I came across this thread a while back when I was trying to gather information about the dangers of mixing amps and opiates. Specifically Adderall and Oxys/Roxys. Experiences have occurred between then and now so I felt I should share them. While I found a lot of information on amp/opiate combinations, I didn't find a lot of useful info for my specific combo.
Note: All mentions of Adderall mg in this post is instant release and none of the engaged activities referenced in this post are illegal as I have prescriptions for both substances.
Some background...
If not interested skip to the experience part, I promise you won't hurt my feelings. I failed miserably on trying to keep it short, but succeeded greatly in burning time at work...These details are really for those that are researching and haven't found anything useful to them regarding this topic. And those trying to burn time at work
From 19 to 24 years old I went to school at one of the top engineering schools in the nation while working two jobs. Simply put, when I had Adderall my grades were acceptable and when I didn't they weren't. I tried other amphetamines and none of them compared to the Addys. I would feel great euphoria from them and studying became one of my favorite things to do. The come down was also negligible compared with the devastating ones you get from the other amps. There were some annoying side effects at the time but they were tolerable. The Addy use was over a relatively short period of time though, maybe 2-3 times a month for about a year even though my script was 30/month.
After graduating I took a job that demanded a ton of hours and was not fun to say the least. It didn't take long for me to discover that many of the employees were high while on the job to deal with the long hours. It also didn't take long for these employees to lose their jobs due to random drug tests and other epic fails. Some life changing events occurred while at this job that led me to have to use OCs. Naturally, over time my tolerance increased. Today it takes me about 60mgs to hit euphoric regions. I can do an 80 at once and have done up to 120mgs in a day but I pass the fuck out for 12 hours and wake up with back aches. My oxy use is similar to the addys as far as frequency...I will do them maybe once or twice a week for because of two things. I'm really not trying to develop a dependence and REALLY not trying to go through WD, and the side effects explained later.
The idea...
Now I am working towards my masters/PhD. I had a super rough semester last spring so I found Adderalls again to help. I don't know if it's because I'm older now (27), but the Addy side effects are noticeably rough on me now. My heart rate/blood pressure goes up noticeably, which is an uncomfortable feeling physically as well as the thought that your heart is basically kicked into overdrive. I get diarrhea and bad stomach aches that are REALLY annoying. Also, I cannot go to sleep and that impacts the whole day. I know some of you have been through much worse, but at one point I was up 3 days straight with not ONE minute of sleep...all while even trying to go to sleep multiple times. This was after taking three 20mg tabs at 8am, 10am, and noon on the first day...something I used to do all the time with no insomnia. I can tell you that 3rd day I was seeing some crazy things and do not wish to go through that again. I don't use the oxys as much anymore also because of side effects. Mainly, I get constipated like hell and that really sucks after a few days. This is mostly because you can't eat anything without feeling nauseous. When the bowel movements finally do occur they are horrific just like the last Jason movie you saw. If I happen to fall asleep on OCs I wake up to a concerned wife telling me I am developing breathing problems. I'm not concerned that this is a chronic development because this occurs ONLY when I fall asleep within 2-3 hours of peaking...but this does mean apnea is becoming a side effect. No thanks to the apnea.
SO...I began to wonder about combining the two. I love the euphoric feelings you get from both and it just so happens that I enjoy being productive while on them. I was mainly concerned about the safety of it since I've always heard mixing amps and opiates, or uppers and downers rather, are dangerous. Hell, taking them by themselves isn't great for your health but I wanted to know the extent of mixing them. You and I know there are certain levels of risk we are willing to accept...
Concerns...
I found some general experiences of people taking the two but the dosage was much different. Dosage was my main concern. Your body builds a tolerance to opiates and there is truly no practical "maximum dose" that applies to everyone. If your tolerance is high enough you can take 800mgs in a day whereas that would kill the shit out of most of us. There is a much smaller max dose for amps and your body builds a tolerance also, but the amp tolerance is raised and lowered very quickly (3 days, for me at least). My opiate tolerance hasn't really moved over the years, but my amp tolerance resets to zero after going about 2-3 days without them. So basically, an oxy dose would need to be sufficient according to my tolerance and as low/high as a 20/60 mg dose for Adderall.
I was worried about possible chemical/biological reactions with both drugs. For example, let's say you had one person with a very high opiate tolerance and another with a low tolerance with both having no amp tolerance. It takes person one 180mgs OC to achieve the same "feeling" that 20mgs OC gets person two. Person one is dosed with 180/20 mgs of OC/Adderall and person two with 20/20 mgs. Lets assume the "feeling" of both drugs when combined is also the same for each person since they share the same "feeling" for each drug taken individually (probably a false assumption, but whatever you get the point). If there is any non-synergistic reaction between the drugs, person one will definitely get more of it for obvious reasons whereas person two will be completely unaffected. If this reaction has an addition effect, person one will most likely be alright. If this reaction has a multiplier or exponential behavior, person one is probably dead. The posts I came across were people experimenting with smaller combos like 40/20, etc. I needed information for the dose combination for my tolerance, somewhere around 60/40, 80/40, or maybe even 80/60.
This was a concern primarily because some drug combos can behave this way. Everyone knows someone who has died from ODing. I know of 7 instances in our community over the years, every single one from a drug combo. Alcohol is usually present, but actually heroin and xanax accounted for the majority of these. Dose levels for each drug were well within acceptable range if they were administered individually. You could look at that and think "no shit, don't mix two downers" but there is no way to predict how certain individuals will react. Again, these ODs were caused from the interaction between the drugs, not because of breached max doses.
Experience...
I couldn't find evidence confirming nor denying harmful reactions that could occur between Adderall and OC so I did the smart thing and said fuck it. The Add takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to kick in for me, whereas the OC is about 15 mins. I took a 20mg Add followed by a 40mg OC when the effects of the Add came on after about 2 hours. I experimented with many different dose combos starting with 20/40, 20/60, 40/60, 40/80, and even tried 80/120 (Add/OC). Now, keep in mind these doses total the whole day. I was not interested in taking them all at once. For the Add, I never took more than 20mg at once and spaced them out every 2 hours. I would then take the OC about 2 hours after the LAST Add dose. The 80/120 day was more like the 20mg Add every 1.5 hours, 60mg OC in between the 3rd and 4th, then the last 60mg OC an hour after the 4th Add...
Combining these two gave me euphoric sensations I have never experienced before. It wasn't euphoria that knocked you out like too much OC, or euphoria that geeked you out like too much Add. It was truly the best of both worlds, something I thought was virtually unachievable when reading about drug combos. Out of the small number of posts I found about this specific combo, most described a good feeling but conflicting effects. I read a lot of how the OC dominated the Add or vice-versa. This was definitely not the case with my experience.
The two balanced each other out nearly equally. This was evident by a number of things that may not make sense when read. During the most intense times, I felt intelligent and focused, yet relaxed and reserved. The overall effect was very calm and soothing without the drowsiness. It was like having the productive effects from Add but with the ability to control them completely.
When taking Add alone I experience "productive" effects like stricter focus, the ability to retain more information faster and over a longer period of time, and a greater attention to detail. There is a catch to all of these effects though that may prove to be counterproductive. The stricter focus causes me to over-analyze immensely, the greater attention to detail is unnecessary a lot of times, and you will find that time flies by. The reason time seems like it flies by is because it takes 2x, 3x, even 4x the amount of TIME to complete tasks. When you are 4x slower then yeah, everything seems like it's happening faster than you cause it is! I am just as worried about writing my letters/numbers and making schematics/draft drawings perfect as I am about making sure the quality of my work is up to par. It bothers the hell out of me when something is barely asymmetrical and I easily spend more time erasing than I do writing. You don't even want to know about the massive lord-of-the-rings type battle going on in my mind when attempting to draw a circle... And after all that, when the day is over my mind feels like its burnt and I can't go to sleep.
When experiencing the combo I could analyze but didn't feel the need to if it was unnecessary. That's the added effect. The OC calms you down to where you are able to direct attention to things that need it while ignoring things that don't...and feel good about it. However, you've probably guessed by now that I have some mild OCD tendencies and it is well known that Add amplifies these tendencies.
The last big positive of the combo, and perhaps the most interesting, was the resulting side effects. Most of the side effects described previously were straight up non-existent...they pretty much canceled each other out. I personally think this is remarkable. It makes sense when side effects from both meds are juxtaposed. Add gives me diarrhea where OC makes me constipated. Add gives me insomnia where OC causes me to pass out. Add makes me tense and fidgety while OC is relaxing. When compared, pretty much every side effect of one has a polar opposite side effect from the other. I would just figure some side effects would be dominant in a non-linear fashion but from my experience you may as well have been adding a positive number to it's equal negative. No problem sleeping, no burnt mind feeling, my heart rate even slowed. As the Add wore off the OC was still in effect pretty much, so towards the end of the day you begin to get drowsy...which worked out perfectly for me.
Conclusion...fucking finally
Well I hope the damn book I just wrote gives those of you who were in my position some insight. I would definitely call the experiment a success and I think most of that is attributed to the dosing process. When looking back on it, I never went back and forth between the drug types except for the last (due to the higher doses over longer time). The Add (upper) was taken spread out but all consecutively, followed by the OC (downer) consecutively if there were multiple doses. I have found from experience that taking my OC dose all at once is generally the best way to do it. If you take them spread out you get residual effects that don't mesh well for me. The "coming up" and "coming down" OC effects don't go well together. This is in stark contrast to the combo, where a possible hypothesis is that the residual effects of both drugs is what made this experience so great since they were timed, or "synced", or whatever.
I do have great respect for the fire I am playing with here. I don't plan on doing this often at all. Because I did this, and because it worked out better than I had hoped, taking Add or OC alone just won't be as good. The effects were great but perhaps too great. There has to be an increased health risk especially when doing this regularly. I am a scientist by trade and therefore strive to find answers by making observations and conducting research to compile facts...but I am nowhere close to being a med doctor, and attempting to use my analysis/engineering methods to determine health risk is foolish.
If you read this whole thing you really need to find something to do lol.