I'd like to share some of my experiences of ethylphenidate over the last couple of weeks. I originally purchased it intending to take something like 3 doses of 10-20mg per day to improve concentration and motivation (treat ADHD symptoms). I have used it in this way for a couple of days and it did seem to be fairly effective. But that's the only experience I managed to get with that kind of use because I've basically abused the shit out of it for 2 weeks and used 5 grams.
Anyway, here are some observations, some of which are to be expected, and some of which were surprising to me:
0: Plugging is the way to go, if you're after recreational effects. The bioavailability is supposed to be around 5x higher than oral, and it comes on about twice as fast. (Start feeling the effects in just over 5 minutes, full effects after 25 minutes). I'm not sure what the potency is like with snorting, since I'm not using that method any more, but done that way it starts kicking in in a couple of minutes and seems to be at full effect in 10-15 mins. But the feeling from snorting is significantly different, consisting of an extremely brief rush lasting 5-10 minutes and then a fairly rapid, annoying comedown. (more on comedown later).
1: It's extremely fiendy. The first time I decided to try "one snort, just to see what it's like recreationally" I was up for 2 days and was completely unable to control the urge to redose.
2: It can provide some fairly nice euphoria, especially when plugged. But this lasts only about half an hour, and after about 3 redoses the euphoria disappears but the compulsion to redose is just as strong.
3: Tolerance builds up very quickly. In my first experiments with plugging the stuff 10mg would give a fairly decent buzz. 2 weeks later of use about every 3 days or so and my first dose of a session will probably be 60mg.
4: Cardiovascular effects - It doesn't seem to affect heart rate all that much, but it definitely feels like my heart is beating harder and my blood pressure is high. I have a stethoscope so I've been listening to my heart, but I don't have a BP cuff so I can't actually measure that. No problematic cardiac effects have been noticed by auscultation, apart from stronger than usual beats - no palpitations or other arrhythmias noticed.
5: Vasoconstriction - Pretty bad with this one, and from reports people have said it's worse than a lot of other stims (though I couldn't say since stims aren't really my thing and I don't have much experience with them. After taking a couple of hundred milligrams over the course of a few hours my feet and fingers are freezing, but I haven't seen any particular danger signs such as numbness or discolouration. This is something I have to watch out for as I have type 1 diabetes so I'm already at risk from circulation issues in the extremities. Also my penis shrinks down to the size of a really shrivelled-looking thumb. I did try at one time taking 50mg of Sildenafil, mainly as an experiment to see if it would address the shrinkage problem, but it didn't seem to have any effect. Which is annoying, because...
6: Sexual effects - it tends to increase sexual desire and arousal, like many stimulants. But it also has a strong anorgasmic effect. Combined with the tiny cock problem, if you try to do anything with the arousal I hope you have better success than me, because trying to get something to happen for 6 hours and then giving up is pretty frustrating.
7: Hunger pangs - this is a weird one, and something I wouldn't have expected. I wasn't surprised to feel this on my first try with the stuff because I pretty much didn't eat anything for 24 hours. But even if if I've made sure to eat, an hour later I'm suddenly faced with a really powerful hunger that can almost make me feel sick.
8: Dry mouth - can get pretty bad, but I don't recommend constantly drinking water (which only gets rid of the dryness for a few seconds and is probably putting unhealthy levels of water into your system considering the reduction in urine elimination caused by most stimulants including this one.) Instead, I find that sucking on a hard candy completely eliminates the dry mouth, although it's probably really bad for your teeth. Maybe try a sugar free candy, although be careful as these tend to have laxative effects. But this might actually come in handy because...
9: Constipation - This stuff definitely slows that whole area down, and even if you feel the need to take a poop, you'll probably just sit there for ten minutes waiting in vain.
10 Cognitive effects: This is what I got the stuff for, and it definitely seems promising in low doses. But in high doses it has weird effects. The 2 main problems I have from ADHD are A: Motivation to begin tasks, and B: Maintaining concentration on a task. At the 10-20mg oral level it seems to improve both. But at more recreational doses, it massively ramps up A, while doing nothing to help B (usually). This means I've tended to spend hours and hours going from one thing to another on the internet, learning really interesting things about the most random topics, but being completely unable to consciously direct my actions to a specific task. In a way it actually seems to make that part of the ADHD far worse. I end up with 5 browser windows open with 50 tabs each, with the most random information in each one. This is actually quite fun, except when I think about a need to do a specific thing and am frustrated that I just can't seem to do it without getting massively distracted. At one point though, I did experience the opposite effect, when I became obsessed with one particular task for a while and I just couldn't drop it. (This post is taking me absolutely ages to write because I'm doing about 100 other things at the same time.)
11: Compulsivity. I've already mentioned the compulsion to redose, but this drug massively amplifies my sensorimotor compulsivity, which I already have normally to a small degree but which I usually keep well under control. But on this drug, I'm writhing my body, making constant loud breathing sounds, breathing in strange patterns, humming songs, rocking backwards and forwards, rolling my eyes... I must look totally mental. Pleasantly surprising, though, is the fact that it doesn't worsen my slight dermatillomania. In fact it seems to completely cure it. Who'da thunk?
12: (I came back after the last bit of the post to put something here but I can't remember what it was so I'll put): Muscular tightness. Pretty much a hazard of all stims, and since I'm not that experienced with other stims, I can't really make a comparison. But subjectively it does seem quite bad, my back muscles in particular are very tense, though I can relax them if I consciously do so.
And lastly (I've probably forgotten a lot of things I wanted to mention, I'll come back to them if I remember)
13 (appropriate): The Comedown. Oh God, the comedown. It's really really unpleasant. As the drug wears off it seems that the dopamine effects disappear but the noradrenergic effects are still in full force. This leaves me with a pounding heart, ice cold fingers and toes, feeling very anxious and unpleasantly stimulated. I would not want to take this substance without benzos being available. Etizolam has been great in reducing the comedown symptoms and allowing sleep.
Hope at least someone found this useful or interesting. Like I say, I probably forgot a load of stuff, I'll try to come back and add stuff if I remember.