How to avoid adderall dopamine receptor down regulation

[SpeedyTrip]

Hello,
swim is a rec. adderal user for partying and also for studying. Swim doesnt go crazy, in fact Swim uses extremely small doses because swim is always considering possible down regulation of his dopamine receptors, usually to the point of being over cautious.

If swim uses say, 15 mg IR adderal pills once every two weeks, will swim notice any difference in his performance while off the pills? (Focus, enjoyment of things, etc.). Swim usually gets heavy euphoric feelings and a lot of energy even from doses this small.

Please only reply if you know what i mean when I say dopamine receptor down regulation. Yes the phrase is self explanatory, but you'd be surprised how many people will pop their mouths off saying how they take 20mg every day and see no difference in their tolerance. I don't mean tolerance, because swim will not be taking these pills daily so he needs to keep his sober mind fresh and working just as well.

edit: I learned a lot that I didn't know about dopamine receptor down regulation from the site yourbrainonporn.com. If you're familiar with this movement, please don't comment on it. I'd like this thread to remain strictly about the topic at hand, I just wanted to throw that out there for anyone who was maybe interested in knowing more about this concept.

thanks guys.

 

[clubcard]

For a LONG time, there was an argument as to stimulants causing physiological dependence. For an AGE, scientists were convinced that they are not but more recently, studies have shown that it does cause dependence. I would go back and find some studies. It seems that lower doses of pills were not a big issue - after all, millions of fighting men in WW2 were issued quite vast amounts of pills. The Germans favoured 5mg of cocaine, 3mg of (D)-meth and 5mg of oxycodone. The British similarly issued 'French Blues' (dexedrine) and 'Purple Hearts' (dexamphetamine + barbiturate to stop twitchiness) as well as many other amphetamine pills.

Up until recently, the US airforce used 5mg dexedrine tablets as 'go pills' and a benzo as a 'no go' pill. After some questionable decisions, Modafinil and Eszopiclone became the replacements.

 

[sekio]

We don't SWIM here. Also, any usage of amphetamine or other monoamine releasers is going to cause some amount of "dopamine receptor downregulation": every predictable rewarding stimulus will. That is the nature of the dopamine reward circuitry; it is not meant to become continually activated in response to any rewarding stimulus. Food, sex, etc.

The obvious answer is just keep your usage moderate and don't rely on using it as an euphoriant. There is no general calculus for determining what dosages of amphetamine are tolerable or sustainable. Everyone's personal biology is different.

 

[SpeedyTrip]

Alright thanks sure but in your experience do you think it would be significantly noticeable at this usage level?

 

[dopamimetic]

Think it greatly depends on your individual nature, genes and lifestyle, maybe even nutrition. Many'd probably say one low dose twice a month is safe. As sekio already said, there will be after effects nevertheless (well, I personally don't consider 15mg IR amphetamine an actually low dose. I get hangover from just 5mg of d-amph, that's why I dislike the amphetamines, but many get less severe reactions and I know of the sky-high doses used all the time. The -phenidates tend to have better profile imho.) Having a restful night of sleep afterwards is very important.

Experimental, but maybe worth a consideration is the antioxidant nootropic emoxypine. It has shown to increase dopamine levels and sometimes greatly lessens DA 'depletion' from psychostimulant use for me (just anecdotally though). At least it does something noticeable in comparison to vitamin supplements etc. Magnesium is important but most commonly sold forms aren't that bioavailable at all and just give diarrhea.. maybe look for an amino acid chelated version.

There are possible mechanisms by which the acute and/or chronic down regulation (as well as some of the negatives of psychostimulants) can be alleviated more or less like by countering NMDA (glutamate) excitation with e.g. memantine (maybe agmatine could work too, don't know), and this works well for me and some others too.. but this is nothing to take lightly and could even have unpredictable effects in you. At least it's nothing to be taken only acutely as the initial effects of glutamate antagonism can be disturbing- (or would a very low dose of a light antagonist also help..?)

 

[Cotcha Yankinov]

I think you would probably be okay at 15mg twice a month. Depending on how much dopamine is released when you take 15mg personally you will get some receptor downregulation though, I don't know how long it would take for it to upregulate but the key is that if you want to fun once in a while to come back around to normal you have to let your dopamine dip for a bit to let things re-upregulate again. If your dopamine does down-regulate to the point where you're not getting enough I think that would be enough to say things will up-regulate fairly quick, maybe two weeks to get back to regular after some instant release, just as a rough guess though. But it won't take years of anhedonia, and the point is if the anhedonia is noticeable then that probably means your receptors are in the process of upregulating and then you should definitely lay off. Oh and like Dopamimetic said sleep is really important, skipping nights is BAD. On a personal advice note if your tolerance is still in the "romance stage" and you can really do a lot with 15mg I would seriously consider saving your tolerance for studying and taking the minimal amount needed to party There is the matter of adrenaline with d-amph though- I don't believe your receptors will desensitize to adrenaline very much at all. Nutrition is important, if you eat like crap you could take L-tyrosine to help your body make dopamine and adrenaline. I don't know how well it works as far as studies and evidence go but it has been recommended before.