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For Those Who Take Both Benzos And Stims (Adderall, Ritalin etc) Daily

daddysgone

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
1,114
Hi all
I was hoping to ge some input from people here who take both stimulants (liker Adderall, Ritalin, etc) as well as benzos, on a daily or semi-daily basis.

I am prescribed Adderall but dont take it daily (maybe 3-4 times a week) because I cant stand alot of the side-effects (the emotional crash, the inability to fall asleep that night).
And in fact, Ive found that the only way that I can take my adderall is if I take a 2-3mg xanax at the end of the night to both make the comedown alot smoother, and also to allow me to actually get some sleep.

So I was curious about how many people here find it necessary to take benzos after they take a stimulant. Im especially interested in those of you who are prescribed stims and take them daily-do you simply just take benzos at the end of the day/night, or are you somehow able to deal with the crash and also get to sleep without the use of a benzo.

It would be great if those who respond to this thread could answer:
1-What stimulant you take daily (or semi-daily) and what dose you take
2-What benzo and what dose you take.
3-Do you essentially find it necessary to take a benzo during/after taking a stim, or are you somehow able to deal with the crash and inability to sleep without using a benzo.
4-Lastly, do you find any negatives from using this drug regimen (stimulant during the day/early night, and then benzos to bring you down at the end of the night).

Im in a tough spot because adderall really helps me in my day to day life, but without the aid of a few mg of adderall at the end of the night, I just dont how I can handle the adderall due to the bad crash and especially and inability to sleep. But Im a bit worried about using this drug regimen. Are there dangers/concerns with what Im doing, or is it pretty standard for those who are prescribed daily stims to use some sort of sedative at the end of the night. Thanks-DG
 
ehh....i did this for a month or two last year. I lasted TWO months max before the paranoia and psychosis and benzo withdrawals started catching up to me. I ended up taking a whole bottle of klonopin and ended up in the psych ward for a week. I would stop while your ahead as this is not going to end well. :o
 
I see.
But let me make clear, Im not going on these massive stim binges. Im taking fairly moderate doses (50-60mg of adderall over the course of 6-8 hours). I just find it absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to fall asleep by the end of the night unless I take a few mg of xanax. It just seems to me that for anyone taking ADHD stims like adderall, being able to sleep must be a massive issue. There are many ppl who take adderall doses larger then mine on a daily basis, as prescribed by their doc for ADD or ADHD. For these people, how are they able to sleep each night? For these people, do they simply need to take benzos every night? I dont see how else they could get to sleep.

Again, I find that taking 50-60 mg of adderall 3-4 nights a week really helps me in several aspects of my life, but on these nights, i HAVE to take some xanax to get any sleep, and Im concerned if this regimen is likely going to lead to any problems.

I was assuming that there would be many people who could comment on their experiences with this issue, since I know that MANY people are prescribed daily stimulants, and I imagine a good percentage of them must also use benzos daily so that they can get some sleep at night? Is this not the case? To most daily stim users get by without the aid of benzos. Id love to hear reports/experiences from those of u who are in this situation. Thanks-DG
 
As an aside I gotta say this reminds me of a term my former roommate and I use(d) for taking benzos and d-amphetamine at the same time.

When the term was born the benzo was Klonopins, which we called "pins" and of course d-amphetamine is a stimulant that can make you "speed" (at the right dose anyway)... so when we combined the two to take the edge off the d-amp (and to a lesser extent to liven up the benzo) we played on the word "speeding" to instead say we were "spinning".

Usually pronounced spinnin' heh heh those were the days. Sorry about that everyone I like to amuse myself! :) Oh yea and the term ended up being adopted for ANY particular benzo that was being combined with the d-amphetamine...
 
50-60mg of adderall?
I'm not at all surprised you have problems falling asleep.

Try taking less adderall and/or take it longer before you need to sleep....

Taking adderall therapeutically (for AD[H]D) generally should not produce pronounced euphoria, harsh comedown, etcetera, and should be taken such that it has worn off by the time you go to bed. It's supposed to be mildly stimulating, and make it easy to focus, but not get you "high". If you're taking it theraputically, you're taking too much.


I'm not sure of the long term effects of that routine, but i think it's begging for trouble, especially that often.
 
just cuz others take more than 60mg per day doesn't make it a small dose. 60mg is a large dose. If I took that I'd have a hell of a time falling asleep at night. With adderall less might be more beneficial for u. U don't need to have strong effects, bearably noticeable effects are what u really want, then u'll have less of a crash and it will help u in ur daily life as well.

Taking benzos everyday is going to lead to dependency no matter for what reason u take it or whether others take it for that reason. Taking adderall at the start of the day will not make the benzo any less addicting, so really no matter how u look at it u'll eventually be stuck with a benzo dependency if u do this regime. If u can't fall alseep from the dose of the adderall u take, either take less adderall or stop it completely as adding a benzo will not lead to anything good.

I am prescribed both a stim (either adderall or ritalin) 30mg and benzos (valium 10mg and kpins 2mg) per day and ambien 10mg. I don't take it more than a few times a month as the stimulant makes me not sleep and I don't want a benzo addiction.

Some people report thou that if u take the stimulant everyday eventually it doesn't mess with sleep so much and they r able to take a dose in the morning and fall asleep at night. If u can just take the benzo for a little bit until the sleep comes easier then that might work. I never took mine for more than a day or two at a time and I always had a week or two breaks, so can't comment whether this works or not.
 
I know someone who tried to kill themselves - they took benzos and d,l-amp every day.

???????
Can u please elaborate on this!! Are you saying that after taking this regimen for some time, they became suicidal. Or are you saying that they actually tried to use this drug combo as a means to kill themself? Seriously man, can you clarify your statement. Thanks-DG
 
we are saying this because this combo can be extremely psychologically challenging to handle (well, the comedown that is) after even just a moderate amount of use. Combining amphetamine and benzos every day is a recipe for disaster. Shit, benzo withdrawal rivals meth or heroin withdrawals. Combine that with amphetamine? sounds dangerous to me.
 
also, if you are asking this question, you most likely just recently started doing this. please do yourself a favor and stop before you start noticing the living hell that is withdrawals/borderline psychosis.
 
???????
Can u please elaborate on this!! Are you saying that after taking this regimen for some time, they became suicidal. Or are you saying that they actually tried to use this drug combo as a means to kill themself? Seriously man, can you clarify your statement. Thanks-DG

Yeah I can see my statement was kind of vague.

They became psychologically and physically dependent on benzos & adderall like one would on crack & heroin. Amphetamine psychosis led this person I know to attempting suicide...along with other environmental factors.

Not everyone on benzos & amphetamines will have such negative effects like amphetamine psychosis. Just like not all alcoholics go through delirium tremens (though I know someone who went through the DT's too), and not all heroin users become addicts (though a medium percentage of people do).
 
That's a pretty unsustainable way to use stimulants.

I don't use benzos, but I do use Adderall for ADHD, and actually had worse insomnia with Bupropion. I would lie in bed for hours before falling asleep. Luckily, Adderall / amphetamines don't have the 24/7 effect of Bupropion, so if you need to use benzos to sleep, you can cut back or just take the stimulants earlier.

But my real recommendation: melatonin works wonders.
 
ehh....i did this for a month or two last year. I lasted TWO months max before the paranoia and psychosis and benzo withdrawals started catching up to me. I ended up taking a whole bottle of klonopin and ended up in the psych ward for a week. I would stop while your ahead as this is not going to end well. :o

is it normal i just blinked a couple times while staring at this?
 
is it normal? taking amphetamines and benzos every day is NOT normal and it messed with my levels of neurotransmitters so much, i was convinced the world was coming to an end and suicide was the only answer. I've had a great life too, good family, good grades, and i just happened to get into drugs for a year when i got into college.

i never in my life would have thought that doing drugs for just one year would have such a profound effect on my mentality and well-being.
 
I went through a similar phase when I was prescribed Adderall for ADD. I would take Xanax at night to yes, try and get some sleep. I noticed that before I would go and lay down when I felt a tiny bit tired, that I would experience temporary blindness while at the computer. The longer I stayed awake, the worse it would get. I could barely focus on something by closing one eye and concentrating. Things as obvious as the GIANT RED LETTERS on clock reading 1 2 : 0 0 would still be hard to read.

You need to find something else to help you man, because the speedball combo of those meds only gets scarier. Just wait until your heart starts telling you NO NO NONONO NO NO in that beating order. Actually, don't wait for that. Quit before then.
 
I found the benzos didn't do what I really wanted them to at the end of the day after using adderall, but weed definitely does!

Melatonin and weed is a sure-fire knockout for me
 
What stimulant you take daily (or semi-daily) and what dose you take: Methamphetamine. Dose varies.

What benzo and what dose you take: Clonazepam 4-6mg daily, and 10mg diazepam daily - though that's gonna be increased soon.

Do you essentially find it necessary to take a benzo during/after taking a stim, or are you somehow able to deal with the crash and inability to sleep without using a benzo: Benzos do nothing to help me come down from stims, due to my tolerance. Most of the time I just let myself crash naturally. Or, if it's a really bad crash, I'll take a sedating anti-psychotic like seroquel.

Lastly, do you find any negatives from using this drug regimen (stimulant during the day/early night, and then benzos to bring you down at the end of the night): I don't use benzos to bring me down, but I don't find any negative effects from taking the two drugs on the same day. I'm very tolerant to my clonazepam, so it doesn't have much of a sedating effect on me. It definitely doesn't spoil the meth high!
 
i take between 40mg and 120mg of adderall a day for about two weeks along with 2mg-6mg of klonopin and tylenol pm.

I take the benzos in 0.5mg increments to balance out the amphetamine and take a few extra a couple hours from my last addy dose. And if I can't sleep I'll take 3 tylenol PMs...it used to be that i'd throw in some kind with all that and get some really good work done, but i just moved to new state so i have no connects.

Yes, I do notice negatives...my body feels terrible and although i am extremely productive with my artwork, I am left feeling drained and weak after two weeks - generally i loose roughly 5-7lbs too because i just couldn't be bothered by eating. The weakness and body pain is the most debilitating to me because I already have a bad back and I am usually in a state of heavy training so as much as I truly love the adderall, I can only play with it for about two weeks to every two months (come to think of it it's been about 2 months now). Otherwise I would be training 5 hours a day 5 days a week for nothing...
 
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