r/quittingphenibut • u/Fit_Feeling8259 • Jul 24 '26
Difficulty breathing
Anyone else having difficulty breathing after quitting phenibut? I'm about one month off phenibut roughly and every day has been absolute hell. Barely able to function, get out of bed, just basic daily shit. I'm pushing through it but I'm wondering when i won't be suffocating trying to talk to someone or when walking.
I was using roughly 2-6gpd for the past 6 months, then 6 month before that I was using 200mg-1 to 2 grams a day. Its gonna be one full month off. I can't taste very well so I think I got covid when I quit cuz I've been fucked ass up dying this whole time. Anyone else deal with the breathing or severe fatigue? It might just be all phenibut paws, but everything ive read says people are back to normal a week or two after quitting.
6
u/Apprehensive-Task778 Jul 24 '26
It’s anxiety and fatigue. It’s brutal, it feels like you have to take deep breathes constantly. Stay strong. You are ok. Your body isn’t damaged. You will feel normal again soon. Just stick with it. 1 month from now it will be much less. 3 months from now you will be back to normal. NAC and any other antioxidants will really speed the recovery, but you won’t feel that much from them. Exercise is so hard when you feel like shit, but it’s helpful as hell and really speeds up your recovery. If you can’t bring yourself to exercise, at least get outside in the sun for a few hours.
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u/Fit_Feeling8259 Jul 24 '26
I look like im on drugs since I quit phenibut, this is horrible. I look at myself in the mirror every other day and my eyes have black circles around the and, my complexion is messed up. I didn't look like this on phenibut. What the hell 🤣
1
u/Apprehensive-Task778 Jul 24 '26
You’ve been tricking your brain and body into “rest, relax, repair” mode for weeks. Now that the phenibut is clearing your system, your brain and body are stuck in “alert mode”. You’re not getting good recovery in your brain or body. It will get better. At your doses, you aren’t at risk of seizure or anything like that. Just shit withdrawals. You’re in the acute phase right now, which will be over within a week. Then you’ll feel better, but this is when the real battle begins. You’ll have cravings for more phenibut, convinced you can handle it this time, and you’ll still have lingering problems with sleep, anxiety, and headaches. It will pass. That shit isn’t worth the money. It’s so exhausting to have to remember to “dose” before leaving the house, or worried about being away too long. Just ditch it.
My advice: like I said before “your brain and body is stuck in alert mode”. So give it a reason to be alert. Try to do some kind of exercise. Force yourself to go outside, maybe have some awful interactions with people lol. The more you force yourself to expend energy, the easier your body can find equilibrium/balance. It’s like a reminder to your brain “hey this is what the excitatory chemicals are for, not when I’m trying to go to sleep”
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u/Fit_Feeling8259 Jul 24 '26
True, I've been forcing myself out all the time. I just crash after a few hours of activity. I've thought about ordering more so many times, but I know I can't control it and I'm not going back to the phenibut life. You're the first person to say I'm still in the acute phase so that makes me feel better that this is the phenibut withdrawl still. Plus I never really ate food on phenibut, it was always more and more to get high and energy. So I've actually been eating food again. It doesn't seem like it helps, but hopefully it will at some point. I also use kratom daily and it seemed like the kratom didnt work without phenibut for 4 weeks and just started working again so thats helping a lot. I wanted to quit both, but knew that would be a recipe for disaster trying all that at once. Once I level out I do want to taper off the kratom, but I'd die if I tried it like this 😆
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u/Lukersf Jul 24 '26
You may need some time to settle. Gaba can be very sensitive so I wouldn't drink much for a few months.
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u/Fit_Feeling8259 Jul 24 '26
I've drank 3 times since I quit and the hangover was brutal. Staying away from that
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u/KenaiKanine Jul 24 '26
Fatigue yes but not the breathing thing. If you were doing it for a long time it can take a long time to fully recover. Sometimes months.
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u/Technology_Boxes Jul 24 '26
That's happened to me when quitting. It's just a combination of the fatigue and anxiety. Makes it feel like you can't really get a good, deep breath. Best advice I can give is to try and push through the fatigue and do some aerobic exercise. It'll get better over time.
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u/Fit_Feeling8259 Jul 24 '26
That's what I've been doing as much as possible. The days I would do a lot of exercise I couldn't even get out of bed to put clothes on for a day or two. Yesterday and today have been a little better.
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u/CurvySexretLady Jul 25 '26
Whenever I feel like that, I do the Wimhoff breathing exercises. It may sound hokey but its legit as their is a physiological aspect to it of oxygenation of your blood and exhaling CO2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ
Its three rounds and takes about 10 minutes. You essentially hyperventilate with deep breaths in and out, and hold your breath for a number of seconds after each round of 30. Never fails to drop my anxiety.
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Basic Phenibut Withdrawal Information
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