Are my on-going mental health issues a result of mephedrone?

[friendofafriend]

Hi guys,

I wanted to get your point of view on whether the mental health issues I now live with are a result of previous drug taking or not? I've spoken to my GP and they think not but as their name suggests they aren't specialists in the effects of illegal drugs.

2006 - 2009
I recreationally took ecstasy every couple of weeks, a couple of pills each time.

2009-2011
Pills became difficult to source around this time so I switched to Mephedrone/mcat and took a gram pretty much every week for nearly a couple of years. I used to buy it online and noticed it was quite a bit stronger than mates were getting it locally. My comedowns from mephedrone were horrible and lasted 3-4 days; sweating lots, brain fog, difficulty concentrating and articulating speech. It would usually take me half the working week to feel fine again. I used to take mcat after regular weekend clubbing sessions in which I would not sleep for nearly 48hrs.

I started drinking energy drinks towards the end of the week to get my energy levels up for going out again. Then I started to get into a cycle of energy drinks and over the counter sleeping pills, retarded I know! I should mention that I was also in a job that I had grown to hate because of incompetent managers, sometimes long hours so there was always stress with the job.

By 2011 I decided to stop taking mcat and move to London for a new job and a new start. The new job was fun but I found I was sleeping really badly. The over the counter sleeping pills I was taking had stopped working so I was increasingly drinking more and more energy drinks to keep me sane during the day. This had the knock on effect of reducing my sleep to maybe 3-4hrs a day, sometimes I'd get nothing. Moving to a new city, making new friends, new job could have also impacted on stress/sleep levels.

I saw my GP about it and started on a course of CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and instigated better "sleep hygiene". I came off the energy drinks eventually and got regular sleep of around 6hrs each day.

Over the last couple of years the job has become more stressful and longer hours so I now can suffer from brain fog from time to time. This seems to be made worse when stress at work is high. I still suffer from bad nights sleep but in general I probably get about 7 hrs sleep.

What worries me is I that the brain fog I used to get in an Mcat comedown is similar to the brain fog I seem to suffer from fairly regularly now. On a weekend when I get about 8-9 hrs sleep the feeling of brain fog seems to be worse. I can't work out why sleeping longer would have a negative effect on my wellbeing/cognitive function.

I know there is probably no way to know for certain what the cause is, if the brain fog is a result of the mcat use then it just scares the shit out of me that this is now irreversible.

I just wondered what you thought?

As there are no substantial studies which look at the long-term effects of mcat I think its important to at least communicate anecdotal stories such as this so we all know more about what we might be taking.

 

[ad lib]

If it is caused by drugs, it will most likely go away the longer you're clean, the healthier you eat, and the better you take care of yourself.

In regards to the sleeping- sometimes sleeping too much can be more detrimental than sleeping too little. Try, if you have not already,to practice good sleep hygiene. Always make sure you use your bed just for sleep or sex, go to bed at a set time every night and wake up at the same time too. Make sure you follow the routine. It may be just general stress that you're dealing with and nothing related to the mephedrone comedown.

 

[friendofafriend]

Thanks for the advice. I think I've had problems with my sleep for so long I get a bit hung up on trying to get loads of it. I don't go to bed and wake up on the weekends at the same times as in the weekday so I really need to persevere with that.Cheers

 

[neversickanymore]

Hey friend.. welcome to bluelight. Sounds to me like you push yourself pretty hard. How is your fatigue level.. does it ever spike up. If it does does it correlate with the brain fog. What about any aches and pains.. any recurring pains in these spots. If so does the pain in these spots increase in correlation with the brain fog or any lethargy.

NSFW:

Do you have any psoriasis? A unusually dry mouth. vomiting, burning or discomfort in the stomach or bowels.

Just throwing some stuff out there if you want to share.

What are you doing to combat the stress you are under?

I would start and stick to an exercise regiment where you get at the very least 20 minutes of cardio four times a week. This will likely help in many areas.. it should help you burn a bunch of that stress, it will make you sleep much better and the sleep you get could be of much better quality. It will likely have a very noticeable positive effect on the brain fog.

I think you are going really hard and not giving yourself the rest you need. You seem like you may be burning the candle at both ends. If this is the case, people can keep this up for awhile, but if it is kept up for long it can cause some pretty significant health problems. Unfortunately we are unbreakable and we need care and maintenance if we want be able to perform well. If we run ourself at red line all the time with out filling the gas tank up, changing the oil and filter, rotating the tires, then the car starts to perform like shit. If we keep running the car at redline after its running like shit and still fail to take care of it.. something major will go wrong and it then could be a big deal that causes a big hassle.

I ran my car on red and failed to do the necessary upkeep, repairs, refueling.. I ran it hard even when it started to show signs of trouble.. I ran mine till it broke down.. trying to do anything wile broken down is fucking awful.

I would consider makeing some changes to your life.. maybe identify some simple things you can do to make sure your taking the proper care of yourself. I would think that exercise, eating a healthy diet, and getting the proper sleep, not working so hard, are a great places to consider. My guess is that your pushing yourself way to hard, ignoring your bodies and brains needs, and have way to much stress. Combine all this with a sleep dysfunction and it can cause severe issues. So I guess I would tone it back pretty hard and start taking care of yourself the way you deserve.

Oh what time do you get up on the weekend.. wake naturally or with an alarm on the weekend. what time during the week. Have you had a sleep study done yet. if so what did they think the issue was?

 

[Dresden]

I hate to nitpick, but mepedrone / 4-MMC (4-methylmethcathinone) is MMCAT, not MCAT. MCAT is methcathinone aka ephedrone.

I know it's confusing, but I just wanted to point that out.

 

[friendofafriend]

Thanks for replying. Thankfully I don't really have any aches or pains or any kind of skin condition so I don't think I've got psoriasis. Phew...

I eat fairly healthily and exercise 2/3 times a week so I think the only thing causing me stress at the moment is work. You're right, I do push myself pretty hard all the time so I need to consider my health over everything else for once. After quite a bit of thought I've decided to hand in my notice and work for a charity for a while which should be less stressful with hopefully regular hours. Fingers crossed!

I've had a sleep study and everything came back normal which is really strange because I thought I had a shocking nights sleep during the study. I do have a neuropsychiatric assessment in a few weeks so hopefully they'll actually be able to pin point something.

The time I get up on the weekend does vary. Sometimes my flatmates seem to wake me up at 7, other times I'll lay in till 10. Either way the brain fog seems to be worse on a weekend. The only thing I can think of thats causing this at the moment is a really heavy stressful patch at work 2 weeks ago which definitely made the brain fog worse.

What I have found is if I get woken up or I sleep on a bad mattress this also seems to bring about brain fog. Maybe this is just how my brain functions when its tired, if it is its pretty devastating.... I live in hope!

 

[friendofafriend]

@Dresden - I didn't actually know MCAT is different to mephedrone so I wouldn't really know what the difference is. I'm fairly certain I took mephedrone and not Mcat then.

Even the talktofrank webpage includes mcat as another name for meph - http://www.talktofrank.com/drug/mephedrone

 

[Allein]

I hate to nitpick, but mepedrone / 4-MMC (4-methylmethcathinone) is MMCAT, not MCAT. MCAT is methcathinone aka ephedrone.

I know it's confusing, but I just wanted to point that out.

AFAIK neither MCAT or MMCAT are formal terms for 4-MMC (4-methylmethcathinone), certainly whilst it was legal in the UK I only ever saw the term MCAT, I've never seen MMCAT used in my end of the globe.

Either way unless you had your supply lab tested your not going to be sure exactly what you took, since 4-MMC (4-methylmethcathinone) was banned in many areas of the globe numerous 'variants' have surfaced.