Ok so I started taking phenibut 10 months ago, and despite trying to be disciplined with it I got up to taking over 8-9 grams a day. Awhile back I started having some negative effects, namely waking up every hour of the night, urinating frequently, and overall just a negative physical feeling that I could not shake. I decided to take a break, at at hour 36 experienced withdrawals from hell. I expected the insomnia but the tinnitus was what really got me. It was like a high pitched ringing in one ear or the other, or it sounded like a bunch of crickets in both. Either way it freaked me out so bad I went into full blown panick attacks. So I dosed and that made it stop...an hour later I passed out and realized I was in trouble. So, i started a taper. But I’ve only made it 6.5g and it hasn’t been fun. Trying to figure out when to dose to avoid those symptoms has been hard, and I’m frustrated at how slow it is going. And when i feel the withdrawals, I know that a dose will stop the insanity, which messes up my taper. I need a new plan. I’ve heard gabapentin can help, or Baclofen, but without insurance I’m not sure I can find a way to get a random doctor to help me. If anyone has any advice or experience with phenibut withdrawal please share.
Phenibut nightmare
- Thread starter Ryt4578
- Start date
Vastness
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2006
- Messages
- 2,306
You need to stop immediately... or as quickly as you reasonably can. Your usage at this level is potentially dangerous. While it does seem that there is a lot of variation in individual response to long term, high dose Phenibut, the original Russian literature does state that doses in excess of 7 grams or so can cause "kidney dysfunction". This probably explains the frequent urination and potentially other physical symptoms you are experiencing, but if you do not heed the warning signs you could be risking permanent damage to your kidneys - you may already have increased your lifetime susceptibility to chronic kidney disease or drug-induced injury.
I'm sorry to say it but you are just going to have to tough it out, and please forgive me for saying but honestly if you tried to be disciplined and still managed to get up to 9 grams within 10 months, I would hate to imagine what would have happened if you hadn't tried to be disciplined. Bluntly, you are going to need to try harder now. Phenibut withdrawals are overwhelmingly reported to be not nearly as bad as withdrawals from other GABAergics such as benzodiazepines and alcohol, and the risk of physical danger during withdrawal, ie, life threatening seizures, is lower (although it may not be nonexistent).
You might think I am being over-dramatic and potentially harsh to you here regarding the risks of not quitting but I am saying this in the hope that it gives you the kick you need to get out of the admittedly unfortunate situation you have got yourself into. Additionally, many people consider Phenibut to be physiologically almost entirely benign and while in low doses this may well be the case high doses are not well studied and may not be safe long term - if you value your kidneys, stop now.
While Gabapentin and Baclofen would no doubt help the withdrawals I would suggest that given your inability to control your use of Phenibut, switching to a psychologically "harder" GABAergic drug is probably not advisable. Some people report some success using racetams such as Piracetam or Fasoracetam during Phenibut withdrawals but in my own view the effect is likely to be mild. I would suggest that the best way to manage your withdrawal would be to plan a good week or so when you need to do very little, and then just accept you are gonna be pretty useless and cut off from the world during that time. On the other hand, physical exercise or other activities that can keep you out of your own head while you are feeling more prone to panic or anxiety will also help massively even if you don't feel up to it at first. If you genuinely can't control your use then measure out as much as you need to taper and then throw the rest of your Phenibut away, then just take a week to be kind to yourself and recover... again, you are (likely) not in any physical danger. Psychologically I don't know your history but if you have ever been diagnosed with any kind of anxiety disorder then you should probably seek counselling as soon as you can, and depending on the assessment of the mental health professional you see you may be prescribed something that would help your symptoms instead of self-medicating. I would also suggest that while "withdrawing" you reach out to any friends and/or family you can lean on. On the other hand if you have been using Phenibut purely recreationally and don't have any history of mental illness, while all of this advice remains applicable, with a little more self-discipline you should be well equipped to get yourself past this. Good luck!
I'm sorry to say it but you are just going to have to tough it out, and please forgive me for saying but honestly if you tried to be disciplined and still managed to get up to 9 grams within 10 months, I would hate to imagine what would have happened if you hadn't tried to be disciplined. Bluntly, you are going to need to try harder now. Phenibut withdrawals are overwhelmingly reported to be not nearly as bad as withdrawals from other GABAergics such as benzodiazepines and alcohol, and the risk of physical danger during withdrawal, ie, life threatening seizures, is lower (although it may not be nonexistent).
You might think I am being over-dramatic and potentially harsh to you here regarding the risks of not quitting but I am saying this in the hope that it gives you the kick you need to get out of the admittedly unfortunate situation you have got yourself into. Additionally, many people consider Phenibut to be physiologically almost entirely benign and while in low doses this may well be the case high doses are not well studied and may not be safe long term - if you value your kidneys, stop now.
While Gabapentin and Baclofen would no doubt help the withdrawals I would suggest that given your inability to control your use of Phenibut, switching to a psychologically "harder" GABAergic drug is probably not advisable. Some people report some success using racetams such as Piracetam or Fasoracetam during Phenibut withdrawals but in my own view the effect is likely to be mild. I would suggest that the best way to manage your withdrawal would be to plan a good week or so when you need to do very little, and then just accept you are gonna be pretty useless and cut off from the world during that time. On the other hand, physical exercise or other activities that can keep you out of your own head while you are feeling more prone to panic or anxiety will also help massively even if you don't feel up to it at first. If you genuinely can't control your use then measure out as much as you need to taper and then throw the rest of your Phenibut away, then just take a week to be kind to yourself and recover... again, you are (likely) not in any physical danger. Psychologically I don't know your history but if you have ever been diagnosed with any kind of anxiety disorder then you should probably seek counselling as soon as you can, and depending on the assessment of the mental health professional you see you may be prescribed something that would help your symptoms instead of self-medicating. I would also suggest that while "withdrawing" you reach out to any friends and/or family you can lean on. On the other hand if you have been using Phenibut purely recreationally and don't have any history of mental illness, while all of this advice remains applicable, with a little more self-discipline you should be well equipped to get yourself past this. Good luck!
Last edited:
brominated
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2017
- Messages
- 15
Stop immediately.
Use small doses, SMALL, as in for a beginner, to help with withdrawals. I'm sure phenibut is a GABAB agonist, no? (also a α2δ Subunit VDCC blocker, like pregabalin) Can't it cause seizures in withdrawal?
How long have you been dealing with this? Try to use fluorophenibut (it acts faster) in the "threshold" to low "light" recommended dosage range (many websites provide this) in withdrawals.
When you don't need it anymore, throw it away or give it to a friend.
You clearly have little self-control, dude. Probably should start with 200 mg, then reduce by 10 mg each day.
Just a common sense approximation. For real medical advice, ask a doctor.
--brominated.
Use small doses, SMALL, as in for a beginner, to help with withdrawals. I'm sure phenibut is a GABAB agonist, no? (also a α2δ Subunit VDCC blocker, like pregabalin) Can't it cause seizures in withdrawal?
How long have you been dealing with this? Try to use fluorophenibut (it acts faster) in the "threshold" to low "light" recommended dosage range (many websites provide this) in withdrawals.
When you don't need it anymore, throw it away or give it to a friend.
You clearly have little self-control, dude. Probably should start with 200 mg, then reduce by 10 mg each day.
Just a common sense approximation. For real medical advice, ask a doctor.
--brominated.
Vastness
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2006
- Messages
- 2,306
^ I have done a little more research and subsequently edited my post because I am now a little less sure about the seizure risk and I wouldn't want my advice to endanger anyone.
I couldn't actually find any reported incidences of someone actually experiencing a seizure in withdrawal from even very high dose Phenibut, but tremors, agitation, and the typical GABA withdrawal and potentially pre-seizure/high excitation symptoms are there, so the fact that it hasn't been reported probably doesn't mean it can't happen. Athough I would still say the risk is likely fairly low, my opinion is not a professional one. The most severe withdrawal symptoms I could find were someone experiencing mild visual and auditory hallucinations for about a week after cold turkeying off 2 months of around 20 grams a day... this seems like a pretty balanced summary of the likely effects.
It did also state there that the long term and PAWS effects can last up to 6 months in some cases, although this would be an extreme end. The GABA system is characteristically slow to recover and Phenibut I guess is no exception... These symptoms are probably mitigated somewhat with a slow taper, but unfortunately OP because of your extreme dosing I would say the physical risks of any continued dosing probably outweigh the risks of a longer withdrawal at this stage. I would second the suggestion that Fluorophenibut may be helpful in allowing you to taper with perhaps reduced physical risk, but that said Fluorophenibut is so new that the risks are basically entirely unknown so be extremely careful not to just end up convincing yourself that you can continue abusing Fluorophenibut instead.
I couldn't actually find any reported incidences of someone actually experiencing a seizure in withdrawal from even very high dose Phenibut, but tremors, agitation, and the typical GABA withdrawal and potentially pre-seizure/high excitation symptoms are there, so the fact that it hasn't been reported probably doesn't mean it can't happen. Athough I would still say the risk is likely fairly low, my opinion is not a professional one. The most severe withdrawal symptoms I could find were someone experiencing mild visual and auditory hallucinations for about a week after cold turkeying off 2 months of around 20 grams a day... this seems like a pretty balanced summary of the likely effects.
It did also state there that the long term and PAWS effects can last up to 6 months in some cases, although this would be an extreme end. The GABA system is characteristically slow to recover and Phenibut I guess is no exception... These symptoms are probably mitigated somewhat with a slow taper, but unfortunately OP because of your extreme dosing I would say the physical risks of any continued dosing probably outweigh the risks of a longer withdrawal at this stage. I would second the suggestion that Fluorophenibut may be helpful in allowing you to taper with perhaps reduced physical risk, but that said Fluorophenibut is so new that the risks are basically entirely unknown so be extremely careful not to just end up convincing yourself that you can continue abusing Fluorophenibut instead.
Phenibut can (and must) be tapered. The whole process can be quite painless.
In your case I would put 60 grams in a one liter bottle. Everyday, shake the bottle, put 100ml in glass, drink it and fill the bottle with tapwater.
Repeat this untill you can no longer taste the phenibut.
This way you taper 10% a day, which is, in my experience, quite doable.
Much luck,
Vazkor
In your case I would put 60 grams in a one liter bottle. Everyday, shake the bottle, put 100ml in glass, drink it and fill the bottle with tapwater.
Repeat this untill you can no longer taste the phenibut.
This way you taper 10% a day, which is, in my experience, quite doable.
Much luck,
Vazkor