The world after PST - what's going to happen?

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

If you can not cheat, I think you'll escape without too much pain. I do think you should make sure to jump off completely at LEAST a week before your trip, though.

As an aside, I have been tapering phenibut for a few months (I got some GHB and used it basically like I used to use opiates and got addicted and when I ran out I used phenibut to avoid a dangerous withdrawal), and I finally jumped off on Monday. I used gabapentin yesterday when I started feeling withdrawals and it worked so well. Now, granted, gabapentin is closer to phenibut than it is to opiates, but it really is a nice med, so I think when you jump off, you can probably at least use it to sleep if you have trouble.

Wow, I looked up GHB and feel bad you've been supporting me getting off of Kratom, I'm being a total pussy but the WDs from that are physically dangerous (that's likely not helping...). How is the taper going? You know I wonder how other people who get multiple drug addictions function in regular life, from what I've read both of those substances are sedative so do you just sleep on it? Not that it's my business, I tried GHB once and honestly didn't feel anything, anything stronger than pills or PST just freak me out and i'm a really really weird person to be around. It's not fun. How long is your taper going to last and where are you now in the process?

I read that both activate Gaba receptors, so of course Gabapentin will help. Also I read baclofen the muscle relaxer is helpful for WDs although I personally hate that shit - have a ton of it for my back and I will try to kill someone for saying anything off color to me while i've been taking it - really not fun. Anyway, maybe you should take gaba daily while you're tapering, like 600mg or so (not sure if that's a lot, i have 300mg pills so that would only be 2..).

As for my taper, i've kinda stalled since the initial 20g drop since I can't say that I have no withdraw symptoms. My sex drive is insane, mood isn't great, feel kinda fatigued/sick - although with no standard WD symptoms besides - some night sweats last night but that's it (really, not that bad). But i'm wavering on my plan, as now I have a conference to go to next week which would be on days 1 and 2 of the zero kratom plan - and that's just not realistic. Instead i'm still going to keep my dosage low, but was thinking I can wait until i get down there, then switch to tramadol. Yes, I've been able to buy a shit ton while there - not the most legal pharmacies but since i'm foreign they overcharge me - but it's still like $1 or less per pill of 37.5mg....

So I'm thinking i'll drop a bit more until the conference, get through that then will have to go cold turkey. OR I keep tapering until I leave, then I buy some tramadol when I get there and make that switch. For some reason tramadol which is a more known evil is more attractive than kratom, which is surprising me in a bad way these days. I don't usually get WDs off of tramadol, since it's mild, not really addicting for me (I TRY to get high, but just can't), so it's just a transitional plan. A bad one, but what am I supposed to do? This conference would be huge for my career, especially now since I've gone out on my own working independently for clients - and this is where I can find more.

I'm seriously faltering on my plan... I don't know if i'm going to get bad PAWS with depression during my trip and really don't want to do that shit (I've gone through WDs around my inlaws before on previous trips, and although no one knows what's really going on it sucks). Maybe I should just bring a supply and maintain a low dosage while there......

Keep me posted on your progress.

 

[Xorkoth]

GHB is a super euphoric drug, like of my the most I've encountered, on par with opiates. I would take it and chill, go out, whatever. It's about the most pro-social drug there is, makes me want to talk to everybody and I have zero inhibitions. Lovely stuff, too bad I couldn't control it.

Anyway I ran out and rather than face seizures and whatnot I used phenibut, which is kind of similar but lasts much, much longer (so is a lot easier to taper with - plus it's easily available), got to every other day on that, slowly tapered less and less. Then I got some gabapentin and honestly I was going to try to use it to get to every 3 days on phenibut but I was just like, meh, I'll just jump off, that was on Monday. It's just some passing anxiety at this point. Actually when I take gabapentin I feel pretty good, but today I decided not to since I did the past 2 days and I don't feel great but it's totally bearable, just kinda feel out of sorts a little and more anxious than usual. So I had a good plan to get off GHB, and it worked... wasn't so bad. I mean I'm not clear yet but I'm not taking phenibut anymore and I've gotten off a similar level of phenibut before and it's totally doable, I'm in for a week of significant difficulty sleeping (but not with limb restlessness thank god) and anxiety and then another week of some difficulty sleeping and transient bouts of anxiety, that's it. Nice thing about phenibut is that it's not the slightest bit compulsive for me, unlike opiates or GHB. I have a tub of it sitting next to me and I know I'm not going to do it. It was a tool in this case to get me off of GHB, and that it has done.

Anyway... so your trip is a work trip where you need to perform at a conference? That does suck, and it's understandable you would be afraid to be in withdrawal (I mean honestly you can't perform normally in withdrawal). If I would have known it was an important work thing you were traveling for I'd have probably just said bite the bullet and cold turkey so you'd be done. But alas...

I'd say at this point perhaps your best bet is to make sure you're well and able to perform for this conference, and to make sure to take the time afterwards to get completely off of everything. It may be beneficial to switch to tramadol rather than continue with kratom, because of the fact that it's switching it up, that way you can disrupt some of the kratom dependence and hopefully not catch a tramadol one. Of course it's all cross-tolerant to a large extent but it's one tactic opiate users will use to try to avoid really heavy dependence, switching up opioids. But you need to be careful because sometimes that can just end up in a neverending cycle from one to the next, and fooling yourself into thinking you're quitting when you're not.

Ah, the pitfalls of the mind... I'm thinking your work conference is a bit of rationalization, but probably a valid one in this case. Just don't let there be more of them after this. It's so easy to make them.