Is there anything specific about dextromethorphan that makes it more dangerous to use frequently than other NMDA antagonists like say, ketamine or pcp? Or do people just keep talking crap about DXM because they consider it to be a lesser drug?
Low dose NMDA antagonists can be really great for relieving depression for some people it seems.
The point is not to single out DXM, the point is that taking excessive amounts very often of dissociatives – as is the case with pretty much every other drug but cannabis – is not good for you. Addiction is not good for you. We're rather off topic here since the OP wasn't talking about using DXM that frequently, but even at the frequency that he is using negative effects are showing up. As I said he may just be particularly sensitive to DXM's side effects.
Besides that, other than the dude who said he likes ketamine a lot more, nobody even said that DXM was a shitty drug. They did say that taking it every day or every other day is in their eyes foolish, but whatever, if exists wants to guinea pig, go for it. You seem to be imagining attacks against users of DXM where no such attacks exist, so what's the deal, why are you feeling like you're under attack?
The brain zaps I have been getting by breaking my regimen are neither worse nor any different from those I got from having been on Lexapro and Effexor. DXM has been more efficacious than either of those aforementioned meds, yet it produces withdrawal symptoms that are no worse.
Yeah, exactly, I don't think that lexapro or effexor are any less bad for you to take every day either! In literally *every case* of people that I directly know, including the father I lived with for 14 years, taking chronic antidepressants not only failed to stop their depression, it actually made their lives subjectively worse, due to side effects! This is not an exaggeration, every single person I know who took antidepressants has now gone through the weaning off process and claims that they actually feel better, not worse.
If DXM helps you function, or antidepressants help somebody function, and their depression is so bad that without that help they not only cannot function but may even contemplate suicide, then by all means I am happy for that person that they have found a way to normalize the stormy weather in their neurons. But we don't know generally how they work, we don't know what they do in the long term, and quite often they DON'T even work at all! This appears to be the case for you personally, since you mention your depression is resistant to treatment, so you out of anybody would know what I mean about ineffectiveness. But, one of the things we DO know about is the long list of nasty shit they do to the body. So don't misunderstand me, I am negative on taking DXM every day, but only insofar as I am equally down on doing the same with antidepressants. The difference is that antidepressants are prescribed by doctors who have at least some idea what they're doing, albeit only barely, but in your case you're acting as the doctor without that slight bit of knowledge.
I am not going to worry about any long-term complications arising from my choice of using (low dose) DXM on a frequent basis at this time. If it turns out that my choice in this matter is wrong, then I hope it is made known so that people can be informed of what may happen.
Oh yeah, long term effects be damned. Who cares if I'm drug addicted and applying a drug in an unusual, completely new way? After all, it's only my health and welfare potentially at stake.
I think most people who so vocally and publicly look down on DXM use simply had bad experiences. Taking too much DXM all at once results in crossed eyes and a draining of all emotion, as well as a plethora of other uncomfortable sensations. Plus, these same people are probably grouping the side effects of having taken too much sugary-sweet syrup (which often contains gastrointestinal irritants like polyethylene glycol) with the side effects of which DXM can produce.
Dude, as I said to Toz, nobody is talking shit about DXM! And if I were to talk shit about DXM, I'd talk shit about it because its a shitty drug in my experience that feels gross and generally lacks redeeming qualities. But this is not due to syrup, I've had the pure substance as a powder. I've taken it probably forty or fifty times, but once I began to explore the other options out there I realized that DXM sucks for me compared to pretty much any other drug. So no, my opinions are not the result of a single bad experience, or of taking it as syrup, I haven't even had a bad experience with it at all, ever, not once! It's just a lackluster drug for many people. If you enjoy it, or somebody else enjoys it, great, that's dandy, but many people don't like it, and hasty generalizations about our supposed ulterior motives or our lack of nuance and appreciation for this compound make you look foolish. Don't be so quick to believe you can automatically know what my – or anybody else's – obviously misguided and uninformed opinions are based upon.
Yes, better than anything else for those of us cursed with treatment-resistant depression.
My eventual goal is to lower the doses of DXM I take, and begin exercising more often. Antidepressants are only patches, and do not actually treat underlying issues causing depression.
Why not start exercising now, and worry about the DXM later? If you were to eat a strict, healthy diet, and exercise regularly, and force yourself to be socially active, you may find your depression will lessen, though you may still need the help of DXM in the short or perhaps even the long term. Clinical depression is an awful thing, and I'm not trying to be flippant about your situation: those suggestions come from the individuals I mentioned before who I have known both before and after they stopped using the antidepressants they had been on for many years, decades even. Those suggestions come from people experienced with this problem first-hand in other words.
I say this because just because I disagree with a lot of what you've said doesn't mean I don't care about my fellow man or women, or that disagreements have to be personal. So I set aside those disagreements and consider the statement you made here about exercise. So, I'm just offering some friendly advice, passed along from people who have experienced chronic depression or bipolar syndrome or manic-depressive, seasonal affective, etc etc, or some combination of these, since I have so, so thankfully managed to avoid the depression that plagues my father's family, and thus I cannot offer advice first-hand.
I know that it will likely be very hard to get up the motivation and discipline to force yourself to exercise and eat right and be social and so forth, especially the diet and being social, because it was nearly impossibly hard for my roommate and classmate, one of the people I mentioned earlier who has now quit using antidepressants. But with the help of her friends, myself included, the effort can be made more bearable, for example I would go out and do the exercising with her at a shitty, cheap gym or would go jogging together, even though I'm fit and get plenty of exercise already. But by being there and making it an activity we did together, it was easier for her to integrate it into her routine.
I don't know if these suggestions will help you. I hope that they might, and so I would encourage you to give them an honest, totally devoted try, for two or three weeks at least to allow any positive changes time to show themselves. And as I said you may still need the DXM. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope your experimentation with DXM in this manner may prove to be harmless.
I think yes.
