Meds to treat depression caused by prolonged meth use.

[Zapgunn]

Pharmaceuticals to treat depression from prolonged meth use? Please Help.

Hey guys, former IV methamphetamine user here. I have been off meth for some time now. Since I stopped my mental state has not been to good. Before I started using I was studying to be a nurse. I was taking classes like anatomy and physiology and I was doing well. For the most part I was pretty happy. Now I’m depressed all the time. I feel a constant brain fog, I can’t remember anything, I can’t focus on anything, I have mood swings, I feel sad and hopeless. Probably the worst part is the anhedonia. Nothing really makes me happy anymore. Even sex doesn’t really interest me. I’m also tired and unmotivated every day.

My question for you guys is: Do you think my depression would be responsive to anti-depressants or other medicines? Is depression caused by meth use treated the same way as normal depression? Would an SSRI be advised. As far as I know a lot of what I’m going through is a result of my dopamine being all out of whack, so I would imagine drugs that work on serotonin wouldn’t be effective for me. Are there any pharmaceuticals that are affective for this? Mood stabilizers? Anything?

Is this the same as clinical depression, or is it something different all together?

 

[only]

Hi Zapgunn,

I am not the expert. I have done a fair bit of research, and I also have a good 12 years experience with Meth including IV.
I used to be a weekend warrior. Even still, on and off for 8 years I would spend my weekends high on that disgusting shit, break the pipe on the last day and start planning my new life on the comedown. This got old after 8 years. I had a few years of sobriety, and depression was bad. Guilt and shame were the worst. It took me a couple of years until I dealt with the shit, and until I started to get back into normal sex.

There is fuck all info for people that have been through it. All the energy is put into prevention and fear mongering. The truth is studies are showing that the brain can heal, and that this prevention propaganda is keeping people stuck on the shit or going back to it.

Ive heard that Buproprion, in a study, was found to be helpful and better than the placebo in reducing cravings and overall mental wellbeing.
Beta blockers I have heard were good in as far as down regulation of adrenalin, which could be a problem after meth use.

Apart from that - you could give SSRI's a try, but more important than anything would be to start repairing the brain again. I know that food is extremely important. Healthy diet, excercise and supplements. Dopamine is eventually metabolized by L-tyrosine. This is found in different foods, but you can buy tyrosine as a supplement in health food stores.

Meditation is good. Is your depression caused or worsened by thoughts, PTSD, etc? If it is, every time you have these thoughts you are strengthening this depression. I know, after 2 years sober I was at point of suicide. I got on lexapro, and I quit the cult group I was attending that I found was harming me. If you have ammends to make, if you have to make sense of your past behaviors, make your ammends and see a councellor or psychologist. Work through your probs, then MOVE ON. Dont hold on to old shit that you have dealt with. I also found Eckhart Tolle, the philosophy of his, to be very helpful.

As far as the anhedonia, I really suggest you do research into how meth affects the brain and then go to a good psychaiatrist with that info. In Australia there is a program for meth users and they treat the bad cases with dexamphetamine treatment. This has been shown to be effective. If you need sources, I can provide them, but do a google search first. I don't know how the states compares, but anywhere you go you will have to weed through the bullshit to find the real help, not flawed religion based treatments or some nutbags experiments.

The big problem is that not many people give a shit about addiction. When all the rehabs are based on a flawed 'bible' written by a flawed individual in the 1930's and proven by there own studies to only help 5% of people. Well, we are truly fucked.

Australia is starting to act on the problem. Do a search for St Vincents Stimulant treatment program. Science based treatment by people who give a shit.

There should be links to studies on this site.

All the best.

 

[aced126]

I don't see how beta blockers would help. If adrenaline is downregulated then you need a beta agonist to acutely achieve a response (of course long term usage of beta blockers will reupregulate adrenaline).

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

To my knowledge, amphetamine replacement therapy has modest and insignificant, if any, benefits on eventual positive outcomes.

 

[Ligaturd]

Yeah. If anything I believe it would prolong the strain on your receptors. Maybe if you want to "maintain" like they do with opioid maintenance but it really doesn't compare. Opioid maintenance drugs form a blockade and allow for stability, dexamp seems like it would be a tease after IV Methamp use (this is all I found it to be for me, made me want something better and IV users are likely to just shoot it) methadone and suboxone curb cravings, keep a user stable and remove all the negative effects of street opioid use as they have a constant supply and if the dose is high enough they can't use other opioids or inject their meds.

I would really look into amino acid supplements, nootropics (oxiracetam had an antidepressant effect as well as being kind of stimulating and increasing cognition). I know meth can cause long term brain damage and I am not sure SSRI's are the answer. If you absolutely cannot manage without then sure but I would just try being patient, enter some kind of therapy and allow your brain to heal a bit. Get lots of cardio exercise, start eating healthy, lots of protein and amino acid intake can help kickstart the upregulation of receptors by causing natural endorphin release. Amino acids are the building blocks of endogenous neurotransmitter synthesis so utilizing all these things are your best bet for healing properly and on your own.

There is something to be said about the desire to medicate and relying on a crutch being addictive behaviors in their own right and trying to correct these behaviors in this way can be counter productive. If you can be patient and fight through it you will be better off in the long run. Weighing the pros and cons of this and deciding what is right for you is essential because I don't know what is right for you, these are just my ideas about recovery for my own situation.

These drugs can help but these symptoms are from downregulation of SERT, DA, and NE receptors and most anti-depressants are causing artificial release and dependance in their own right. To each their own though.

 

[Zapgunn]

Thanks for the responses. Yeah, any sort of amphetamine maintenance would not be the right thing for me. Tbh I always hated how oral amps made me feel. The only stimulant I really like is IV meth. I don’t even really like smoking it. I was addicted to H when I was younger so I was no stranger to the needle. I think taking dexedrine would just piss me off. I’ve heard [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Modafinil has been helpful for former meth addicts, any thoughts on that?[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]As far as nootropics go, I actually have some piracetam from a reliable source lying around, but have been too scared to take it. I’ve heard that it can be a bit speedy and cause irritability. in the past month I’ve tried caffeine and ginseng on 2 separate occasions and both sent my anxiety through the roof and made my brain fog much worst, so now I’m nervous about stimulating drugs of any kind. Do you think piracetam would be good for me? Should I try it?

I do realize that there is no magical cure and this will take time. I’m exercising and trying to eat healthy, but I might need something to help me through this. I’m just afraid at the rate I’m going now that I will return to meth or some other drug. I know that would be a terrible decision, but its hard to carry on with my life, and do all of these things I need to do when I feel like shit all the time. I’m going to try to be patient and remind myself that this will get better with time. At least I hope it will… some of the stuff I read on here about meth causing permanent brain damage really freaks me out and I get nervous that I will always feel this way

I definitely need talk therapy of some kind. I had some pretty traumatic things happen while I was abusing meth. I might have some kind of ptsd. Ugh. It was all so awful. Honestly this whole experience was 10 times worse than when I was a heroin addict… should have just stuck to that i guess.

only - did you find the lexapro helped?[/FONT]

 

[pofacedhoe]

give it time, takes a few years after coming off speed to feel happy again.

buproprion look into

 

[aced126]

Wouldn't a partial dopamine agonist work to some extent? Or maybe a partial agonist at DAT with a very high affinity (similar to the principle of buprenorphine).

 

[Cotcha Yankinov]

I believe cardio is the most important component to recovering from any amphetamine abuse.

 

[oreocub]

To my knowledge, amphetamine replacement therapy has modest and insignificant, if any, benefits on eventual positive outcomes.

amphetamine replacement might be okay for the short-term, but it can deplete dopamine production irc after long daily use.