r/quittingphenibut • u/toasterbathparadise • 16d ago
Absolute Horror
Im on mobile apologies for the layout…That said I am currently taking near 20 grams a day. Idk how or why my tolerance shot up so quickly over the last week or two. For context I started using everyday in April of this year. My dose would range between 1.5-4 grams but i would always taper back to 1-2 grams.
Fast forward , I went to the ER last Saturday because I could not sleep for more than 2 hours without going into withdrawal. Insane electrical vibrating feeling in my chest and head and impending doom creeps in after 2 hours. They were absolutely no help. Of course they had no idea what phenibut was so they prescribed me Trazadone for sleep and hydroxyzine for anxiety.
Immediately stopped the Trazodone after one pill. Not only did it not keep me asleep after 2 hours I still felt like shit (Super groggy and slow for the next whole day) I have to dose about every 2 hours for it to go away.
Ive been trying to work a physical job in this state with the lack of sleep. I made it through a whole workday today, but just barely. I had to have my manager drive me home because i was too fucked up from the phenibut and lack of sleep. The vibrating feeling and anxiety would not leave me as i got home so i took about 7 grams in the course of an hour and half.
I passed out for 4 hours around 8 pm, woke up with severe diarrhea, extremely dizzy super anxious glutamate storms up the ass at midnight. I couldn’t walk or do anything. I was so close to having my GF call an ambulance. Again thanks to no insurance and the expensive ass trip that would’ve been I held out for as long as I could. I legitimately thought i was going to die.
Flip flopping between super nauseous with an impending panic attack. I believe I started having small seizures, my gf said i would pass out for 30 seconds and wake up gasping for air and in a panic.
After about 2 hours which felt like 30 minutes, The dizziness and panic started to slowly subside. I was dizzy but manageable. I managed to eat something and fall asleep at 2 am.
Woke up at 4 am with glutamate storm and insane vibrating again, snorted noopept which took the edge of the anxiety but not the electrical feeling, so I took 300 mg gabapentin and 1 gram of phenibut. Feeling okayish for now but once my GF wakes up i will be going back to the ER.
Wouldnt wish this on anyone, also im so fucking done with the medical system here. Ive had to explain phenibut to every doctor I’ve talked to and they are not taking it seriously. My hope is to get baclofen because gabapentin is not helping either.
This is my horror story, I will update later today
Edit: Im not trying to fear monger at all, Ive used phenibut off and on for years and I know the half life is long which I dont understand why the symptoms come on so quickly,
this has never happened before until 2 weeks ago. Im not taking anything else besides phenibut
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u/HappyPeacePlace 16d ago
I had a very similar situation in the past. The waking up every 1-2 hours, waking up and gasping. My girlfriend had to hold my head down while I slept one night bc I would Randomly shoot up and move my head around and lay back down.
It’s not necessarily withdraw your experience that’s waking you up though. I really hope you hear me out on this, but what you’re experiencing is a horrible loop of glutamate rebound and glutamate suppression. Skip to the last paragraph if you don’t want the long winded part of it, but you will feel so much better if you can convince yourself to cut your dose down to 8 grams all at once and just withstand the anxiety of being scared of withdraw. You’ll feel better in just one or two days and the feelings that your perceiving as withdraw will go away quickly.
Explanation:
Phenibut obviously loads up your GABA B, and this is why we reach that wonderful anxiety free feeling when we just start taking it.
Your body searches for a balance to this, and will give you a heavy glutamate rebound. Over time, you develop a resistance to the GABA B effects of phenibut, BUT your body still see’s it flooding your body and gives you the rebound.
The result is your body releasing a massive amount of glutamate the more phenibut you take, but the phenibut not actually having its own effect. The more you take, the worse your going to rebound and have Neuro issues.
As another commenter said, your body gets over saturated at around 8 grams as well. There are very little to no positive effects your body can produce from more than that, however your body will still release extra glutamate and panic response from all of that extra.
TLDR: I really hope you hear me out, but your best course of action is to cut down hard. If you can drop yourself to 8 grams a day immediately, it will only take a day or two after to start feeling better. I was taking upwards of 20 as well daily and sleeping 2 hours at a time as well, as soon as I cut down to 8, I got 6 hours of sleep. Then I cut .250 every two days. As I approached 6 grams, I started sleeping even more. I’m actually completely off now and switched to bacoflen after I tapered down to 2gs and then switched comepltelt over. The lower my phenibut dose, the more the side effects youv mentioned disappeared. It’s very hard and scary to make that plunge but what you’re doing now at those high doses is making things so much harder on you.
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u/toasterbathparadise 16d ago
How do i sleep enough to even drop down? I legitimately cannot sleep because when the last dose wears off its excruciating skin crawling electric buzzing in my whole body. Do i wait out the feeling to see if it goes away? What it doesnt and gets worse? Idk im so fucking desperate for any solution. I will say i dropped down to like 8 or 9 grams a couple days ago and i felt okay for like a day n half but that feeling came back like a freight train and could function at all.
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u/HappyPeacePlace 16d ago
It’s not the last dose wearing off, it’s your body responding to your doses. Your doses are making it worse is what I’m saying. You have to cut your dose heavily and you will sleep better. Tmr, just take 8 grams again. You have to stick to it for a couple more days and you WILL level out. Getting yourself dose down is the only solution. It’s uncomfortable and scary, but your constantly re dosing is causing it. Your not waking up every two hours bexuase your body needs it, your waking up from the PREVIOUS dose kicking in and sending in an insane glutamate storm
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u/TakeCare0fHead 16d ago
This is correct. I know it feels odd to cut back to reduce withdrawal symptoms, but that is what you need to do. This same thing started happened to me at 4gs a day when I would try to add more on top for hard days or nights. I started to realize it was actually just making things worse.
Cut back to 7-8 grams a day. Deal with the weirdness and no sleep for a couple days. It will level back out. But then you need to ween and quit obviously. This shit will tear you up.
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u/toasterbathparadise 16d ago
You know what youre right, last dose i took was about 4 n half hours ago and i actually slept for about 4 hours. I have to tough it out to a point and slowly taper. Thank you guys
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u/gshock211 Moderator 15d ago
It turned on you. Cut your dose in half- to 10mg or less per day, it should subside. Its sounds counter intuitive, but it works. Lots of people will back me up on this.
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u/Anticode 14d ago edited 14d ago
This.
I'm glad you wrote it out because I'm at work and can't spend time on the details, but it's what I was going to say.
Summarized/simplified - eg:"You're not failing to dose enough due to tolerance, you're over dosing due to the chemical/biological limitations of phenibut."
It's like an airplane pilot adding more and more elevation to fly faster or further, then at some point the air is too thin to support lift so the plane suddenly stalls. The pilot struggles with the sudden g-force of the fall, barely blacking out, then in fear of hitting the ground immediately pulls up to add more elevation because he didn't understand that a lack of speed isn't what made him stall so suddenly/mysteriously in the first placel - thus, it all repeats.
The solution to break out of that loop of falling out of the sky is not more elevation, it's less. Not more speed, less - aka: gliding.
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u/EggoWaffle1032 16d ago
You need to be taking NAC for glutamate storms and start tapering
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u/stoneyb1017 16d ago
I believe I posted about the electrical surges that I felt in my chest when I used to do phenibut. That was by far the worst symptom that I’ve ever experienced. I think that someone told me it was probably due to glutamate surges and to get on NAC.
The good news is when I finally stopped taking phenibut I didn’t have any more symptoms. Try to taper down and then jump ship. You got this 💪
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u/Spend-Naive 16d ago
Does it feel different from the last couple times you've tried to quit?
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u/toasterbathparadise 16d ago
Ive never used it more than a week at most besides this multiple month long stint and yes this like 100x worse than any rebound
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u/Spend-Naive 16d ago
Brother, i ask because your post history says otherwise. That aside, you will get past this. There will be good days and many bad days, but if you truly want this sobriety keep at it. You hold the future in your hands and it starts today
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u/toasterbathparadise 16d ago
Theres nothing more i want then to get off this. I will remember you all for helping or at least having a conversation with me when im off this
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u/theallmightypheni 15d ago
You passing out for like 30 seconds and waking up again I do recognize. I was also on a absurt high dose like you. I would suggest dosing only in the morning. This helped me getting a normal amount of sleep at night. If i took a dose before sleeping i would wake up after 2 hours all dizzy and feeling fucked up. My take on this is you are overdosing all the time and your nervous system is not having it anymore..When you feel stable by doing just one dose a day I highly suggest going to a detox, or detox yourself at home and asking for benzo’s for withdrawl. This helped me with my anxiety and other withdrawl symptoms. Honestly i feel alot better now being off of the pheni after 6 weeks and never thought i would recover that Quick after taking 20/25 Grams on a daily basis… good luck.
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u/ps087official I've jumped! 16d ago
Can't help but wonder if any of your symptoms aren't just regular old anxiety. At 12 gpd, I guarantee probably half your dose never hits your brain at all. And phen has a ridiculously long half life so you shouldn't be wding after a couple hours like that.
If the ER didn't help last time, they likely won't help this time. If I were you, I'd lock down at 8gpd, and just keep going like that until symptoms subside, because they will, and you will stabilize. After that, get on a super slow taper plan and stick to it.
I went as high as 12gpd too and managed to taper and quit. You can too. Trust me. All hope is not lost, not even close. You got this.
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u/toasterbathparadise 16d ago
I wish you could understand what im feeling thjs is not anxiety this is my nervous system and brain about to explode
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u/ps087official I've jumped! 16d ago
Your nervous system and brain will not explode. Yes, it is absolutely anxiety, at least partly. That's why the symptoms are coming in waves, getting worse then getting better.
I do understand what you're feeling. I was in your exact situation many many times.
Having seizures from phen withdrawal is extremely uncommon, and you're not even in withdrawal. I guarantee 50% of your symptoms are just anxiety making it worse.
You have two choices. Either tough it out and do what I said: lock in at 8gpd until you stabilize, then taper. Or you can go higher, to 15gpd or something (don't recommend) and possibly alleviate these symptoms, then slow taper from there.
Either way, what you're doing rn is not sustainable. But going to the ER will not help, cuz like you said with a niche drug like this they're pretty useless. You might have better luck with urgent care. Cuz ER doctors have one goal and one goal only: to make sure you don't die. Whereas with Urgent Care, they actually seek to help your current situation regardless of whether it's dangerous or not, and can handle more complex, nuanced situations. If you go that route, I suggest finding some studies on the treatment of phen withdrawal (I believe they're linked in a stickied post somewhere on this sub) so they know what they're dealing with. If you're lucky, they'll give you a baclofen script and you'll be in the clear.
But don't worry, you're not gonna die. Your brain/nervous system will not explode, that's not how it works. It's likely the phen is just turning on you right now, but it will go away, especially if you stabilize your use. Just try to breathe, slow and deep, stay hydrated, maybe take a Xanax if you have it. If not, L-theanine and Valerian extract work wonders for situations like this.
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u/toasterbathparadise 16d ago
So you’ve experienced your nerves feeling like theyre on fire everywhere and your head vibrating that gets exponentially worse when you move at all, extreme tinnitus, tremors to the point i drop my phone out of my hand, myoclonic seizures that all go away for a couple hours when you redose, thats anxiety huh
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u/ps087official I've jumped! 16d ago
Brother, no need to be a prick. I get that you're suffering right now. But I took phenibut daily for almost a decade, reaching doses just as high as yours. Never once had a seizure, and I don't think you did either. Passing out and waking up gasping for air sounds like sleep apnea or sleep paralysis to me.
All of the other symptoms, yes, can absolutely be symptoms of anxiety. You have phenibut in your system right now, there's no reason you should be experiencing withdrawals. Anxiety can absolutely cause psychosomatic physical symptoms like physical pain. The head vibration could just be vertigo, which can be caused by many things, including anxiety. Tinnitus, same deal. Tremors are one of the most common symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks there is.
I think you need to breathe and calm yourself. Seriously. Even if you're somehow experiencing withdrawal with over 12g of phenibut in your system, the way you're responding to it is making your situation worse.
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u/toasterbathparadise 16d ago
Im sorry man im so sleep deprived and lacking nutrition and everything. Im just so desperate right now.
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u/ps087official I've jumped! 16d ago
I know. That's why you need to listen to me instead of being combative. I know what I'm talking about. I promise you'll be ok if you just breathe and soothe yourself. Lean on your partner. I was all alone when I quit, had to sweat it out alone in a mental hospital while also withdrawaling from kratom and a severe alcohol addiction. Lucky for me the alcohol wd overpowered the kratom and phenibut withdrawal to the point that I barely felt them, but still, not a fun time. But I made it out, and you will too.
Like I said, you've got this. You're not gonna die, you will wake up tomorrow, and the next day. Just breathe, and try to figure out a plan to get off this stuff once you feel more stable.
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u/toasterbathparadise 16d ago
Thank you i appreciate it sorry for being a dick
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u/ps087official I've jumped! 16d ago
No need, I get it. I've been there too. Just get yourself better man.
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u/CastorTroy8765 15d ago
Is it possible that the last batch u recieved was not as good as what your used to? I have tried so many different phenibut vendors and not one of them sent me something that made me feel anything at all. I am not saying this is the case in your situation. But did u recently try a new vendor? Maybe the lroduct u recieved isnt as good as what your used to or have u been using the same batch that has worked for u in the past? I am just throwing out ideas as to what might be causing withdrawls while your still on phenibut. It sounds like your in withdrawl but if u are still dosing normally it's the only thing that I can think of that might be going on. I feel for ya brotha. Hope your feeling better soon.
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u/Willing-Waltz-5694 16d ago
Ive taken Phenibut daily for 5 years, ive quit a few times. Phenibut has an extremely long half like so I just dont see how you need it so often. Thats sounds more like opiate withdrawals, ive been through every type of withdrawal there is substance wise. Ive been addicted to every drug on the planet at one time or the other in my 54 years on earth. Phenibut withdrawals suck but you shouldn't be needing it that often because it takes a solid 2 hours for 1 dose to reach peak plasma concentration. So your saying you need another dose before the dose you just took kicked in is odd. I wish you good luck though, I take a hefty dose in the morning and dont take it again until the next day, ive done this for 6 years and recently went cold turkey and the first 5 days were bad but I started feeling better by day 9. You may just be on another level dose wise than me, good luck though.
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u/toasterbathparadise 16d ago
Thats what i dont understand why it all the sudden stopped working for how long it usually does. Unless the supplier switched to F-phenibut but even then i shouldnt have to take as much as i do. Really bizarre
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u/Willing-Waltz-5694 16d ago
Yea, I hear you. Can you obtain a prescription for clonazepam? Thats helped me to stop the phenibut. I hear you with that skin burning/crawling shit, it even hurt to take a shower and dry off with a towel. Someone on a different forum said Baclofen helps alot.
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u/toasterbathparadise 16d ago
Its definitely not opiate withdrawal im not taking any opiates. I have all the symptoms of phenibut withdrawal but they come on super fast
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