This will not be another phenifucked horror story, I promise you.
I ordered phenibut when I first really got into nootropics. After much research (years, practically), I ordered a $120 nootropic “starter pack” of various racetams and smart drugs that I’ve been meaning to try. I used them one at a time and collected some very interesting data on each substance.
I first started using phenibut just before I hit the gym at the recommended 250 mg dose with no noticeable effects. After reading about the extreme anxiolytic effects of phenibut, I decided to try 500 mg before going out to a bar with some friends in lieu of drinking. No alcohol was consumed, but I felt amazing. I enjoyed the social lubrication effects of alcohol (or any GABA antagonist) yet clear headed enough to fluidly flirt with women and navigate conversations with a confident charisma I didn’t know I had. I ended up taking a slop tart home with me that night, and I was forever sold on phenibut.
It wasn’t until I was taking 500 mg of phenibut daily, along with piracetam, oxiracetam, aniraetam and noopept I cycled one at a time, that I realized that I had always suffered from extreme social anxiety. Looking back, I was always awkward in social situations. And I’m not talking about geeky high school teenager awkward, I’m 29, own my own business and am forced to interact with many people on a daily basis. By all accounts, no one would peg my as the “paralyzing social anxiety” guy, yet even at my own parties I would host, I would rather sip beer quietly in the corner than socialize with the very people I know and love – a concept which terrified me, and for no reason!
I cycled phenibut by tapering once a month. This happened for three months in a row before I started having too much down time at work when cycling. This should have been my first indication that I was becoming dependent, but phenibut had genuinely improved my quality of life. I was more successful both in my career and in my social circles. I decided that I would rather take a substance daily rather than live with extreme anxiety and fear for a week while tapering, in which I would get absolutely nothing done.
So, I began taking phenibut daily and stopped using it recreationally altogether. I adhered to a strict 500 mg twice a day routine with fantastic results, including better quality of sleep, more efficient use of my work time, verbal fluidity, and with my anxiety gone, I was even more aggressive when pursuing contracts at work – phenibut was making me more money.
Over the next 6 months, tolerance naturally developed, but more importantly I stopped recording my doses in a daily nootropic log. 500 mg twice daily became 1,000 mg twice daily, and 1,000 mg twice daily became dose as needed. This week, I’ve been taking anywhere from 3 to 5 grams of phenibut daily, usually with noopept and vitamins. I still maintained all of the positive effects from my initial dose 6 months prior, but the only negative effects I encountered occur when I doses more than 2 grams at once include sleepiness (since I dose first thing in the morning), head fog, and at very high doses, stumbling when I walk as if I were drunk when, and – most annoyingly – restless leg syndrome, or more specifically, twitchy toes. So, I made the conscious decision to do another cycle. Instead of taking weeks to tapper and risk the possibility of down time at work, I did the dumbest thing imaginable. I went to the grocery store and bought natural detox stuff – kombucha tea, cranberry pill, niacin, and Yogi brand DeTox tea. I got home, drank half of the kombucha and brewed myself a cup of the detox tea, sipping it as I fell asleep around 11 pm, my last phenibut dose being 1 gram at 7 pm. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I consumed 8 grams of phenibut that day – the highest daily dose I had ever taken.
I woke up at 1 am to a sweat soak bed and full body muscle spasms. Uncontrollable aches and pains in every inch of my body. I am a daily practitioner of meditation and tried to focus on my mental state instead of my physical sensations, but it’s not a mind over matter thing – this is real physical dependence. After 20 minutes of muscle spasms and the worst withdraw I have ever faced, I immediately downed 1,500 mg phenibut and promptly went back to sleep.
That was two days ago. I have since began to tapper off of phenibut – with every intention of slowly cycling back on it as soon as I get below 250 mg.
What are the real dangers of taking phenibut daily? Terrifying withdraws are a serious reality, but only if you let it happen. As we all know, this stuff is dirt cheap and easily attainable anywhere on the internet, so running out is never a possibility. What if you should find yourself in a situation where you don’t have access to phenibut? Even when taking over 2 grams a day, I have gone up to 3 days without being able to reach my phenibut stash and have only suffered mild irritation. I have gained much, much more by taking phenibut daily than I have lost or suffered. Some of my best mates are prescribed klonopin or Xanax daily for their anxiety by their doctors, and even with antidepressants, it is not recommended to ever skip a dose, lest you suffer serious withdrawl effects from downregulated receptions. These are medicines that are intended to be used daily, as so, too I believe phenibut is – at least for me.
After experimenting with a variety of nootropics, here is my current daily stack that I have found to be the most effective: phenibut, noopept, ALCAR, DHEA, multivitans and occasionally, caffeine and tianeptine.
Here are the ingredients of Yogi DeTox tea, which seemed to have completely whipped my system from all toxins:
Indian sarsaparilla root
Cinnamon bark
Ginger root
Licorice root
Burdock root
Dandelion root
Cardamom pod
Clove bud
Black pepper
Juniper berry
Long pepper berry
Rhubarb root
Chinese skullcap root
Coptis root
Forsythia fruit
Gardenia fruit
Japanese honeysuckle flower
Winter melon seed
Lastly, I apologize if I don’t immediately respond to any replies to this thread. I’m very busy with work, but will pop into the forums a few times throughout the week.