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Anhedonia for days after DXM?

MyDoorsAreOpen

MyDoorsAreOpen

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Aug 20, 2003
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The weekend before last, I took 150mg of DXM one night, and then 60mg of it four days later. I enjoyed both of these highs, and took them with marijuana both times, and a little bit of alcohol the first time. As usual, the day after I felt the familiar weird-but-euphoric afterglow, with that odd 'reborn' feeling. But since the second afterglow has faded, I've felt emotionally flat and prone to depression. I find it hard to get motivated, and hard to deeply feel pleasure.

I went through a period last autumn of taking 10~25mg of Adderall per day, along with 30mg of DXM to combat tolerance. I felt the same feeling after quitting the adderall for the longest time -- pleasure was 'truncated' -- I was still logically aware that I was doing something I took pleasure in, but the pleasurable feelings never made it to the uppermost reaches of my brain. I've SLOWLY recovered a normal feeling since, having abstained from amphetamine completely since then. But I wonder if the DXM was the real cluprit, since I seem back to square one now. :(

Other times I've felt this way have included when I tried Mucuna pruriens (DopaBean), a natural form of L-dopa. What all these drugs have in common, I realize, is altered regulation of dopamine receptors. I think it's likely large amounts of my central DA receptors have shut down, having first upregulated (the afterglow) in response to an NMDA receptor antagonist.

Has anyone else ever felt this blunting of their pleasure that I'm experiencing, after using DXM? If so, did it last permanently? Was there anything you found that made it go away?
 
I've heard l-dopa can be really dangerous, ie needing to be monitored by a doctor while you're taking it. I'm not really sure though.

And nope, I've done a LOT of tussin, and I never got anhedonia. I do after a quit smoking weed though. DXM just makes me feel a bit on the dumb/tired side.


Of course it's impossible to cum for a few days after a hefty DXM dose, so that could ba a form of anhedonia yes? But your doses were tiny, 1st plateau. Idk man.
 
I have experienced temporary anhedonia/apathy for a few days following two consecutive days of DXM dosing. It cleared up eventually, but I imagine that it would be possible for the condition to persist for a while for people with different brain chemistry. I couldn't tell you for sure that the DXM is responsible in your case, though.
 
I have experienced PROLONGUED periods of anhedonia after abusing dissociatives like K and PCP. Probably one or two years of that "truncated" state of pleasure, which is only recently starting to come back... I consider it a natural reaction the brain has to having it's receptors so radically rewired. You're already doing the best thing you can do-which is stop taking amphetamine and reconsidering using DXM in the way you have been. That's all that can be done at the moment.

What I felt worked better than dopamine precursors like L-tyrosine or DL-phenylalanine was inositol. There are some studies which say it increases dopamine receptor density, which I think is a better approach than cramming precursors into your diet and hoping they migrate to your brain and press the right buttons. I can find the studies for you eventually, but moreso than studies I offer my own experience. The inositol worked extremely well at controlling the worst symptoms of de-realization I was experiencing last year. This includes intrusive/OCD-like thoughts, reality-checking, and emotional bluntness. Check it out if your other coping methods are failing you, I'll check back in this thread later, good luck man!
 
Mixing DXM with Adderall is likely the culprit here. DXM with any uppers (other than coke, in small quantities, which it enhances) is a bad idea and usually yields a bad trip to begin with. DXM and adderall is a quick route to a psychotic state. I've done it and know this from personal experience. I won't ever mix those two again in any amount.
 
I used 30-40 mg Adderall daily for about 6 weeks, and it took a couple months before I felt like my ability to feel pleasure had returned to baseline. That was while studying for STEP 1 by the way...yuck. I did much better on STEP 2 w/o relying on Adderall. Even intermittent use takes a toll IMO.

I've noticed mild anhedonia after DXM, but not for more than a few days. A friend of mine reported more extended emotional flattening, but I'd be surprised if the after effects from two small doses lasted more than a week or so. Do you think the daily grind of medical school may be contributing? At a few points during my second year up until STEP 1, I was borderline clinically depressed. The constant burden of work and deadlines tends to instill a sense of tunnel vision and was enough to leave me feeling a bit deflated.

Hope you feel better soon. Feel free to shoot me a PM if I can be of any help.
 
You know dude I'm pretty sure the 'racetams are touted as having healing powers for those who have abused dissociatives. I believe it thickens up those lovely NMDA receptors you've been playing with a bit. Maybe rewire a few severed connections.
 
You know there is like a massive probability these are psychological issues and you are trying to isolate and pin point one tiny little aspect of brain function out of the billions of processes and blame it all on that?

Step back for a second and just look at things from a distance OP.
 
I wonder how much the stimulants have to do with it?

I've badly abused ketamine and to a lesser extent DXM. Any anhedonia I experienced never lasted more than about 72 hours-- the first few days where I was still fiending for the gear. There's been some other side effects like my sinuses are f***ed now, but that's the worse part.

Best wishes.
 
Thanks, guys. I'm starting to recover my feelings of pleasure, but I do think it's going to be awhile before I'm completely my old self. Dondante, that's a good point about medical school -- certainly the added stress can't make drug hangovers any better. I really think I'm going to abstain from both amphetamines and DXM for the rest of school. I just can't afford the mood swings, amotivation, and sometimes frank dysphoria they bring in their wake.

I restarted taking piracetam, and it's made a big difference, by the way.
 
^ i think if you like piracetam you'll love aniracetam. Works with your D2 receptors as well, which I believe piracetam doesn't.
 
I'd stay away from DXM. Amphetamines by themselves can do this, although you have to be on them for a while.

When I did MDMA + ketamine, I was pretty depressed the next day, but it only took another day for me to feel back to normal.
 
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