This is really long but reallly need help. My friend had stupidly abused phenibut stopping about 2 months ago. He was on it for about 12 weeks straight and finally noticed negative side effects kicking in when he didn't dose. He didn't do a lot of research and was taking about 2 grams a day some days a little more. He started to just take 1 gram a day for about a week feeling crappy and just jumped off cold turkey. It was one of the hardest things in his life to get through. Like feeling psychotic when he went to restaurants that it was a setup and people wanted to kill him. He could see through this and would act as normal as possible although was visually disturbed and couldn't shake the thoughts. One time the table next to us said "the guy with the huge neck tattoo" then 2 mins later a guy with a huge neck tattoo walks in and sits at the table right in front of the exit and just looks at our table. My friend thought they wanted to kill him but he just kept calm and walked by when we left. It was stressful.
He took phenibut because he had a really bad experience after taking cherry cola sass (MDA) it was tested. Many other people took the same batch and had great experiences. He took a rather large shard and had a great time for about 5 hours. Then after he drove home he smoked some weed and a feeling of doom and paranoia just swept over him hard. It felt like he was going to die. He went to sleep and woke up cold and dripping with sweat. He still felt extreme anxiety that would not subside. Alcohol helped a bit but wasn't sustainable. After about 3 weeks of feeling like extreme anxiety he took the phenibut and got some relief he felt pretty good taking it and that's why he thought he could take it long term.
Now after he got off he still feels extreme anxiety and started to see a social worker who referred him to a psychiatrist.
They started him on clonazepam which he really didn't want to take but he said that when he does the anxiety is gone and he can function, he still has some weird thoughts because when he jumped off the phenibut he had weird thoughts like everyone with hipster glasses was in on the joke. But on the kpins he doesnt get anxiety or react weird to these thoughts he just knows its thoughts and lets it go. They also wanted to give him an ssri but he said no because of the sexual side effects. He took st Johns wort instead.
He has a lot of insight into the thoughts so I don't know if I would say it's a delusion but it just brings him a lot of anxiety. Its almost like the thought brings back the feelings of withdrawal when not on kpins. He can't function or work right now because he is just not stable. He took the clonazepam for 2 weeks straight and felt a lot better his depression lifted and he knew that the thoughts weren't real. He thinks his gaba system is in a rage from the phenibut and doesn't know what to do. He isn't hearing voices or hallucinating or losing his intellegence. He just stopped doing things he loved and feels scared most days. The kpins really lift the anxiety but he still doesn't have a ton of emotion he is just able to see through the fears. He also started taking st Johns wort and myo inositol he said it helps a lot but when he doesn't take the kpins he has bad anxiety and thought loops. He could be a bit ocd but not like washing his hands he just has thoughts. I know it's hard but what do you guys think he does NOT want to take benzos and go that route. He had his thyroid and vitamin levels checked and everything came back normal except his b1 levels and D both were below the range. I'm wondering if he might have had some "kindling" going on where he kept shocking his system for days on the phenibut with improper taper and the symptoms got worse. Any insight is appreciated I really really want to help my friend.
Edited by Grateful, 30 April 2016 - 09:51 PM.
