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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Caslon540 on February 18, 2005, at 14:57:54
Do you think taking 25 mg ephedrine when I've had 30 mg Adderall and 100 mg caffeine already this morning (it's morning for me, I just got up) would cause anything really bad to happen, like some weird heart freak-out? During a routine exam a few weeks ago, a doctor listened to my heart (while I happened to be on caffeine and Adderall) and said it sounded perfectly healthy.
Usually I have 50 mg Adderall and 200-600 mg caffeine a day, but for the past week and a half they've had no effect on me (besides chest pains sometimes, but that *just started* in the past week—AFTER stims stopped affecting me mentally—and oddly, the pain has happened from as little as 100 mg caffeine) so I'm thinking about trying this ephedrine I have before I take anything else today just to see if there's ANY stimulant left (to which I have easy access) that will actually stimulate me mentally, because my life is rapidly falling apart here.
It's so weird that caffeine AND Adderall both went from having the usual, expected effects to suddenly being COMPLETELY ineffective (and sometimes causing an adverse physical reaction), at the EXACT SAME TIME, which happened to coincide with my roommate leaving the gas kitchen oven on in our small apartment for 15 hours with NO ventilation. I was literally in a stupor that whole day (at least when I wasn't asleep...I could've passed out for all I know), and I haven't been the same since. I've told my psychiatrist and my therapist about this, but they both say that the sudden ineffectiveness of both caffeine and Adderall is due to anxiety about my responsibilities at this point in my life (i.e., it's a psychosomatic thing—I'm psychosomatically causing any stimulants I take to have no mental effect on me whatsoever). They say that this is also why (since the oven incident) I have increasingly been unable (and am now completely unable, apparently) to feel pleasure. My motivation is totally screwed up now—it takes suffering through hours of hunger pains to get me to work up the motivation to walk from my bedroom to the kitchen and put a frozen dinner in the microwave.
I took some OTC sleeping pills last night before bed, thinking that if this is really anxiety, then maybe when I wake up all "relaxed" from this antihistamine, and continue to be "relaxed" for a few hours while it wears off, then when I take my morning caffeine and adderall, they might have an effect on me mentally because I won't be as able to "block" their effects psychosomatically. Well, they have given me an uncomfortable feeling in my chest, but that's it—I still feel like I have some kind of major neurological deficit in my head.
It's like something is totally missing in my brain. It's the same exact feeling I get during Adderall withdrawal (like if I'm used to taking 50 mg every day, and then decide to take a break for 3 days), except that I'm still taking my full dose of Adderall every single day! What the hell is going on here?!?! Could anxiety really be the cause of so much dysfunction? Or should I see a neurologist about damage that may have occurred from possible carbon monoxide poisoning?
We have a carbon monoxide detector in the apartment and it has never gone off, even though my roommate irresponsibly used the oven to heat the apartment (with our regular heating system turned to "OFF," no less!) for about 15 hours on each of four separate occasions in the past month, with no ventilation. But maybe it doesn't detect levels that are low enough not be lethal, but still cause damage?
I apologize if any of this is written to sound REALLY stupid—my mental functioning has really declined over the past few days. I feel like I'm writing with brain damage. I can't live like this!
Posted by Phillipa on February 18, 2005, at 15:02:15
In reply to Can I add ephedrine? + carbon monoxide poisoning Q, posted by Caslon540 on February 18, 2005, at 14:57:54
It doesn't sound stupid to me. I really don't know if it's the carbon monoxide poisoning or not. Could you call an emergency room of a big hospital and ask for poison control? Fondly, Phillipa
Posted by Caslon540 on February 18, 2005, at 15:40:30
In reply to Re: Can I add ephedrine? + carbon monoxide poisoning Q » Caslon540, posted by Phillipa on February 18, 2005, at 15:02:15
> Could you call an emergency room of a big hospital and ask for poison control? Fondly, Phillipa
I don't know if I'm capable of sounding competent while describing this on the phone. Since they won't know me, I'm afraid they'll write me off as some drug addict with amphetamine psychosis!
I'm having difficulty writing (like with pen and paper) and even typing today, because I seem to be losing the fine motor control required. This is a new development. Also, I now feel as though I have some degree of sensory nerve damage, causing a bit of numbness over my entire face (it feels worst around my mouth for some reason). Does anyone know if anxiety can cause these problems? If it can, would taking a benzo relieve these symptoms?
My doctor probably won't give me benzos due to their abuse potential, even though he agrees with my therapist that my new miserable state of existence is all due to anxiety, so do you think self-medicating with something sedating like half an OTC sleeping pill twice a day would make these more troubling symptoms go away?
Posted by Larry Hoover on February 19, 2005, at 9:17:10
In reply to Can I add ephedrine? + carbon monoxide poisoning Q, posted by Caslon540 on February 18, 2005, at 14:57:54
> Could anxiety really be the cause of so much dysfunction?
Yes.
> Or should I see a neurologist about damage that may have occurred from possible carbon monoxide poisoning?
>
> We have a carbon monoxide detector in the apartment and it has never gone off, even though my roommate irresponsibly used the oven to heat the apartment...Only faulty gas appliances give off CO. Your detector should have completely protected you (and may not have only if *it* is defective). The safety factor on those CO detectors is immense. They go off when you could not yet be symptomatic.
Lar
This is the end of the thread.
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