Well, well... I stumbled upon this forum post on the afternoon of January 21st, 2024, as I was stumbling down the very first emails I received with my email address I made back in 2013.
So, I read through this post, and realized that I never checked back in. So I'd like to detail some of my life that would occur after this post.
In 2014, I was 19 years old, and struggling with Dextromethorphan addiction. Unfortunately, I was not able to stay clean for that long, hence why I probably did not follow up with this forum post and completely forgot it existed. I ended up lapsing I think in April of 2014, and continued to use until September 2014 where I got sober for about 6 months until April of 2015, where I relapsed on alcohol, and then eventually I got sucked into the rabbit hole of DXM yet again. Except for, this time, at 20 years old and nearing 3 years of abuse, I realized my tolerance was shot and the amounts I was using to sustain the addiction was far outweighing any high I was achieving. I would use very heavily in 2015, except this time, I was mixing it with alcohol. Things took a turn for the worse, I got in trouble with the law again, this time for a petty destruction of property misdemeanor.. I was still living life in the fast lane at this point in time, driving a car with fake plates and no driver's license, and just overall being pretty reckless, and I was anything but copacetic and ambitious about any life goals I had due to my addictions..
I finished my 6 course probation that I was given due to getting in trouble, and luckily, that was the last time I'd ever get in trouble. Towards the end of summer 2015, I lost my job (more like left to try to go to rehab), but I never did. I used the opportunity being unemployed to get high all day, day drink, and quite frankly abuse my body.
However, I'm happy to report that the fall of 2015 through to early 2016 marked the last times I would ever use Dextromethorphan again. Sometime in February 2016, weeks before my 21st birthday, I used DXM for my last time, and got a full time job that was stable. This helped me stay sober from DXM, but like another user here had warned me about, I simply replaced the addiction to Dextromethorphan with Alcohol. I got severely addicted, mentally and physically, and had another monkey to battle. The whole year of 2016 I spent getting drunk, blacking out in various places, partying as often as I could. Hell, I'm surprised that I kept that job and showed up as frequently as I did. That year of 2016 was CRAZY..
In early 2017, I put myself through detox, and got clean from Alcohol. The withdrawal was so powerful I was incredulous in nature to the experience. I learned my lesson then, got clean, and for most of 2017 I was completely sober from anything at all for the first time. No weed, no adderall, no booze, no DXM, I had done it. But, I quickly noticed the effects of it all. Little would I know, my cognitive abilities, at least in my opinion, would continue to weaken later on down the line. But being off of DXM was a huge help to any intellect that I still had. I was very slow on DXM and my speech was greatly affected.
I would relapse again in the beginning of 2018, but this time I was able to control my use and not get severely addicted to anything. I was 23 years old here, and still having a pretty good time in life, 2 years off of DXM. But, I would use various substances like Phenibut (GABA-B Agonist similar to GHB), and Kratom (Opioid subtype agonist, 5HT receptors and D2) and resumed drinking beer in relative moderation. Like I said, I was able to moderate my use somehow, this was oxymoronic though considering I was a full blown addict still, but my health anxiety and past experiences with drug withdrawal made me aware enough of the consequences by this time.
The summer of 2019 I had a big binge with LSD. During this time, I attempted to use DXM one time, while I was on a trip in the Florida Keys. Stupid, I know, but I wanted to figure out if it still had any value to me (if my NMDA receptors had recovered from the constant 4-year abuse). To my dismay, but not my surprise, a strong 5oz dose of delsym that was cold-water-extracted had nearly no effects on me. This was over 3 years since stopping, and it just wasn't the same. This would officially be the last time I ever dosed, but I don't count it because it barely did anything to me. I was taking an antipsychotic medication called Seroquel for sleep, which blocks numerous dopamine receptors and histamine receptors, so it is quite possible that it was because of this medication that I didn't really get an effect. But I'm willing to place my bets on the consistent abuse...
September 2019, I quit alcohol for the final time. I was 24 years old, and still moderating my use by not drinking hard liquor. September 27th was the final time I drank nearly 4 and a half years ago. Also, I would attempt getting off of Seroquel in January 2020, only to be faced with the harsh realities of ADS (Antipsychotic Discontinuation Syndrome), which nearly crushed me. I would spend all of 2020, 2021, and half of 2022 still on this medication. I finally quit Seroquel completely in August of 2022.
So, if anyone sees this post, or this thread, which is probably buried by now, I hope this update helps anyone at all. I was not active in this forum any time after my posts in 2014, but I couldn't leave this hanging without letting some people who may read this know of how I'm doing. Life, eh, it's okay, I have a lot of other issues that may be a result of using so heavily early on in my life. If there's one thing I can say for sure, if you're reading this and still early in the stages of DXM abuse (less than 1 year), quit while you're ahead. You may save yourself a lot of cognitive processing power that you may otherwise degrade if you keep on using.
Hope this update helped anyone, next month I'll be 8 years clean from DXM abuse, nearly twice as long as I abused it for.
Peace and love,
Will