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Amphetamine use in America's workforce

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101–110 of 261 posts

Re: Amphetamine use in America's workforce

#101
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'd also not recommend melatonin Yeah I'm aware that its not ideal. Come to think of it I actually told myself I'd stop once peak season is over so I guess thats now. First need to get rid of the coffee though then the falling asleep will be fine. >take it ~3 hours before going to bed I thought 1 hour?

Closer to 2-3, but you may have to find the right time for you. If you have ever gone on an extended camping trip, think about the time between sundown and the time you naturally start wanting to fall asleep.

For DSPS sleepers it can be up to 5hrs.

Re: Amphetamine use in America's workforce

#103
post #85
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not trying to disregard this sentiment present in the thread, but I could easily see it having the same physical effects, but how exactly do they quantify how it affects your brain processes and how you feel. Anecdotally, I knew some people who took adderall in college that were not prescribed it and it seemed to cause them to have different behavior than myself. A similar situation, I would imagine, is how alcohol a…

It's probably all about dose. Just takes more for an ADHD individual to be affected the same.

I believe so, the treatment dose is small enough that the physical stimulant effects are typically very minor, even for new users. I don't have numbers, but I recall that people abusing it for the stimulant effect use 3/4x the ADHD prescription dose, which results in very different effects.

Re: Amphetamine use in America's workforce

#104
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of them, and also it's more complicated than depression === serotonin dysregulation.

Indeed. Anxiety pretty much == serotonin dysregulation. Depression could be inflammation, mindset, low brain serotonin, low noradrenaline, low dopamine, all of the above, or something else. Low brain serotonin would be a cause.

or any and all of those things could be correlates and not causes. correlation and causation get murky in the realm of consciousness and neuroscience.

Re: Amphetamine use in America's workforce

#105
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true, I have ADHD and I still feel stimulated when I take my medicine just like anyone else would. The difference is that it also gives me symptom relief as well. Over time you will develop more of a tolerance to these stimulating effects, at least to a degree, but the therapeutic benefits will continue for as long as you take them.

And therein lies the problem with making generalizations from single data points. Supposedly I have ADHD as well (I'm diagnosed such at least), and I generally become more mellow after taking adderall. I think the moral of this further anecdote is that generalizations should not be made on either of our experiences. Add into that the confounding factors of human bodies not being identical and having differing reactio…

I agree, I wasn't trying to imply that relaxation from stimulants would be -the- diagnosis for adhd, but if people with adhd tend to relax from the meds and people without adhd tend to not relax, then the claim that it's a myth that the meds affect adhd sufferers differently would be a lie

Re: Amphetamine use in America's workforce

#106

Yet sadly these drugs are still heavily regulated. You need to renew your prescription every month, which is expensive. Doctors look at you skeptically. In some countries they don't prescribe them at all, or only prescribe less effective versions to prevent abuse. And then there are articles like this that appear every so often, telling us that we aren't really sick. Or that people who take these drugs are abusing th…

Very good points. They really make us jump through a lot of hoops just to get the medicine we need to live a somewhat normal life, all in the name of preventing drug abuse. I don't believe it actually does anything significant to prevent abuse, those who want to abuse drugs will always find a way. There's so much of a stigma associated with low dose amphetamines and it's completely unfounded. I really noticed this wh…

Stigma works the other way as well though. There's plenty of people prescribed strong stimulants that would be just aghast at the thought of someone doing some meth to get a particularly important painting done or something.

Re: Amphetamine use in America's workforce

#107
post #9

I think this is a little bit sensationalized at the very least. This excerpt in particular caught me off guard. "Abuse by young professionals is distressingly common—Wall Street traders, software engineers, dentists, nurses, and lawyers, all cracked out of their minds trying to keep up with the competition." Yes, I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, and yes I have an Adderall prescription. But I'd hardly call myself…

[deleted]

Re: Amphetamine use in America's workforce

#108
post #85
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not trying to disregard this sentiment present in the thread, but I could easily see it having the same physical effects, but how exactly do they quantify how it affects your brain processes and how you feel. Anecdotally, I knew some people who took adderall in college that were not prescribed it and it seemed to cause them to have different behavior than myself. A similar situation, I would imagine, is how alcohol a…

It's probably all about dose. Just takes more for an ADHD individual to be affected the same.

Metabolism plays a big role in determining the effective dose.

There are people who can take what are considered high therapeutic doses and feel very little effects because of the way their body metabolizes the chemical, which of course has nothing to do with whether they have ADHD or not.

Re: Amphetamine use in America's workforce

#109
post #48

Why does this article describe these stimulants as "narcotics"? They are neither opioids nor illegal when prescribed, so it seems like a needlessly provocative, and factually incorrect, description.

It's cop talk. The current US DEA emerged from the "Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs" which came from the "Federal Bureau of Narcotics" which came from the "Federal Narcotics Control Board" established by the "Narcotics Tax Act" in 1914, back when Prohibition was a thing and they were worried about opium. Law enforcement culture has thus gone off into the weird by themselves, and they use "narcotic" to mean "any forbidden substance".

Re: Amphetamine use in America's workforce

#110
post #9

I think this is a little bit sensationalized at the very least. This excerpt in particular caught me off guard. "Abuse by young professionals is distressingly common—Wall Street traders, software engineers, dentists, nurses, and lawyers, all cracked out of their minds trying to keep up with the competition." Yes, I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, and yes I have an Adderall prescription. But I'd hardly call myself…

I don't think anyone's implying there's a problem if you're using something prescribed by a doctor. The problem is that people using who don't have a doctor's prescription, and worse, the market pressure to use drugs.
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