I think it depends on your level of experience with other anxiolytics. I've personally been prescribed clonazepam 1 mg x 2 daily in the past for anxiety, so I feel like it set me up to expect pretty much overkill anxiety relief to the point you don't feel any anxiety for many hours; so it was basically unnatural and too effective(which is why Dr's are recommended to prescribe them for no longer than 2-4 weeks or non-daily, but they still do prescribe them daily anyway lol). I'm giving you this extra background info in my case, because I personally can't forget that feeling benzos give you of no anxiety whatsoever psychologically and physically. For me many of these other compounds while effective, don't give a completely calm feeling, and might not feel as effective to me personally than they would to you.
I've tried etifoxine(Stresam) only, I don't have experience with afobazole, but I was interested in that same med as well, since western anxiolytics can't be taken very frequently(at least benzos) without a physical dependency forming, which eventually makes anxiety worse. The etifoxine still settles my anxiety to where it is possibly a slightly lower level than normal people without anxiety disorders feel, I have no reference point for that.
When I've taken etifoxine it lowers anxiety to the level where I'm able to function much better for a few hours without feeling anchored down with insane amounts of anxiety coursing through me. It gives none of the bad effects of memory loss, slight balance issues etc, that benzos tend to, while still providing 6-7 hours of ample anxiety relief, but some anxiety still gets through with a single capsule dose of 50mg. I've never went above one capsule, so maybe if you take more than 1 it could provide stronger relief?
Another Russian anxiolytic I've tried is picamilon, which is gaba bonded to niacin. This allows gaba to cross the blood brain barrier before it is separated into those two endogenous substances; one being the neurotransmitter gaba, the other a B vitamin. I feel that picamilon is slightly more effective than etifoxine ime, but I'm not sure if it would be considered controlled as a gaba-analogue like pregabalin or gabapentin if you live in someplace like the U.S, because technically until it crosses into the brain it is (nicotinoyl-gaba) which structurally would be grouped in as a gabapentinoid, even though the way it provides anxiety relief pharmacologically is distinct.
The reason it was created is because if you just take plain old gaba from a healthfood store it will be destroyed in the gut, and it can't get into the brain to boost the amount of gaba in circulation to reduce anxiety.
Sorry for the longwinded post, anxiolytics happen to be a subject I've researched fairly extensively, because I don't like taking physically addictive medication frequently for anxiety relief, hence the reason I have these exotic medicines laying around from different parts of the world. I also feel for you about not liking to order medicine internationally, legal or not. I always get the idea in my head customs will want to pop open a parcel from a CIS country, and would confiscate anything that comes in tablet/capsule form that is packaged with Russian or foreign language that they probably can't read! It's a phobia of mine, not because of the money or anything, I just don't like the idea of customs tagging my address for no reason, as I'm already paranoid of The Government lol...they can pretty much whisk you away in an asylum or holding cell in my country for pretty well anything nowadays, at least that's how I feel.
