Possible Amphetamine Psychosis: Help wanted

[carrymadness]

where does swim start. This is his 1st post and doesn’t want to make an ass outta himself. For the past 3 months, swim has been under lots of stress and he didn’t adjust well to his new school. He became pretty depressed during this time. Swim had always enjoyed adderall, although he never felt the need to abuse it dangerously or often. He used it around 6x a week to keep up with school because he is lazy and finds that adderall overcomes this and he benefits from increased performance when playing guitar. Since he enjoyed the feeling he started taking them to help him get through this rough time. Out of those 3 months, the 1st month he’s been ingesting anywhere from 10mg-40mg . The 2nd month around 30mg- 60 mg. He also developed a liking of binging all night. This past month (3rd month), hes been ingesting anywhere from 30- 140 mg., but mainly with 60-80 range. He loves binging, and goes to sleep roughly every other day. He would sometimes do t his in excess of 3 days, until he knew he had to stop. He does not take more than a pill of 20mg xr at a time. Never snorted them because he doesn’t want to make his problem worse. As a result of his increased add abuse, he very recently developed this paranoa problem. When high on adderall and even sober (smaller extent),he believes everyone is talking about him or staring at him orknows his secret Will this continue once his dosage is reduced greatly. In addition, when he is high on add he has auditory hallucinations. Luckily this does not occur when hes high. He also has an increased heartrate however with a break of a few days, his heart rate was back to normal.
Swim has a few questions/concerns. How long will it be till Swim injures his heart or other vital organ. He is extremely worried/paranoid. He realizes that some people make lives out of binging on coke and there alive to binge some more.. Hopefully my paranoia is adderall induced. Swim realizes that this must discontinue, is he really in that much immediate danger. Also, Swim is lazy. He’d rather smoke a bowl and nap than do homework. Swim is also pretty smart though and knows he has to do well if he wants to maintain his lifestyle. He needsto do well in school and right now he is doing extremely well and wants to maintain this. Therefore, getting off adderall isn’t an option. He is worried that since he will always have adderall, he will always binge and obtain more through some other means.
Here is some slight background info on SWIM in case you needed more information to answer my questions. Started as a pothead 2 and a half years ago. Developed a small cocaine addiction but wasn’t able to maintain his addiction with his limited funds. Hasn’t touched cocaine in months, would do it now more than a few times a year. Does shrooms every 6 months or so, and will occasionally take a perscriped painkiller a few tiems a year. Drinks socially and keeps it to weekends. Pot at least once a day.
Swim has a history of depressio, and his brother had drug induced schizophrenia which required him to go to a mental institution. (hes fine now) However swim is worried he is sharing the same genetic info. Lately he is having tons of paranoa. He was to scared to go outside and was nervous police were gonna find him for smokng in his dorm room. He was always disorganized but now hes beyond disorganized. He cant find his notes, doesn’t know when tests dates are. His personal hygiene has deteriorated. Showers every 2 days 3 max. Before, swim would make sure to shower everyday. This was also a symptom. Swim once stayed up 3 nights in a row binging. He went to class obviously fucked up, got into this huge fight with his teacher. Went to his next class, during lecture swim had a delusion ( I believe, hallucination?) He saw himself from a 3rd party like a stranger. Swim went back to his room, and his mother called. He proceeded to have a breakdown with her on the phone. When swim feels like people are staring at him or “know” that hes high,he thinks back to this time and the feeling it gave him. Flashback they call it? Could he be suffering from this? B4 this all happened, swim never showed these symptoms. Usually his auditory hallucinations all deal with the same subject matter; getting caught by the police or people disliking swim. What even makes swim more scared, is the relation to his biggest problems and his paranoia and hallucinations. Which makes him believe that this can be pyscholigically induced and the drugs sped it up. his parents put large amounts of pressure on him. Has been kicked outta one college before, now he has to succeed or be thought of as family fuckup. Therefore he cant afford any trouble. Swim can and always has been able to form makebelief settings,images, and can see it in great detail in his head. He is also able to recreate voices and sounds in his head. But he believd hallucinations have to be random in order for it to be a hallucination. Is this audio and visual hallucinating. Swim did not consider this hallucinating he believed everyone had the ability. As you can see swim is confused about everything, and re-reading this he sounds in really bad shape. He is embarrassed that he bared hissoul on an internet msgboard. This is Not something he can share with friends/family. This was something that used to be fun, now its scary for swim. Sory for the huge post.

[carrymadness]

update.. swim wrote this last nite while very high. after about 7 hours of sleep, swim feels likea crazy person. Very paranoid, with absolutely no more intake. Wat gives?

would the best way for swim to quit would be starting with a low dosage and going gradually down, or cold turkey. Swim feels quite addicted so he was wondering what the best approach would be.

[Pinkavvy]

Not meaning to be offensive but it sounds like you need to seek medical help. Print out what you typed here and take it to the doctor. you will not get in legal trouble, as the drug abuse is a symptom of your illness.

Seriously... seek some medical help...

[old hippie 56]

You need to quit right now, eat a good meal, and take a nap. Swim thinks your brain needs a break from the adderall. Plus agree with Pink.

[carrymadness]

swim is alot more stable now from his original post. He can honestly say he does not need immediate medical care. However, he still is pretty paranoid and def wants to kick the habit. SHould he take low doses and decrease from there or cold turkey. Swim's friends are in teh dark about this, and at his new school he doesnt have close friends so he doesnt have much of a support team. With this in mind, he believes this is the best route. Swim wanted to know what you guys thought.

[Pinkavvy]

read the recovery and addiction threads for that info ... but the paranoia may be schizophrenia, espcially since it runs in your family. get a medical evaluation.

[fatal]

and a third vote for med eval... dont do anymore stimulants either... probably ever...

[Nagognog2]

Get to a doctor. Most colleges have a university clinic/hospital. Go. While stimulants and stress can't cause a serious mental illness like schizophrenia, they certainly can trigger a latent illness to become full-blown. You need an evaluation stat. Taking more adderals and/or delaying getting medical attention is about as dumb as one could be under these circumstances. You don't want to be taken kicking and screaming in a straight-jacket.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good advice as always

[carrymadness]

thanks for all those concerns. Swim slept for 12 hours, ate 3 meals and feels much better. The paranoa and hallucinations are gone. Swim is j ust going to discontinue recreational adderall use, and feels he is strong enough to do so. In addition, Swim wants to know if it would be harmful to him to take pyschedilics down the road. He has taken them before, but this whole amphetamine pyschosis really got him nervous.

[Pinkavvy]

carrymadness- Nobody here can answer that question for you. Stay off the stimulants for a while and see how you do. Glad to hear the paranoia stopped at least for now. Should you do phsychodelics? That's a decision that only you can decide .. and I would still suggest you get a phsyche evaluation before you do anything more.

[carrymadness]

thanks but i dont think a pysch evaluation is necessary. I did extensive researching and i found that what i experienced is normal for amph. pyschosis. As far as beign able to visualize and hear things back, i have dyslexia and i heard dyslexics are able to things like that easier.

[hh339]

if an evaluation would indicate signs of mental illnes, would swiy really want to know? when imagining himself in that position, a life in denial does not seem that far away to swim. swim has seen a few people get REALLY wierd after taking amphetamines and stimulants for some time, to the point where its just totally scary. swiy may not be in need of medical help for now but considering mental illness actually runs close in the family why the hell take the chance? just a thought...
take care.