Posted by hopefullynow on October 28, 2009, at 4:14:51
In reply to Ephedra / Ephedrine for depression / ADHD, posted by uncouth on July 23, 2009, at 19:16:51
> Hi there,
>
> So, during college, I used to take ephedra diet pills. I did this for about 4 years straight, every day, without breaks. When I stopped, I plunged into my first real "depressive" episode -- back then, I didn't really know what depression was, so I never made the connection between my mood and the ephedra. And I wasn't feeling that "great" or satisfied with my life shall we say when on the ephedra. Nonetheless, 2 months after getting off of ephedra, I was on Effexor.
>
> That was more than 5 years ago. Since then, i've been through the ringer. Tried probably 20 psychiatric meds, rTMS, ECT, years of therapy, etc.
>
> It finally dawned on me...maybe, just maybe, I should try ephedra again. Perhaps, for better or for worse, taking ephedra for that long, at such a time in my life (18 - 22 years of age) when my brain was still developing, made some permanent changes to it. Maybe ephedra, at appropriate dosages, might be teh most effective antidepressant / adhd treatment for me?
>
> Does anyone have any experience with using ephedra as an AD? Any advice?
>
> I'm at my wits end. My life has been one sad story after another the past 5 years, more squandered opportunity than I care to mention...it would fill up all of psychobabble if I started to.
>
> I can't take this anymore. These drug cocktails, this mood instability, these side effects...I just don't know what to do.
>
> I've never tried ephedra since that day I gave it up over 5 years ago, and i'm considering it now. Maybe it's as simple as that.Hy Deneb and all,
I have about the same story as yours:I started to use Ephedra (In fact ECA stack - ephedra, caffeine, aspirin) about 10 years ago, when I was in college and training hard to be an top professional climber.Reading magazines and stuff about nutrition, supplements, diets, etc, I found interesting the ECA.Dieting hard and training like hell.Ephedrine sent me in a state of relaxation, focus and commitment that I never had.After 1 year i lost 40 pounds and I was indeed in the shape of my life.That was the good thing, the bad one was that I lost way too much weight for my height, muscles and fat, I began to feel nervous,slept only 5 hours for a couple of months, hypomania like, but with some slight differences:I realised that the crankiness was abnormal, so the energy and focus was not really mine(or they was but I suffered from ADD/ADHD).I was exhausted phisically and mentally from starving and wishing to be thinner and fitter(I followed therapy later and my shrink said that was something from my childhood, hating the way I looked, no matter how thin I was).One day I crashed really bad.
From that day I experienced social phobia, panic attacks low self-esteem and all the stuff.After 3 months of staying in bed, eating and sleeping 24/7, was hospitalized and dx/ed with OCD and later with TRD.Years of treatment (10 to name)and never came back to my pre-ephedrine state of happyness, calm, focus, contend and ambition.Now I sufer from mild to severe depression, anhedonia, brain fog, maybe some borderline personality.Even when I accomplish something really important I feel nothing.Training never sent me on that "feelin'good man" state.I train because I know that I suppose to like that, for muscle tone,and to shed some pounds.Some years ago I tried Ephedra and it bring back the normality, instantly got rid of anhedonia,and felt the good ol years coming back.The drawback is that I developed habit forcing me to increase the dose.And it really taxed my adrenals,already fired from anxiety and panic.Not an option on the long run.Maybe we fried our endorphinic and adrenal receptors which never recovered.Sorry for this long post, I'm very interested if someone with the same background totally recovered with stimulants or something else (but not serotonin reuptakers).Not so hopefully now...
poster:hopefullynow
thread:908234
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091021/msgs/923044.html