Okay, maybe taking a double-dose of your medication sounded like a great idea, and maybe you had a great "euphoric" night because of it, but suddenly you find the next day your meds only bring you halfway to being a competent human being.

As you wait for your next monthly refill a few weeks later, you take the time to detoxify for a few days, and when you get your dexedrine again, bam! Good as new.

A few months later you double-dose again, but it's not quite the same....you're more hyper than you are euphoric. After that month's 2-day detox you go back to your meds and find that they just aren't quite working the same, even though you took a break. Infact, they're not working too great at all. Your fantastic automatic brain functions you once had when you took your medication are suddenly all part of your conscious realm of thought. Your focus is gone, you can barely remember to do something 30 seconds after you think to do it.

What is wrong with "you"? Is there any way "you" can be saved?

You are not experiencing "tolerance" to dexedrine - it doesn't work that way. Your perception of how the drug makes you feel is changing - it sounds like you are "chasing the high" - Drugs, particularly when used recreationally, often feel expecially good the first time, and subsequent usage may not live up to expectations, which often leads to increases in dosage in an attempt to match that initial feeling.
Doubling up the dose is not going to make your ADHD any better - it will probably be worse at that dosage. Improvements in focus, etc stay, even when your body gets used to the other side effects of the stimulant (like heart rate and blood pressure increases) so you don't need ever increasing doses - people take the same dosage for years - they don't need more as time goes on.

Hmm...makes sense but I am still pretty concerned....

Here is an an article about Dexedrine tolerance> http://www.dexedrineaddiction.com/dexedrine-tolerance.htm

And here is a news article describing a key scientific discovery from 2002 which sheds new light on the cognitive mechanics involved in drug tolerance>
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/09/020924072035.htm

Normally you can't post with links until you have a certain number of posts "under your belt" but they seem to be reputable links so I'll leave them. Tolerance - the kind where you need more of the drug to get the same effect - takes a good bit of time to occur, if at all. At the usual prescribed doses, it really doesn't happen - it takes larger doses and over a significant period of time. This is for PHYSICAL tolerance - psychologically you may get used to the effects of a drug more quickly, and you may notice such a difference in yourself - on or off the drug - that you NEED IT psychologically in a "I-can't-go-back-to-the-way-things-were" kind of way.

Don't abuse your medication. Take it at the correct dose only. I can't believe you feel euphoric from taking a double dose. The only people I know who have that kind of experience are 'normal' and not ADD. I haven't yet met an ADD person who says their dex makes the euphoric. On the rare occasions that I've forgotton that I've taken it, and then consequently taken a doube dose I've felt like sh*t. You are not prescribed dex to make you euphoric or to experience highs. You've been prescribed it to help you cope with life. Dex is not something you develop a tolerance to (only in terms of not getting headaches or a loss of appetite). You shouldn't need to detox from it.

Dexedrine does give a rush - I certainly feel it. I don't enjoy the feeling of taking too much either. I've experimented with raising the dose enough to know that for me any more than 20 mg at a time, and the negative effects start to outweight the positive.

I do get a mild sense of euphoria for half an hour or so after about an hour after taking even just my regular dose of Dex, I haven't tried a larger dose before, but I find when I take my dose and then don't do anything much in the next hour or so that the "rush" is enhanced.

Just wanted to say I wouldn't call it a sense of euphoria, but more a sense of well-being, sometimes it feels like a false one which can be disturbing but it is pleasant.

Just wanted to say I wouldn't call it a sense of euphoria, but more a sense of well-being, sometimes it feels like a false one which can be disturbing but it is pleasant.

I find with taking dex I'm brought into the real world which I don't like. I am more anxious when I take it all the time and after a break from it when I go back on it I feel miserable and I cry alot until I get used to it again. Maybe it's a different preparation than you take coz in Australia there's one medication that's funded and that's dexamphetamine sulfate. Everyone I know (with ADD) says that they take medication to be able to think. Pleasant feelings don't really come into it - that's probably why we're all on antidepressants too!

I'm taking the same as you, Dexamphetamine Sulphate. Dexedrine is supposed to sometimes bring out symptoms of other possibly present mental disorders, schizophrenia, etc. and maybe if you suffer from depression it brings it out in the same way?

Holy crap Addhil, I'm from Ottawa too! What neighbourhood do you live in? I live in Old Ottawa South.....awwww yeah baby!

I've only been taking Dexedrine a short time, about two months, but I've noticed a rapid tolerance build-up. Although the initial euphoria is long gone, it still seems to work, though not as well.

Anecdotally, time off seems to help. I recently took four days off, went back on and it felt like the first or second week again. Not like the first or second day though.

From the research I've done, and I've done a little, NMDA antagonists appear to play a key role in slowing amphetamine tolerance. They almost certainly won't eliminate tolerance altogether, especially if you're double or triple-dosing. And they definitely won't reverse tolerance. Only time appears capable of accomplishing that.

The most effective NMDA partial antagonist (which can be purchased legally) is purported to be Memantine, a drug just recently approved in the U.S. for the treatment of Alzheimers. Memantine works by limiting the influx of calcium serum (Ca++) into dopamine producing neurons. Theoretically, a Ca++ blocker would slow the development of amphetamine tolerance considerably.

There are cheaper, more readily available NMDA antagonists on the market. Many can be found at your local health food store. I just began taking Magnesium Citrate, which some claim has halted the march of amph tolerance in its tracks. We'll see.

Mostly though, I'm gradually titrating my dose downward. When I think about what I was like without Dexedrine at all, 15mg or so can seem like a fair amount.

In regard to NMDA antagonists, I feel obligated to point out that even though I received an 'A' in high school chemistry AND was runner-up in the school science fair, it's entirely possible that I don't have my facts straight.

In other words, there's a lot of research available if you want to learn more.

-Chris