Addiction - When is it too much?

[lasciviouslizzy]

Evening, this will be SWIM first post on here so bear with me if i waffle.
Just had 40mg of Equasym (generic methylephenidate) and throughout the day swim has probably taken 6 20mg tablets throughout. more than swim usually takes.

swim usually takes about 100 mg a day, prescribed to take 3 x 20mg daily but obviously never works out that way.

obviously swim is worrying about how much is too much and what this is going to do to me if i go on like this.

Equally swim goes cold turkey for about a week a month with no real need to have more until swims due the next prescription.

does anyone else do this or is swim alone?

[100mg Methylphenidate]

Methylphenidate got old fast for swim. He refuses to take them anymore after trying adderall. Ritalin is like all of adderalls bad side effects put in a pill. Except swim can usually fall asleep on even high doses of methylphenidate. It took him about 100mg insufflated to OD...which could have just been an EXTRMELY bad panic attack. Yet similar amounts of adderall produce no bad side effects except a shitty comedown and insomnia. He also probably has pretty high blood pressure on some of his binges...he wants to go get it checked sometime when on speed but he usually doesn't have the motivation.

Staring at the computer screen is too much fun. Swim gets to into things and forgets on high doses and doesn't feel like trying to motivate himself to look away when he's having so much fun.

As long as swiy's heart rate and bloodpressure stay within a decent range while on uppers, swiy is probably fairly safe. Running out and coming down every month sucks ass though from swim's experience.

[Laudaphun]

SWIM doesn't care for stimulants all that much, but has discovered their usefulness. Basically to answer the question posted in the thread, if you are using these meds for strictly academic reasons, be VERY careful about abusing them. Basically, they will stop working.

After methylphenidate for almost a year, a brief switch to adderall (amphetamine salt combo) and then back to methylphenidate. At the beginning of the semester SWIM had some old adderall lying around and decided to give them another try and they worked wonders, much to SWIM's surprise. Swtiched back to adderall next visit to the shrink, then things went well for awhile.

Keep in mind SWIM's stress level had been insanely high for quite some time. SWIM noticed that upon waking she felt depressed... no desire to get up for anything... that is, until she took an adderall tablet.

She had always taken her methylphenidate when she felt like it... meaning she didn't take it every day. She treated the adderall in the same manner, however upon deciding that she was psychologically dependent on the adderall and didn't feel like HAVING to take speed everyday switched back to methylphenidate.

Everything totally went to complete shit since. The adderall worked great until SWIM got pissed that she didn't feel well until she took her morning pill. In hindsight, SWIM thinks that perhaps the adderall was bringing her out of a depressed state, likely brought on by a very demanding (legal) lifestyle. SWIM is switching back to the adderall... as it seems there is no going back to methylphenidate after amphetamine. Reallly long story and SWIM is learning that these drugs can be very tricky, and switching back and forth is not always something to be undertaken lightly. Methylphenidate will work perfectly fine... even wonders if used correctly. But as soon as it is abused or stronger stimulants are used, it quickly can go from something helpful to something harmful.

SWIM is going to do soem reasearch and learn more about the levo and dextro molecules and educate herself enough that she perhaps may be able to convince her shrink to give her dextroamphetamine instead of the usual "adderall" or "ritalin" which seem to be all he ever considers. SWIM will post a link to a thread she started entitled "harm reduction for methylphenidate abuse" but needs to update it first. It is in the methylphenidate forum but much of it applies to adderall (amphetamine) as well.