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Stimulants Safest way to quit dexedrine

Z

zagor

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 16, 2017
Messages
113
I have been almost 2 years on dexedrine ir 25mg twice daily for excessive daytime sleepiness. However I found out that is the only thing that helps my treatment resistent depression.

I do not abuse it however I know it will destroy my brain cells so I want to go off. (My brother is an example, he weaned off much lower dose and is in a horrible state). I tried to go down by 10% which is 2.5mg per dose but depression, anhedonia and all is too strong. I tried Mirtazapine but apparently they don't go together. Whats the safest way to taper?
 
zagor said:
I have been almost 2 years on dexedrine ir 25mg twice daily for excessive daytime sleepiness. However I found out that is the only thing that helps my treatment resistent depression.

I do not abuse it however I know it will destroy my brain cells so I want to go off. (My brother is an example, he weaned off much lower dose and is in a horrible state). I tried to go down by 10% which is 2.5mg per dose but depression, anhedonia and all is too strong. I tried Mirtazapine but apparently they don't go together. Whats the safest way to taper?
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Its an amphetaine, you just stop.
 
You can quit dexedrine cold turkey and it won't be physically dangerous. I don't know if tapering really works with stimulants such as amphetamines.
In your case I would probably quit cold turkey, let the brain go back to normal and then consider whether I want go back to a lower dose of amphetamine or not.
If you don't want to stop completely then you could also just start taking a lower dose directly and wait till you get used to it.

Amphetamines aren't really sustainable if you use them to treat your depression, it will just come back (sometimes even worse) as soon as you stop taking them.

There are other drugs you can use if you find it very hard to stop, but they carry their own risks (I would talk to your doctor about that).
 
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I talked to doctors and there is no antidote. Some people cannot quit cold turkey. When I google it , it says to wean off but I get really sick if I reduce by 2.5 mg so imagine what would happen if I just stopped. Im really stuck.

My brother also has pre-existing depression and he was on 15mg twice daily. He managed to wen off but all his mental problems hit the roof plus he is unable to sleep.

My main fear is andedonia/depression and akathisia
 
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zagor said:
I talked to doctors and there is no antidote. Some people cannot quit cold turkey. When I google it , it says to wean off but I get really sick if I reduce by 2.5 mg so imagine what would happen if I just stopped. Im really stuck.

My brother also has pre-existing depression and he was on 15mg twice daily. He managed to wen off but all his mental problems hit the roof plus he is unable to sleep.

My main fear is andedonia/depression and akathisia
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When you said "safely", i assumed you meant life threatening.
lol There's gonna be some down time, there's no getting around that.

The depression and boredom are part of the territory, no matter how much you taper, but its just temporary.
 
You're going to get depression and other mental and physical symptoms regardless of how you stop. With amphetamine it's best to just rip the bandaid off and stop all at once. There is no preventing the low that comes after chronic amp use so it's best to not prolong it by trying to taper off.

It may take a few weeks to a couple months to start feeling normal, but that's the price you have to pay when using amphetamine on a daily basis for years. I wish there was an easy out, but that's not how these things work. Don't prolong the inevitable, just stop using it.
 
For people quitting serious amphetamine habits it is common to prescribe an anti-depressant (or becoming more common an anti-psychotic) to counter the depression felt as they stop. OP, your dose of 50 mg is not that big and I would suggest that any sickness you feel from reducing by 2.5 g is possibly psychosomatic because you have built up an expectation of bad withdrawal in your mind. At any rate the worse depression from stopping amphetamines only lasts a few days (unless you have an underlying depression not caused by stopping the stims)

One useful antidepressant to consider is Agomelatine, which is connected to your melatonin system and will help ensure you get good quality sleep as you come off the dex and sleep is when your brain restores itself. Also, your concern over brain damage from your dose is probably unwarranted, most evidence suggests that Rx-level doses of amphetamines are actually neuroprotective rather than neurotoxic.
 
It might not be amphetamine, but when I binged on grams of IV Methylphenidate, I used to just stop. The next day or two I'd spend sleeping, waking up occasionally to shoot heroin to keep the withdrawals at bay, and by day 3 I'd be good to go again after a good meal, a shower and a pitcher full of orange juice. I wish I could have done the same with my opiate habit but that's another matter :\

Stimulants are safe to stop at any time. The higher you climb, the further you fall.
 
rave23 said:
It might not be amphetamine, but when I binged on grams of IV Methylphenidate, I used to just stop. The next day or two I'd spend sleeping, waking up occasionally to shoot heroin to keep the withdrawals at bay, and by day 3 I'd be good to go again after a good meal, a shower and a pitcher full of orange juice. I wish I could have done the same with my opiate habit but that's another matter :\

Stimulants are safe to stop at any time. The higher you climb, the further you fall.
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An atypical antipsychotic like seroquel or abilify works nearly as well as smack in the first few days of quitting amps
 
Atelier3 said:
For people quitting serious amphetamine habits it is common to prescribe an anti-depressant (or becoming more common an anti-psychotic) to counter the depression felt as they stop. OP, your dose of 50 mg is not that big and I would suggest that any sickness you feel from reducing by 2.5 g is possibly psychosomatic because you have built up an expectation of bad withdrawal in your mind. At any rate the worse depression from stopping amphetamines only lasts a few days (unless you have an underlying depression not caused by stopping the stims)

One useful antidepressant to consider is Agomelatine, which is connected to your melatonin system and will help ensure you get good quality sleep as you come off the dex and sleep is when your brain restores itself. Also, your concern over brain damage from your dose is probably unwarranted, most evidence suggests that Rx-level doses of amphetamines are actually neuroprotective rather than neurotoxic.
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I will look into Agomelatine. But I did have pre existing mental issues and dexedrine has helped me tremendously during these two years. I was in deep major depression and didn't know what to do but found that it helped. However, the longer I stay the harder will the fall be.

My brother and I are both unfortunate to have mental illness from childhood and his 15mg twice daily dose of dexedrine withdrawal almost made him attempt suicide a few days ago due to extreme dysphoria, depression and ptsd - all re-triggered during withdrawal.

Also, if you go to askapatient.com and type in dexedrine you will read tragic stories where dex has killed people.

Even if I try to wean off without fear, like if I don't induce nocebo, it will still hit me hard at 2.5mg lower dose. What would have happened if I quit cold turkey?

I also abused opioids for 3 years and now have been on suboxone for 3 years and still am on it. I plan to wean off after dex. But the scary thing is, when I quit suboxone for a few days 2 years ago and tried oxycodone again I couldn't feel it a bit. Zero high. So what went wrong? Also my klonopin has no more effect whatsoever or any other benzo.
 
tweakerguy said:
Its an amphetaine, you just stop.
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Yeah I was taking upwards of 40 mg of adderall a day on top of cocaine usage. I stopped both cold turkey. Your minds giving you these symptoms. It won’t be pleasant but get some tyrosine to help and you’ll be fine
 
The way I understand, amps suck out dopamine to make you feel good. But if you already have low dopamine and on top of that amps sucks out a lot of it, once you quit you become anhedonic. Type of neuro damage
 
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