MyDoorsAreOpen
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 8,549
I used to have a very high potential for alcoholism. Though I've fought for years not to abuse it, I used to even feel a "thirst" for alcohol most days. Now that I'm prescribed adderall 10mg bid, I've completely lost my alcohol jones. My theory is that my innate attraction to alcohol was for its dopamine releasing properties, and now that I'm taking a psychoactive drug that releases dopamine better, longer, and with more bearable side effects, my brain feels no need for alcohol. I'd also surmise that my neurons are naturally a bit stingy about releasing dopamine, and I'm naturally drawn to dopamine-releasing agents so that this imbalance may be corrected. Can anyone whose neuroscience is better than mine back this up?
I have drank one alcoholic drink on two social occasions since starting adderall. Each time, I felt nothing pleasurable from the alcohol, and went to sleep within an hour or two of drinking it. The day after, on both occasions, was not fun. It wasn't a classic "hangover", not that I would expect one from one drink! I was just in a bad mood all day, and felt almost nothing from the routine adderall. In fact, I found I felt the opposite of how amphetamines are supposed to make me feel: listless, unsociable, not talkative, unrested, scatterbrained. I find this especially remarkable in light of the fact that I take 1000mg of chelated magnesium, which is supposed to prevent amphetamine tolerance**, 500mg L-tyrosine to restock my dopamine, and 6g of fish oil as a mood stabilizer every day as well.
I take 100mg 5-htp most nights too before going to sleep, as I find it helps my sleep be more restful and also helps improve my mood. I do NOT take 5-htp any day that I drink alcohol, since I've read it's dangerous and have found it to be upleasant.
Can anyone shed some light, from a neurochemical perspective, on why this might be? I know alcohol's chief metabolite is acetaldehyde, which is an irritant with a much longer half life in the body than ethanol, and causes many of the effects of a hangover. Could this or another metabolite of alcohol somehow be interfering with amphetamines doing what they're supposed to do?
** P.S. I don't doubt the findings that say magnesium and beta blockers stop or reverse amphetamine tolerance resulting from Ca++ entering Na+ reuptake channels. But I have a feeling there's more to amphetamine tolerance than just this pathway (dopamine receptor downregulation is my chagrin-filled hunch![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
). Because magnesium only seems to resensitize me to a few of adderall's effects -- I do NOT get the thoroughly fun and uber-productive effect I used to get from occasional use. I think any tweaker who relies on magnesium to catch the ghost he's been chasing will end up quite disappointed.
I have drank one alcoholic drink on two social occasions since starting adderall. Each time, I felt nothing pleasurable from the alcohol, and went to sleep within an hour or two of drinking it. The day after, on both occasions, was not fun. It wasn't a classic "hangover", not that I would expect one from one drink! I was just in a bad mood all day, and felt almost nothing from the routine adderall. In fact, I found I felt the opposite of how amphetamines are supposed to make me feel: listless, unsociable, not talkative, unrested, scatterbrained. I find this especially remarkable in light of the fact that I take 1000mg of chelated magnesium, which is supposed to prevent amphetamine tolerance**, 500mg L-tyrosine to restock my dopamine, and 6g of fish oil as a mood stabilizer every day as well.
I take 100mg 5-htp most nights too before going to sleep, as I find it helps my sleep be more restful and also helps improve my mood. I do NOT take 5-htp any day that I drink alcohol, since I've read it's dangerous and have found it to be upleasant.
Can anyone shed some light, from a neurochemical perspective, on why this might be? I know alcohol's chief metabolite is acetaldehyde, which is an irritant with a much longer half life in the body than ethanol, and causes many of the effects of a hangover. Could this or another metabolite of alcohol somehow be interfering with amphetamines doing what they're supposed to do?
** P.S. I don't doubt the findings that say magnesium and beta blockers stop or reverse amphetamine tolerance resulting from Ca++ entering Na+ reuptake channels. But I have a feeling there's more to amphetamine tolerance than just this pathway (dopamine receptor downregulation is my chagrin-filled hunch
). Because magnesium only seems to resensitize me to a few of adderall's effects -- I do NOT get the thoroughly fun and uber-productive effect I used to get from occasional use. I think any tweaker who relies on magnesium to catch the ghost he's been chasing will end up quite disappointed.