Stimulants Amphetamine-Induced Narcissism

[PsychonautRyan]

I took 25 mg of Adderall today, as well as a Vitamin B100 complex, and started my usual shift at a movie theater. Instead of making me feel paranoid and anxious sometimes, I have a great sense of confidence and sociability now, and it kind of seems like a dice-roll sometimes between those two extremes. Anyway, in the past few weeks of taking Adderall with buspirone, I've felt an increased feeling of grandiosity and egoism. It was awesome today because I felt charming, witty and clever talking to everybody, and I felt a compulsion to make subtle condescending comments to the more-dimwitted customers under the guise of being straightforward and helpful (ex.: "Where's theater number two for Blue Jasmine?", Me: "Take a left down the hallway as I mentioned earlier, there will be an illuminated sign with the number two that says 'Blue Jasmine' next to it, best of luck and enjoy your movie.")

I am a manager-in-training, but when one of my managers was lecturing me on my anti-social attitude, I justified myself by saying that they enjoy my brilliant wit so much that it more than compensates, and instead of feeling insulted they should feel blessed and worshipful to my clever articulation and charm, and sarcastically, I told him that I admire his insight nevertheless and it was duly-noted. My family has also told me that I've become much more arrogant, snide, and condescending, and my brother tells me that I've been thinking I'm "hot shit" lately, but he might be jealous of me.

Given that this sounds like grandiosity and narcissism, initially I enjoyed these effects, but now I'm starting to notice that this isn't "me" at all, in fact, I'm actually disturbed internally about these personality alterations due to dopamine-dominance. So should I just take a break from Adderall or reduce the dosage?
Also, there are questionnaires related to neurotransmitter imbalances on the Internet, would being on Adderall contaminate the results due to excessive dopamine/norepenephrine?

 

[brutus]

I've done the same on amphetamines. Most of the time, I am extremely cocky and say things that I normally never would that can be embarrassing once I sober up and realize what I've said.

 

[sekio]

Becoming very egocentric and arrogant is an unfortunate side effect of amphetamine use. Uncontrolled egocentrism can be very mentally and socially unhealthy. (nobody wants to hang out with, or hire, someone who thinks they're the best at everything) You need to either work on being more empathetic, or reduce your dose.

I justified myself by saying that they enjoy my brilliant wit so much that it more than compensates, and instead of feeling insulted they should feel blessed and worshipful to my clever articulation and charm

This is textbook egocentric behaviour. You may feel like you're "charming, witty and clever" but to others it probably seems like you're an arrogant bastard who can't keep his mouth shut. Despite what you may feel, few people like people smug condescension to their face, and fewer still feel "blessed and worshipful". Try reminding yourself that politeness goes a lot further than sarcasm in making people like you. Think of your interactions from the other person's point of view, too.

The important part is recognizing the behaviour. Breaking the habit could be as easy as giving yourself little rewards for getting through the day without being sarcastic. Or, keep it in your head or a journal.

 

[Lightning-Nl]

You said that this has been happening more since you've started to combine Adderall and Buspar?

A possible explanation could be due to Buspar's effects as a Dopamine agonist, and slight DRA effects. When I was on Ropinirole, I noticed that it greatly increased the effects of Amphetamine and it would also give me this kind of arrogant behavior. Like you, I loved it at first. I felt like everywhere I went I was "the boss" and the false sense of control really made me arrogant. Eventually the effect wore off (I got switched to Gabapentin for RLS and that ultimately worked better anyways) and so the normal effects of my meds went back to the way they were anyways.

If you're not liking this, I can recommend a couple things. Time will cause tolerance and eventually this effect will ware off. It happens quickly too, although if Buspirone really is causing this, tolerance may do the trick. You could try lowering your dose on the Adderall. I'd usually recommend the same thing on the Buspar, but I don't know what you're taking it for.

 

[PsychonautRyan]

I actually think that the Vitamin B100 complex had more to do with it since I felt considerably more energetic and talkative afterward when I might otherwise be anxious or paranoid, whereas the Buspar has only gradually relieved the anxiety in the two weeks I've been taking it.

 

[PsychonautRyan]

Also, if I were to taking a neurotransmitter imbalance assessment (http://totalhealthnutrients.com/?page_id=462, http://advancedpsychcare.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/braverman.test.pdf, http://www.antiagingnow.com/secure/test_forms/edge_effect_intro.html), to assess which neurotransmitters I am sufficient, excessive or deficient on, would I answer it based on if I were on Adderall, or how I am at baseline? I would think that amphetamines would contaminate the test because of excessive dopamine/norepenephrine and it would be artificially high.

 

[sekio]

"Neurotransmitter imbalance assessments" are a crock of shit. You can't accurately judge nt levels by subjective feelings. Doesn't work that way.

 

[Ksa]

I took 25 mg of Adderall today, as well as a Vitamin B100 complex, and started my usual shift at a movie theater. Instead of making me feel paranoid and anxious sometimes, I have a great sense of confidence and sociability now, and it kind of seems like a dice-roll sometimes between those two extremes. Anyway, in the past few weeks of taking Adderall with buspirone, I've felt an increased feeling of grandiosity and egoism. It was awesome today because I felt charming, witty and clever talking to everybody, and I felt a compulsion to make subtle condescending comments to the more-dimwitted customers under the guise of being straightforward and helpful (ex.: "Where's theater number two for Blue Jasmine?", Me: "Take a left down the hallway as I mentioned earlier, there will be an illuminated sign with the number two that says 'Blue Jasmine' next to it, best of luck and enjoy your movie.")

I am a manager-in-training, but when one of my managers was lecturing me on my anti-social attitude, I justified myself by saying that they enjoy my brilliant wit so much that it more than compensates, and instead of feeling insulted they should feel blessed and worshipful to my clever articulation and charm, and sarcastically, I told him that I admire his insight nevertheless and it was duly-noted. My family has also told me that I've become much more arrogant, snide, and condescending, and my brother tells me that I've been thinking I'm "hot shit" lately, but he might be jealous of me.

Given that this sounds like grandiosity and narcissism, initially I enjoyed these effects, but now I'm starting to notice that this isn't "me" at all, in fact, I'm actually disturbed internally about these personality alterations due to dopamine-dominance. So should I just take a break from Adderall or reduce the dosage?
Also, there are questionnaires related to neurotransmitter imbalances on the Internet, would being on Adderall contaminate the results due to excessive dopamine/norepenephrine?

Must be an increase in testosterone. Have it checked out. Like, when you take Adderall, do you feel like browsing porn alot?

 

[spinchick]

I usually have pretty high self confidence on day 1....after I've been up for a few days I start to get nervous and paranoid that I'm saying weird things. A goodnights sleep and a nice big breakfast will help this to happen more often. Enjoy.

 

[dopemegently]

Man, I used to feel like a young god on speed....I was an even bigger pain in the arse on cocaine though.

 

[Bone14]

I've never been arrogant on cocaine or amphetamines, I tend to get very empathic towards other people. Am I alone with this one?

 

[dopemegently]

It was only mdma that did that for me; made me fall in love with the world.

 

[cpuller]

I would think that amphetamines would contaminate the test because of excessive dopamine/norepenephrine and it would be artificially high.

I think so too, its useless.
When you quit there will also be rebound effects that would influence the test too.

All that given such tests arent nonsense in the first place but I have no clue about that.

 

[InHerOwnWrite]

I've never been arrogant on cocaine or amphetamines, I tend to get very empathic towards other people. Am I alone with this one?

You're not alone. Cocaine and amphetamines usually make me very eager to listen to what other people have to say and i try to see things from their pterspective more than i usually do.

 

[Crashing]

Amphetamine makes me pretty fully arrogant but methamphetamine is much more balanced and with methylenedioxy ring added it becomes fully empathetic.

 

[dopemegently]

Methampthetamine is rare as hell here, but I've always wanted to try it one time.
I'd be an arrogant bore on speed and coke. But i did use to have poor confidence, so the invincibility I felt was powerful as hell and it went to my head a bit...

 

[seaofmonsters]

Well, one thing to note is that being paranoid and being narcissistic aren't mutually exclusive. Paranoia results from narcissism. If you think about it, you're paranoid because you think everything revolves around you -- those random people are talking about me, everyone is thinking about me and what I'm doing, etc.

So being paranoid vs. being narcissistic on Adderall aren't opposite extremes, they're pretty similar. Paranoia just hurts you while being arrogant annoys everyone around you.

Also, don't be condescending to your customers! I bet you already know that by now, but my manager would eat my ass for that. lol

 

[tricomb]

It's called amphetamine induced grandiosity. You can find it listed as one of the many possible/probably side effects associated with the use of amphetamines, just read the package insert of the prescriptions when you pick them up from the pharmacy.


Methamphetamine in particular is well-known and is probably agreed upon by most users as being one of the most likely to induce said grandiosity.

 

[rhymetoker]

I know when you're high you don't necessarily realize it, but try to imagine how you come off to a sober person. Your "dimwitted customers?" Maybe not as dimwitted as you think. I'm sure most people pick up on your poor customer service skills. They likely choose to ignore it, attributing it to the fact that you're (presumably) young, working in a dead end job, ignorantly unaware of how to deal with actual human beings. Thinking you're the smartest guy in the room is painfully unattractive. A little humility and empathy goes a long way.

 

[SaY4cT]

Myself, amps bring out the unsocial part in me
I pretty much shelter myself quietly in front of a computer, trying to study to the best of my ability and figure problems out
I tend not to want to waste the amp on talking to people let alone develop my social skills that way