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Adderall, Tolerance, Getting that first high back

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Rcin

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Nov 8, 2004
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Hey everyone,

Let me give you a little background before I jump into my question. Firstly in terms of Adderall I was a one time daily user (with prescription) dosing at 30 mg a day. Eventually, after about 8-12 months of usage, my tolerance got to the point where I only felt the muscle cramps, the depression, and basically every other negative side-effect of the drug. I no longer felt witty and capable. I didn't want to up my dosage and become another burn-out ADHD kid. So I quit Adderall.

The cravings were fairly bad. And it wasn't so much that I wanted the drug again it was more that I didn't feel smart enough or motivated enough to much without it. So to give me the extra boost I needed I used caffeine. No-Doz to be specific. Usually a low dose (I am VERY sensative to caffeine) about 100-200 mg a day, or 1/2 to 1 pill. I have been taking caffeine now for about a year and half every day in pill form.

Now I know the subject of Amphetamine tolerance has been covered at great length but I have a few different questions I do not belive have been discusssed yet.

1) After I quit using Adderall (Adderall is 4 different amphetamines combined for those who do not know) why did caffeine give me such a nice buzz? I thought that after a year of straight amphetamine use my epinephrine, dopamine, and norepinephrine would basically be run dry. Why would such a weak stimulant now stimulate me when a very powerful one no longer would?

2) From time to time I like to take Adderall (only once) again to see if enough time has elapsed for my tolerance to go away. So far my longest Adderall free streak has been 6 months. Now this is nearly as long as I was on it, yet when I take it I still get no buzz as if I had been taking it all along. My tolerance NEVER GOES DOWN. I tried taking NMDA antagonists for a while in hopes that this would lessen my tolerance. I've tried both DXM (40mg a day) and Magnesium (500 mg a day) daily and have had no luck in lowering my Adderall tolerance. So my question is this: Are NMDA's really as effective as people say they are? I have had no luck with them so far.....Am I doing something wrong?

So basically to sum up the questions I have I would just like to know if anyone has advice as to how to get back that "first high". It was probably the happiest experience of my life when I first tried Adderall. I would someday like to experience that again.
 
I wish I could tell you the reference, but I didn't write it down. I actually just read this last week though in a journal archive re: addiction meds

amphetamines and cocaine do make permanent changes in your brain, that can take years to go away - don't know why it's different, I guess just b/c it's an anologue of amphetamines, but methylphenidate (Ritalin), does not cause this changes (back to pre-Ritalin use dopamine levels in a few weeks). Of course, this was studied in rats...
 
caffeine and amphetamine have different modes of action, a different type of effect.... a different type of action.


also, just taking magnesium a few times and waiting for some tolerance drop.
doesn't exactly work that way.
It has to be an on-going process....progress. Most importantly while your on the drug.
Many variables come into play, which includes how often you take the amphetamine, and at which dose.

Taking it at random times. with random doses.. ups and downs.. can sometimes even give you a sensitization for it.

Amphetamine Tolerance/prevention/effects etc.

Is a BL thread with decent links on this subject extensively.

Neuropsychopharmacology:Chronic Amphetamine Use and Abuse


This is the best source i have read on amphetamine tolerance and reverse tolerance/sensitization etc. Everything from multiple situations, and variables.
 
As people have said, amphetamines and caffine work via different mechanisms. Long term tolerance to amphetamines are not the result of your brain running out of monoamine neurotransmitters, it's the receptor of receptor downregulation and synaptic reorginization. Caffine works directly on adenosine receptors.

NMDA receptor antagonists are generally only said to be effective when taken during dosage with stimulants.
 
Caffeine does have some interesting indirect effects on dopamine D2 receptors. For example, adenosine A2a receptor stimulation decreases the affinity of the D2 receptor for DA in the striatum. Thus, an antagonist of the A2a receptor would counteract this action by influencing intracellular adenylyl cyclase activity. In addition, blockade of the A1 adenosine receptor may be synergistic in caffeine's psychomotor stimulant activity. Finally, there is the idea that caffeine (via blockage of A2a receptors) causes the protein DARPP-32 (dopamine and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein) to be phosphorylated at Thr75, deactivating its activity as a inhibitor of protein phosphatase-1 (PP1), a protein involved in CREB phosphorylation state. Further evidence supporting the dopamine / adenosine system interaction is that rats with unilateral 6-OHDA striatal dopaminergic legions show greatly increased amphetamine-induced ipsilateral turning behaviour (a test of dopaminergic function in the striatum) when pretreated with caffeine. In summary, it is fairly clear that the two drugs act in a synergistic manner, despite clearly different receptor binding profiles--both together is far more effective than either alone.

I guess that's why I start my morning off with 30 mg (d)-amphetamine SR and a few cups of coffee...the breakfast of champions.

Oh, and BilZ0r was completely right about the NMDA receptor antagonist effect...it is only active during amphetamine administration.
 
Adenosine A2a receptor stimulation decreases the affinity of the D2 receptor for DA in the striatum.

Is that just in synaptosomes treated accutely with caffiene? Or from animals treated chronically with caffeine?
 
memantine helped me drop my tolerance down close to that which it had been about 3 years ago...a profound drop indeed. and i used memantine AFTER I had already incurred a tolerance.

so its interesting.
 
i have a question. if i got a script on the 1th and my give me anther one on the 22th can i get it fill?
 
That's not the kind of question we can help you with here on Bluelight dionte. We can't help you get drugs, even when prescribed by a doctor, and you shouldn't be trying to fill prescriptions ahead of time in any case. Closed.
 
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