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How long does it take to get over meth use?

the red shark

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 23, 2006
Messages
334
I know everyone is different, but I went from heavy use smoking, eating it regularly prior to that all up since 2002-2009 with '05-'08 being the worst in terms of smoking. 2009 was on and off but still weekly and now it's been about 5 times in the last year, but takes it out of me too much: two weeks recovery after a cpl nights no sleep. The problem is I was so used to working on meth that it has taken about a year to be able to work properly and efficiently without it, but that is still an effort. I have no motivation to study or go out. I'm not depressed cos I am actually quite happy, just lack energy. I take so many vitamin supplements and eat healthy, need to exercise more though (if i could get out of the house). Just wondering how long til I feel like doing anything, any past experience would be appreciated because it has been two years since I quit close to daily use and over a year since it became sporadic.
 
I'm in a similar situation, recovering from a heavy meth habit. The time it takes to feel "normal" again varies from person to person, but my drug counsellor told me that most heavy meth addicts recover within 6 months to a year. Good luck!
 
^ Sweet P is right, it can take awhile to return to normal after meth use. I used to scare myself silly by searching journal articles about long term/permanent meth induced changes in the brain compulsively for hours when I was coming down, and generally just making myself feel shit. It was also an excuse not to stop, because I thought I just couldn't face a year recovering. People who abuse drugs are generally pretty impulsive and want quick results, so that can be a bit of a downer!

I have been using mostly heavily for the past 7 years but have just made 2 weeks off after the heaviest few months of using (5-7 days a week) I've ever had. I feel much better than I thought I would after only 2 weeks off (though it feels like a lifetime). After a week I noticed my motivation had returned a lot, and I'm already doing much better at work. So, even though PAWS can last for months or years, that doesn't mean you're going to be a miserable mess that whole time.
 
It probably took me about 2 years to recover. My brain function isn't quite as good as it once was, like for quick math, but my spacial skills are back. And what isn't back is only slightly different. Moodwise, it took awhile, a long while. And I don't know if it was just brain chemistry, or just me having socialized myself to expect instant gratification. With meth, you feel better when you take a hit, in the real world, you have shitty days, and they last all day, and sometimes longer. You might be tired all day, and you might not sleep well for a week. It got me down, even three years later, because I wanted it fixed now, I wanted to feel better now. But I'm more patient now, not perfect, but better.
Hope this helps.
 
Umm I hate to rain on your parade buddy but it took me 7-8 years before I was over my speed psychosis completely.
I'm not sure if you're dealing with the full blown psychosis from it, but it took only a year to develop and I lived with it for another 6 months using speed.
When I stopped I was still having hallucinations, and palpitations in the back of my head that would make my neck twitch. It affected my walk, my motor control, and being around people in general was extremely difficult due to all the twitching, paranoia and hallucinations that it caused.

I was in outpatient rehab for 2 months and had not spoke a single word because of the speed. And one day the counselor decided I had a pretty severe issue and got me to see my first psychiatrist ever. I was put on paxil and although it definitely sped up the process of getting over it, it definitely didn't stop it at all.

I was not buying speed as I was busted for having my own lab, so I also smoked and snorted on avg 4-5gms a day. At that rate it only took a year to completely lose my mind.

When I say it took 7-8 years to get over it, I mean thats when I had my last speed induced panic attack. I was still also getting residual peaks of paranoia, that wouldn't always turn into panic attacks, and what basically happened was over time the frequency just slowly and slowly decreased.
I remember after about year 3 even though I got over like 80% of the side effects, I still contemplated sucide often thinking I had permanent brain damage from the toxins in the speed. The other 20% slowly got better off the next 4-5 years.

Speed is a horrific fucking drug that triggers so much dopamine in your brain the dopamine beings to behave like ammonia (the amine in dopamine is essentially an ammonia branch). Dopamine even in little amounts has the ability to corrode and kill off brain cells, in large amounts it can also damage blood vessels in your brain. To add to that corrosive property of dopamine (alcohol does NOT release even close to the amount of dopamine that speed does)
is that most speed is not fractionally purified properly in labs, so lye, iodine, and phosphorous often contaminates it. If you are smoking speed those lye vapors can cause SERIOUS damage to your brain.
If you just take it orally its not as bad. Unfortunately I was doing both however.

I'd venture to say if you were just snorting or injecting speed, you will be over it much quicker. If you ever smoked it however, its is MUCH MUCH worse. Injecting and snorting will somewhat prevent the toxins from going straight to your head, smoking it keeps the toxins in a vapor state which allows them to cause a lot more harm to your brain. I remember several times taking my morning hit and vomiting all over the place than falling to the floor. I was prob as bad as bad gets when it comes to smoking it. So my case is definitely more on the extreme side.
By I'd say once you get done and over speed, use ANYTHING IN THE WORLD you'd like, just DO NOT ever go back to speed.
I still can't take ephedrine today because I start twitching and shaking terribly from it, and almost any stimulant besides coffee has similar effects. So my stimulant days are long over thanks to speed. Opiate although physically addictive, do not cause brain damage like speed. I'm not saying go use opiates, just realize that speed is very much its own demon and really a terrible drug to be hooked on. Its odd that I had such a hard on for stimulants back in the day but 9-10 years later slowly feel into opiates. I believe I took such a liking to opiates in the first place because they relieved me so much from the speed induced bullshit. But the bad thing now is when I wd from opiates, I get particularly bad symptoms from too much adrenaline. My blood pressure always goes hypertensive in wds and insomnia doesn't seem to get better for weeks and weeks. When most people will get over that stuff relatively soon.

G/luck!!! And if you need to get on an ssri the one that wound up working best for me was Lexapro, not Paxil or Zoloft. Zoloft is a stimulant, which actually made my panic attacks more frequent. Paxil worked somewhat, but Lex was just so much cleaner and more affective for my long term sideeffects.
 
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Wow ^^ what a story. Thank you for sharing, so much good info for people who are getting in too far or even people thinking of using. I have someone I am passing this post onto that really needs to read this.
 
Wow is right... After reading that freak-show I am probably going to take a raincheck the next time it's offered to me. Good lord I thought I was bad off in my psychosis. Just out of curiosity, after taking a hit so ridiculous that made you puke what was next on your agenda? I mean when I would take a hit anywhere near something like that I was instantly on board the crazy train. Heck even if I snorted a line that was particularly strong I was all over the windows making sure there was enough cardboard taped around the edges so no cops could see inside, since they were out there spying on me.

My habit was heavy but relatively short lived. Under a year.

Well my experience of meth was not that intense. It revolved around mainly snorting and occasionally smoking it, way too much risky behavior, sex, masturbation, and totally isolating myself inside the castle that paranoia built.

It took me around 8 months, at about that point I would occasionally forget about what I was missing and move on. The bad part for me was that I relied on it heavily to complete my activities and to fuck like a porn star. So that was the hardest part, getting used to the day-to-day world with normal energy levels at best.
 
Wow I'm really glad that moved a few people, I think if people really knew the kind of anger I hold inside myself towards speed that noone would ever use it.

I was not a controlled user but I also didn't use it for a long length of time, it was a short/high frequency period of abuse that affected my mind in the most nightmarish way a drug ever could.

I was just leaving though when I saw these comments, but I'd like to address a bit more what Soap asked and red sharks somewhat unmotivated response of "taking it one day at a time". I don't want him feeling like he just has to sit around and wait for things to get better, and although I was never able to find a solution to it myself there are things he can do to make it better.

Number 1 would be directly controlling his adrenal glands now and I'll explain a bit when I come back how speed affects adrenal glands, but its actually the opposite of how opiates effect opiate receptors. Biologically the opposite I mean, I'll be be back as soon as I get home but I definitely wanna write some more on this topic as personal an issue it has been for me my whole life.
 
I think Bojangles' experience is a good warning a definitely shows what can happen, but I would try not to let really bad experiences like that demotivate you. I'm an icehead, and I know not wanting to go through shit like that was a good excuse for me to just keep using. I'm not trying to diminish Bojangles experience at all, just don't let it act as a reason to lessen your motivation to quit. I know what it's like to face years, even just months of recovery - for an addict (someone who wants instant gratification), thinking of that is just a demotivator. I've had much the same usage period/pattern as you and I'm feeling pretty good after 3 weeks off now. This time I've quit everything though (even drinking), and that's made a huge difference to my energy levels/motivation. I also take a multi vitamin, fish oil, magnesium, tyrosine and B vitamins daily, which I think have helped too.
 
Years in my experience, like 3-4, even then I wouldn't say I'm entirely over it :(
 
Speed is bad! I had similar effects like those of Bojangels, started when I was 14(around 1995) got off of it completely when i was 18-19 (maybe still used it a 1-2 times after that). Boy I'll tell you it ain't like any other drug that I've tried, I'm so glad I got off of it. I'm 28 yrs old today and feel like the effects are barley wearing off. For the many years after I stopped everyday, and I mean every single day I regreted taking that stupid drug. I wish I was never introduced to it. It caused many freakin' problems through out my years, depressed me, changed me, and thought about killing myself because of it, but never attempted it, thankfully. Everything just went down hill. I'll probably write about it in the next few days. For now if your gonna use another drug, and I'm not advising you to use any at all, but if you are gonna use, make sure METH isn't one on your list.

Ez
 
Wow but one thing I will say about all you people, cause I can say it about me now. Its once you get through those long term effects, OMG does it change you as a person.

I am strong as fuck today only really due to my experience with speed (well and prison for speed) and almost nothing can break me down today soley because of that experience. I just have a very strategic way that I deal with problems now emotionally, and I learned that strategy by coping with all the lingering speed stuff. But how I walk, how I talk, how I carry myself today, the last thing you would prob ever think is I had a drug habit. The bad part I guess is that behavoir can also make it easier to hide things, but its still done more positive for me than people here may realize.

I never was able to give speeches in front of people and today for w/e reason I do it extremely well and passionately. For w/e reason I just have an certain empathy for people that allows me to "click" with them. Like once you go through that horror, and come out on the otherside people can just feel the strength you had to aqcuire to get through that time. And whether or not they know, they way they react to you will change.

I actually never got good with girls till years after getting off speed, but once I did get good, I realized a lot of it was from the skills I gained conquering my addiction (or side effects should I say lol). I can't really say I would trade it for anything in the world, for what? So I can be a weaker person today? No fucking way.

But the thing I wanted to say about speed and the receptors is this.
Speed will actually UPREGULATE your adrenal receptors.

People need to focus on that statement hard if your a speed addict. Once those receptors upregulate and multiply, when your body secretes adrenaline naturally, your receptors ALWAYS overrespond to the adrenaline.
This is exactly what leaves you with high blood pressure, anxiety, paranoia, insomnia, social disorders, and various other issues after speed.

Those adrenal glands will spin completely out of control when you get off speed. And they do not just down regulate the way opiate receptors will upregulate when you stop (thats why I said its the opposite biologically). It can stay like that for years and years where the tiniest little stimuli in your environment will cause you to overrespond.

For all the speed addicts in here lol, when you hear hi heels walking behind you do you get paranoid? It had nothing to do with females but the fact that my BODY would always respond like someone was following me (racing heart/etc) when my MIND knew logically it wasn't happening. Thats almost how so many symptoms were aggravated.

Hear a door close "omg what was that!!!" PANIC, PALPITATIONS, TWITCHING all just from a fucking door closing.

I really want people in here to know, that the single most effective med I EVER took (I've taken almost every drug and med you could imagine) was a beta blocker known as inderal.

Imagine inderal like a "limiter". For anyoone who knows what a limiter does to sound. But beta blocker will literally limit your adrenaline production. And THAT is the core of what creates so much bullshit after we get done using. Sure there are dopamine effects, but the adrenaline effects are the real bitch. If you take a beta blocker long term, it will gradually stablize your receptors. And I actually believe it forces them to down regulate. Because even when I don't take them now I still feel sooo much calmer.

It took me about 6 years of horrific bullshit before I found beta blockers, (I already said Lex was good too) but as far as keeping your biology under control after speed GET ON a beta blocker. And not a weak one either like toprol, take inderal its a godsend for what it can do.

Hope this helps at least 1 person.
 
^Oh yeah man, I'm on Inderal now like a religion. I am actually prescribed that along with Trileptal(downregulates extra electrical activity in the brain to control tremors, seizures, and mood swings) for my amphetamine come downs.

It's funny because I was originally prescribed Inderal for my terror of public speaking. I'd tried a lot of things before that that did not take the fear away, nothing did, except for Inderal, because like you said, it puts the killswitch on adrenaline output. A lot of panic victims are being inappropriately treated with AD's and Benzo's. Those do nothing for the core of the fear which is adrenelin.

Good story, good stuff. I agree with you I've been addicted to every horrible thing possible and came out on the other side relatively intact and it made me stronger in the end. I have one more beast left to kill...
 
^Oh yeah man, I'm on Inderal now like a religion. I am actually prescribed that along with Trileptal(downregulates extra electrical activity in the brain to control tremors, seizures, and mood swings) for my amphetamine come downs.

It's funny because I was originally prescribed Inderal for my terror of public speaking. I'd tried a lot of things before that that did not take the fear away, nothing did, except for Inderal, because like you said, it puts the killswitch on adrenaline output. A lot of panic victims are being inappropriately treated with AD's and Benzo's. Those do nothing for the core of the fear which is adrenelin.

Good story, good stuff. I agree with you I've been addicted to every horrible thing possible and came out on the other side relatively intact and it made me stronger in the end. I have one more beast left to kill...

Bro some people go an entire lifetime not realizing what you just wrote there.

It was the SAME exact experience with me. I tried benzos, I tried ssris, I even tried opiates and alcohol before class (which helped somewhat I won't lie) but inderal works so selectively on that region of the body that no other med really compares to what it does.

I can't believe how many times I had a panic attack and would actually leave the room before I had to give speeches. I must have happened at least 3 times. And I was on so many different drugs/meds at the time. Than one day I pop like 60mg inderal, stand in front of the class and notice my knees aren't buckling, my hearts not racing at all, I'm not shakey or physically nervous in the least. Although the mental anxiety was still there, just feeling how calm my body was obliterated that mental anxiety.

Just like you said the number 1 recommendation for any panic sufferer should be a beta blocker. Panic is 100% caused by adrenaline and if you're not addressing adrenaline its near impossible to stop it imo.

And its cool to see you have "one more beast" left to kill. Same story here. He's about 90% dead already its just these next few weeks that will count the most. Take care!
 
^I feel ya bro. I never had the guts to do it and panicked out always from any type of public speaking. That ridiculous irrational fear was stronger than my fear of death. In fact it carved out a huge chunk of my self esteem and shaped my life-long behaviors and jobs i would take on. I got a severe fear of success from it. I didn't finish college because of it. It chose what girls i would try to get, you know the easy ones with no self esteem and damaged as well. It wrecked and wasted me. What a shame it took me 20 years to find the right shrink.
 
It's interesting you say it's safer to IV meth. I do prefer to use it that way, I never enjoyed smoking it, I think it tastes god awful.
 
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