Stimulants Dexedrine withdrawal - advice would be really appreciated

[_Somethingintheway]

Hey there

I've been abusing dexedrine with no more than a 2 week break for the last 1.5 years. Highest daily dose was around 100mg.

I am now averaging about 50 to 70mg of extended release spansules daily and have every single day for the last 2 months.

Naturally I ran out of my rx. I have over 2 weeks to go. I have some 10mg ER remaining (about 6) and 12 5mg IR. What's the best way to withdraw from this? Do I do a couple days at 30, a couple at 20, then 10 then nothing for the remaining of the time? Or is it preferable to take like 5mg a day for as long as I can?

I take morphine 90mg daily for trigeminal neuralgia, 300mg lyrica. I have a bottle of valium but would like to use it sparingly. Any advice would be appreciated. Does anyone else react to stims in this way?

It's ruining my life. I have bad ptsd and use it to avoid sleep and numb me out. The euphoria is less pronounced now, it's the detachment and numbness that I get that has me hooked. I'm not productive at all, and I don't understand how everyone is manically getting stuff done. I lay on my couch and stare at the ceiling and dissociate into myself. I blink and 6 hours have gone by. I blink and 6 months have gone by. I've always been a skin picker and hair puller even before the dex but the last week I have maimed my chest and legs with the picking. I'm going to have serious scarring. I gave myself a staph infection on my face 6 months ago. My house is disgusting. I dropped out of school. I don't see anyone ever anymore. I don't even watch shows or listen to music, I literally just stare catatonic and disappear into myself. I've done stretches of 3 nights/4 days of no sleep about 4 times and I knew I was playing with psychosis. Shadows in my peripherals, confusion. My mother had a psychotic break in her 40s and I know if I continuw i can expect the same. I'm 30F and I'm so embarassed and am right on the cusp of losing everything and everyone finding out.

 

[Atomic_Decay]

Hey there

I've been abusing dexedrine with no more than a 2 week break for the last 1.5 years. Highest daily dose was around 100mg.

I am now averaging about 50 to 70mg of extended release spansules daily and have every single day for the last 2 months.

Naturally I ran out of my rx. I have over 2 weeks to go. I have some 10mg ER remaining (about 6) and 12 5mg IR. What's the best way to withdraw from this? Do I do a couple days at 30, a couple at 20, then 10 then nothing for the remaining of the time? Or is it preferable to take like 5mg a day for as long as I can?

I take morphine 90mg daily for trigeminal neuralgia, 300mg lyrica. I have a bottle of valium but would like to use it sparingly. Any advice would be appreciated. Does anyone else react to stims in this way?

It's ruining my life. I have bad ptsd and use it to avoid sleep and numb me out. The euphoria is less pronounced now, it's the detachment and numbness that I get that has me hooked. I'm not productive at all, and I don't understand how everyone is manically getting stuff done. I lay on my couch and stare at the ceiling and dissociate into myself. I blink and 6 hours have gone by. I blink and 6 months have gone by. I've always been a skin picker and hair puller even before the dex but the last week I have maimed my chest and legs with the picking. I'm going to have serious scarring. I gave myself a staph infection on my face 6 months ago. My house is disgusting. I dropped out of school. I don't see anyone ever anymore. I don't even watch shows or listen to music, I literally just stare catatonic and disappear into myself. I've done stretches of 3 nights/4 days of no sleep about 4 times and I knew I was playing with psychosis. Shadows in my peripherals, confusion. My mother had a psychotic break in her 40s and I know if I continuw i can expect the same. I'm 30F and I'm so embarassed and am right on the cusp of losing everything and everyone finding out.

Hi. Welcome to BL. The problems you are having are pretty common. You have nothing to be enbarrassed about here.

Everyone is different but your actual dexedrine consumption is not too extreme. The max daily prescribed daily dose for ADHD is around 30 mg. So if you are able to taper to 50 mg / day you are not a huge way off.

Considered in isolation from your other issues the dexedrine problem could probably be managed by a slow taper to the smallest sizr pill you’ve got. Then cold turkey with your valium ready if you need it for quite possible anxiety attacks or insomnia. 2 weeks and it would be over.

Howrver if you are prescribed dex then it is obviously the wrong med for whatever it was prescribed for. Even if it is relieving those symptoms it is addictive and problematic to you. So when you stop taking it those symptoms will likely return.

Ideally , if all your meds are prescribed, then you could tell your Dr where you are at and have a case review for both disgnosis and treatment. But i know this is not the way medical systems work everywhere.

More people will respond soon with more suggestions. Hang in there.

 

[Keif' Richards]

Well said @Atomic_Decay as usual.

Many will tell you, myself included that, when describing withdrawal from basically any drug, there is a seemingly disproportionate "pop" when actually going to absolute zero. You can be taking massive doses of a given drug and have a relatively linear withdrawal experience, but going to zero, nothing at all in your body, seems to have a major impact on people.

There are benefits and drawbacks to comparing ourselves, sure, but we can say with limited confidence that these dosages are not "extreme" by any stretch. There are people who inject 500mg Methamphetamine and the go about their day. Granted, their day consists of being ghouls, seeing ghouls and just ghoulship in general. My point still stands. Amphetamies have what is called a large "Therapeutic Index". This means, especially compared to Opioids, there is a wide-range of dosages consumed while still not being imminently dangerous.

You will likely need to be strategic here. If you work, do the bare minimum to keep you upright and not fired. This is not based on my advice per se, but is dictated by the total amount of Amphetamines available to you. Days off from work are days where you push your comfortable limits. Devote your saturday/sunday to being sick.

I would take zero Amphetamine on days you do not have to be functional. Considering you've been on Amphetamine in this way, continually, you're likely going to sleep quite a bit. You're familiar with the basics at this point, I'm sure, but if not, depression and anxiety are the other two big ones. Brace yourself for these. A lot of people end up sleeping through a lot of what would be the worst part. Maybe this is true for you as well.

I would shoot for 10mg or something similar, every day. It's true that Pregabalin (Lyrica) and/or Benzodiazepines will probably make you feel better, but I think this relief, considering your case, is just the fact that these drugs make people feel good. I don't consider them antidotes in any sense, as these drugs can both produce somnolence. If you're already tired, this could be detrimental for you. There aren't any drugs I could recommend really, analogous to say, recommending Codeine to a person withdrawing from Heroin.

It's probably quite obvious already, but there are stimulants available OTC ranging from Caffeine, to Ephedrine/Pseudoephedrine and all this new natural stuff. I take Cordyceps Mushroom powder and the energy it gives me is great.

Just know that if you are addicted to Amphetamine and running out like this, the trajectory downward in terms of your relationship with the drug are set. You will likely never be able to use Amphetamine ever again without severe consequences. It is just not the norm for these things to improve. None of us are immune to the allure of these drugs. If you want to stop for good, we can totally help you with that. We have an awesome recovery community here. They/we all understand what you're dealing with. If you just want to use Amphetamine, we will help you, but I'd just as soon see you say fuck it and try to live without them. This would not be overnight. It would be a process with your physician and you don't even have to tell them you're an addict. You can just say you want to see how it feels.

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

Agreed with the above, if you are at work only use just enough to keep you up and able and on your days off just sleep through the fatigue and depression. Tapering stimulants only prolongs withdrawal