Phenibut

[James3524]

I made a post on here a few weeks ago about Phenibut withdrawal but I wanted to go more in depth:

Phenibut is an anxiolytic drug from Russia that you can buy online in the U.S. It it's primary MOA is Voltage Gated Calcium Channel Blocking but it does have affinity for GABAb and at very high does; GABAa. It is basically Baclofen + Gabapentin combined. Anways, I used about 135 grams over the course of almost exactly a year. Usually spread out in breaks. My HPPD would improve while I was on it and I only had mild issues when I took a high dose. I only had anhedonia for about two weeks but nothing intense and the rebound did not affect my HPPD. 

The last 25 grams of that 135g, however, I binged over the course of a week during a bad DP/DR episode with high amounts of anxiety and depression. My last dose was on Christmas. 

On December 27th, I woke up in the middle of the night with glutamate surges. I felt high anxiety, tremors, sweating, stimulated , etc. I started taking NAC which helped and I took one 0.5mg klonopin and one 1mg klonopin spread throughout the acute phase of withdrawal. Besides that, I quit CT. My visuals began so intense and they were that bad since the early development of my HPPD in 2020. 

Now 25 days since my last dose and my visuals have not went down and I'm quite worried. I basically "recovered" from the visual symptoms of HPPD a long time ago. 

Do you think that 25 gram binge was enough to cause glutamate excitotoxicity and damage GABA neurons in the process? Through VGCC or GABA downregulation? Could it be my GABA receptors or VGCC have not upregulated causing a hyperexcitable state that should subside?