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Meth and Bipolar Disorder & ADHD

M

Micaela.da

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Joined
May 25, 2018
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I have been diagnosed with ADHD since I was 10 and Bipolar Disorder 1 since I was 16. When I was 12 I started smoking Meth everyday because it calmed my brain down. My brain would be incredibly fast (racing thoughts, voices, anxiety) all of the time and the meth was the only thing that made it stop. Looking back now I know that I was hypomanic or fully manic and trying to self medicate. Everything that I have read suggests that the meth will make the mania worse, but that never happened. I would be totally out of it (talking to myself, up for days, seeing things) and smoke a tiny amount of meth, like one hit, and be able to calm down. Maybe it is the ADHD making the stimulant work in the opposite way. Does anyone know anything about this?

I have tried every antipsychotic and mood stabilizer in the book and I have horrible reactions to all of them. Still working with a psych but I know what has worked in the past.
 
Yes it sounds like amphetamines work sufficiently for the symptoms you are experiencing.

I've seen a lot of people crack from ~1 day of meth use, whereas I've stayed up for 7 days without sleep with no problems in the past.

You can tell your psychiatrist and try to get ADHD medicine prescribed if you wish.

Can you live life sober? Have you balanced out at all over the years?

Best of luck with your treatment.
 
Think I know this effect very well. I do often experience states of restlessness, racing thoughts together with heavy fatigue but of course inability to sleep. A tiny bit of dopamine can even make me fall asleep (best when using dopamine agonists as they aren't 'physically' stimulating like amphetamines), more of it makes me feel light and awake, but even more then leads to compulsive focus and cold mania. Maybe it has to do with downstream cascade effects? I just know that the metabolism of dopamine leads to (also) norepinephrine.

Oh yeah to dopamine antagonists (most of the so-called antipsychotics - maybe what you're looking for is not D2 blockade but 5-HT2A inverse agonism??) I never reacted well, sometimes in a hefty paradox way (hearing voices / loud thoughts from risperidone, repeatedly and dysphoria/depression/dyskinesia from all of them). Sulpride / amisulpride could be interesting too as they preferably block presynaptic receptors, leading to more dopamine too in low dosages. Selegiline is useful for some too, I did not tolerate it well - curiously it created a feeling of inner tension and mood turning to anger easily.
 
Interesting. I am able to fall asleep on Dexedrine. I never understood that about amphetamines.
I told that to a doctor many years ago and was told I was wasting the amphetamines, lol.
 
I was pretty similar, started with adderall to treat undiagnosed adhd. When it got too expensive I turned to meth, which worked in small doses... but they never stayed small.I too could sleep on meth/stims.
 
I'm with you in the antipsychotic market I've tried everything and none of them work at all and most don't even cause a measurable change in both my circadian rhythm and mood areas. I have a predilection for meth and all things speed in the past and am currently not-sober so it could and probably does have an impact.

Best of luck.
 
I became decently addicted to meth for a period of about 8 months (as a daily user).

went through a lot of stress in that time but an interesting "side effect" which has remained is a large remediation of depressive symptoms from a previous diagnosis of Bipolar type 2 (for which I took medication for about 5 years).

Im confidently as stable as I have been in years, maturity playing a role, but still something changed due to the meth use and if I were to suspect it would be damage to overactive dopamine receptors (but thats just my assumption)

I feel like Steve O except instead of PCP, "meth saved my life".*

*I do not recommend this as an approach to anything, I almost lost my life and could have easily done so numerous times.
 
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