Amphetamines and social anxiety

[doodle46525]

I've struggled with pretty major social anxiety most of my life. I have a lot of trouble connecting with people, speaking my mind, and thinking quickly on my feet in social situations. I am able to act quite normally when I'm alone, but I can become like a deer in the headlights in social situations.

Over several weeks, I tried 10 and 20mg doses of d-amphetamine (separated 1-2 weeks apart each time) that I got from a friend. Socially, it's like night and day. I am much, much more friendly, responsive, and talkative. I feel much more confident in myself and what I have to say. I specifically have Dexedrine spansules, and have tried taking the spansules normally as well as crushing the beads, mixing them with water, and drinking them to achieve a more IR-like effect.

I'm not going to list all of the changes I noticed, because I understand the effects of amphetamines on social interactions are pretty well studied and noted (though I know some people feel the opposite effect and become even more anxious... thankfully I am in the first boat, at least with relatively small amounts of d-amph). I will just say I experienced a complete overhaul of how I interact with other people, and with the exception of occasional rambling (which thankfully I tend to notice and stop quickly) and the usual insomnia you would expect, I saw only serious positive effects and no negatives. I'm fairly sure I have undiagnosed ADD too, and the ability to focus and think more clearly was fantastic, but the changes in sociability are even more desirable to me.

My question: if I were to get a prescription for Dexedrine or Adderall, what are some ways I can safely use this drug in the long term to retain its social anxiolytic properties? I've heard that tolerance can build pretty quickly for many people, especially regarding the social changes. I have chelated magnesium and take that daily, but I'd like to know any other things that may help, specifically with ways to reduce anxiety and increase confidence.

Essentially, is there any way I can prevent this from just being an effect I only feel as a newcomer which will later fade over time? I am nearly "amphetamine naive" at this point, and I want to try to keep these effective for as long as possible.

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Some notes and experiences with other substances, if anyone perhaps has more general purpose advice for dealing with social anxiety:

• This is the first kind of amphetamine I've ever tried. I have not tried Adderall.
• I've only ever taken 10mg or 20mg at a time, not any more. I have also only taken it when I slept for a good amount of time the night before.
• I've noticed similar social anxiety-reducing effects and similar changes with modafinil, though to a lesser extent. I think I respond unusually to modafinil compared to other testimonials I have read. Modafinil almost always gives me a mild euphoria, in contrast to the small amounts of d-amph which just seem to treat attention and anxiety issues with almost no euphoria. Modafinil will also often, but not always, result in a big crash 8-10 hours after I take it.
  • I did not really feel any euphoria any time I took the d-amph, just a general mood lift. I'm not sure if that's because of my pretty low dosage, or because they're spansules and my crushing did not make them equivalent to IR, or if it's due to my brain, or some combination. 20mg crushed beads resulted in the strongest effects felt, but still nothing I would describe as euphoria. I have read many comments about people comparing crushed beads from the spansules and IR, and feeling as though the beads still acted like XR despite being crushed, so I suspect that might apply here.
  • I am pretty sure what I have is really modafinil (Provigil).
• I am pretty tolerant to caffeine, but if I drink a lot more than usual I will feel the anxiety reducing effects for a short period of time, though with an undesirable crash afterwards. I also don't like the jittery feeling. (I tried d-amph rather than the Adderall salts because I heard Adderall can be more jittery, but I'm certainly open to trying it.)
• Weed does the exact opposite for me in terms of sociability; it's very enjoyable when I'm alone and in a good state of mind but I become a nervous and paranoid wreck in social situations and usually stay silent until the high wears off. I tend towards sativa-heavy strains though, and have not ever smoked a pure indica, so I do not know if that would also increase the anxiety.
  • I would say I sometimes feel very powerful euphoria from sativa strains.
• I've tried small amounts of Klonopin and Codeine as well, but not with significant reductions in social anxiety. I'm new to benzos and the Klonopin makes me extremely drowsy though, so I don't think I've "tested" it properly.
• Alcohol reduces my social anxiety pretty effectively, but there are a ton of negative drawbacks obviously, and I always feel very sick and suffer from hangovers. The desirable effects also seem to be more temporary than d-amph, unless I keep drinking constantly throughout the night.
• I try to get a lot of sleep every night and am usually pretty well-rested, so I don't think the stimulants are masking issues resulting from sleep deprivation.
  • I will say, though, that I seem to require a bit more sleep than most adults on average. I pretty much need a consistent 8-9 hours every night to be completely functional in the day. If I have multiple days with only 6 hours, I am basically destroyed. I don't think that's too different from the norm to be important, but thought it was worth mentioning.

Out of everything listed, d-amph makes me feel the most normal, like how I should've always been. Higher doses of modafinil would be second place.

 

[Lady Codone]

Stick to the lowest effective dose and take frequent med breaks. When you feel your tolerance increasing, take a few days off rather than increasing the dose.

I've used amphetamines in one form or another daily for years and they have not lost effectiveness. But many people do find that the initial euphoria wears off with time. The only way to prevent this is to use them sparingly and don't abuse them.

 

[doodle46525]

Stick to the lowest effective dose and take frequent med breaks. When you feel your tolerance increasing, take a few days off rather than increasing the dose.

I've used amphetamines in one form or another daily for years and they have not lost effectiveness. But many people do find that the initial euphoria wears off with time. The only way to prevent this is to use them sparingly and don't abuse them.

Thanks, I will definitely try to follow those tips.

In this case I'm not seeking euphoria, though I wouldn't be against it necessarily, as long as I can reduce or raise the dosage to not feel the euphoria when I need to do serious things. Of course that would be playing with fire in terms of tolerance, though I would be open to trying that once a month perhaps as an experiment.

One other question: how should/could I broach the question of getting an Adderall or Dexedrine prescription? If I said something like "I tried Adderall twice in college to help with studying, and found it removed my social anxiety and resolved most of my attention problems", would most doctors be ok with that, or would they suspect drug-seeking behavior? In this case I am drug-seeking, though it's actually to self-medicate and not to abuse recreationally.

 

[sam05]

i was scripted these for ADD after seeing a psychiatrist about having problems with focus and attention at work. at first they made it so easy to interact with people and i felt like i was smarter than without them, but i had to take so many a day and if i missed a dose i would get really bad headaches, so i stopped taking them.

have also used them recreationally in high doses and they can induce psychosis if you take enough.

in the beginning its all good and then u develop a tolerance and need more, suffer serious headaches and other bad things and realize your better off without them in the long run. this was my experience with them anyway.

 

[doodle46525]

i was scripted these for ADD after seeing a psychiatrist about having problems with focus and attention at work. at first they made it so easy to interact with people and i felt like i was smarter than without them, but i had to take so many a day and if i missed a dose i would get really bad headaches, so i stopped taking them.

have also used them recreationally in high doses and they can induce psychosis if you take enough.

in the beginning its all good and then u develop a tolerance and need more, suffer serious headaches and other bad things and realize your better off without them in the long run. this was my experience with them anyway.

Indeed, I have heard similar stories. I want to try to find a way to avoid an experience like that. I'd like to avoid upping my dose and dealing with serious withdrawal symptoms. I also have no plans to take them in high doses; definitely not at psychosis-inducing levels. I have heard some long-term success stories, so I still would like to give it a shot.

That leaves me with questions like: could I perhaps try taking one every other day, or 3 weekdays per week, or some other regimen to keep tolerance low? I'm guessing probably "no" as I imagine withdrawal symptoms would start to build up, though at the least I plan on trying to keep to the lowest dose possible.

 

[Speed King]

Doodle, everyone is right on with their reply's.
Remember to relax into the medicine. If you relax because you know the medicine will work prior to dosing, it will work better.
This is a great thread.

 

[alteredstatez]

I do think amps can be used to treat social anxiety although in some people amps cause anxiety yes staying at a lowest dosage is best ive done some experimenting with adderall both prescribed and recreational . Recreational usage can get carried away and cause unwanted side effects
I like the adderall memantine and magnesium combo

 

[neurotic]

fwiw, i wouldn't use them as a crutch as that can't possibly lead to anything good. i would try to use them only on situations where you can't bother with social anxiety. two to three times a week sounds fine, but if you start having problems keeping it at that frequency i would start to worry.

there are no real withdrawal symptoms - more like a big comedown if your life is a big stim binge - from stims, the problem is that tolerance sets in very quickly (no real experience with amp, lots with MPH and coke tho)

again i'd try to get over your social anxiety through CBT and learning about it and using amps as boosting tool - not as a crutch

 

[Dresden]

To the OP,

Welcome to the never ending story that is amphetamine addiction. Drug addiction (especially to speed) never really goes away, however at some point it can be arrested, and recovery is then possible.

 

[PsychedelicWizard]

The only real way to beat social anxiety is to increasingly become exposed to social situations and even intentionally make yourself do socially in-appropriate things to overcome the fear response.

If social situations are triggers for anxiety-producing synthesis to begin, then they will always produce anxiety, even if you chemically treat the result of what being anxious does to the brain and body.

Basically the drug can solve the problem, but does not address the source. The only way to beat the problem entirely, is to face these social situations and try to ignore the anxiety by focusing a happy state instead, which gets easier the more it is done.

Our whole society has this problem though, so usually, talking to strangers means they will be more anxious than you.

 

[switchtop]

I hate to say this, but goddamn, I would kill to reach anxiety relief from stimulants rather than depressants (benzos/alcohol). Something like methylphenidate doesn't really affect my anxiety whatsoever, but aderall gives me panic attacks. Benzos and alcohol give me so much anxiety relief that they are kinda addictive. I would much rather be prone to aderall/ritalin abuse than alcohol/benzo abuse any day...

 

[Newin419]

OP, just wanted to say that we both share very similar issues. And yes, amps, benzos, and opiates all make me more outgoing socially. I would have a lot more friends if I wasn't so socially awkward while sober..

 

[ThePharmacist4925]

The only way to use amphetamines for social anxiety is to avoid frequent usage. As a matter of fact you should never use it on back to back days and you should not increase your dose past the dosage at which you experience a significant decrease in social anxiety symptoms. I think amphetamines could be used as an alternative to benzodiazepines if someone uses benzos for social anxiety so frequently that they begin to lose effect. In this case using an amphetamine every once in awhile would allow someone to avoid tolerance issues with the benzodiazepines to some degree.

Ritalin and its derivatives are out of the question for usage in the treatment of anxiety.

Benzodiazepines and amphetamines should not be used simultaneously in order to treat social anxiety.

Everything that I've said should make perfect sense clinically speaking and even then I've been to liberal in my assessment of this issue.