Detox What eases anhedonia?

[phenibut10]

I know its going to take a while for my brain to recover from a huge phenibut habit but its been over 2 months now since I quit and the anhedonia is still the same. For anyone who went through gabaergic/phenibut withdrawl how long did it take for you to get any kind of relief from anhedonia.I still havent had an emotional window or anything. Also, what are some supplements or ways to ease anhedonia/emotional numbness?

 

[Jabberwocky]

It can take a long time, at a minimum I regularly hear from folks it take 6-9 months before the brain fog really starts to clear up, and notice it particularly begins to become really noticeable around the one year mark. I have heard from some people with long standing large habits that it took years for things to really get to a better place. From my own experience with a short very infrequent habit it took a few months, maybe three or four, to really get things going - and things weren't back to normal until at least six or nine months in.

There are lots of things you can do for yourself to speed up this process though.

First off, live as healthy of a lifestyle as you can, eating three regular balanced healthy meals each day, getting a solid 7-8hrs of sleep around the same time each night, and avoiding other drug use (particularly gabaergic stuff like alcohol).

You can also exercise. It doesn't need to be super intense routines. If going to the gym isn't your style, all you need to basic aerobic exercises to work with. Getting four to six hours of aerobic exercise (walking, biking, hiking, yoga, etc) each week is enough to make a big difference.

You can also begin to create a mindfulness meditation practice for yourself, ideally focused in particular on mindfulness based stress reduction techniques.

Engaging in activities that bring your joy and engaging in projects you find fulfilling and meaningful (do you have any hobbies? what are you passionate about? considered going back to school?) will also help promote the healing process.

Likewise, spending time with people who's company you enjoy and get alone with promotes recovery and is essential for co-regulation of your mood (which is what promotes recovery). Plus it will help you in terms of continuing to move on achieving the various goals you have (or need to have) depending on where you're at in life right now (spending time with people we feel natural and easeful with also helps in terms of developing achievable meaningful goals to begin with).

Anyone else have any other ideas? Basically, the more you concentrate you time and effort into the more basic activities affecting your personal and interpersonal wellbeing, the faster you will get to a place of wellbeing, stability and peace of mood, and satisfaction with your life.

 

[phenibut10]

6-9 months seems like a long time but as long as it gets better eventually I dont mind. How long did your short habit last that took you 3 or 4 months to recover from? I've been on heavy doses of phenibut for 8 months in all, then I decided to go cold turkey and thats when the anhedonia started. Im starting to wounder if going cold turkey for my second phenibut withdrawl is what caused the anhedonia because I went threw a phenibut withdrawl earlier in my life but the withdrawl was over in a week but I tapered during my first phenibut withdrawl, me being a dumbass 2 months after quitting phenibut the first time decided to abuse it again now after going cold turkey for my second phenibut withdrawl I got anhedonia/emotional numbness which never left or eased up over the past 2 months. Ill start following your advice with staying away from alcohol, exercise does seem like a good idea. Do you think lifting weights has the same effect as cadio for recovery? Also, ill try to do activites that are social but its so hard when you literally feel no emotion towards anything/anyone.Meditation does seem interesting ill look more into that tommorow. Also, thanks for your help.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I had been using high doses off and on fairly regularly for maybe eight or nine months, mostly alprazolam, diazepam, and temazepam, generally two of those concurrently (at least until the scripts ran out ).

Gabaergic tolerance, dependency and withdrawal can be a really strange beast. The detox and PAWS changed over time. It was never an issue before, but this last relatively period of more frequent, higher dose use ended up leading to a more difficult experience coming off. Even if it wasn't a big issue before, I wouldn't be surprised at all if your experience of anhedonia is the result of coming off phenibut again.

Any exercise is great, although aerobic exercise (again, it doesn't need to be hardcore or anything, just like an hour of walking helps a lot) is what is really supposed to help the most with depression and mood disorders. But if you enjoy lifting, go for it! You can always take the long road walking to wherever you good as well.

I understand about having a hard time with the socializing. It was really hard for me to get myself to do in early recovery, but frankly it had more to do with the fact I didn't feel like my life had any meaning more than anything else. What made a big difference was finding likeminded communities and people it was a genuine pleasure to spend time with. That made it infinitely easier and more possible to get myself to do. Truth be told I still have a bit of an issue with spending a lot of time on my own, but it isn't exactly unhealthy anymore.

Always happy to help, it's why we're hear

You sound like you have a good head on your shoulders. If you feel like you need some kind of relaxing substance that is gabaergic like try out some kava tea. It shouldn't cause you problems like alcohol or other gabaergic substances, although it won't exactly get you fucked up either. But it can be a relaxing little treat.

Keep up the good work!

 

[belfort]

Honestly anhedonia is the biggest stumbling block to my recovery..when I quit methadone I had major anhedonia for 16 months! It lessened a little over time but it was still there..working out helped a little as did welbutrin but again, I still was anhedonic..if you take a look around online you will find that anhedonia is very hard to treat especially when it is drug induced..

 

[Dil4]

Man if you find the answer, let me know. The anhedonia went away after about five months for me but it came back at around the one year mark. It got so bad that after 14 months clean I relapsed and am trying to kick again. It's like I literally stopped enjoying anything - everything that I used to enjoy, I couldn't. I had no pleasure in doing anything. It is by far the most challenging PAWS symptom and anhedonia personally to me makes acute withdrawal look and feel like a cake walk.

Good luck brother. I wish you every success and all the best in the world. Try to avoid the trap; it's like your brain wants you to fail and keeps whispering that you can't enjoy this activity because you don't have drugs in your blood.

I blew over a year of clean time thanks to anhedonia which came back at about 12 months after having been seemingly gone for several months. Between months 7-12 I was feeling happy, I felt joy in things I did again and was happy spending time with my family. Then it came back and I was in a dark place battling in for a couple months, trying to be happy but losing the battle.

If anyone finds a way to fight this beast please share.

Peace and love.
Cheers

 

[copperdome]

I have anhedonia. I thought it was only from withdrawaling from an AP med invega sustenna, but after reading this I am wondering if quitting suboxone at the same time caused my problems.

 

[phenibut10]

AP meds can screw people up for a bit, they are known for giving people anhedonia. Anyways I hope you get better soon. My anhedonia/emotional numbness is still here after almost 4 moths but I hope it passes soon.

 

[Jabberwocky]

With this as in all things, it's all about which wolf you feed. Do you feed the wolf that is incapable of feeling feelings or the one that does whatever it can to escape?

I can't help but think that with anhedonia, making small, concrete practical steps towards goals that we find desirable is a great place to start. Say you love hiking. Well, a place to start would be to begin planning a long backpacking trip along a famous trail. What I'm trying to say is that it isn't so much in the end result (the actual activity of hiking) that we gain the most from, but from how we use them to better organize the bulk of our free/extra time/energy/resources around activities we consider meaningful, fulfilling or worthwhile.

I'm thinking here of how idle hands and whatnot can end up being harmful...