Medication Advice

[Mr. Patty Pat]

Hi,

I'm new here so apologies if anything is wrong.

Let me start by giving you my background. A little over a year ago I spent the night in the hospital by stupidly combining MDMA and 5HtP that caused some pretty bad serotonin syndrome. Leading up to this point I had been taking Adderall for several years. After that experience, it scared me straight. When I say scared, I mean it. I started getting really bad panic attacks in the weeks after this. I quit taking Adderall cold turkey because it made the panic attacks worse. I couldn't take the panic attacks, so I went to the doctor and told them everything. They prescribed me Wellbutrin. After a few weeks of an adjustment period, it helped and the panic attacks went away. The only drug I would occasionally do in combination with Wellbutrin was LSD, but that only every 4-5 months.

Flash forward a couple months from my SS experience and I met my current girlfriend. Up until this point, I had drank occasionally, but she was super social and we often went out to bars once we started drinking regularly. I read that drinking with Wellbutrin is a bad combination and with the increased frequency of drinking, I started weaning myself off Wellbutrin. Once I was entirely off I started to feel less focused again, so I went back to the doctor and they prescribed me Adderall again.

Adderall is great in the beginning, but the tolerance really kills me. When it starts to wear off it would make me angry and I'd snap at little things, especially when combining it with alcohol. This lead to several big fights with my girlfriend. I decided it wasn't worth it to keep taking Adderall, so I quit it cold turkey again. It's been a couple months now, but everything seems so bleh. This is what lead me to this forum to ask for advice.

I felt like a benefited greatly from when I took Adderall, but the downsides were a lot. Is there a way to reduce or get rid of the getting upset aspect when you come down? I've considered anti-depressants, but I'm scared of anything serotonin related as I read that getting Serotonin Syndrome once makes you more likely to get it again. Wellbutrin acts on dopamine and not serotonin, but again we still frequently social drink and I'd prefer to not have to give up drinking altogether since it's a social activity my girlfriend and I do together. Are there any anti-depressants that you can drink with, but don't affect Serotonin? I've never really been much of a smoker, but would it be ok to combine a dopamine related anti-depressant with weed, as a substitute for alcohol? Any other options you'd suggest?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

 

[Ksa]

Ya, my experience taking Adderall, if a math problem took a page to solve, I would grab the pen and stab the paper until either the pen broke or I made a hole in the table under it. The LEVO-amphetamine in my situation was directly responsible for the rage, so switching to Dexedrine or Desoxyn would probably get rid of these rages. Also you need to wait longer for amphetamines and your brain to become friends. Right now they may not like each-other very much, but with time, they will.

 

[Slow_Mobius]

Did you talk to your doctor about drinking with bupropion? For most people, I think it's fine to drink in moderation with bupropion unless your epileptic or seizure prone. Bupropion is an antidepressant that's notorious for causing seizures, so other SSRIs and SNRIs would be better if you're seizure prone, and you would probably be fine drinking in moderation on them.

Bupropion primarily increases norepinephrine, so it might be worthwhile to opt for something that's more of an NRI than SSRI.