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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Amphetamine = Great studying aid! but what are the risks?

mpw94

Greenlighter
Joined
Oct 29, 2013
Messages
22
I am new to this forum and I am also new to amphetamine.
I tried amphetamine because I am going through some rough time at school by which I mean that I have a lot of assignments and exams.
And coffee does not help me to concentrate on the work, it makes me disconcentrated.
I have to admit that amphetamine helped me to concentrate on the work.

So I was thinking if it is ok to take amphetamine as a study aid?
(just enough amount of amphetamine to make me awake and concentrated)
What are the health risk; even though, I would take vitamin and mineral pills, have a healthy diet and sleep everyday?
Can I take amphetamine everyday? if not then how often can I take it? (I am not saying 24/7, but only for the time when I am doing assignments and studying for the exams).
Did any of you try it? and did it work?
 
Don't do it every day. Sure you can do a few days in a row if you keep the dose reasonable but I'd not go over 3 days. Then I'd take a 3 day break, etc.
Interesting: Functional use of amphetamines (e.g. study aid) leads to addiction pretty damn fast, I speak from personal experience.

If you keep at it for longer than 3 days it eventually becomes counterbeneficial IME. You'll still feel 'sharp' but you won't be as focussed as you were on the first day.
 
A lot of people are prescribed some form of amphetamine to take daily, even small children if they can't focus or concentrate when appropriate. Maybe you have a touch of ADD and that's why it helps you. I am not prescribed but I've used it often recreationally as well as to get shit done. Yeah it works for many people for that purpose. Some don't like the feeling it gives them and don't tolerate it well. Whether it's safe depends on your body and your dosage. It's always a crapshoot taking meds that aren't prescribed and yes you can become dependent psychologically and physically over a period of time.
 
The main problem with functional usage of amphetamines is the inherent and very real possibility of eventual addiction.
All stimulants tend to be very compulsive, even in low doses.
They really give you the mentality that "well this amount made me feel concentrated and good" another dose should make me TWICE as concentrated"
This logic fails when you get high enough that you can focus all your energy on one thing but only for a short period of time and your brain is wandering to every passing though that runs through it and you end up getting no work done and end up crashing
 
I totally agree. therefore I take low doses and I don't follow that logic.
 
They're a wonder drug at first with the euphoria, and motivation, etc... But in due time they turn into a real bitch. You start feeling like a robot when on it (the drug feels less natural overtime), you start experience more of a body load, it gets harder to sleep, doesn't last nearly as long, and soon you'll start crashing 8o (its not like caffeine, you feel like complete shit.)

It took me about 9 months, taking 20-40mgs (rarely 60mgs) 3 times a week before all the listed side effects starting showing up.

Also the potential for addiction is there for some.
 
What side effects did you have? and before the 9th month did you have any side effects?
 
What side effects did you have? and before the 9th month did you have any side effects?

The ones I listed above. Before that I hardly had any worth mentioning, and then they quickly started appearing. Most others that I know had somewhat similar experiences.

All I got to say is, enjoy it while it lasts. If the negatives start piling up, please just stop using it, you'll save yourself from depression and or dependency.
 
Edit: My bad for the long post...
To the OP, you can look through my very first posts on Bluelight, in April-May, and you can see all the concerns I used to have about coming off having done a lot of amphetamines (Adderall and Vyvanse, specifically) last November-December when I used the amps for studying purposes...this last round of me doing amps came about after around a period of a year, total, where I used Adderall 3-4 times a week, doing around 40-60 mgs a day, on average...and then I stopped completely for a half-year because my sources dried up before going hard on both Adderall and Vyvanse for around 2 months (last November-December).

I am OK today as far as everything with my body and mind are concerned, but I had some scary moments earlier this year.

My advice is to keep the doses as low as possible - I'm talking 5-10 mgs for a day. The fact of the matter is that amphetamines are just not going to be good for your body, point blank. Take as little as you need because it's not 'really' a medicine, in my opinion. It's just a straight up drug that has positives but also a ton of negatives, especially as far as your heart-health is concerned.

Honestly, if I was going to speak more about my personal life and why I used it, it was funny because I did two majors in college, and the first major I did I didn't even like doing and this was the one that I ended up having to use a ton of amphetamines with to finish - I didn't like the studying of the subject material just by matter of fact and the amps really helped me do all the coursework. But with the second major I did, I loved the subject already, so I never had any urge to use amphetamines. Take from that what you will, but I'm pretty sure if I'd just started out college with the second major I ended up pursuing, I would have probably never gave a fuck about using amps for studying purposes, which is the only reason I used it.

And also, just saying, but I'm pretty sure everyone that takes amps for studying purposes starts out saying, 'I'm not going to be an addict to this drug and I'm simply going to use it for a short period of time to study and that will be it' - this may work out for you, BUT, just realize that amphetamines are really, really, really fucking addictive if you start to use them again and again and again to help you out with studying. My best advice is to definitely stop while you're ahead. Seriously, if you feel perfectly fine in your body and mind, just put down the amps and study on your own - you were smart enough to get this far without them, right??. If your plan is to not use them except to study during this period in your life, it's just not worth it. Also, it sounds like you just discovered amphetamines - after having done amphetamines for a couple of years to help me in college work, after I went back to college without using amphetamines, I found that I could easily do the same level of work I did while on amphetamines and also I never had to deal with any of the side effects, e.g., feelings of chronic tiredness, the desire to take more amphetamines to help me out through the day/studying at night, and of course the racing heart/trouble going to sleep. The side effects creep on you pretty fast, especially if you're not routinely exercising...

But anyway, in a basic answer, yeah, amphetamines REALLY ARE a great studying aid, but so what? The major risk is that you could possibly do way too much and develop serious heart problems later on in life. That's the biggest risk. There are lesser risks too, but they should pass in time, I think - you can get elevated blood pressure for months after having done amphetamines for a while, you can feel lethargic for weeks at a time and think that everything is boring as fucking shit if you suddenly come off the amps, and if you're in school and get dependent on amps, you're probably going to start compulsive re-dosing during finals periods or whatever and shit's just going to get worse over time, semester to semester. So yeah, I'd stop while you're ahead or just specifically use amps at low doses for a few days a semester, and then just not do them the rest of the year. Or just do the work sober and reward yourself with something like a bowl of weed after everything's done, that's what I used to do after I stopped taking amps and it worked just as well if not better as motivation.
 
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There are no conclusive evidence that Amphetamines (pharmacy produced) or Methylphenidate used in theraputical doses have any long term ill effects. Amphetamines like Vyanse and Adderall can be great tools in a students arsenal if used with caution. High doses of amphetamine, methylphenidate and methamphetamine do cause neurological damage in recreational doses and do infact bear long term effects.

The short term effects of Amphetamine use is that it will drain your energy; You could say it's somewhat of a trade, three days of energy in one night paid in turn the next three days with fatigue, mental fog and so forth. How pronounced these short term effects are depends on dosage and repeated dosing. So no: There are no evidence linking any kind of long term damage by the use of amphetamines in theraputhical doses.

However, as I said.. there are short term ones. As fatigue, fog, tiredness, loss of apetite, depression with higher doses, and apathy. These are things you have to take into consideration before using them for tests and or crammy time tables when you need to get lots done. There is a price and you have to weigh wether or not it is worth it, and how important this paper or this test will be for the future of your life.

Stims is not something would gain much by simply having to do your laundry. Sure your laundry gets done fast put you pay a price of fatigue, depression or low mood, and to me that is not worth it. It's all about whats important enough to merit the sacrefice.

And one more thing: another line just because you feel tired never solves anything, it just postpones the inevetable and in the end even makes it worse.
 

I wonder what kind of doses you were at since you are so concerned with your heart. These things are prescribed to small children, I'm not saying that makes it not so it's not bad for your heart. But all things considering most drugs put a strain on your heart, even marijuana.. witch people seem to be very little concerned about. It seems like you needed to use stims quite often because of your apathy towards the subject, I can understand that. And that ofcourse will put you at more of a danger of damage to lets say your heart.. but the period you were taking I assume were atleast somewhat theraputic doses I don't think there is any need for concern for your heart.

There are plenty of people out there who shoots up large quantities of amphetamines over years and recovered. I can't say any statistics of how many of them died of heart disease or damage but I can tell you that heart failiure is one of the most common reasons for death across the western hemisphere and it most likely does not have to do with small amounts of Adderal over a period of two months.

People are one this medication for years on end some from the early ages of 12 til their 30's and 40's. It's true that amphetamines have caused cariad arrest in some children but cases are rare and heart disease related to theuraputical dosage use is questionable.

Abuse and large doses of amphetamines however.. thats a totally different beast.

But I agree with you one on point very much, addiction can easily become a problem.. since the side effects of the drug wearing off can be quite nasty there is a very easy soloution to that problem, just take some more.

This is where amphetamines differ from lets say MDMA where you hit a certain point fairly quickly where you don't get much desired effects at all from redosing. On Amphetamines you can dose for days on end and thats the true danger. But I think if you are able to realise the dangers, and respect the drug for some powerful shit, make some ground rules, don't break them, and use only in emergency, I see no issue.

Today academic life is becoming so competitive that we almost HAVE to use stims just to keep up, to me thats a fearful but also possible logical step in some far distant academic generation. Maybe not stims but perhaps no-tropics. Sometimes our lives just doesn't come together perfectly as we planned and sometimes we have to do lots in short amounts of time to secure our future.

I would gladly sacrefice a few nights of Amphetamine studying if it ment I could have a good degree and live a good life later on, instead of becoming overburdened and failing, no question about it. However, one needs to be able to seperate the moments where it really counts and where you can do it on your own.



And just as a side note: ADHD/ADD or not amphetamines work on everyone. The idea that some gets hyper and some gets calm is oversimplified. Many people with and without the diagnosis, people clearly not suffering from ADHD report same effects across the board. But we are humans after all, we all react differently.
 
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I experimented with amphetamines for a few business projects that I wanted to follow through with to completion but it lead me a bit astray and I became distracted and was a little more hedonostically focused after ingesting the stuff so it kind of wasn't productive in any way but it was definitely a different and strange experience.

To each your own though... You have to think about it thoroughly if you decide you actually want to go through with it.

Do a lot of research and make sure you know what to expect from the actual experience and what will happen thereafter as well.
 
Amphetamines are indeed an awesome tool for studying. When I started using them, I took on more exams than the regular curriculum (well, I had a few resits), which is already tough on its own, and I passed them all; most of them with higher grades than I'd ever gotten before in university. Totally worth the strain it had on me during the three weeks of exams and the week of feeling shitty afterwards. I always told myself that I'd only use it during exams and maybe during difficult projects that were closing in on the deadline. The problem is that such a using pattern requires a lot of self-control, as amphetamine can be very tempting. And a lack of self-control is why I had such trouble passing my exams in the first place.

Everyone tells themselves that they'll never get addicted, but if you lack self-control (which you probably do if you need amphetamine, without prescription, to study) you're in a dangerous position. I've noticed myself steer towards the wrong path, but luckily have been able to correct myself while I still was ahead. If you're going to use amphetamine as a tool, be aware of its destructive powers and trickeries and know that it'll bite you in the ass whenever it gets the chance. And of course make sure you read every HR thread you can find. I also find it helpful to read some addiction stories and realise it could just as easily happen to me. Sometimes scare tactics work, even on yourself ;)
 
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