but the main active component is the phenibut. Any suggestions on how I should complete my taper? I am so determined to get this evil monkey off of my back. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you!

Also, I have some ambiens, would I be able to take them when I officially am completely off phenibut for the insomnia of the withdrawals?

 

[belfort]

you said the withdrawals arent bad but have you went without phenibut for 36 hours yet??it takes quite awhile for phenibut to leave the system and from what ive heard, if youve been dosing over a few grams a day for weeks/months, you are going to be in store for a tough withdrawal...its fine to take ambien..

i would suggest just a slow taper..decrease by 300 mgs every few days until you get down to nothing..are you even getting any anti-anxiety effects from the phenibut right now??does it still have positive effects for you after this long?

 

[Liptona]

you said the withdrawals arent bad but have you went without phenibut for 36 hours yet??it takes quite awhile for phenibut to leave the system and from what ive heard, if youve been dosing over a few grams a day for weeks/months, you are going to be in store for a tough withdrawal...its fine to take ambien..

i would suggest just a slow taper..decrease by 300 mgs every few days until you get down to nothing..are you even getting any anti-anxiety effects from the phenibut right now??does it still have positive effects for you after this long?

I haven't gone without it for 36 hours yet...just gradually reducing my dosage. I am not getting any positive effects from it anymore, it just suppresses the anxiety coming from the withdrawals between doses. I am also trying to space out the doses as well. So if i continue to taper until I am pretty much taking nothing, should I still be expecting a horrible withdrawal period? I have dropped to about 1 gram a day and am hoping to completely discontinue use in the next 2 weeks. I am feeling small periods of anxiety usually at the end of the day and in the morning when I wake up. I am currently dosing once in the morning and once before I sleep. I have read a couple other people's experiences with their phenibut taper, and saw some that said with a proper taper they were able to avoid bad withdrawal, if any at all. Thanks for your reply.

 

[belfort]

from what ive heard about the withdrawal, if i were you i would go as low as 300 mgs which is a serving and then stay on that a few days and then jump off...even going that route i still would think you will suffer from some insomnia and anxiety..even when people taper off of benzos or subuxone over long periods of time you will still have withdrawals but they will be much less as compared to just jumping off..i would have something to take a few days for sleep that doesnt hit the gabaB receptors...like said u will feel uncomfortable for a few days but it wont be that bad as long as you taper down as much as possible.

 

[rms6838]

Same Boat

Just found this thread when searching for 'phenibut taper'. I am pretty much in the same boat as liptona, been working on a taper for the last week or so.

My usage was pretty much a solid 1 gram a day to prevent withdrawals and then on weekends or social events I would take like 6 or 7 grams, sometimes for a couple days in a row. I've been on the substance for 4 months.

I have managed to get down to 750mg taken during the morning and do notice some withdrawals later on at night and then the next morning before I take my dose. I figure its inevitable to feel some slight withdrawal.

I tried 500 mg a few days ago but the withdrawals kicked in pretty hard, so I bumped back up to 750 mg.

My plan is to try 500 mg again on Saturday as I don't have anything social to do, and deal with whatever withdrawals I get and hopefully after that I will be able to taper from 500 down at that point.

Phenibut is a great help for an extremely anxious individual such as myself. I hope that after kicking this and taking a good 2-3 week break, I will then have the discipline to stay at twice a week phenibut (weekend usage). Taking it everyday is pointless though as you don't really get any benefits and I think it just generally makes you feel tired and gives you cognitive impairement.
Things that have helped:

Exercise (weight lifting) has helped with the withdrawals and especially sleeping

Nutrition, I try to make myself a green smoothie (spinach, brocolli, banana) everyday and that also seems to help somewhat. When I get paid I am going to buy some gaba and see if that can ease it a bit as well.

 

[hydrochron]

The question you need to answer is why were you taking phenibut in the first place? Instead of trying to run and hide from the issues, you need to expose your self to these situations that are making you uncomfortable until you can cope naturally.

If you have legitimate insomnia or anxiety your best bet is to go to a Dr. , however benzo's are addictive and will leave you with more anxiety then when you started taking them. There just going to cover up the problem until you come off of them, then whatever issue you were blocking out with the benzo's is going to come roaring back like a freight train.

Good luck

 

[Liptona]

Just an update on my situation. I am officially 3 days clean off of phenibut now. I am not suffering any withdrawal symptoms other than insomnia, but I have been taking ambien to help me sleep which has been working well. My question is, since ambien works on GABA A receptors, is it ok for me to continue taking it until I am able to sleep without it? I plan on taking the ambien no more than 7 days, hopefully less if I am able to sleep one night without anything. I am so relieved I am not suffering any other WD symptoms, and I am thinking I must have tapered properly or maybe my body is recovering faster than I expected.

 

[sethV]

Phenibut is ruling & ruining my life~~~ive been taking for almost 8year now, when some of my friends introduced me to it~we never used those tiny spoons, we used teaspoons," i use 1 - 200gram container a week", & "cut down from the 500gram i used to buy"~ive tryed several times 2come off this, even detox's, just to go through a delusional state & serious depression~that i had 2see doctors for & then some! The dosages ive taken over the years are far more than ive read on all chat lines~i need 2talk 2someone who come off this 4good if there out there? A doctor who knows about it? Because nobody in mi does? Ive lost family,wife,freinds,& jobs! If anyone has anything 4me, i would be so much appreciated than they know!!! My e-mail is [email protected]~sincerely~ so lost seth~~

 

[jambabomba]

Hi SethV,

I think I understand your situation very well! Altough I haven't used phenibut that long my use has been enough for it to cause physical dependency. At the same time I have also used Lyrica (600mg a day) and benzos (xanax 2-4mg/day and temazepam 20-40mg/day).

I used phenibut about year from 5-20g/day dosages. Now I have a good doctor who put me on baclofen at 200mg/day, clonazepam 1,5mg/day and Lyrica 600mg/day. I think that should work very well also for you! And maybe you won't even need that much of medicines because if all you have used is phenibut then baclofen might be enough. I used benzos and Lyrica with it so that's why I have to use them allso. Tell your doctor about baclofen and Lyrica and possible some long acting benzo along with them and it will go better!

Strange but according to wikipedia baclofen is 15x more potent than phenibut. It amazes me because I was using phenibut 5-10g/day and only 200mg baclofen per day was enough so that I didn't have withdrawals at all! So at to me it seems to be more potent than 15x. Maybe 20-30x. So if it works same for you and you have used phenibut ex. 20g/day it might be that 600mg of baclofen would do the trick for you. Maybe lower amount and maybe you won't need any other medicines.