Other - lethargy and modafinil

[Inquilinekea]

okay so frankly a lot of people tell me that i’m tired and have no energy and that i look pale and weak and tired

which is true. but they all suggest me to exercise. which DOESN’T HELP with my lethargy at all. i’m FRUSTRATED that they assume that what works for them would work for me too. which doens’t. also i’m still pale and tired and lethargic EVEN when i get 8 hours of sleep, even with 7, 9, 10, 11 hours of sleep. it’s pretty well-known that a lot of people actually feel BETTER when they have 7-8 hrs of sleep than with greater amounts of it anyways.

plus i don’t have the time to exercise so much anyways. it might help me for a SHORT period of time, but certainly NOT for the large amounts of time that I need whenever I study.

also i’m lethargic NO MATTER WHAT I EAT. i’ve tried high calorie low glycemic index diets (aka diets high in beans) and i’ve also tried low glycemic index foods too. neither work. hell it’s the same when i’m calorie restricted AND when i eat > 2000 calories in a day.

i think that i would be MUCH happier and MORE energetic and MUCH MORE ABLE TO STUDY if i only had modafinil. the problem is that it’s SO HARD TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO PRESCRIBE me ANYTHING like modafinil or another stimulant just due to the “risks” and ALL THE STIGMA ASSOCIATED WITH STIMULANTS. I’m just frustrated as hell with lawful people (hell it’s lawful to seek prescriptions - it’s just that people have SUCH A HUGE PROBLEM WITH PEOPLE WHO DON’T DO WHAT’S “NORMAL”) and with people who have things against prescription stimulants. Which happens to be inclusive of most doctors,

I LIKE STUDYING AND I LIKE ACADEMICS. I JUST DON’T HAVE THE FREAKING ENERGY TO STUDY MUCH OF THE TIME. IT’S JUST SO FRUSTRATING, KNOWING THAT I COULD BE SO MUCH FURTHER IF I ONLY HAD THE ENERGY THAT PEOPLE DENIED ME.

I’m pretty desperate as hell for modafinil. But I don’t have narcolepsy. I know that people can EASILY get modafinil prescriptions at caltech, but I don’t go there, so I want another place. Yes I can order it off-seas, but it’s expensive as hell off-seas.

i have insurance from group health and i live in the seattle area. also i go to the university of washington. but i’m sick and tired of wasting time on people who won’t prescribe it no matter what

Reputation Comments on this post:

Please do not use all caps. Shouting in public forums is rude and annoying.

[honourableone]

SWIM was in a situation like you untill recently, he had visited his doctors twice and they didn't care, they shrugged him off and also suggested exercise, but at the time SWIM was doing a 3 mile walk nearly every day and regularly went to kickboxing training. He could sleep for 13 hours at night, and then come the afternoon he would get incredibly lethargic and have a two hour nap. He forced himself to stay awake in the afternoons for two months, in case the only reason he got tired was due to his sleeping patterns, but that made no difference.

SWIM first took Modafinil this monday, he had 200mg in the morning, and he was alert and bright throughout the day, and although he got a little tired in the afternoon, 5 minutes of sleep returned him to a wakeful state. Since then SWIM has worked out his ideal dosage method to avoid his lethargy. He takes only 100mg in the early afternoon when his tiredness starts to kick in, and he can be productive and awake; not crippled by his tiredness and the need to nap. Right now (4PM) SWIM is focused and ready, but for the past few years he would be sleeping now if he had the chance, and if he didn't have the chance to nap he would be an idiotic zombie.

This was all SWIM's doctors had to give him. They didn't have to ignore him because they couldn't find a cause for his lethargy, he wasn't just looking for a recreational amphetamine prescription. So SWIM has had to turn to self medicating a safe non-recreational drug that may be neuroprotective and vastly improves his life.

This has struck a chord with SWIM because up untill recently he was so frustrated at how his tiredness was impeding his life, and yes modafinil could probably help you too.


As a side note, here there are rules preventing self incrimination involving any drug, legal or illegal, and saying that you want modafinil breaks those rules. You can read the site rules by opening the drop down menu at the top of every Drugs-Forum page that says "FAQ and Rules", so I suggest you do so because they need to be more complicated than your average forum rules in order to protect the forum, due to the sensitive nature of it's contents. You will probably see people talking about SWIM (Someone Who Isn't Me), or their pets etc. in order to prevent self-incrimination. I see that that was your first post, so welcome to the forum .


EDIT: SWIM has now found that while it doesn't make him as alert, a mere 50mg of modafinil is enough to prevent the tiredness that plagues him in the afternoons.

[pinksox]

SWIM hopes SWIYs docs would want to at least rule out medical causes such as anemia, hypothyroidism, blood sugar issues, etc before jumping straight to chemical "fixes."

Has SWIY had a full medical workup for their fatigue?

[honourableone]

I'd assumed that having been to the doctor to complain he would have had to have all of the needed tests, but that's a very good point. There are lots of possible causes for tiredness that could be treated at the source rather than at the symptoms, such as low iron levels - easily fixed with iron supplementation. SWIM had to have every test under the sun for him to be diagnosed with something else, so he knew that he was otherwise healthy (minus elevated bilirubin levels due to his Gilbert's Syndrome, which he thinks may be a cause of his fatigue).

[nick760]

The symptoms described actually perfectly characterize SWIM himself, word for word. He tires very easily, regardless of the amount of sleep he's gotten, ranging from 0 to 12+ hours. Exercise drains SWIM of energy. Ever heard of Adrafinil? It's like modafinil, but can be ordered online without a prescription. SWIM recommends doing some research into Adrafinil.

[spacelord]

gl SWIInq. modafinil might help your condition, but from anecdotal reports there seems to be a lot of ppl who hardly respond to it. stimulants like amph should work well, if that is the route SWIInq wishes to take.

better tho give us some more detailed information about what tests doctors have done as there are a lot of physical issues that could lead to lethargy and fatigue. what about diet, exercise? sleeping pattern. when/how (if at all) do the symptoms vary? how about stress?

yes, that's a lot to look into and check where the problem originates. most of the times it's a combination of several factors. don't give up. pursuing the stim rx for a short-time fix and trying to figure the other issues out seems to be a good idea.

[Hover]

Originally Posted by spacelord

stimulants like amph should work well, if that is the route SWIInq wishes to take.

Swim thinks that while amphetamine and congeners like methylphenidate seem to work somewhat even at low dosage on children with ADHD, using them to treat daytime lethargy in adults only works when taken on an occasional basis, due to the rapid buildup of tolerance. Once one requires doses that would be considered recreational (much higher than therapeutic) to maintain basic vigil on a daily basis the risk of inducing physchotic behavior far outweighs any benefits and the patient ends up in far worse shape than his previous condition as a slug.

That said, Swim believes there is sufficient scientific evidence that drugs such as Modafinil and Adrafinil, which are not amphetamine congeners and are much less addictive than the above, may be much more beneficial to treat chronic daytime lethargy of undeterminable cause. Unfortunately in the US Modafinil has acquired a reputation of being a drug similar to methylphenidate due to it being portrayed as such in a few popular TV shows, most notably CSI, and this is causing many GP's to hesitate to prescribe it for conditions that they think are benign (until it happens to them personally).

Another drug which is an amphetamine congener but has little or no abuse potential is bupropion (Wellbutrin, Zyban). This drug is easy to obtain even in the US and apparently works quite well in treating lethargic conditions other than true narcolepsy. Since the main reason why many US doctors won't prescribe Modafinil is its status as a hassle-generating controlled drug, US patients dealing with daytime lethargy of undeterminable cause could ask for Wellbutrin as an alternative.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good advice

[NeuroByte]

If SWIY REALLY want provigil then SWIM would recommend that SWIY try an online pharmacy in india(where they don't ask too many questions). I actually have a script for provigil and i buy it online simply because it's a hell of a lot cheaper ($X each local, XXX each web).

as for Ritalin, IT'S THE CLOSEST THING TO COCAINE THAT IS LEGAL. I was prescribed ritalin for 12 years and now i have heart problems. provigil dosen't even go near the heart, it works in the brain. If SWIY wants to try a script then SWIM would recommend provigil. But SWIY should at least read the wikipedia page on it first