I am asking for a friend: does anyone of you have experience with taking methylphenidate? I am not interested in anyone’s adventures in recreational off-label usage (in Minecraft), though. Instead, I would like to learn more about the performance-enhancing aspects and experienced long-term effects, based on typical therapeutic dosages (10 mg). Common brand names are Medikinet and Ritalin. Note that, for instance, Adderal uses a different key ingredient. That one is an amphetamine. Both amphetamine and methylphenidate are dopaminergic drugs, however.
Feel free to comment below or email me. You can leave anonymous comments.
Once while doing a 1200 mile cross country drive this chick offered me some adderall. I only took a quarter (so maybe like 1.25 mg), and it sort of took the edge off the fatigue. Most people seem to either get prescribed Adderall or Vyvanse here. I’ve never actually met someone with a Ritalin script, not even a patient.
That said I would limit use to once ideally, maybe twice a week for performance enhancement. Even at those frequencies your brain is going to incur some costs over time. A lot of chicks I’ve known that take therapeutic doses of Adderall everyday, for example, exhibit strange subtle behaviors. Things like dry mouth (they’ll make these weird sounds with their mouths that they’re not aware of).
You can use these substances and perhaps have an edge over your peers in certain regards, but it’s sort of like burning a candle at both ends. You don’t seem to have an addictive personality at all, so I’d just try to avoid every day or EoD use. Keep the frequency really low.
Edit: the chick told me they were 20 mg tablets so I guess I had a 5 mg dose.
Thanks for sharing. I think taking it daily is not ideal. Advice you often find online is to at least take the weekends off. Are there more subtle behaviors you can think of?
The biggest practical benefit of methylphenidate seems to be in the area of “task salience”, i.e. allowing you to push through less-than-engaging work. The downside is that you may end up getting more of that oh-so-important yet so tedious work. Also, I sometimes wonder how many people are on this drug to begin with. Even among college students usage seemed pretty widespread.
As far as side effects go, jaw clenching with stimulants in general is super common. So you can see people tightening their masseter muscles or chewing gum pretty aggressively. For habitual users, I’ve noticed that often times chicks on Adderall have a lot easier of a time not being fat because of the chronically decreased appetite. They tend not to sleep that much either which creates a feedback loop where they need the drug to function day to day. One chick I was orienting as a new employee for a while drove me crazy with her spastic mannerisms, constant second guessing and silly questions.
Just for the record, I’m personally all for drug experimentation either for recreation or, in this case, strategic nootropic advantages. I’ve personally gotten burned before though, but I’ve probably got an addictive personality. You could try encapsulated kratom for small controlled intermittent dopamine hits, but I was pretty dependent on this “safe natural substance” to the point that the withdrawal symptoms were causing lots of physical pain (only what I could describe as neuropathy or nerve pain) and mental discomfort. This is why I say be careful. Even caffeine cause me significant mental withdrawals after every day use for several years.
This is an interesting observation. I recall occasionally coming across people at work who rather vigorously chew gum. Perhaps chewing gum is an example of masking behavior, i.e. they do not want to be seen grinding their teeth at work, so they do that instead. Furthermore, in the office environment it is really rare to see people who chew gum. Probably it is a good hypothesis that most people with this habit also take ADHD medication.
@PN
I’ve been seriously been considering trying Kratom. There is a store in my neighborhood. What do you think is a safe amount to take a day? Can you take it every day? I’ve heard all of the horror stories about addiction. I’m mostly interested in help winding down at the end of the day and help with sleep. How would you compare it to benzos like Valium or Xanax? I’ve heard it compared to opiates but I’ve never tried those.
I personally got more stimulating effects from it. It never helped with sleep, but it made certain activities like gaming, for example, significantly more elevated. They say that red vein vs. green vein vs. white vein varieties have different overall effects, but I don’t think there is a whole lot of truth in that and it’s probably more about marketing. I found that different strains definitely do hit differently. My all time favorite was a strain called Super Green from KatsBotanicals (online vendor). While I don’t think the claims about red being more sedative and good for sleep, white being more energizing and good for day to day activities etc. are exactly science based, I do think that different strains in general have varying degrees of chemical compounds in different ratios. Some strains are simply higher in mitragynine content and are going to be stronger gram for gram.
Kratom is closely related to coffee, to give you an idea of what to expect from it (upregulation vs downregulation). If you want something soothing and relaxing, you could try something that works on gaba receptors, such as benzos or phenibut. Your mileage may vary. I’ve had people tell people tell me that Ativan makes them see pink dolphins, and I’ve administered it IV to confused and agitated people and it just make them more aggressive. These are not the typical outcomes, however. Some people say Phenibut doesn’t even create an effect in them, but I’ve found that Phenibut FAA (some people prefer HCL form but make sure you encapsulate the powder or purchase capsule form vs. free powder—bad for your teeth) 300-500 mg once a week a few hours before bed helps me fall asleep a lot easier. Some people online claim that phenibut sleep is some of the best sleep they’ve ever gotten, and I have found that to often be the case. Super addictive substance, however. The effects are really long lasting too, so I generally feel a kind of subtle euphoria the next morning and throughout the first half of the day or so.
Anyways, dosing for kratom should be something like 1-3.5 grams per dose. You’d want to start out with the lowest dose to see how it affects you and build up to 3.5 grams. It tastes horrible like crushed Tylenol, but I found it hit faster and harder by “tossing and washing” vs. ingesting it in capsule form (takes several large capsules to equal 3 grams anyway). Then there are extracts which you should probably avoid. Those are super addictive, but you can get a really strong effect from them obviously. The most common side effect might be nausea and vomiting, hence why you should start slowly. For chronic users, n/v is usually no longer an issue and instead you can experience malnutrition, hair loss, constipation and irritability.
You can go on reddit and read about people struggling with kratom addiction. Some people discuss how they’re take taking dozens of grams per day. Ridiculous amounts like 50-100 grams and shit, and they’re on there talking about how they are tapering down by half a gram every few days or whatever. This is not an exaggeration. If you’re in that deep then quitting cold turkey is very unpleasant. I haven’t had any kratom in 2 years, but it really helped me focus on tasks when I used it until it became an addiction.
This is a bit unrelated but the fact that I’ve tried different drugs and have known people to struggle with addiction is why I always really caution people, even if it’s something like marijuana. Those silly potheads truly believe there are no addictive qualities associated with that drug. True, the physical withdrawals are pretty mild but the mental effect can drag on intermittently for months or years depending on usage (post-acute withdrawal).
I was on some random right wing forum and some people were discussing using LSD/psychedelic mushrooms to kick other addictions. I was like, “yeah, LSD is fun but you shouldn’t self-medicate with it expecting a specific outcome or underestimate the drug.” I got argued with by like 9/10 people. One thing important to consider with psychedelics is its potential to push a genetically unlucky chap over the edge into becoming truly schizophrenic. With LSD specifically, it’s hard to know if you’ve really been sold LSD or just sole research chemical. Also, what if the dealer fucked up the blotter paper and dropped 10 hits of acid on a square and you think you’re taking 2 hits? You could end up in a psyche ward.
A friend of mine had a rather careless approach towards drugs. After taking cocaine on and off for probably years, some party chick introduced him to psychedelics, but he also started taking crystal meth at that time. He ended up in a psych ward and after he had gotten out, he looked like a ghoul and he was unable to properly reintegrate himself into society. I only met him a single time after he had been released. The latest I heard, from a mutual friend, was that he was doing odd jobs.
One reason why I was always deeply skeptical of drugs in the club scene was that there was zero quality control. The white powder people snort could contain anything, just like the various pill that make the rounds could really dangerous. To me it is unfathomable why people trust some shady dealer and consume such drugs without second thoughts. It is not as if my concerns were unfounded. Probably everybody in the club environment knows somebody, or knows somebody who knows somebody, who went on a bad trip or ended in a shitty situation. There were also the occasional cases of people just wandering off and falling asleep somewhere or disappearing. In Berlin, you occasionally see posters via which people look for a friend or relative who has gone missing. Probably they fell into a river or a canal.
“One reason why I was always deeply skeptical of drugs in the club scene was that there was zero quality control.”
Oh god dude, absolutely. I’m sure you’re familiar with ecstasy tablets. Those are supposed to be pure MDMA, but they get cut with all sorts of stuff like speed, coke or even caffeine. These days it could be any of dozens of research chemicals that are constantly coming out that most consumers aren’t even aware exist. Some ecstasy tablet might not even have a trace amount of MDMA in them. With something like cocaine, for example, it generally starts out pure from the main drug lord or whoever, but by the time it changes hands 50 times and gets to some rando in the club it’s been mixed with mannite (a laxative) and/or a host of other things such as powdered milk/sugar, baking soda etc.
Here in the US and Canada there is a Fentanyl epidemic. This super potent opioid which is relatively cheap to manufacture gets mixed and pressed into tablets, for example, so some schmuck thinks he is getting Roxi or Norco and ends up overdosing by accident. Of course, some junkies just would prefer to purchase Fentanyl outright. Heavily synthesized drugs like meth and LSD are always going to be super sketchy. I’m not honestly sure about to process of creating LSD other than it being relatively complex. The barrier for entry is really high partly because very expensive equipment is involved. There aren’t a ton of people making it (though a lot still gets made by a few people) vs. meth. However, with the latter it is really easy to mess up the siphoning process, for example, and end up with a batch that has a lot of contaminants in it. Which, I might add, consist of very harsh chemicals.
They’re even doing some really sketchy stuff to “marijuana” these days. There is this stuff called hemp that has been genetically engineered to contain high amounts of cannabinoids and only trace amounts of the federally illegal compound delta-9 (THC 9). So, this stuff can actually be sold on the market legally. It looks and smells just like marijuana. This part is fine, except they’ll sometimes take the hemp and spray it with synthesized THC like delta-8 (there are others as well), which is not federally regulated, then sell it as the “real deal”. It’s like a legal loophole. Hell, the shit that makes its way into certain brands of cigarettes and even coffee is concerning.
On the topic of your friend who got so mixed up he was unable to reintegrate into society, I knew one guy in particular who had a lot of advantages in life. I mean, the guy was tall, very extraverted, had a well off mom and dad. I have sort of an idea of where his upbringing went wrong, but thanks to his dad’s enabling he was able to effectively never integrate into society. He essentially didn’t make it through high school. The guy was so unfocused that he couldn’t even make it as a drug dealer. He’s in his mid 30s still mooching off of his dad and doing any and every type of drug he can get his hands on (no exaggeration). He’s most definitely suffered extensive brain damage by this point and could never be an actual member of society. Well, he could probably work at a gas station but he simply lacks the motivation to show up consistently on schedule for even that.
Money does not seem to always benefit kids as the rot in society has gone too far. A good friend of mine is the son of a successful lawyer. He attended a very expensive boarding school in Germany. Drug use was rampant there, primarily cocaine. On top, the government ran a program for supporting “disadvantaged youth” and they paid for spots for kids coming from the dregs of society, the kind that make locals in droves pull their kids out of government-run schools. He is doing very well for himself these days but he does have a drug problem and he likely would have done a lot better for himself without it as he has squandered years of his life partying. I wonder if he could stick to a schedule. Fortunately, he is the co-owner of a business that basically runs itself. By his own admission, he works rarely more than two hours a day.
To be honest, all this could be a case for the legalization (and not just “decriminalization”) of recreational drugs. With legalization/liberalization, you guarantee clean, authentic, and quality substances (combined with education, this will probably drastically reduce overdose incidents) and the profit made through these substances goes to the government instead of criminal orgs. You might even be able to finally kill off the cartels this way…
But I haven’t done enough research/reading to make any confident statements on that topic. Obviously, there will have to be quite more than a few caveats. (Should cocaine just be casually available in grocery stores within sight of children/teenagers? TV Advertisements of drugs? I don’t think any of that is a good idea. Legalization shouldn’t mean encouragement…)
_______
With something like cocaine, for example, it generally starts out pure from the main drug lord or whoever, but by the time it changes hands 50 times and gets to some rando in the club it’s been mixed with mannite (a laxative) and/or a host of other things such as powdered milk/sugar, baking soda etc.
______
Pickernanny, since you seem to have quite a bit of experience here, what does one ought to do if they wanted to get their hands on the purest/highest grade quality substances? Buy directly from the drug lord? how does one even go about that? as if you can just get his phone number or email just like that, lol.
My guess is this will probably have to involve going into the dark web, which I believe you already told me you don’t have experience with. (Neither do I actually other than a curious peek here and there many years ago.)
My experience in this sphere is doing weed (haven’t done any in a long ass time), and did meth 3 times.
I don’t plan to touch meth ever again, but it had a pretty weird effect on me honestly. Sex drive was completely DEAD (Others experience the exact opposite I hear), just as dead as my appetite or any desire to eat whatsoever. I suppose if I really were desperate to get rid of all my flab, I could use it, but its definitely not worth my teeth, skin, face, and sanity. lol!
I bought coke once, but I have a feeling it was fake. I did feel a chemical drip in my throat, but no “euphoria”.
Some people can get really productive on meth apparently, but I don’t think I’m one of those people. Being productive was about the last thing I was interested in while under the effect. I could literally stare at a wall or turned off computer screen all day and not get bored. my experience with it is probably not typical. It might well have been cut with something too that resulted in those less-than-typical effects.
Some countries have legalized drugs, and I am not sure the effects are all that positive. The situation in Portugal, where weed has been legalized, is far from great, with way more people than before consuming that drug. Also, as you are aware, weed is not nearly as harmless as its proponents claim, so the impact on the healthcare system has been quite substantial.
Maou, to be clear I experimented with different drugs but never cared enough about most of the illegal ones to even attempt to find a big distributor. I have no idea how you would contact one. I also really don’t see the point unless you’re a massive coke head or a dealer. When I did kratom a lot it was perfectly legal, though probably contaminated with all kinds of pesticides and heavy metals.
Now that you bring up pesticides and heavy metals, I wonder if some of the long-term effects of drug abuse are more due to contaminants than drugs itself. I do not at all want to downplay heroin as not being dangerous. However, on the one hand you have musicians like Iggy Pop who openly talk about their heroin addiction and on the other there are gutter junkies whose humanity has left their body years ago. One aspect is surely also, as you mentioned earlier, the issue of having a personality that is prone to addiction, but surely it also makes a big difference to have the means to get your heroin properly analyzed before injecting it. Surely, Iggy Pop did not get his supply from some shady dealer in the red-light district but instead from trust-worthier sources.
A good comparison to mainstream society may be the conservative upper-middle class guy who enjoys a glass of cognac (not Hennessy!) every day after dinner, yet cannot be considered an alcoholic by any stretch of the imagination, and your run-of-the mill habitual drinker who does not even care about what exactly he is drinking. In contrast, urban gentlemen may take big gulps of their beloved Hennessy, followed by smoking weed. Cigars versus cigarettes is possibly a similar argument. I have a friend who enjoys sipping cognac and smoking cigars. He believes that both are good for his health. With regards to cognac, there is apparently some truth to it. I am not so sure about cigars, but I think it us uncontroversial that cigarettes are a bigger threat to your health than cigars as the former are full of questionable additives.
@Maou: you seem to be in a libertarian phase, what with entertaining the notion that broad legalization is the solution to the drug problem. It’s not, it’s just another leftist slippery slope.
Trust me, I went through the libertarian phase as well, most of us outgrow it though.
@Manuel
You may very well be right, hence why I said I don’t think I’ve looked into the issue enough to make any conclusion with full confidence. Its just a thought I’ve considered.
I’m just imagining cocaine advertisements on TV here. Yeah, I think that’s going to end pretty badly. heck, we already have greedy businessmen lying to the public about how breakfast cereal is healthy for children to eat to get more sales. I have no doubt they’ll be more than willing to stoop low enough to get teens addicted to make bank if they can legally get away with it.
Aaron, in terms of alcohol usage I do believe cheaper forms are way harsher on your organs than the highly refined versions. I’ve known people to completely ruin their liver, pancreas or brain in their 30s from drinking cheap beer and liquor. You sometimes hear stories about the farmer who lived to be 98 years old despite smoking his whole life, but he was using his own tobacco. Even commercial US cigarette paper contains harsh chemicals in them so as to allow them burn out more quickly to supposedly prevent fires. I don’t think they were even required to do this until a law passed within the last 20 years.
As far as the benefits of drugs and alcohol go, I feel like they’re way overblown by people who habitually use them. There was some science about alcohol having cardiovascular and mental benefits so long as it was kept to less than about 14 drinks a week (2 a day maximum). Now recently it has come out that there are virtually zero benefits from even one drink a week, and that even small amounts of alcohol weekly compound and make your brain slightly smaller, for example, thus making one slightly more impulsive than they would otherwise normally be. Supposedly, nicotine in its purest form ideally has a host of cognitive benefits, yet these types of benefits are always short lived as the user will quickly develop a dependence on the substance just to be at their baseline.
Down under in Aus, a person cannot get Ritalin & Co. prescribed unless they spend $1500 on an assessment with a Psychiatrist. ,
And then after a certain period the patient must spend another $1K to get re-assessed I believe .
It’s a bit of a rort.
It’s very tightly controlled the ADHD type speed meds here. Unfortunately for me. I’m like to try i got ADD it for sure. Or something like it.
I’m on a very low dose of sertraline – half a pill per day.
In Europe there are also significant barriers to access. You may not have to spend a four-figure amount on a psychiatrist, but you will have to see one anyway and undergo multiple tests. My friend tells me he had to do an MRI as well as an ECG, have a lengthy conversation with the doctor, and do some standardized tests. You cannot just walk into a random GP’s office and walk out with a prescription for ADHD meds. On a side note, ADD is no longer a different diagnosis. If the H in ADHD is missing in your case but the AD is there, you still get diagnosed as having ADHD.
I have to say it kinda blew my mind when I heard the treatment for ADHD was speed (!).
Counter intuitive.
I also heard of a guy that was bad ADHD and a heroin addict. Yknow how most junkies go “on the nod “(pass out) when they use heroin ? It had the opposite effect on this guy – it picked him up and focused him .
he’d shoot in the morning and go to work and be more focused and productive. Weird.
I wonder if Ritalin is available on the black market..? Must be. I’d like to try it.
It could be like that movie “Limitless” for me.
And the fictional’ NZT ‘ drug in the flick..
Next minute .. CJ is making millions on the stock exchange and banging supermodels. Lol. Whoop!
Great movie btw- Bradley Cooper in the lead role check it out immediately if u have not seen.
Probably any drug is available on the black market. I wonder, though, if there is counterfeited Ritalin floating around. It would not at all surprise me. I recall hearing about counterfeited Viagra. This puts you roughly in the same position as buying drugs from a shady dealer in the club. I even recall shady African street dealers in Berlin announcing to the crowd, as if on a marketplace, that they have “everything”, including cocaine, weed, and Viagra. It stretches credulity to think that they sell the actual product.