Caffeine, I never knew you before now. What should I worry about?

[Aetherius Rimor]

Ok, so here's my situation. I'm pretty positive at this point I have ADD. Completely lack ability to focus on work unless it's at the last minute, zone out through meetings unless I'm talking or my name is said, always show up 30 minutes late to work, and generally the majority of the day is spent day dreaming with periodic bouts of work to keep my job.

Luckily I've got a lot of talent/ability, and my boss has seen that through my years of working for him, so despite me being lazy/irresponsible majority of the time, I keep my job because when shit hit's the fan I'm the one that fixes everything quickly and efficiently. (Yeah... I'm that guy who keeps his job despite how many rules he breaks due to talent, makes me feel guilty as hell).

So anyways, about 6 months ago, I discovered the true usefulness of Cocaine. I'd tried it years ago, but didn't care for the euphoria or anything. Then one day I did a little bit before work, and magic happened.

Hated the side effects, constant redosing and obvious nose issues so quit. Then one day a friend gave me adderall, and I got everything I loved from cocaine, without some of the serious draw backs. Holy crap, awesomeness.

Well that wasn't a reliable source, and I really needed to be able to focus this week. With nothing to assist, I bought a bottle of 200mg caffeine pills. I hate coffee so never became a routine caffeine user due to that.

Holy hell. Despite the intense hangover the first day I used these pills, I get all the bonuses of adderall without all the legal concerns/prohibitive costs.

I'm currently using them in this manner.

200mg when I wake up at 7am.
200mg around 10am.
200mg around 3pm.

And then boost throughout the day with Mountain Dew.

This has effectively solved my inability to focus/work. I started this regimen this week however. I've been taking 500mg chelated magnesium daily for the past 4 weeks (to aid with my usage of adderall). Does magnesium assist protectively with Caffeine as well?

What else should I worry about as far as health concerns with my caffeine usage?

Is adderall safer? I scheduled an appointment with my psychiatrist I haven't seen in 6 years to discuss this issue. I originally was diagnosed with bipolar (despite my mother suggesting ADD when I first saw him 8 years ago), but ceased use of that medication after my last visit. Lost 75 pounds just by quitting that crap chemical cocktail.

I'm currently 225 lbs, so each usage of caffeine is around 1.125 mg/lb, 3 times a day, plus whatever mountain dew throws in.

How bad will tolerance start kicking in to the positive effects. Tolerance has already kicked in to the hangover, and I'm not getting that anymore. Tolerance has also kicked in to prevent the diuretic qualities from making me have to go to the restroom every 2 hours as well.

So obvious negative side effects are diminished, positive side effects are still strong. Will that end? Also, does ADD level usage of adderall/equivalent medication have less of a cardiotoxicity than my current level of caffeine usage?

Also, when I go see my psychiatrist in a month, should I be fully honest about my drug usage in this matter. I started with coke for about 2 months, downgraded to adderall for 2 months, and now I'm using caffeine. Hopefully it should be apparent I'm trying to fix a problem and not get high, but I don't want to risk being labelled a drug seeker.

My psychiatrist is early 40's and we had a good repoire when I last saw him. I've never had legal troubles or substance abuse problems.

What advice, if any, do y'all have for my situation>

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

We can't tell you what to say or what to not say to a doctor in order to acquire drugs. The best bet is indeed to be honest.

 

[Aetherius Rimor]

The best bet is indeed to be honest.

That's what I'm leaning towards. I just don't want there to be any legal consequences to being honest, that's my primary question as far as that goes. I'm under the impression that US privacy laws protect me from anything I say to a psychiatrist as long as I'm not high risk of danger to myself or others, but I'm not sure what the exceptions are to that.

However the main purpose of this thread is to find out the health risks/concerns of what I'm currently doing for the mean time until I can see him and ask him myself.

When it comes down to it, if caffeine is more dangerous, I'm going to stick to Adderall until I see him. If it's less dangerous and won't diminsh positive effects due to tolerance, and is a well accepted consensus on that fact, I actually might even just cancel the appointment.

Far cheaper to use caffeine, rather than adderall (whether legally or not). I'm looking for the safest (health wise) solution, not a specific drug.

If that solution is caffeine I'd be ecstatic.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

Caffeine is safer than Adderall (mixed amphetamine salts / racemic amphetamine) at comparable doses (which vary from person to person - don't ask me for a conversation because there isn't one).

However, both caffeine and amphetamines have the same main issue. That issue being the rapid development of tolerance. Some studies suggest that caffeine tolerance grows faster than other stimulants. You're taking about taking 600mg or so a day, which is a pretty high dose. You are going to develop tolerance to that dose very quickly. Caffeine does have withdrawals...and withdrawals from 600mg a day could be pretty shitty. That being said, amphetamines have withdrawals as well.

I'm no expert on caffeine, but I can say that extended high dosage use of any stimulant probably isn't too healthy in the long term.

 

[Aetherius Rimor]

I'm no expert on caffeine, but I can say that extended high dosage use of any stimulant probably isn't too healthy in the long term.

I just found out from my mother after speaking to her, that I was actually on Xanthine class stimulants from age 4 until 14 for Asthma. Theophylline. That was the reason I never was allowed to have caffeine when younger, and never started using it.

At the time I stopped, was when I got diagnosed with bipolar and my school/grades went to absolute crap, since I was in advanced classes from elementary school until I started taking bipolar meds.

Hm... might be on to something.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

It's possible that withdrawal from theophylline didn't help your symptoms....

Again, I'm not an expert with caffeine, but I can tell you that taking stimulants if you have bipolar disorder is walking a slippery slope...

 

[ihatepipes]

At least he can be told not to tell the doctor about illicit drug use. That is a surefire way to pretty much be viewed as someone that is likely to seek drugs. This screws up patient/doctor relationship and may result in the OP not being prescribed a medication he needs because the doctor thinks there is too high of a risk that he will abuse/become addicted. Of course this is a worst case scenario but I am sure something like this has happened before.

 

[ihatepipes]

At least he can be told not to tell the doctor about illicit drug use. That is a surefire way to pretty much be viewed as someone that is likely to seek drugs. This screws up patient/doctor relationship and may result in the OP not being prescribed a medication he needs because the doctor thinks there is too high of a risk that he will abuse/become addicted. Of course this is a worst case scenario but I am sure something like this has happened before.