Given the large amount of reports of self-detoxing and various speculation about what detox entails in arguably the most knowledgeable country in the world regarding GHB, I thought I would post an anecdotal report of what actually happened with me.
Note, this is just one method of detoxing. In many places, if you end up in the hospital after OD'ing you will have a different experience. As many know, GHB withdrawals are hell but what many may not know is the risk of PAWS associated with a quick withdrawal, which carries the same risk as alcohol withdrawal. What I am about to describe is, according to the doctors here, the safest supervised way to come off a GHB addiction while minimising PAWS risks.
I have a lot of experience with drugs, though GHB, cocaine and nicotine are the three that I have found by far the most addictive. Of the three, GHB is of most concern because, as we all know, it can quickly get to a point where it is physically addictive.
By the time I sought help, I was consuming around 80-100ml a day as well as a gram of coke and roughly the equivalent of 80-100 cigarettes a day by way of a nicotine salt vaporizer.
Entering the process of detoxing here was as simple as being referred by my GP. After the first consultation at the clinic, a date was set for the detox. They were not very concerned with the coke or nicotine use as the GHB intake was of most importance. The date for the beginning of the detox was set for 3 weeks out, which at that point seemed like a long time away. There is a lot of demand for space at these centres and thus there is a wait list.
Following the initial consultation, I had a video call with another doctor who was rather concerned and managed to move my date forward by a week, so two weeks out. The advice at this point was to continue my intake, keep alarms on my phone so as to not double dose and record my intake. At some point my supply changed and I began experiencing WD symptoms so I had to up the dose to 7mL every 50-60 minutes.
A week out from the set date, I was feeling so scared and broken, my heart rate was sporadic and faint, I was convulsing even though I was keeping to my dose schedule and I was having bouts of paranoia and mild hallucinations. I packed a bag and asked a friend to take me to the hospital, where I arrived with all the information I had. It was a Saturday morning.
We turned up and after waiting in line for 20 minutes we finally saw a doctor. I was due for a dose by that point and she began asking a lot of questions. I had the foresight to instruct my friends to stress the importance and severity of the situation, as I appeared physically fine even though I felt like my body was breaking down and I hadn't slept in 4 days.
My fear turned out to be true. The doctor explained that the hospital was not equipped to deal with GHB withdrawals or overdoses. I asked the doctor what she would do if I were to start convulsing on the floor there and then, to which she replied that she would give me my own GHB.
So anyway, I made it to the detox. Upon checking in, all nicotine and associated paraphernalia was confiscated and after taking my last dose during the intake my GHB was taken away as well. Contrary to what I had expected, the plan was to simply do a controlled taper. Because they don't know how strong the street GHB is, there is a period of a day or two before they found my comfort level. Street GHB here tends to be around 400-600mg/mL, which meant I was taking around 3-3.5g per hour.
Their synthetic GHB is 150mg/mL. One hour after my last dose of my own stuff, I received a dose of 10mL (1.5g). As expected, I began withdrawing. One hour later I received a top up of 4mL (0.6g). Once stable at 22mL (3.3g), I was held at that level for around 60 hours. Sleep was very sporadic, and the whole duration of the detox you're given your dose every 2 hours, night and day.
After 60 hours we began tapering off the GHB, dropping 2mL (300mg) every 24 hours. After a few days since admission and while on a dose of 12mL every 2 hours, I began experiencing severe hallucinations and vivid nightmares. The doctors prescribed 20mg of diazepam per day and my dose was increased to 14mL and held there for a day before tapering again.
When I got to a dose of 4mL (0.6g) every 2 hours after 2 weeks since admission I decided to cut it completely. There is a risk of withdrawals afterwards but it was a risk I was willing to take. As of now, sleep does not come naturally and I am using lorazepam as needed to regulate that as well as Valerian and Chamomile tea.