Posted by AlphaOne on November 3, 2002, at 8:52:04
My story....
I am 23.
3 years ago I smoked pot perhaps a dozen times over about 6 months.
During that time I also took LSD once.
The result of this drug taking was that I suddenly started to have first constant pot-like perception distortions resembling the symptoms of a very mild high.
After another couple of weeks I started having slight hallucinations or rather illusions that were LSD typical. Things including inanimate objects (real things) move ever so slightly.
The hallucinations were cyclical, building up over about 10 days, then dropping suddenly 80% , then starting to build up again.
I went to a doctor and took Perazine for a couple of weeks but it didn`t do anything except give me a strange feeling in the tongue.
Over time the hallucinations receded, though the perception distortions from the pot didn`t, they just altered slightly.
Then I found out that I had testosterone deficit and possibly a microscopic tumor at the hypophysis.(The testosterone deficit was found to be either caused by the hypothalamus or the hypophysis) Since then I have been injecting testosterone biweekly.
After that I eventually I figured out that I had ADD. Including the typical concentration, motor and social problems.
A doctor prescribed me Ritalin which I had to take at a relatively high dosage (25 mg initially and the 10 mg every hour).
It worked fine - except the hallucinations came back and I aborted after 7 days.
The hallucinations didn`t go away again.
So the next med I tried was Risperidone, which didnīt help with my concentration (in fact it dumbed me down) but after the effect kicked in after a few days the hallucinations went down 99% within just 3 or 4 days, and stayed that way after discontinuation.
Then I tried reboxetine. After a few days I noticed a stark increase in sensitivity to sexual stimulation. At that time I figured out that my "normal" sensitivity to sex was much lower than normal. I was highly thrilled, until I started getting massive vertigo, feelings of being spaced out and also sensations of pressure in my head.
After discontinuation those symptoms first abated slightly, but then the spaced-out feeling and partially the vertigo increased over a period of three weeks until I felt like I was constantly on heavily on drugs.
Then the trend turned, and over the next months this receded until it was gone completely about 5 months later.(The sexual sensitivity had vanished instantly)
I then took Desipramine (in a low dose), but it screwed up my memory and made me feel spaced out.
After that I tried Moclobemide. In the beginning that made tired. Didnīt improve concentration or do anything else.
I had the feeling that I was left more "hyper" (permantly) when I came off the drug.
A couple of weeks afterwards, I took Buproprione for 3 weeks (300 mg).
That established a pattern I would later find with Ritalin as well.
After a week or so on it, I discovered that my ability to concentrate, indeed my total cognitive abilities were significantly impaired after the drug levels had peaked.
The hallucinations also came back, but remained at a stable level.
After 3 weeks I discontinued the drug and decided to try Ritalin again.
The same pattern emerged as with buproprione - on a high dosage I could concentrate very well, but as soon as the level dropped under a certain level cognition went down the toilet, especially on things that didn`t interest me and were complex.
The cognition improved again when the drug wore off, but didnīt get back to normal levels, at least not within two days.
I noticed a tendency to clench my teeth when I was on Ritalin.
I took Ritalin for maybe 8 weeks, until it stopped working.
First I noticed that the "high" feeling diminished and went away. Then, suddenly, the high feeling stopped totally and there was no cognition enhancing effect anymore achieved on whatever dose, cognition just got worse when I took it.
At the same time I started clenching my teeth compulsively, which went away over the next three days.
But my cognition, notably the ability to comprehend complex texts which donīt interest me much has stayed very low, impairing my attempts to learn very much. (Iīm studying economics).
The effect is also strong on texts which do interest me, but somewhat less pronounced.
4 days after discontinuing Ritalin, I hadnīt the gravity of my problem yet, I tried a nicotine patch. (Nicotine, a dopamine agonist, is suppose to enhance cognition and help against ADHD). This produced the same teeth-clenching effect as the last Ritalin dose. Again it took 3 days to disappear.
It`s beem three weeks since I stopped Ritalin.
Cognition hasnīt improved, at least not by much.
Caffeine helps me concentrate a bit better.Has anyone ever come over reports off similar effects either of the drugs I mentioned, or any of the meds (including Ritalin)?
Does anyone have an idea what I could do (if anything)This post is not meant to panic anyone out of taking Ritalin, or anything else for that matter - my brain appears to have some special problems.
poster:AlphaOne
thread:126257
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021101/msgs/126257.html