• MDMA &
    Empathogenic
    Drugs

    Welcome Guest!
  • MDMA Moderators:

Constant muscle fasciculations after MDMA abuse. Did I do permanent brain damage?

Giovanni,

So you have twitching too?

Did your twitching start after using too much MDMA?

How long have you had this problem?
 
Yea ice I have those symptoms include the dreams and more symptoms which I will need 4 pages to described each one of them it has been two years now that I have this problem ,now I'm clean for two years now and due to this routine is much better now I will say huge improvement I go to church too which it helps me a lot because I find peace, happiness and friends there, yes all started because this awful drug. That I regret used
 
IcedCoffee, did you try EGCC + 5htp?

Check these articles/pages:

http://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/general-myoclonus/

Some studies have shown that doses of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), a building block of serotonin, leads to improvement in patients with some types of myoclonus. However, other studies indicate that this therapy is not effective in all people with myoclonus and may even cause the jerks and twitches to worsen in some affected individuals.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM197701132960203

We evaluated the therapeutic effect of L-5-hydroxytryptophan (L-5HTP), the precursor of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine), combined with carbidopa, a peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor, in patients with intention myoclonus and examined the serotonin metabolites in spinal fluid, blood and urine before and during therapy. In 18 patients with intention myoclonus due to anoxia or other brain damage, 11 derived more than 50 per cent overall improvement during treatment with L-5HTP and carbidopa. Spinal-fluid 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid was 35 per cent lower in patients with intention myoclonus than in controls (P<0.05). Therapy with L-5HTP and carbidopa increased the concentration of serotonin metabolites in urine and spinal fluid.
We postulate that a deficiency of brain serotonin is causally related to intention myoclonus and that the therapeutic effect of L-5HTP and carbidopa may be due to the repletion of serotonin in regions of the brain where serotoninergic neurons have degenerated. (N Engl J Med 296:70–75, 1977)

You can send them to your neurologist, in case she/he wants to investigate further :) Good luck, and I hope you feel better!
 
I have been drinking a lot of green tea (since I gave up coffee and caffeinated soda)

I do like the green tea. It tastes good, has 1/4 the caffeine compared to coffee, and I don't put cream/sugar in it, which makes it lower calories.

So, I have been getting a lot of EGCG. For about a month I was taking 5HTP, but it didn't seem to make a difference (good or bad).

I still have a bottle of it, I suppose I could finish the bottle.

Thanks for the well wishes, I'll report back once I have the EMG test done next month.

I still have the twitching. Not worse or better, still just there. Been about 3 months now.
 
I feel fine when lifting weights or using resistance machines at the gym.

Doing cardio on the treadmill feels good too. As does playing basketball (I'm in the US, basketball's pretty popular here)

I don't have any anxiety or depression issues, headaches, brain zaps, muscle weakness, nor trouble sleeping.

My issue is only that my arms and legs twitch when I'm at rest. (for example, sitting in my desk chair at work, or sitting on the couch watching TV, or laying in bed before sleep). Whenever I'm in any of those "resting positions" that's when I notice my arms/legs/feet/hands will start to twitch on their own. This never happened before MDMA. It is kind of the like they'll have these small jumps all on their own. It's like my foot or leg will just activate for a split second on its own.

I do get a little depressed this could be permanent, or embarrassed others might notice. But I try not to let the twitching bother me too much and if people do notice I just make something up like "oh I've had a lot coffee" (even though I quit coffee, haha)

Hopefully the EMG test results next month will be normal.

What issues do you have besides twitching?
 
YellowFishMate,

If you see this, I tried to respond to your private message but it told me your in box was full.
 
hyperprolactinemia
Hopefully the EMG test results next month will be normal.

I had one, it came totally normal.

Everything is/was normal in me, the ONLY indicator that was a bit off (but nothing to worry about) was hyperprolactinemia. They found out because I had a late period (and I was not pregnant), but the doctor said that it could be high because of stress (because it was not THAT off).
They get that value with a blood test. See if you can get it done, it exists on both men and women.

Hyperprolactinaemia may be caused by either disinhibition (e.g., compression of the pituitary stalk or reduced dopamine levels)
 
Interesting, normally elevated prolactin levels are only an issue with anti-dopaminergic antipsychotics. I wonder if people with Parkinson's have an increased rate of fasciculations or if there is any overlap between the pathophysiology of the tremors in Parkinson's (related to lack of dopamine) and fasciculations.
 
hyperprolactinemia

I had one, it came totally normal.

Everything is/was normal in me, the ONLY indicator that was a bit off (but nothing to worry about) was hyperprolactinemia. They found out because I had a late period (and I was not pregnant), but the doctor said that it could be high because of stress (because it was not THAT off).
They get that value with a blood test. See if you can get it done, it exists on both men and women.

This is really interesting information, however I doubt that is what's going on with me. I definitely don't have low libido or erectile dysfunction. Nor do I have gynecomastia (man-boobs), my chest is normal looking.

Sine man boobs and erectile dysfunction and headaches are the primary symptoms of hyperprolactinemia in men I doubt that's what's causing my twitching. I don't have any of those issues. I never get headaches.

In-fact if anything, since I've stopped all MDMA, cannabis and alcohol... I've noticed an uptick in my libido! I've also noticed I have morning wood almost every morning now, almost like when I was younger and still in college.

It's just this damn twitching that won't go away.
 
Read all three pages of the post, I think you are just fine.

Yes, that many months of abuse will have some side effects, muscle twitches is one of them, but don't worry, it will just go away with time.

My advice: Just don't over think and never Google your symptoms. Always go to a doctor if you think something is not right, Google is not a doctor. :)
 
Hi iced coffee

I am suffering with the same symptoms, how are you? Have you found a solution? This is what I've been having for months:

- crawling and buzzing sensation in lower legs, feels even worse with trousers on and my muscles are popping like popcorn underneath the skin
- prickly and warm feeling in legs
- pulsing feeling in legs, I can feel muscles pulsing in my feet, ankles, behind my knee and muscles, like I can feel blood flowing through my muscles
- pulsing in my hands, like my extremities are pulsing really hard, this includes my neck muscles when I'm laid in bed at night I can feel the pulses on my pillow making a sound
- twitching and popping in other areas of the body, not as much as my legs though this seems to be the primary issue, I get twitches every now and again in my back, face and arms but the legs are by far the worst and terribly uncomfortable
- restless sleep, struggle to sleep all the way through
- flexing my feet and legs, feel like I'm constantly stretching my ankles out And pointing my feet.

I think it's a serotonin and dopamine issue personally. Please get in touch if you can - many thanks.
 
Have I caused permanent damage to the axons in my brain?

Will these fasciculations go away eventually?

No.

Maybe.

fasciculations are common symptoms of anxiety, as well as HPA axis dysregulation (which is probably what you have).

They are caused by a hyper-adrenalized state, as well as glutamate hyperactivity, and dopaminergic actions as well

I wager that low-moderate dose diazepam will resolve your fasciculations.

google HPA axis dysregulation for how to treat --

as an experiment, masturbate without orgasm -- to the point where you can stop for a good 30 min (foreplay releases dopamine which allows for orgasm -- dopamine antagonists actually block orgasm) and see what the dopamine does to your fasciculations

as an experiment, masturbate to orgasm several times as quickly as you can and see what the serotonin and oxytocin release does to your fasciculations
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have twitching too, but it's not repeatedly in one spot. It's one time in numerous spots, my foot or leg will twitch. It used to be worse, but seems to have stopped getting better.
 
I have twitching too, but it's not repeatedly in one spot. It's one time in numerous spots, my foot or leg will twitch. It used to be worse, but seems to have stopped getting better.

Have you tried using 5HTP + EGCG? That helped me when I got stuck on my recovery (I was sleeping fine, I no longer consider in a LTC, but still getting the "jumps"). I took this for 5-7 days and it improved. I still get them from time to time, but in general, they are better
 
What are the sort of vitamins that can help with these issues? Should I take dopamine or serotonin vitamins?
 
Have you tried using 5HTP + EGCG? That helped me when I got stuck on my recovery (I was sleeping fine, I no longer consider in a LTC, but still getting the "jumps"). I took this for 5-7 days and it improved. I still get them from time to time, but in general, they are better
No haven't tried 5HTP. I tried it in the beginning, didn't do much. What's egcg?
 
icedcoffee are you still around? I have been having awful symptoms - mainly a terrible paraesthesia feeling - when my skin is touching anything it feels weird and fasciculations all over the body - maybe over 50000 a day. This is 25 years on from taking MDMA - or at least that's what I thought it was. I'm in an awful state and daily contemplate ending it all but then think I'm alive, let's try and battle on. I have posted in detail on here about how this all happened so I'll see if I can find my post which was created a number of years ago. Can anyone else relate to how I am feeling? I consider myself a casualty of the 90's rave scene unfortunately. :(
 
icedcoffee, not sure if you come around here anymore, but wanted to thank you for your post. If you do come around, please share an update. Would love to hear the rest of your story. Your post helped me not feel alone and accept what I was going during the beginning stages of my long term comedown. It's hard to find much information on people dealing with these symptoms. I had some of the same symptoms as you cited a few more. The worst of my symptoms included muscle twitching and muscle jolts (myoclonus) all over my body almost constantly. I really freaked out when the muscle twitching started in my face. Tried to hide it from my BF which sent me down my first panic attack spiral. Additionally, my arms ached and I had strange feelings in my nerves up and down my arms and legs. Sometime I would get full body vibrations, like pins and needles. Eventually the strange nerve feeling moved to my head where a part of my face felt numb. It mostly was the top of my nose, but moved to other areas as well. Other head symptoms included a feeling pressure in my like someone was squeezing it both front and back. Had some brain zaps too.

The nerve issue in my arms, legs and head got so bad a few weeks into of month 2 of my long comedown, I freaked out had a second panic attack and checked myself into the hospital. It wasn't helping that I spent most of my time researching the symptoms and couldn't find people going through the same issues. It was hard to tell if I was just having a panic attack or something more. I was scared as you were in your first post that the symptoms were going to be permanent. 

After staying the night in the hospital and running a bunch of test including a CT and MRI brain scan, the neurologist told me I was fine. He informed me that I had peripheral neuropathy which is a side effect of MDMA and told me the effects would dissipate with time. The peripheral neuropathy started to dissipate after my release and only threatened to come back a with light symptoms for a week of each of the following months. I've since tried to research a connection of peripheral neuropathy and MDMA, but haven?t found any good info. I am going to start a thread about it so hopefully people can find it if they are having the symptoms. Finding info on this and knowing it was temporary would have saved me a trip to the emergency room.

For anyone else that come across this post in the future, I would like to share what has helped me over the past 6 months. While researching my symptoms, I kept coming across information on the Keto diet. My body was twitching constantly, my serotonin was depleted and I was desperate for solutions. Plus I read that it was good to stay away from low quality carbs as your serotonin system remappes. Thus, I decided to give it a try. Additionally, it gave me something to focus on which helped my mood stabilize. Now at the 6-month mark from the onset and 5 months since starting keto, my symptoms are beginning to fade. My mood?s completely stabilized, the peripheral neuropathy is almost all gone and the muscle twitching has slowed down dramatically. In addition to the keto, I take a few supplements for the brain including MCT oil, fish oil, magnesium threonate, vitamin b6 and L-theanine. I also gave up coffee, alcohol and started exercising again.

The process wasn't easy. Definitely a bumpy ride. I still get some twitches on occasion but it?s a vast improvement from where I started. I believe the twitching will soon be a fading memory. Not sure if anything I did helped, or if it was just the process takes time. It?s hard to find any good information how to handle these symptoms, which is why I am sharing what helped me on my journey.
 
Last edited:
Top