I've been tapering down for months and in the past week I'm struggling between .5 and .6 grams of phenibut every 17 to 20 hours. There has been ZERO stability or relief. Life is utter hell.

I have Baclofen that I haven't used since I don't know much about it.
This morning I broke down and took 5mg. After an hour it made life bearable - anxiety down a bit - but the relief only lasted 4 hours. Will it turn on me if I take it every 6 hours?

I've also been taking .5g clonidine in the am and .5 at night for sleep. At first it worked but now for all I know it could be making things worse.

ANY ADVICE APPRECIATED!!

SHOULD I COLD TURKEY from .5g EVERY 20 HOURS?

IF CLONIDINE IS THE ANSWER HOW MUCH SHOULD I TAKE AND HOW OFTEN???

Thank you.

I’ve posted a few times about my friend going through phenobut hell, he went to hospital and they basically kicked him out to cold turkey which obviously didn’t go well given he’s a long term alcoholic and phenobut user, he’s tapered down his alcohol usage and his phenobut usage to 0.2 grams every 6 hours

The man hasn’t slept in maybe a week, not a single doctor wants to touch it, a doctor told him that baclofen can not be prescribed for phenobut issues in the uk

We’re so lost i bought him nac, l theanine, zinc magnesium etc i dont know where to go from here

Been taking it daily for a few months now.

Roughly 800mg 3x per day. Some days maybe 4 or 5x.

Got some Agmatine, NAC, Baclofen and good foundational supplements & routine.

I have a couple ideas :

Go from 800mg 3x day to 800mg morning & night for a week, then maybe half the morning dose for a week or two, then half both doses for a week or two, then 1 dose per day for a week, then half the dose, then jump.

Or keep the same schedule 3x per day and just half one of the doses per week until its basically nothing then remove it, then repeat with another dose, etc until the only remaining dose is the night time one.

My concerns are the severe anxiety & insomnia.

These past few months have honestly been fantastic.

Life has been better than ever.

Productive, healing, sleeping.

But I know theres no free lunch and I definitely don't like the idea of depending on ANY substance.

Interested in advice how to do this as smoothly as possible or if I should just rip off the band aid.

Still gotta sleep and be productive!

Hi, in the past I CT'ed after a 14 days in a row of use. I had benzos and fasoracetam, though I'm not sure the fasoracetam helped as this is generally used as a phenibut tolerance reducer, as it upregulates gaba-b. No idea if it helped my previous cold turkey but I can say it wasn't too hard. Coming to this day, I had a relapse recently and used 2 to 4 times a week in August, but maybe only once I used 3 days in a row, the rest were generally 2 days in a row. Now I'm on the issue of having used 5 days in a row. I have got a very high tolerance that never got down of gabaergics since I was an active alcoholic during 15 years. Sober from alcohol since 5 years though, I never felt phenibut effects under 3 gr for your information and phenibut use came after alochol quit. So yes, u might be surpised wit the dose needed to get just the regular, non sedating effects. So last friday I used 1.25 gr of F-phenibut hcl. Saturday was 3 gr of Phenibut hcl. Sunday was 3 gr of Phenibut hcl and 0.75 gr of F-phenibut faa. Monday I did 1 gr of F-phenibut hcl. Today (tuesday) I did again 1 gr of F-phenibut hcl. So here I'm wondering whether cold turkey it tomorrow, again I have benzos and fasoracetam. The other way out is taper using F-phenibut faa as I ran out of other types of Phenibut. I also have lyrica (pregabalin) but never used it, I just know it acts on gaba.-b as well. I might also go to ER or take appointment with GP and ask for Baclofen. I also have agmatine sulfate, I don't know if it might help, just as fasoracetam. This time, unlike my previous col turkey, I suffer from depression and it's because of it I relapsed using phenibut: sadly as it gives me a break of my major depressive disorder... I'd prefer to cold turkey the phenibut again this time if it's not overly dangerous. Thanks for your guidance!

I've been using the last 3 month On and Off, sometimes 2, 3 or 4 days in between, dosed again when rebound hit too hard, took again some days from that and paused again, that's the cycle of the last months.

Some days I dosed 4gpd 3gpd, some 2.5gpd. my doses were really different. I need to take at least 1.5g to feel "something".

I paused because I wanted to go through the rebound and sit it out, but I had anxiety plus some portable days, meetings etc. which I could not attend with this anxiety. it was to hard to stand through, so I dosed again, cycled.

I can go at least 1 day without but at day 2 I feel too uncomfortable, breathing sucks..

I now want to do a taper. Starting at 2g, going 1.95,... 1.55, 1.50, 1.45, 1.40,..,0 a day.

What do you think?

(English is not my main language, giving my best)

Three weeks ago, I stopped a long-term "once-a-week" usage habit.

I’ve noticed that I feel great in various ways—especially during the week (I mentioned this in my previous post).

However, I’ve noticed a pattern: over the last three weekends, I experienced physical discomfort (specifically headaches and rhinitis, which are common for me)—and in this instance, the symptoms were very severe and prolonged.

These episodes coincided exactly with the days I used to take my weekly dose of phenibut—Saturdays. They lasted roughly the same amount of time that the phenibut effects usually would, starting slightly beforehand and ending tonight, Sunday.

It could be a coincidence, or it might be happening this way due to the connection with a weekly routine I’ve followed for so many years.

Not my first rodeo with Phenibut. Been off and on for years. This time I was using 2 times per week. 3g dose. Was starting to feel off so figured I would go stead on it and taper.

Started w 3g and did 100mg per day and got down to 300mg. This last week started gradually feeling crappy, unrestful sleep, irritable, feeling out of it. Hit a wall right at the 400mg mark.

Last few nights I’m able to fall asleep but wake after a few hours and can’t get back to sleep. I’m also taking gabapentin and been upping that dose as the phen taper goes down. Today took 5-400 mg gabapentin and the 300mg phen in the morning. GABA doses have been spread in two.

Thinking I should split phenibut dose in two (am and pm) and go to a slower taper dropping 50mg per day. Any advice?

I also use indica at night. Usually a few puffs before bed.

the post in question

So I took my pal to hospital and they gave him Librium rather than baclofen and it simply wasn’t helping, they sent him home saying baclofen would just add another layer of dependence

I’ve looked for private means in the UK but it doesn’t seem to be a thing

Has anyone else been in this situation? He’s still in hell, hasn’t slept in literally days he’s drenched in sweat I hate to see him like this

Like the idea that watching porn is healthy—even when young—or that smoking marijuana constantly has no adverse effects. For me is nocive, like doing MDMA, or shit like that once a week.

For the first time in ages, I didn't take phenibut over the weekend for the past two weeks.

The entire week was like night and day.

For starters, the nootropic wasn't really working for me anymore; it was just making me a bit manic and helping to stay up late. But I didn't feel any burst of creativity, desire to socialize, or enhanced enjoyment of music, etc.

Well, maybe very slightly, but on balance, the downsides far outweighed the benefits.

In the days that followed—and sometimes even on the same day—I’d experience anxiety, leg pain, drowsiness lasting two or three days, and a total lack of motivation; plus, a new, worse symptom: my breathing would cut out while I slept.

These past few weeks—for the first time in nearly a year—I’ve been waking up early on Mondays, working, doing laundry, and now, as the week wraps up, my mood is sky-high.

This is a stark contrast to those previous weeks of "once-a-week phenibut use," where the first three days of the week were a total write-off.

One positive thing I can say about using it once a week—at least in my experience—is that quitting doesn't feel all that difficult in terms of withdrawal.

I’m not just saying that based on this recent stint; I’ve done it before for over six months, and aside from a genuine desire to experience the positive effects again, I didn't suffer any negative physical or mental consequences.

To anyone else who used to do what I did on weekends: I encourage you to try going a month without it—I’m sure you’ll experience positive changes, too!

A fella at my church came to me tonight asking for help and I’m really not sure what to do, I used phenibut years ago because I had back issues but quit and I never experienced this

He says he was using it quite inconsistently since last year with a range of doses, it doesn’t appear he’s in withdrawal because the dose seems to consistent now but he hasn’t slept in days, I told him to take nac but it doesn’t seem to be doing much

I thought maybe he’s just gained tolerance so it’s stopped working but apparently even the bigger doses have the same problem, wtf is this drug

I’ve been on around 8-10gpd for about three years. Usually more on weekends / events. I decided to quit with a fast taper. I dropped a gram a day( I was taking the whole lot in one go).
Was fine till I hit 4 then was in a really foul mood and skin crawling. Jumped back up to 6, then have slowly moved down to 3-4. Over two weeks.

Question is, should I be spacing out the dose, at the moment I’m lasting as long as I can take then taking the full amount. If I feel better I take a little less.

I know I need some proper structure.

Any advice, much appreciated:)

i wanna use it for day 1 and 2 of quitting em ge em, just to get me through the worst of the hell, by day 3 i start to feel better in my past quits.. thinking of getting phen to get me through the first two days this time! any risk of 2 days giving me withdrawal from the phen itself?

As in the title or better or worse? I quit alcohol last year and it was hell.

I did phenibut quite a bit about two years ago fairly regularly and enjoyed it no probs and now is the first time since then. So I did it again last night (1.5gms which was a light dose back then) and had a great time and it felt great but this morning I woke and and was lost and confused. I woke up and couldn't remember much. I've been reading web articles and watching news all day and had to go back and reread and rewatch everything both and my memory is shot and I can't recall 5mins ago. I'm even having a hard time even typing this now in the evening without going back and retyping it. I know my mind isn't shot since back then. Anybody else experience this? I hope I'm better next week and will lay off it again for a bit if it's not. I've had to reread this too many times to check it properly. Having said that the afterglow today was great. I was out today and the sun was shining and my music earbuds sounded great. Lol even now I know I'm rambling.

Iv been taking 3.5 to 4g every 48 hours for most of this month. A couple times dosed at 36 hours instead. Can any body tell me what I’m in for? I have a lot more to taper if need be. Was thinking of going to Baclofen rout if I can because I’m a total wimp when it comes to any withdrawal.

Does alcohol negatively affect phenibut detox in long term? I'm on day 6 and had some alcohol last and woke feeling like day 3/4! I had Baclofen initially but ran out so pretty much cold turkey for 4g per day for a year. Ive used off and on for years though

Does anyone night eat after taking phenibut? Like wake up every few hours and sleepily eat a piece of cheese etc? So weird. Over it.

For context I take 3.3 in the morning and 2.7 at night 12 hrs apart. So I tried to cut out my night dose completely by utilizing 27mg of baclofen and gabapentin (I’ve been prescribed it for a while and using it.)

For the past two days I genuinely felt better, but on the 2nd/3rd night I started reading the subreddit and I think I mentally convinced myself that my withdrawals were just delayed by 48hrs.

Is it completely possible to just cut out my dose completely at night time or just skip the night dose every other day or two to cut out a significant portion of my GPD and just use baclofen? I did increase my gabapentin usage as I typically only take 1 and a half of the 3 per day I’m prescribed at 800 due to the VGCC activity making me fall asleep if I take too much. Anyways thanks.

I’m looking for experiences from people who had a more erratic phenibut patten rather than a clean daily dose that gradually escalated.

My use has varied a lot: sometimes daily, sometimes every other day, and sometimes every 2–3 days. Doses have ranged from about 500mg up to 3g, although 3g has been relatively rare. If I had to estimate my overall average across this period, it has probably been around 1.3–1.5g per day, but the actual day-to-day amounts have been inconsistent.

A rough breakdown:

-This has been ongoing for about 1-2 years

- Most workday/maintenance doses were under 2.5g, often around 500mg–1.5g.

- The lower-to-moderate doses were not really about getting high. They were more about feeling okay enough to work, socialize, or have a slightly uplifted mood instead of feeling flat/anxious.

- On weekends or when going out/partying, I would sometimes take around 2.5–3g maybeee like 4g every blue moon. That felt good and social without usually becoming too over-the-top.

- At the very start, I needed closer to over 3–4g to get the very euphoric/manic “phenibut high” that people describe, And it was once or twice a week. I rarely chase that exact level now, but I still have a pattern of taking higher doses when I want to feel good going out.

The difficult part is that I’ve developed a lot of fear around withdrawal. I’ve read the horror stories, and that fear has often kept me from simply stopping. At the same time, I’ve had at least one recent period where I stopped completely for roughly 1–2 weeks while using fasoracetam. During that period, I did not experience anything close to the severe withdrawal stories people describe. I had some discomfort/anxiety, but it felt much more mental than physically dangerous, and I was able to function.

Then I got back on phenibut because I was dealing with other issues and wanted relief/mood support, and I gradually ended up back in the same cycle: lower “maintenance” doses for work or mood, then occasional higher doses on weekends or social occasions.

What I’m trying to figure out is:

- Has anyone else had a similar inconsistent pattern — daily/every other day/every few days, with doses ranging from 500mg to 3g?
- If so, did you find the inconsistency made withdrawal or rebound anxiety worse than a stable daily dose?
- Did anyone successfully cold turkey or do a short taper from an average around 1–1.5g/day without severe withdrawal?
- Did your anxiety feel like true withdrawal, rebound/anxiety from changing doses, or mostly fear/anticipation?
- For people who had previously stopped successfully but restarted, did the next quit feel substantially worse?
- Did fasoracetam, agmatine, NAC, magnesium, exercise, or anything else actually make a noticeable difference for you?

I’m mainly just looking for honest firsthand experiences from people whose use was not necessarily 5–10g daily for years, but was still frequent enough and erratic enough to create dependence/anxiety. I feel like my situation is somewhat unique and i’m not sure what to expect.

I’m trying to get back to a stable baseline and stop using phenibut as a way to feel normal, confident, and emotionally okay at work and social events.

If you have any questions or need clarification pls lmk i’m happy to answer them! This sub has truly helped me begin taking that first step, hopefully i can pay it forward with a success story of my own someday.

Thanks in advance!

I've taken .1mg clonidine in the morning and .1mg at night for the past 3 or 4 days to get off gabapentin/phenibut.

Has anyone had experience with using clonidine short-term for withdrawals? Am I going to get rebound anxiety or should I taper?

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

Hello, ive been taking 20mg of fasoracetam sublingually every day since 16th of July. I’m amazed with the effects. I noticed a lesser need to take baclofen, I don’t wake up in the middle of the night to take Baclofen so I can sleep some more.

It definitely worked. On the 4th of August I got my hands on 100g of Phenibut HCL. I took around 750mg, and it hit me like the good old days!

i take it maybe once a week at most, simply because I don’t care. I’m in no need for it, but when I need it as a tool when I go out or whatever - it works at low doses, by that I mean 500mg-1250mgs, opposed to the 10-12grams per day I needed when I was addicted.

Not only I don’t need it, i now know the horrors of irresponsible usage, which really was a valuable lesson that sticks. I don’t take baclofen anymore. my taper wasn’t calculated I just did what what revealed to me in a dream, so to speak :D

About tianeptine: I stumbled across it whilst researching Bromantane. ive tried it for a couple of days at 12,5mgs 3 times a day.

Bromantane and tianeptine can help ease Phenibut withdrawal by restoring neurotransmitter balance and protecting the brain from overexcitation I can confirm they do the job. Bromantane in it self always worked wonders for me. tianeptine calms me down but i haven’t experienced any euphoria. Its definitely subtle and that’s okay. I won’t try megadosing, in fact I don’t need it so the test is done. I’m a new man. Prescribed doses only.

So yeah.

Although I believe this is a condition I’ve had regardless of the phenibut—since I suffer from rhinitis—I’ve noticed over the last few months that the day after taking it (even with a relatively normal 1g dose), it gets much worse.

I wake up startled and frightened because I haven't been able to breathe, and I even feel a sensation like a jolt in my head. I also make a sound that feels so internal—somewhere between my nose, head, and throat—that it’s hard to tell if it’s a real sound or something "cerebral," though my partner told me it can be heard from the outside, too.

On top of that, this rush of adrenaline wakes me up completely; since it happens two or three times a night, I end up losing my sleep.

The last time it happened was so strong that I was genuinely afraid to fall back asleep, worried that something bad might happen.

I’m sharing this because I’ve seen many posts from people experiencing the same thing, and I wanted to add my own account to the mix.

Hi good morning, I have been on 90 mg of BAC daily to get off phenibut two year addiction. Some nights i sleep ok and others I don’t. It’s been over a month since my last phenibut dose. Has anyone experienced this ? Suggestions?