I was on Adderall for a very brief period. If anything, the side effects of Adderall made me use more loperamide to counteract them.
I started at about 40 pills 3 years ago. 200 is where I ended up. I didn't need to increase the dose, but I did anyway because I'm an addict and that's just what we do. When I started increasing the dose, I couldn't go back down without losing some of the relief it gave me. 200 is just where I happened to be when I came to the conclusion that I had to stop.
The muscle weakening is scary as shit. I've almost choked on food too many times. I also got extremely lightheaded when having to even mildly expend energy. Going up the stairs to my bedroom would cause me to faint because going up stairs was too much work for my body to handle. I fainted getting out of my car once. If it had happened a minute sooner, I'd have killed myself or someone else. Even pushing a cart of groceries out to my car caused me to faint. I fell and smacked my head against this guys bumper. He was nice enough to help me up and walk to my car. I shouldn't have drove home though.
Another thing it messed with was my vision. My eyes were OK when looking straight ahead, but if I tried to move my eyes to the side to look at something, I didn't have the strength to hold them there. They'd start shaking and return to center. To look to the side, I'd have to turn my head.
Breathing was always way too shallow, and it was impossible to take a deep breath. Shortness of breath probably contributed to my constant feeling of faintness. I also got a really severe chest pain from time to time, sort of like something was stuck in my throat near my heart and lungs. It was very painful, and often times pretty damn scary.
All this mostly occurred with 144 pills or more. When I was at the stage where I was using 100 or less, I never experienced any of these side effects. I can't comment on doses between 100 and 144 because I never took any in that range, but I assume from the severity of the symptoms at above 144 that they would be there with lower doses, but maybe not as severe.
If a Mod could be kind enough to merge my previous posts, I'd be forever grateful. I'm posting from my phones browser on the mobile version of the site, and the logistics of editing and merging them all myself is complicated. There may be an easier way to do it on this new version of VB, but I'm not familiar with it, and I apologize if it is there and I'm not seeing it.
Yes, it does block loperamide, and the reverse - Suboxone precipitating withdrawals from loperamide - is true too.
As for it crossing the BBB, people misunderstand this, thinking it doesn't cross AT ALL. It does, but in very small amounts, which was why it wasn't adopted as an alternative to methadone, which was the hope when it was created (the more you take, the more that gets through, but if I remember correctly, there's a ceiling on the amount that can get through, but don't quote me on that part; and various sources of information on loperamide that I have read in the past put its potency on par with fentanyl, active in microgram doses, so even if just a tiny amount got through, that would theoretically be enough), but you also have peripheral receptors in your intestines where it isn't inhibited by the BBB. I suspect this is why there really isn't a traditional "high" from loperamide, but it is sufficient enough to ease withdrawals. You are certainly correct that placebo would definitely not completely negate withdrawal symptoms. It's simply not that powerful of an effect.
Edits - correcting my autocorrect
