High doses of amphetamines exacerbate OCD?

[Verile]

Bit of background 1st. I'm slightly OCD but it's relatively minor, definitely not life impairing. I comb my fingers through my hair too much, I go on forum posting binges, need my space to be orderly, things like that.

Anyway, I've been playing with my dosage. Normally I take a 50mg of Vyvanse but it's duration of effect is only about 11 hours for me. I need 16 hours so I tried taking a second pill 5 hours after the 1st dose. This was effective and gave me the result I wanted but it was a bit too much. Jaw was clenched all day and I had trouble sleeping that night. I spent all night on these forums like a zombie obsessively looking for threads to tab open and respond to in a sort of sleepless stupor.

I slept 2 and a half hours. I took another Vyvanse 50 mg and took 40 mg 6 hours later. I spent 3 hours collectively that night combing my hair. Every time I hit a snag or tangle I felt like I was starting over. I ended up pulling out what looked like 1000 hairs. I also spent 15 minutes brushing my teeth and again ended up on the internet for far longer than I wanted to. I was aware of what I was doing and I kept telling myself to stop but, well, I don't need to tell you what executive dysfunctioning is like.

I assume the sleep deprivation compounded with the high dose of dex 2 consecutive days brought this on. I didn't dose this morning and I'm back to normal. Anybody else experience this with too high a dose or with lack of sleep?

[Geno]

Originally Posted by Verile

Bit of background 1st. I'm slightly OCD but it's relatively minor, definitely not life impairing. I comb my fingers through my hair too much, I go on forum posting binges, need my space to be orderly, things like that.

Anyway, I've been playing with my dosage. Normally I take a 50mg of Vyvanse but it's duration of effect is only about 11 hours for me. I need 16 hours so I tried taking a second pill 5 hours after the 1st dose. This was effective and gave me the result I wanted but it was a bit too much. Jaw was clenched all day and I had trouble sleeping that night. I spent all night on these forums like a zombie obsessively looking for threads to tab open and respond to in a sort of sleepless stupor.

I slept 2 and a half hours. I took another Vyvanse 50 mg and took 40 mg 6 hours later. I spent 3 hours collectively that night combing my hair. Every time I hit a snag or tangle I felt like I was starting over. I ended up pulling out what looked like 1000 hairs. I also spent 15 minutes brushing my teeth and again ended up on the internet for far longer than I wanted to. I was aware of what I was doing and I kept telling myself to stop but, well, I don't need to tell you what executive dysfunctioning is like.

I assume the sleep deprivation compounded with the high dose of dex 2 consecutive days brought this on. I didn't dose this morning and I'm back to normal. Anybody else experience this with too high a dose or with lack of sleep?

I don't have OCD, but I do ruminate over thoughts quite a bit, and I've taken up to 300mg of Vyvanse at once and all I got was a little shakyness, euphoria, and hyperhyperfocus. No rumination.

[fracturedstory]

Ritalin can make my autism symptoms worse. I have all this extra focus to be intensely absorbed in an interest. Actually, I don't usually see this as a bad thing. But I can become agitated when people disrupt me.

[Geno]

Originally Posted by fracturedstory

Ritalin can make my autism symptoms worse. I have all this extra focus to be intensely absorbed in an interest. Actually, I don't usually see this as a bad thing. But I can become agitated when people disrupt me.

Yeah, on a high dose of amphetamine(200+mg vyvanse, 50+mg of adderall) if I'm hyperfocusing on something and someone calls me I'm just like "WHAT THE F**K DO YOU WANT LEAVE ME ALONE IM BUSY GO AWAY"

[sarahsweets]

I hope your doctor approved your dose increase

[rockydaydreamer]

I don't know about OCD because I don't have it, but adhd meds in general stimulate parts of the nervous system, so I'd imagine some with anxiety issues would have anxiety-related side effects. I only have mild anxiety issues and I find that adhd meds sometimes make certain muscles tighten up.

[Verile]

Originally Posted by sarahsweets

I hope your doctor approved your dose increase

I hope so too.

[ana futura]

Too high a dose can make ADHD and comorbid symptoms worse. It can give you brand new symptoms. It can also just do things to you that would happen to any normal person on stimulants, it will string you out and mess you up. Just because we have ADHD doesn't make us immune to all the cracked out behaviors stimulants can give the rest of the population. If we go past the right dose with meds, we skip right through "normalized" into "drugged".

Also the symptoms you describe- perfectionistic tendencies- are often part of ADHD. So they're just ADHD symptoms, not necessarily anything to do with OCD.

If you need longer coverage, I would try taking dexderine IR at the tail end of the vyvanse.

[Verile]

ADHD, OCD, they're all just names describing sets of abnormalities in the brain I think. Doesn't really matter whether I attribute my perfectionistic tendencies to one name or the other. As I understand it those addicted to meth without ADHD also experience this increase in OCD behavior. I wasn't surprised by what happened, I was just curious if anyone here had gone through something similar.

[Zevispaz]

You had about 200mg Vyvanse in less than 2 days? That doesn't sound very legit.

[Geno]

Originally Posted by Zevispaz

You had about 200mg Vyvanse in less than 2 days? That doesn't sound very legit.

Look up reports of people using it recreationally, low tolerance users say 150-200, moderate tolerance 250-400, high tolerance upwards of 800. I also know people with a 400mg+ per day Adderall habit. (They've been using it for fun every day for years now.)

[Zevispaz]

Originally Posted by Geno

Look up reports of people using it recreationally, low tolerance users say 150-200, moderate tolerance 250-400, high tolerance upwards of 800. I also know people with a 400mg+ per day Adderall habit. (They've been using it for fun every day for years now.)

I didn't mean legit like unbelievable or extreme, I meant like not suppose to be doing it. I just cringe a little when I see people abusing drugs.

[Verile]

Abuse is a strong word. It's not like I'm doing it recreationally or get some sort of cheap euphoria from the experience. Quite the opposite. The only way to find out how these drugs affect me is to experiment with the dosing. Obviously, 100 mg in a day, even if it's staggered, is too much. Confirming that, I asked my doc for a lower dose.

[Zevispaz]

Fair enough.

I have family members that abused hard drugs in the past, so I'm a little sensitive about early warning signs.

[Nate W]

It sure can be. If you are not getting the coverage you need from Vyvanse, why not ask your doctor if you can get an instant realase booster of dextroamphetamine to take later in the day, say 5 mg tablets.

--Nate