Permanent Damage?

[Fineprint3]

Swim took adderrall for almost exactly a year. On average swim took about 30 mgs a day monday through friday. Swim took it almost solely for his "ADHD" which he does not believe he has, and only very rarely used it recreationally. He almost never dosed on saturday or sunday and took breaks during fall, winter, and spring break. Adderall caused a massive increase in swim's social inhibitions and made him feel awkward in almost every situation. Swim also noticed other side effects such as significantly increased heart rate and penis shrinkage. Swim did not tell anyone about these severe side effects. Before taking adderall swim was a very outgoing and popular person. 4 to 5 months ago swim decided that he needed to quit. It was not difficult for him to quit and within a week of deciding to quit he completely stopped. Swim informed his parents he would no longer take his adderall, but did not inform his docotr. The side effects from adderall decreased immediately, anxiety was much less as were social inhibitions. Swim believed he was on the path to recovery.

It has been somewhere from 4 to 5 months since he stopped. Summer break has come and gone without him taking amphetamines and he felt very good over the summer. When school came back around he was confident that the side effects from his pervious amphetamine use would be gone. However, he still feels some of the anxiety through the day. Around 12:00 in the afternoon anxiety increases greatly. During football practice after school swim feels much better and his anxiety is greatly alleviated. This would make sense because this is when anxiety peaked last year when he was actually taking amphetamines. Other side effects such as high heart rate and penis shrinkage are also still prevalent, although only really appear around 12:00 in the afternoon and these usually persist until the next morning he wakes up and they are gone. The side effects vary greatly from day to day, some days they are worse than others.

Swim also appears to be hyper sensitive to stimulants only when drank before school in the morning. Whenever he drinks even mild stimulants such as coffee he becomes very stimulated an later in the day he has higher levels of anxiety. If he drinks things such as energy drinks, which he use to do quiet frequently before his amphetamine use, he becomes super stimulated, almost bouncing off the walls but does not feel good, and later in the day he has a massive crash with huge amounts of anxiety.

Swim is very concerned and is becoming very frustrated as others have said the long term effects of amphetamines are mild and decrease with time. Swim has become desperate and has resorted to trying supplements to decrease these effects such as multivitamins, b complexes, ginkgo, ginseng, fish oil, dhea, marijuana, and protein powder. None of these have show a whole lot promise in alieviating these side effects.

Did swim do permanent damage to his brain? Is swim going to ever recover to the way he was before? Perhaps when he is finally done with school? What could swim do to help alleviate these effects? Should swim tell his doctor that he quit and tell him about the side effects?

[tarmonkey]

Swim seems to think that from your post you think about this alot. Anxiety is often caused by overthinking and overanalyzing...

Your best bet is to just chill out and not worry

If it continues then see a doctor and get anti-anxiety meds

Which are utterly horrible btw, or at least Swim thinks so

[dutch-marshal]

i can recognise myself a little in you..
it's your mind... you got to give it some rest.. and some time to recoope
amp's have a sort of lasting effect on the brain...though it can't repaire...it wil try to stabelyze itself...
what surely helps is (exercises) especialy running and other endurance sports!
and kind of meditating...it helps you to let go of thought you don't want to have and see the whole situation that you are in much clearer!

so meditating for your "anxiety"
endurance sports! to keep you body in tip-top shape! thus your mind reactes faster/better!

[Nagognog2]

I would second the use of meditation. Endurance sports may be helpful, if one is so inclined. But simple meditation based on breathing and a mantra such as "Not I" (in breath is 'not' and exhalation is 'I.') can very much help one sit above the thoughts that drive one to climb walls. Not only useful for those suffering anxiety - the benefits extend far beyond and help one to gain perspective on how the mind functions.

Give it a shout.

[eltimmy]

SWIY seems to have an underlying anxiety problem. Anxiety promotes (in a circular sorta way) the release of stimulating chemicals like norepinephrine (which amphetamine also releases)-- which will account for high blood pressure and cock shrinkage. The use of amphetamine may have reinforced these pathways; this isn't brain damage, just the natural tendency of the brain to reorganize itself based on experience. Third to meditation, exercise, yoga, anxiety reduction techniques prior to pharmaceuticals for relieving this problem, as every class of powerful medication that will produce positive effect on anxiety has a long list of side effects to consider. But SWIM recommends Nardil (the best) and even benzodiazepines over SSRIs. ;-)

Brain reorganizing itself based on experience: long-term, meditation causes neuroplastic changes including a physical thickening of areas thought to be related to attention and focus, and promotes in the limbic system good mood and calm ...

Seriously, it's extremely powerful. In 15 minutes (the time it would take oral medication to take effect anyway) SWIY can get great effect.

Amphetamines have not been shown to produce neurotoxicity in humans except at dosages of methamphetamine far, far higher than the ones SWIY took. With more than 50+ years of clinical practice and literally thousands of studies, you'd think the in-vivo evidence would be compelling. MRIs, cadaver studies, etc. I wouldn't worry too much about holes in the brain -- chronic stress, on the other hand, has been shown again and again to be seriously neurotoxic, causing atrophy of the hippocampus and other systems. There's a serious chance it underlies a lot of the problems you describe (besides any supposed attention deficit problem). SWIY needs to deal with it, and SWIY's mental function can recover.

[Fineprint3]

Swim was fine before he started taking adderall and he KNOWS it is not in his head. The effects are definitely caused by neurotransmitters or perhaps lack there off. Many of the effects that swim experienced after taking amphetamines still exist, but only seem to appear after about 12:30 pm. Many of these effects are physical so he knows they are not in his head. It only seems to come on after about 12:30 pm, before this there very little if any problems. This occurs right while swim is in school so he doesn't think meditation would help much. Swim already plays football and has been doing so for a while and is not planning on switching sports. It is strange how sometimes it seems like swim has 3 days where he feels almost no anxiety or anything else, than he'll have 2 or three bad days where after 1:00 pm he feels almost as much anxiety and social phobia as he did when he was taking amphetamines. Anyone have any other suggestions? Should swim tell his doctor?

[Fineprint3]

Also it seems that if swim even does some of the things that he did while taking amphetamines they trigger even stronger effects latter in the day. It seemed that whenever swim took b vitamins or ginkgo biloba or any pill in the morning almost that his body would have a negative reaction. Swim also drank a gallon of water a day throughout the day for football last year while taking amphetamines, he began to do this again this year when football started up, but he has since stopped because it seemed to be aggravating his symptoms.

[LittleTimmy]

To rid Anxiety naturally SWIM takes legal supplements 5-HTP, Melatonin, L-Tyrosine, Selenium, Vitamin B Complex before he goes to bed.

SWIM believes there is a strong possibility SWIY has some minor reparable neurological damage, which is very temporary and can be fixed by taking a long break from stimulants, and to repair the neuron receptors in SWIY's brain using either supplements or a prescription SSRI Anti Depressant.

Don't SWIM says worry SWIY will be okay man!

[LittleTimmy]

Correction: Don't Worry, SWIM says SWIY will be okay man!

[Fineprint3]

I forogt to mention that swim also feels that familiar comedown that amphetamine brings now sometimes even though he doesnt take amphetamines. Effects include lethargy, anxiety, social phobia, emptiness, and excessive yawning. How could this be?

[angela20377]

if swiy just recently stopped taking amphs/ addys then they will probably feel "comedown symptoms" for a period of time of a few days to a week or so, depending on how long/high the use was. when swim stopped taking adderall, she felt tired, depressed and completely lethargic for at least a week and she didnt want to do anything but sleep. no matter how much sleep she got, it was never enough. so stick in there, it'll get better

[LittleTimmy]

SWIM is going to make this simple for you, because SWIM wants SWIY to get better. SWIM can empathize with SWIY since SWIM went through the same symptoms through the ages 15-18, without even knowing they were from his legally prescribed ADD Medication.

This is what SWIM is putting into SWIM's body. If SWIY is a healthy and young individual who gets decent exercise (Not too much, especially on Adderall) and uses this in moderation SWIY/SWIM will be just fine!

• 1/4 dextroamphetamine saccharate
• 1/4 dextroamphetamine sulfate
• 1/4 aspartate (racemic d/l-amphetamine)
• 1/4 sulfate (racemic d/l-amphetamine)

Now Shire the company responsible for the production and the rights to the chemical formula in Adderall claims that the combination of 4 Amphetamines in these doses is superior to any Single Amphetamine-Sulphate.

I'm sure that SWIY has probably seen posts claiming that taking Antacids or TUMS with Adderall is great, and makes SWIM/SWIY feel super! But unfortunately SWIM/SWIY forgot to research this fact:

"co-administration of alkaline agents (eg; antacids) causes a marked increase in both retention and absorption of amphetamines resulting in dangerously high amphetamine levels."

So please whatever SWIY does do not co-administer TUMS!


Back to the topic of fixing your symptoms. SWIM is not a doctor, but the upcoming regimen which he will explain worked for him when he suffered from the following physical side effects from prolonged Amphetamine toxicity with a body that was still growing, and even if he was older it still could've been possible:

- Tremors at random times of the day... As if he was standing in the freezing cold
- Anxiety so intense, that SWIM feared Lunchtime and sleep. #1 because SWIM was afraid that something might go wrong if he didn't eat in the right place, because of probability and numerology... Yeah WTF? #2 because he might die in his sleep... so f'ing lame.
- Nightmares, Night Terrors
- Irritability
- Severe Lethargy and Fatigue.
- Unclear thoughts and a brain which felt as if a fog had consumed it, but he could still feel and see the real me underneath.


SWIM researched all of his problems, and SWIM realized that SWIM had damaged his neurological system using way too much Adderall for 5 years.

GOOD NEWS:

Plenty of times this type of damage is not permanent since receptors in the brain can gradually heal over time. It seems to SWIM that SWIY is suffering from a B-Vitamin deficiency, and possibly a Serotonin Deficiency. All this means is SWIY needs a break from Adderall and an Adderall antagonist to correct the negative side effects from Adderall.


If SWIY wants to go the Natural Route without a prescription:

*WARNING: ASK YOUR PHYSICIAN HIS/HER PROFESSIONAL OPINION, THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY*

Everything in this Natural Regimen is available without a prescription, they are NATURAL.

- Vitamin B Complex for the reproduction of Dopamine, this will help benefit Depression, Anxiety Disorders, Alezheimer's disease, Chronic fatigue, Addiction disorders (Too much Adderall), and Parkinson's disease.
- 5-HTP for the reproduction of Serotonin
- Magnesium Supplement to control the Tolerance to Adderall
- Melatonin; Natures Sleep Hormone sleeping medication
- Pantothenic Acid, which is one of the B vitamins. At a dose of 250mg to 500mg, it enahnces energy, alertness and elevates mood.
- Coenzyme Q10 plays a role in the energy-production system in each cell. A Dose of 30 to 90mg in the morning leads to increased energy that is noticed by mid afternoon and evening.
- TMG - Tri-Methyl-Glyceride is a lesser-known nutrient that has potent effects on mood. After a few hours of your dosage (250mg to 1000mg) you may notice a high increase in energy and elevation of mood.

Remember, I nor SWIM know how you will interact with these drugs. Make sure you go over these vitamins and nutrients with SWIY's Physician in a professional consultation case of Allergies or Medication conflicts/interactions.


Now on a final note, it is important SWIY knows SWIM only took these medications as a full regimen until most of his symptoms decimated.

Because SWIM and SWIY take Adderall regularly we need Vitamin B Complex and 5-HTP to rebuild the stuff Adderall uses up! Also SWIM has been put on an Anti-Depressant: Wellbutrin to counteract the Adderall, even though both are stimulants. It has been working phenomenally.


I hope SWIY gets better, because what he has is very much probably TEMPORARY AND CURABLE.