Stimulants Dexadrine- weaning off or cessation?

[schwelly]

Hello all, I am in a bit of a pickle So to speak.

I do have legitimate ADHD... however I have found myself in a position that is not good.

I work in corporate healthcare, and in a position that requires long hours, and availability on weekends. A typical day is about 9-11 hours for me. Some days are less... but it all averages out to about 60 hours a week.
Anyhow, I’ve been on dexadrine for some time now, and have fallen into the trap of taking more than prescribed so I can push through.
This has been terrible, and I want to either taper to a normal effective dose (prescribed 40mgs, how we it’s typically 50-80 Mgs a day depending). As such I run out of medication, and also it is impacting me negatively.

I suppose a taper would be easiest. That way I wouldn’t have to take time off of work (I won’t be able to take time off until the week before thanksgiving). But at the same time tapering is rough on me, and I’m needing to stay alert for work- so just taking a week off and getting it out the way is nice.

I need some input please. Because currently I have about 11 days left of medication @ 40mgs/day, however I cannot get a refill for 16 days.
Thanks!

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

Just jump down to 25mg's a day if you want to make it until your fill date. Alternatively you could jump down to 30mg's and try to avoid your weekend work. Tapering might just prolong the fatigue and apathy.

When you get your new script start at 40mg's unless you feel that 30mg's is working for you now.

 

[Keif' Richards]

I get what you're saying OP. You want to get your Dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine) usage under control but aren't sure if you necessarily need to stop them completely or not. It is a tough issue to deduce how much of your overusage is a result of being overworked and how much might be straight addiction. It is probably a little bit of both. I would maybe try a slow taper back down to your usual dose, accepting that there will be some w/d symptoms involved. It should not be a completely debilitating experience.

If you had the time, I would completely cease usage for a few days, let's say 3-5 and then continuing at your usual dosage with the idea in mind that more self-control is required. Perhaps there is someone that you trust who can hold your meds for you? That would be ideal until you feel back in control.

If the issue is more of a straight-up addiction to Amphetamines and you have no control whatsoever, I would suggest slowly decreasing the dosage and not using Amphetamines at all anymore. Perhaps you could look into less-addictive/harmful substances like Modafinil. There are also some drugs that we could recommend that might ease some of the withdrawal symptoms. It is tough, however, medicating stimulant withdrawal as many of these drugs would be considered sedating by some.

 

[Zonxx]

Amphetamines along with their analogs are easy to fall back on as a crutch because amphetamines are more or less a pure form of 'go' energy, and make everything that much more efficient, the key is to make sure you have a grip on your dosages and if you've recently doubled your doses, then you should think about cutting down, but there's nothing wrong with using alittle extra once in awhile to get stuff done but they shouldn't be relied upon or else things get tricky. aswell, when you start to double your doses, etc, it becomes a pattern and let me tell you, its very very easy to double the dose, not so much so to cut it in half, especially when tolerance is involved, in my experience tolerance isn't completely reversible when it comes to amps, its always there to some degree whether you use less or not, if i don't take any for a week it doesn't take long before a smaller dose starts to feel like nothing try using a more efficient route such as Sublingual, it'll probably allow your to achieve what you need while using less.