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[Xenthide]

I first discovered Phenibut probably 6 months ago now, and my experience was similar to that of many others. As someone who has suffered from anxiety in the past, and even intermittently to this day it naturally seemed like this potent anxiolytic compound with apparently zero negative side effects seemed amazing. However I have gradually come to realise that Phenibut has some deceptively creeping downsides that become more and more apparent with continued use.

 

I have never experienced acute withdrawal from Phenibut as I have always been quite careful, the most I have ever used in a row was 4 days (this was a rarity), and never over 2.5g in a day, usually between 1 and 1.5g.

 

Since the start of the year, my use has probably averaged about twice a week, up 3 times from February-ish, usually between 1 and 1.5 g a day again.

 

While this usage does not seem particularly excessive to me, I have come to realise that Phenibut surely must be the cause of some creeping negative effects on my outlook, mood and overall motivation.

 

 

Amongst some concrete things I can put my finger on, I have struggled to get up early for most of the year (I was an early riser last year, and felt much better and more productive for it). I have struggled to motivate myself to continue the various sports and fitness type activities that I was pretty dedicated to last year. On the contrary, I have found it a real struggle to motivate myself to leave the house on some days, and the thought of going to a gym and interacting with people has given rise to irritation and avoidance type thought patterns. I have become less interested in social activities, preferring to just work on my various projects alone.

 

This has been a very gradual thing, and I feel the onset was somewhat masked by a period in December where I was very busy with work and simply didn't have time to do much else. I have been aware however that I have not felt quite myself since the start of the year, but attributed it to some sort of emotional hangover from a relatively high-stress month or so. I have recently concluded that it is almost definitely Phenibut that is to blame, although I was somewhat blind-sided by this because as mentioned I have not experienced any acute withdrawal symptoms.

 

I have now not used it for about a week and at the moment I don't plan to use it again. During this week I have also allowed myself to basically take some time off from my usual pastimes to reassess things, instead of going through a weird period of irritated anxiety during the buildup to having to do something and then a mix of relief and guilt when I make an excuse not to do it. Over the last few days I have been fairly liberal with use of some other more familiar noots of dubious effectiveness (Piracetam, Aniracetam) and known stimulants (Caffeine, Phenylpiracetam) to blast through the last dregs of this weird creeping and antisocial malaise. I feel pretty good about this realisation and decision.

 

 

If you'll excuse this bloggish type introduction, I actually do have a few questions I would like to start some discussion about.

 

• What exactly is going on that causes the long subjective duration of Phenibut's effects? Wikipedia states that it's half-life is only 5.3 hours, yet there seems unequivocally to be something going on beyond that.
   
• From a neurological standpoint, what is going on with this creeping apathy? I have considered that this might not be unique to Phenibut, and is possibly something that could be experienced with other GABA agonists like alcohol, except in that case, there would be a physical accompaniment to the mental feelings.
   
• What is going on, neurochemically, in the brains of people who use this drug daily, sometimes for years, in huge doses? Floating around reddit and other places there is at least one report of someone using up to 10g/day for 5 years... their self-reported experience is that it has enriched their life, and if this is the case it is hard to argue against their decision. However, is this sustainable, or is it inadvisable for any reason other than the fact that if they for some reason can't get access to their daily dose they may be in some danger?

 

 

I don't personally like the idea of being entirely dependant on any chemical, but I do accept that for some people self-medication like this may seem the only option for a normal life. That said, it was reports like this that made me think my own use could surely not be any issue at all, when I was starting to suspect the origin of my feelings of malaise but was still somewhat in denial about it.

[123apk]

I first discovered Phenibut probably 6 months ago now, and my experience was similar to that of many others. As someone who has suffered from anxiety in the past, and even intermittently to this day it naturally seemed like this potent anxiolytic compound with apparently zero negative side effects seemed amazing. However I have gradually come to realise that Phenibut has some deceptively creeping downsides that become more and more apparent with continued use.

I have never experienced acute withdrawal from Phenibut as I have always been quite careful, the most I have ever used in a row was 4 days (this was a rarity), and never over 2.5g in a day, usually between 1 and 1.5g.

Since the start of the year, my use has probably averaged about twice a week, up 3 times from February-ish, usually between 1 and 1.5 g a day again.

While this usage does not seem particularly excessive to me, I have come to realise that Phenibut surely must be the cause of some creeping negative effects on my outlook, mood and overall motivation.


Amongst some concrete things I can put my finger on, I have struggled to get up early for most of the year (I was an early riser last year, and felt much better and more productive for it). I have struggled to motivate myself to continue the various sports and fitness type activities that I was pretty dedicated to last year. On the contrary, I have found it a real struggle to motivate myself to leave the house on some days, and the thought of going to a gym and interacting with people has given rise to irritation and avoidance type thought patterns. I have become less interested in social activities, preferring to just work on my various projects alone.

This has been a very gradual thing, and I feel the onset was somewhat masked by a period in December where I was very busy with work and simply didn't have time to do much else. I have been aware however that I have not felt quite myself since the start of the year, but attributed it to some sort of emotional hangover from a relatively high-stress month or so. I have recently concluded that it is almost definitely Phenibut that is to blame, although I was somewhat blind-sided by this because as mentioned I have not experienced any acute withdrawal symptoms.

I have now not used it for about a week and at the moment I don't plan to use it again. During this week I have also allowed myself to basically take some time off from my usual pastimes to reassess things, instead of going through a weird period of irritated anxiety during the buildup to having to do something and then a mix of relief and guilt when I make an excuse not to do it. Over the last few days I have been fairly liberal with use of some other more familiar noots of dubious effectiveness (Piracetam, Aniracetam) and known stimulants (Caffeine, Phenylpiracetam) to blast through the last dregs of this weird creeping and antisocial malaise. I feel pretty good about this realisation and decision.


If you'll excuse this bloggish type introduction, I actually do have a few questions I would like to start some discussion about.

• What exactly is going on that causes the long subjective duration of Phenibut's effects? Wikipedia states that it's half-life is only 5.3 hours, yet there seems unequivocally to be something going on beyond that.
• From a neurological standpoint, what is going on with this creeping apathy? I have considered that this might not be unique to Phenibut, and is possibly something that could be experienced with other GABA agonists like alcohol, except in that case, there would be a physical accompaniment to the mental feelings.
• What is going on, neurochemically, in the brains of people who use this drug daily, sometimes for years, in huge doses? Floating around reddit and other places there is at least one report of someone using up to 10g/day for 5 years... their self-reported experience is that it has enriched their life, and if this is the case it is hard to argue against their decision. However, is this sustainable, or is it inadvisable for any reason other than the fact that if they for some reason can't get access to their daily dose they may be in some danger?

I don't personally like the idea of being entirely dependant on any chemical, but I do accept that for some people self-medication like this may seem the only option for a normal life. That said, it was reports like this that made me think my own use could surely not be any issue at all, when I was starting to suspect the origin of my feelings of malaise but was still somewhat in denial about it.

Hi.

I've used it for about a year and a half now at 1.5mg daily and can relate to what you say.
Long term effects for me have been -

Positive -

• Stable mood most of the time
• If I get ill like a cold or can feel it coming on it pass within a day and never fully develops. This has been shown on studies if you look up phenibut and immune system and insulin (it drops insulin).
• Seems to keep me fairly alert although not much anymore.
• Helps me not worry about certain things too much.
• I don't get bad hangovers from alcohol, when I do they're a mild headache and pass within 10 minutes of ingesting phenibut and having a coffee in the morning (this is also bad because it doesn't make you fear hangovers so I drink more than I should).
• Makes me feel physically stronger, like a strong central nervous system, but not nearly as much as it used to.

Negative -

• take it at 6 o'clock in the morning when I wake up and cannot eat until 9 or 10 or else it won't work properly.
• If I do eat if I eat too much sugary stuff then I'll get brain fog.
• Consequently starve till 10 o'clock each day (I have a quick breakfast on my break at work.
• It's more of a mood stabiliser than anything else so if I get in a bad mood I can be stuck in it all day.
• Now that it's anti anxiety and anti depressant effect have mostly worn off I get both and they seem stronger than before I started using it. (Tip - have a cup of tea with milk and sugar, leave it to stand properly and make it the proper English way and you'll find you'll feel a lot better, the theanine calms you down a lot. Don't take pure theanine though, it gave me the worst s**ts I had in my life, was like water for days, I even lost weight).
• It wears off much quicker and sharply now. I don't feel it much after dinner time and there's no after glow lasting the rest of the day like before. When it wears off I can feel very withdrawn, fatigued and even my skin looks very on bad days.
• When it wears off my social anxiety in public can be bad.
• It eats away at your enamel if you drink it so after a while I had to start putting it in caps (which is much better if you get a capsule machine, much less faffing about in a morning).


Personally I have some things I need to do over the next few months before I deal with coming off it but that's the ultimate aim.
The withdrawals haven't been too bad for me apart from the "skin crawling feeling" which is addressed with ibuprofen during the day and a shot or two of vodka in the evening for a few days. I generally go shy and meek when I withdraw but my mood overall goes more steady, I don't get that irritated anxiety which you speak of which I get now or the internal seething with rage and dwelling on minor things when someone does something that upsets me like I do now. My skin goes grey and withdrawn looking which is crap though. I usually just take some cold and flu drink (they're phenylephrine and paracetamol here) and tell people I think I'm coming down with something so they think it's a cold so people don't question my change of behaviour and bad look too much.

I'm not angry at phenibut or wish I'd never done it, it's helped me immensely but my own stupid lack of self control has made it lose its effect for me and brought about the negatives. But my time with it is basically over though.

High dose taurine works on odd occasions (like 7 grams) but only if you use it every so often. On 7 grams of taurine I didn't feel it but was so easy going when I was out in public nothing bothered me at all (which is rare). Downside is that it is a component of stomach bike though so I've had it before and had a meal hours later and found myself puking.

Anyone feel free to message me if you need advice about phenibut. And don't believe the withdrawal stories too much, they're greatly exaggerated. There is withdrawal but it's not that bad, reading that crap just makes you think your withdrawal is much worse than it actually is (I.e.a lot of it is in your head).