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Stimulants My Zoloft is depressing the hell out of me. (Adderall and SSRIs)

DeadheadChemistry

DeadheadChemistry

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
210
Location
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
So I've been taking Zoloft for awhile now and recently wasted quite a few doses of Molly and Ecstasy pills being unaware of the effects SSRIs have on such drugs. Well, yesterday I got some adderall (I already take Ritalin which seems to work fine and have no effect from the Zoloft). Turns out the adderall is ALSO blocked by SSRIs along with any amphetamine I could ever dream of.

Now, I like my downers a hell of a lot more than uppers, but every once in awhile I need to just go all out have some amphetamine fueled fun. I havent been this depressed in ages, my anti-depressant literally counteracts every recreational drug that I enjoy. I'm done with Zoloft, but I had a couple questions for anyone who has been in similar situations...

First of all, how many days without Zoloft do I have to wait before the adderall will start working? Also, are there any anti-depressants that actually WORK without screwing with my high?

Thanks in advance.
 
The terminal half life of sertralne is 26 hours so after that period of time it shouldn't have any effect on your stimulant. Even though stimulants and SSRI's are prescribed in conjunction a lot of the time, for many people such as yourself they dampen the effect of the stimulant.

The best thing to do for me would be to take a minuscule dose of any SSRI before a stimulant. Another option to explore is any NRI of the tetracyclic or tricyclics class as I found they interfere with the stimulants much less.

If this still persists you might want to evaluate what's more important to you, the stimulant, or the antidepressant.
 
I started out on Zoloft and it didnt work for me for extreme anxiety, so I switched to Prozac. To me it was like night and day, you definitely need to switch your antidepressant because you're experiencing the exact opposite of what SSRIs were made to do. As far as the aphets. go, I used to wait a good three days on Zoloft until you won't be cheated out of the high. However Prozac stays with you for quite awhile I believe about 3 weeks. Chromophobia is spot on though. Skipping on those days of medicine can cause severe depression or anxiety because you're messing the serotonin levels. I do NOT in any way encourage skipping out of essential medicine for a recreational drug, but if were to be done, Zoloft=Short Term about 3 days, Prozac=If lucky atleast two weeks. (Whatever you choose to do, my advice is to switch your SSRI)
 
So if the half life is 26 hours then after two days it should basically almost all be out of my system and the adderall should work just fine?

If that's the case I don't really understand because a few weeks ago when I was still taking the SSRI and learned about their effect on drugs like MDMA I made a similar thread (though it may have been on a different forum) asking how long it would take before I would be able to feel the effects of MDMA and was told it would be weeks before I would feel the effects of Ecstasy like I'm used to, possibly even longer.

I'll be extremely relieved if I don't have to give the Zoloft more than a couple days to get out of my system and not interfere with the Adderall, but I guess I don't understand what would make this SSRI block the effects of MDMA for a longer period of time than a stimulant like Adderall. I assume it has to do with the SSRIs' effect or lack of effect on serotonin and dopamine that makes a difference, but if you could help explain it I would greatly appreciate it.

EDIT: The second reply was posted as I was writing my reply to chromophobia. So three days or so then and the Adderall should work, right? Same question regarding MDMA. As far as the dangers of not taking the Zoloft go I'm not very worried about it, my depression when prescribed Zoloft was minimal. The title of my thread wasn't so much a literal interpretation of what I'm feeling as it was a tagline to get more (or more accurate) replies. Yeah, it's depressing to have my every move to have recreational fun blocked by this damn SSRI, but not so much in the clinical term of depression. More like as in "it's a bummer." Zoloft worked well for my actual depression, but I think having the occasional recreational fun to look forward to worked better.
 
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Ah I see, well thank you for clarifying. I use Concerta which is (a bit different/generic) form of adderall everyday and i'm on 40mg of Prozac daily, and it still makes me stick my nose in a book or clean the house. I use a pretty high dose of it but it gets the job done. Everyone is different,for me, yes it took three days on Zoloft, but for you it could take a week. Although i've never heard of that because its a fast acting SSRI, while Prozac takes longer to kick in but also stays in the system much longer and does its job.
 
I saw this kid in college go pretty crazy off zoloft and coke man...be careful with SSRI's in general, much less in combination with recreational drug use...(said Smokey the Bear). %)
 
Well, I've heard of people getting serotonin syndrome from combining SSRIs and drugs like MDMA that also release serotonin, but that's about it.

I'd still love to know why Zoloft is able to counteract the effects of Ecstasy (MDMA) for weeks but only counteracts Adderall for a few days maximum.

Anyone? Preferably someone with actual information on the chemistry behind why the time-table would be different for Zoloft to block the effects of one drug and not another.
 
When I was prescribed Zoloft years ago, I wouldn't even like mixing pot with it, made me feel weird. I wouldn't touch any stimulants while on an SSRI, I just wouldn't. You shouldn't combine SSRI's with any other substance that might affect your serotonin also.
 
I find this thread very interesting because I've had a similar experience recently. This maybe a little bit off topic but here goes....
I have been taking oxycodone IR and Fentanyl Transdermal System for a year and a half-2 years. I also take mph and alprazolam (the latter mostly for sleep).
My psychiatrist felt I needed an antidepressant, as did I. About a month ago he prescribed me Lexapro. Within 2 days of taking it I noticed that my pain medications were not working anywhere near as well as normal. It was really weird and very abrupt. I called my pharmacist and told him about this and he said it did not make any sense. He said that if anything, the Lexapro should have had the opposite effect on the way my pain medications worked.
I stopped taking it after 4 days; I wanted to be sure that there wasn't some other reason for what was happening and there were absolutely none that I could think of.
It took a good couple of weeks for things to get back to normal. I asked my pharmacist if he could think of an antidepressant that may not interact with my other meds and he said no, considering he couldn't think of any reason for what had happened.
It sucks because I really do feel an antidepressant would be helpful, but I am not willing to trade my pain control for it. Not a good situation, that's for sure! :(
 
Contraindicated perhaps, but a very popular combination is psychiatry nonetheless. I've been on adderall and escitalopram for longer than I can remember.

OP, if you want to make sure your not blunting your high or risking serotonin syndrome than wait at least 3-4 half-lives to make sure the sertraline is no longer active.
 
DeadheadChemistry said:
Well, I've heard of people getting serotonin syndrome from combining SSRIs and drugs like MDMA that also release serotonin, but that's about it.

I'd still love to know why Zoloft is able to counteract the effects of Ecstasy (MDMA) for weeks but only counteracts Adderall for a few days maximum.

Anyone? Preferably someone with actual information on the chemistry behind why the time-table would be different for Zoloft to block the effects of one drug and not another.
Click to expand...

Zoloft being an SSRI (or is it an SNRI? i dont know) will block the reuptake of serotonin ie: has a huge effect on serotonin and MDMA is a serotonin releaser, so obviously if Zoloft won't let the serotonin out and MDMA is trying to release all that serotonin, you're just not going to get high. There's no risk of serotonin syndrome for this reason.

Zoloft however doesn't affect dopamine/NE (norepinepherine) to the same degree so that is why you would feel adderall sooner than MDMA. THis is just my guess though and i'm tripping pretty hard so take that for what it is lol.
 
Hey I'm having a similar issue with Zoloft. I've been taking it for 3 months and after 3 months of abstaining from opiates I tried eating some painpills and it had NO effect. I havent taken my zoloft for about 2 and a half days now and I'm hoping if I try again I might actually get off-you folks think it takes about 3 days?
 
Ditch the Zoloft, you won't regret it. I'm not your Dr though, just some food for thought
 
I agree with lacster, i ditched mine after like 6 months. At first i thought it wasn't working but now i understand it was, i didn't really have depressive thoughts back then. But still, it is all a chemical mask it is doing absolutely nothing to solve the problem. And the longer you are on it, the worse the withdrawal will be. I didn't particularly feel real depressed after quitting zoloft, but i had the worst head spins / dizziness which absolutely sucked and stuck around for a while.

Also SSRI's lower your siezure threshold, and amphetamines do to. I remember when i was on zoloft i was doing cocaine often, and sometimes everything went well. But sometimes i'd get extremely anxious on the coke, feel real spacey and like somethings about to go very very wrong. Just hold off on the stims until you are off the zoloft. Also it doesn't allow you to get high on certain drugs because it inhibits certain enzymes in your liver that are needed to break down the drug and gain its effects.
 
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