36 replies to this topic

[onebadpug]

Hi guys,
I just recently had the same reaction after getting sick and taking Sudafed decongestant. So glad I'm not the only one. I often find myself getting tired and having random mood swings pretty often but I've never taken any medication or been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The pseudoephedrine has brightened my mood and increased my language skills a lot. I also feel like my memory is waaay better. I play online poker for a living so even just a slight improvement is extremely important for me. My question is for the people who have been taking pseudoephedrine for a while, how often do you experience the bad hangovers? And what is the optimal amount to take each day?

[onebadpug]

Also I read somewhere else that a person with these symptoms had their doctor recommend they switch from pseudoephedrine to strattera. Any thoughts on why that would be?

[kelka]

Just to add the dopamine angle on this. I also have bipolar diagnoses ( mainly due to chemicals and antidepressants i suppose) and had a similar effect on sudafed to the op. Unfortunately it triggered my restless leg syndrome which is only just calming down 8-9 months on. Restless leg is thought to be triggered by dopamine depletion which occurs in the evening (?). I can also trigger it with high intensity cardio such as a tabata set. Tyrosine also brings it on so :-
I would love to know what's going on, it sounds very similar to the op.

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[Sciencyst]

Does anybody here read Wikipedia..?? If you did, you would find out that pseudoephedrine is regulated because it's a direct precursor to METHAMPHETAMINE. It's like one molecule away or something. In most people pseudoephedrine is too polar to cross the blood brain barrier, but yours may let it through, and I'd assume it would have very similar effects to methamphetamine in a sensitive or BBB-compromised individual. This is a rather serious issue. If you were to abuse pseudoephedrine, your heart would get mega screwed up, since its effects are mainly peripheral but still it acts strongly on the heart and circulatory system. You seem to be very sensitive to stimulants, so I would greatly advise staying away due to the addictive and neurotoxic nature of these substances. Obviously the comedown is catecholamine depletion, as mentioned earlier, and is all but unavoidable in susceptible individuals. If you react so strongly, I doubt you really need these chemicals since you probably already have a very healthy, possibly over active, catecholamine system. Stick to caffeine. If you really must, use something like modafinil as mentioned earlier. Please do talk to a doctor though, just not the nut that gave you Adderall. Oh and one more thing: your latent hypersensitivty to adderall is due to behavioural sensitization. This class of drugs causes certain (mostly negative) effects to be greatly increased upon further administration, presumably due to the reinforcing nature of dopamine

[Ark]

Seems like a classical case of bipolar II disorder to me, if you had actually reported your manic episodes in reaction to the antidepressants then no responsible doctor would have continued to prescribe them to you without a mood stabiliser. These 'hangovers' sound like a symptom of rapid cycling, which would be the typical bipolar response to antidepressants or other mood enhancing substances. They should not make you euphoric, that is not a healthy response to antidepressants, euphoria cannot be sustained and leads to further mood instability.

Every manic episode will have deleterious effects on your brain, particularly in the hippocampus, you need to be careful experimenting with these substances. Obviously you should be talking to a psychiatrist about this, and if you tell them exactly what you've told us I expect any competent specialist will come to the same conclusion I have.

I second Animals post.

[AlcoholEqualsDepression]

I've actually noticed a similar reaction to Sudafed.  I normally have social anxiety and ADHD and after taking it I can focus, I'm social and I have lots of energy.  I find words just come out of my mouth and i don't even have to think about what I'm going to say.  I think Sudafed turned on hypomania in my brain.  I have a history of hypomania followed by severe depressive episodes but I have never been officially diagnosed with bipolar.  I think I have "substance induced" bipolar if there is such a thing.  A substance will start the hypomania for me.  I will feel great.  Only require 3 hours sleep, am excellent at my job, high sex drive, social, witty, blood sugar feels balanced at all times.  

 

One substance I've noticed has a terrible effect is alcohol.  My very first major depressive episode followed a night of getting drunk on wine. This was the first time I had wine.  My sister went to a psychic once and the psychic was talking about me and advised her to tell me to stop drinking alcohol because it makes me depressed.  She said that she doubts that I have noticed a connection because the symptoms don't always happen right away after drinking.  Sometimes 3 days later.  I didn't really take what she said seriously but for years i've been getting depressive episodes and I've paid attention to my alcohol consumption and I think she's on to something.  I also wonder if there needs to be an upsetting event happening along with the alcohol consumption.  I think wine effects me more than the others.  It's always been wine though that's caused the most severe and longterm episodes. I would like to experiment more but after the last time i drank alcohol, it's been a month and I'm slowly getting better but still not back to the way I was.  I don't want to screw up my life again by falling into another month long depression. I just took a Sudafed yesterday and feel much better now.  I'm hoping to turn hypomania back on but am I to expect that I'm just going to crash again? Does every action always have an opposite reaction.  Does the severity of the mania correlate with the severity of the depression?

 

I do think there is a dopamine connection.  Wellbutrin is the only antidepressant that's helped me.  Sudefed gives my restless legs.  I also have ADHD.

 

One of previous posts mentioned bipolar 1 and 2 can't be caused by substances to be classified as such.  So what can it be classified as?

 

 

[vader]

I think it's the norepinephrine release. Combined with OTC SNRI (chlorpheniramine) it has PRONOUNCED effects (body feels light, feeling much improved), on it's own it's mostly more focus and stamina.