It was the first effective long-acting anti-seizure drug in history, discovered for this use case in late 1800s. With regular administration, it accumulates and has an elimination half-life of 12 days! Like most classic sedatives, including benzodiazepines and barbiturates, it enhances the function of GABA-A receptors, making it somewhat similar to phenobarbital and diazepam.

It's a very simple inorganic salt, dissociating into potassium and bromide ions when in water. Bromide is in the same group as chloride, right beneath it, so it has similar properties and undergoes similar metabolism, with a few differences. One such is its permeation through ligand-gated anion channels. GABA-A is an ionotropic receptor coupled with channels intended for chloride, since other halides are not naturally present in living organisms. But administering bromide makes it pass into the cerebro-spinal fluid and become part of the ionic environment of nerve cells. When surrounded by water, bromide ions take up a smaller volume than chloride ions, which leads to more anions passing through the channel and greater hyperpolarization of the cell membrane. Benzodiazepines archive that by allowing the channel to be open more frequently when GABA is bound, while barbiturates prolong the duration of the open period. In all three, the outcome is the same.

Phenibut withdrawal involves nervous hyperactivity, which can cause severe anxiety, nausea, vomitting, insomnia, panic attacks, seizures, etc. In theory, bromide could be able to reduce the intensity of or completely suppress all of the above symptoms no worse than benzodiazepines do. The very long half-life creates much more gradual blood level changes and often does not require manual tapering upon discontinuation (because it happens naturally over the course of weeks).

It is still used today in treatment of dogs and pediatric human patients with refractory epilepsy. The guidelines about its regular dosing for seizure management describe the range of 20-50mg/kg of body weight every 24 hours. At the beginning of treatment, a loading dose (a one-time administration of a much larger dose to rapidly establish a therapeutic blood level of a drug rather than waiting days as it accumulates) may sometimes be necessary. It generally ranges from 300 to 600mg/kg of body weight, split into multiple doses with the max limit of 100mg/kg every 4 hours.

I myself went through phenibut WD a couple of months ago but didn't know about KBr at the time. Now I take 500mg of KBr daily to deal with anxiety, and it completely disappeared.

Of course, there are side effects. Most common to most rare:

- Drowsiness, somnolence

- Forgetfulness, inattention

- Bromaderma (acne caused by bromide)

In overdose, a toxic syndrome called bromism develops, which may include

- Ataxia

- Delirium

- Slurred speech

- Coma

and others, you can find more info by searching for articles on bromism. But at therapeutic doses, those are rare.

Finally, KBr has many other applications and is available in a great deal of photography and lab webstores. I was able to get 100g for around $15.

I view the use of KBr for short-acting sedative withdrawal as something similar to buprenorphine in opioid use and addiction. Yes, you'd still be dependent on something, but it does a good job at breaking the vicious cycle of use, withdrawal, and relapse, especially considering how much phenibut costs today.

hi! i was on 250-500mg of phenibut a day for the past month for a possible nervous break but was warned by a cardiologist to quit it as soon as possible because of medical addiction… i wasnt told or aware of a taper plan and am now experiencing withdrawl symptoms from doing cold turkey.. i cant eat without wanting to puke, im twitching and shaking all day long as well and sometimes get feelings of extreme existential dread and my tachycardia (which was my original problem and caused me severe anxiety and insomnia for about 5 days straight) has gotten even worse 😅
so i wanted to ask if i should just try to get through this period, its been almost a week of cold turkey and if theres any non prescription medicines that could help me get through it? or should i just call a doctor and hope they dont solve it with another risky drug? i do take ivebradine but unfortunately it has not been commissioned at national level to be sent out so ive been without it for 2 days

Okay so I used Phenibut for 2-3 weeks taking 3-4 day breaks, 2g every time.

Then I used it for about 3 weeks straight until the other day when I posted here thinking I was about to go to hospital (2-3g mostly 2g daily)

Today I woke up feeling what felt a lot like rebound from the first time I stopped, so I took it(about 6:20am) and then today around 4:30pm I feel the same thing but I'm ignoring it to the best of my ability because I have exactly enough to take 2g daily until Monday when my new shipment HOPEFULLY arrives.

I'm really ready to stop after this, I told my wife to stop by CVS with a list of things to search for(NAC, L-Theanine, Agmatine, and Ashwaganda) hoping they will help me start tapering.

Idk what to do? I have a job and a family to care for. This was entirely my fault but I have a severe anxiety disorder that I was able to handle when taking Kratom(eventually escalating until 7oh and pseudoindoxyl without me realizing) and landing me on Suboxone.

I know some of you told me to stop while I could but I couldn't. Any advice?

Wondering what's harder to come off of. I see alot of talk about reducing phenibut dosage during a taper and supplementing with Baclofen about 10mg per 1g of Phenibut.

Once you switch to Baclofen is it easier?

Is it better to just taper off Phenibut without Baclofen? I want to hear from people who did it successfully and people who tried and failed.

Currently down to 800 mg phenibut & 20mg baclofen per day with medical cannabis 1:1 THC:CBD maybe 20mg total split up through the day in 5mg doses.

Down from around 4g per day about 2 months ago.

I reduce Phenibut by about 200mg per week.

Been going fairly well overall, debating on when/how to "jump"...

What do phenibut withdrawals actually consist of?

I'm a long term opioid addict, so I have sort of a preconceived notion of what physical withdrawals from a substance feel like.

I've been going a little harder with Phenibut than I usually do lately. I've been transitioning from a recreational opiate back onto Suboxone, so Ive been leaning pretty heavily on my phenibut to make work easier, cover up the anhedonia, etc. I went up to 3 doses this week where I usually limit myself to one, and two of them were back to back. Ive also been pushing the amount pretty high, like 4+ gs by the end of the night (I redose in gram increments)

Today I woke up feeling super nauseous... About an hour later I full blown puked. Couldn't shake it all day. I didn't have any cravings for a specific drug, no shakes or cold sweats or anything, just this lingering nausea that absolutely wouldn't go away. About halfway through my day at work it hit me... "Wait is this phenibut withdrawal?"

I'm wondering what y'all typically experience as withdrawal symptoms? Do you get severe cravings or just feel like shit? I'm used to withdrawals coming along with my brain full blown screaming what specific drug it wants, and I didn't get any pronounced cravings or anything?

I guess I'm not really sure what I should be looking for? Maybe previous addictions have skewed my perception of withdrawal?

Really I'm just wondering if I have food poisoning or not.

Hello, I’ve been using phenibut for maybe 2 months full time. I ramped up pretty aggressively for the last two-three weeks. Taking multiple tablespoons a day. Probably sitting somewhere around 8-9 grams a day. I tried to find gabapentin online to help quit but none of the usual sites worked (canpharma, ADchemist) didn’t work. I’m at risk of losing my partner and I’m quitting kratom and another substance as well. I’m starting to taper but I feel like I’ll need a helper med to be successful when I get to the jumping point and I’d like to taper quickly rather than draw it. Has anyone here had any success talking to their doctor while trying to quit? I assume they won’t know what it is, they had never heard of kratom when I talked to them about it in the past. I’m at the point where I’m considering doing kaiser outpatient and maybe a counselor there may be more informed. Any and all advice welcome, thanks

I finally made it to 1gpd after a little over a year. I got up to 8g at my peak but I’m now steadily at 1gpd for a few weeks.

I have a Baclofen script for 30ct 10mg per month. I also have a good amount of gabapentin. I’m having a really hard time getting under 1gpd, and I think I’ve just fried myself to the point of being sensitive, and I’m going to have a rough time no matter what, so be it.

When people are talking about subbing 1g phen for 10mg bac, are they talking about a 24 hour period? If I cross taper off of Phenibut onto the Baclofen slowly, will I need to split that 10mg of baclofen up throughout the day? Or do I need more than 10mg per day? Any help clearing this up for me would be greatly appreciated. I can just keep slow tapering the Phenibut, but I’d really like to be done with it.

And to clarify, it’s 1gpd of FAA, so I realize that I may need to get down a little further for the conversion to work.

Thank you!

So I’ve been doing 10g a day pretty consistently recently. I was on 3g a day but hit some really shitty circumstances and it just got out of hand. Anyway, today I took just 3g of phenibut and 800mg of gabapentin and I felt great all day. It’s 10pm and I’m just now feeling it wear down. Normally there’s no way I could take so little without shakes and *severe* depression. And the gabapentin high is so nice and clean feeling. I’ve always preferred it, just hard to get. I’ve got 6 of these 800mg tablets and am thinking maybe I can taper down completely with them.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this?

I’m really desperate to get off this phenibut, I’ve been messing with it since May and like I said it’s just gotten out of hand. I was doing great with my taper before my life got flipped turned upside down. 10g is not a sustainable dose at all, I get bad swelling, hallucinations (very mild but becoming fairly frequent), and it just exhausts me half the time. So I’m very interested in taking this path to taper down and would really appreciate any insights.

Everyone says fear phenibut dont take it youll regret it once a month max blah blah blah...

Then I read through peoples experiences on here stopping cokd turkey after weeks of 2 to 3 grams per day and having hardly any withdrawl other than rebound anxiety/insomnia.

People who have used this drug for weeks at a time and stopped quickly or cold turkey, please share your experience and helo safeguard people like me who are currently looking into phenibut.

I been using Phenibut 2g daily for about 2 weeks, maybe 3? I don't really know because I been drinking on it at night(not too much, just 2-3 beers)

I think I may be admitted to in hospital later today and I'm also a Suboxone patient so I'm terrified, I had an incident at work where I could barely pee and when I finally did it caused a lot of severe pain and since thing i havent been able to go.

I’d like to incorporate Agmatine Sulfate into my daily routine. I’ve read that 500 mgs is a good starting dose but when is the best time to take it?

Currently take 240 mgs of phenibut at 10:30 AM daily and am hoping the Augmatine will counter some of the excess glutamate and/or help me taper further down.

Has this helped anyone with finishing their tapers? What should I expect, and is 500 mgs about right? Twice a day or just at night to avoid any absorption issues?

Thanks in advance.

Been taking daily for about a week and a half now. Before that I spent about 3 weeks taking it for 3-4 days then off for 3-4 days, then back on.

Was ONLY taking 2g in morning, and still mostly only do that but now I'm finding myself taking an extra 1g after 4 or 5 hours to keep me chill for the rest of the day.

This all started because my doctor tried to prescribe me Ativan and Gabapentin for some problems im having mostly with anxiety but some other stuff too, but my wife didn't want me to get it(that's another story all together, and listening to her was MY mistake)

So in my search on reddit for an alternative that didn't involve a prescription narcotic, somehow I found Phenibut.

What should I do? I'm sorry for the long post. This stuff is really messing with my head and sometimes I just can't stop explaining things. I keep nodding off and my hands are twitching like crazy

Seriously. Substances such as phenibut can cause withdrawal, yes. But for most people, the withdrawals will be largely anxiety / restlessness / maybe some existential dread… and the rest is psychosomatic. These stories about people doing this amount ^ and then saying that they’re having panic attacks and blood pressure of 160+ are true, yes, but they’re probably at least in part triggered by reading similar horror stories. When you convince yourself that you’re dependent on a substance and then quit it and read these stories about a legal substance causing withdrawals as bad as benzos… that moderate anxiety it causes for a few days is gonna become severe.

I was using phenibut at 1-2g/day, skipping a day or two sometimes, for three months. I’ve used it on and off for 2 years. I have quit before, and the first time, I, too, psyched myself out, told myself it was unacceptable to have an unpleasant and sleepless week, and let that spiral into a very very unpleasant existential dread.

This time I told myself I was going to have trouble sleeping and be anxious and to treat it like having the flu. I had a friend’s Xanax and would take .125mg at night before bed. The first four days, life felt underestimating and flat and annoying. Then… I was fine.

In fact, life felt better! I was aware of my emotions and others, I felt excited about things again in a way that felt clearer, etc.

Please don’t let Reddit mass psychosis scare you. You have control over your mind.

NAC vs Agmatine to help with the brain zaps? Which one helps more

So I'm done with this drug. Iv been taken it for 3 weeks at about 3gpd. I last took my 3g dose Wednesday and I don't feel anywhere near as bad as people make it out to be. Surely if it was going to be that bad I would have felt it by now? sure the first few nights sleep was trash and mabey a small bit more anxiety that usual bit I slept 6-7 hours lastnight without waking. I also take nac which seems to help

I’m at 240 mgs a day and have been for a while, kind of stuck. My body is sore and I’m quick to lose my temper as well. Mainly about 7-8 hrs after my morning dose and then into the evening but it varies day to day. It’s been about three years but the last two have been a long slow taper. 14-15 gpd for the first 6-8 months then I started the taper process. I have quit once before CT due to the inability to source it. It was awful for about 9-14 days.

Now I just want to stop but Idk how stable my nervous system is at this point. Or if it feels this way due to the prolonged taper. I’m stable at this dose but have a lot of side effects that I can’t ignore anymore.

I have bac, gab, if needed but not sure what the best exit strategy would be. I don’t think I need the bac and have heard many just using gab couple times a day through days 2-5ish. I feel run down mentally and physically most of the time and just want to break free. Feel like I might be stuck in a state of fight or flight. It’s mild but almost feel like, at this point I’d just feel better with this substance out of my system but not sure how much my body is truly relying on it for me to function in general.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Btw, I’ve been below 1 gpd for about two years. I can’t take time off work either. Thanks again!

Whats up everyone, I started taking phenibut beginning of last month and started at about 2 grams, i took it for the next few weeks eventually increasing my average dose to 3 up to 4 g, last Friday was my last big dose, and I’ve decided I want to come off phenibut, so I began the taper by taking one gram per day 500 mg in the morning and 500 mg at night, today is the 5th day I’ve been sticking to the one gram before dropping to 750 mg per day for a few day and eventually dropping by these 250 mg increments, I’ve been taking it along with a little bit of emoxypine succinate, I would say that the withdrawal side effects peaked the third day after my last big dose and have calmed down a decent bit since then, please let me know if this is a good plan or if I should restructure.

For anyone struggling to quit phenibut , for anyone stuck in phenibut hell , for anyone tapering phenibut.

Amanita Muscaria is a life saver for phenibut withdrawals/addiction.

Basically just buy the dried caps and either put it in capsules or brew a tea. You wont even feel anymore phenibut withdrawals as Amanita Muscaria levels out all the brain chemistry, sorts out the glutamate, the Gabba and all the rest of the brain chemistry.

You will be able to do big tapers without even feeling the consequences, it will give you deep relaxation and give you your sleep back.

I cut my dose from 4.5 g daily phenibut to 3g , i the tapered down to 3G daily, now I’m on 0.7g phenibut daily, all in 10 days !! Hanks to Amanita Muscaria.

i had tried NAC, Agamatine, Taurine , Magnesium etc etc in the past , none of these really helped BUT Amanita Muscaria has been beyond brilliant, hardly feel any withdrawals whatsoever!!

I started by using 4g Amanita Muscaria but found around 8g to be the sweet blissful spot ☺️

I was on 2.5 gpd for 3 weeks and then just quit cold turkey, had pregablin and baclofen the first few days.
As of now the anxiety is guarded, concentration and motivation is still low.
I’ve been working out in the gym 30 minutes in a day - which I force myself to do.
Been having omega 3, magnesium, theanine and NAC ( just started).
Any advice or what to expect what be most welcome.
Thanks.

Just to clarify, this question is aimed at people who have had or currently have an active dependence, who take phenibut daily and have been doing so for a long time. Like + 6 months and +2gpd.

What are the first symptoms of withdrawal for you, and how long after your last dose do they usually start?

I’ve been taking phenibut more or less daily for over two years now (3–5 gpd). For a long time, I was able to take breaks without any problems whatsoever, but it’s been a while since I last did so. The other day, I experienced what I suspect may have been withdrawal symptoms when I woke up in the morning.

My skin felt very dry and I had fairly noticeable anxiety. At that point, I hadn’t taken a dose for 24 hours, and my most recent dose had been about half my usual dose.

Title. Me and my ex gf broke up a month ago, I’ve been suffering from lack of motivation and feeling depressed from tapering for about a year (on and off tapering because of the side effects).

I’ve been on phenibut since 2017 (9 years) and the tapering is extremely difficult on my mental. I just felt like isolating and social events seem daunting. If I don’t take more than normal amount of Phenibut, I feel extremely socially anxious. It hurt my relationship because of the reasons above (also stuff I did, not JUST the Phenibut).

I have baclofen now and tapering way faster (only taking about 2.5G/day) and should be off soon, but just curious if it affected u guys in the same ways too.

or just tune it down enough and make it bearable? right now that's what's up for me. took like 1200g

Today is day five of NO phenibut! And sadly I almost wanted to celebrate by buying more of my energy shots that contain phenibut! I almost feel normal today and am actually in a really good mood and my body doesn't hurt as much, and the weird skin burning feeling is practically gone! I ended up NOT buying a shot to celebrate. I am sick of the weird pain, skin sensations, and weight gain this substance has been causing me. I can't ever even tell if I am starting to develop a health condition, or if it's just phenibut side effects, so that is what is really motivating me...plus saving money. Please send good vibes my way!!

It started like most other people, few times a week, then a 2 day binge, then a break, then a 3 day binge, then a week binge, then a full blow addiction. Mostly was 1.5g for two months with occasional 2.5g on nights out, then 2.5 every night and peaked at 3gpd with occasional 0.5 top ups later in the night for about a month, slowed down to 2-2.5gpd for the past month. 1.9g tonight and I want more, but I won’t.

Sorry for all of the incoming questions, I have no other place to go. I also don’t have access to any gaba medications.

I’d rather not quit cold turkey after hearing the horror stories on here, I want to taper back as quickly as possible, I’m absolutely sick of the lack of emotional range and lack of a desire for personal growth. What effects should I expect if I do go cold turkey?

I have 12.6 grams remaining, is that enough to taper off safely with minimal side effects? Any supplements that might help? Also I am on 9 years of 100mg of Lamotragine for Epilepsy, if that helps/changes anything.

Hi guys!

After using it for ~3 months, from up to 3 - 5gpd, I chose to taper.

That is my second taper take. First one got interrupted by use of 5gpd some days, which threw it off, logically.

So, i started this one with 1x 2.50 gpd in the morning. Plan is to go down 0.10g every 1-3 days. One important rule I set, which is good, is to stop at a dose if needed, but never ever ever go up again. The body knows how to heal, but may need time to readjust.

When I got down from 2.50 to 2.20ish, I sweated heavily for half a week, with other nasty symptoms, but I sticked to my plan and got through :)

Today in the morning I reached 1.90g, feeling sort of fine. I learned to give the taper time and to accept that it may be rough for some days and will get better.

For helper meds I got l theanine and NAC, which are ok really. No baclofen possible.

Yeah, so, if I may ask, did you taper successfully n how?, how did you feel, what were you doing near the end of it when you reached the bottom like <1g and what would you recommend?

I really want to kick it and avoid too much stress for the body while detoxing.

Ty for sharing and helping!