Anxiety, Depression, and Adderall?

[wilbanks951]

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[Deano99]

I personally have always believed medication like Adderall could be very effective for anxiety disorders. During my worse stages of panic attacks out of complete desperation I took amphetamine and occasionally cocaine to help me cope. And to be fair they worked very well.

Ok, those are not very practical and the dangers would far outweigh any benefit as who knows whats really in those street drugs, could be baby powder and rat poison mixed in......as well as becoming addicted or thrown in prison.

But all these chemicals interact with dopamine and I'm personally convinced that science should conduct some real thorough research into a dopamine re-uptake inhibitor with anxiety disorders.

I've spoken to several psychiatrists about this and I always get the same response, that dopamine based drugs are addictive so don't get prescribed.

That has never seemed logical to me. I've been on SSRI's for 15 years non stop.....but thats fine with them. However if I was to take a different drug everyday that worked to cure me, but was addictive......then thats wrong???????? It doesn't matter to me what I take as long as it worked.

Its in the hands of the medical, scientific and legal hands.

[neverag]

I'm not sure about adderall and anxiety. But I agree with Deano that more research should be done with other drugs and compounds. Ecstasy for example has been successfully used to treat PTSD, and I am convinced It's a better mid term (6 months-1 year) solution than something like Prozac is. Definitely more effective and can't be any more damaging if taken in moderation.

[ctb1988]

I think depression COULD be helped by adderall.
Anxiety... no way. Not for me at least. I would occasionally buy some off of my friends in college, and the only people who didn't turn into a wired, panic mess were the people who really had ADHD. I rarely had panic attacks in college, but about about 7/10 of the ones I did have were because of adderall. I don't think the stimulant effect is really positive for people who already deal with racing thoughts, stimulated bodily functions, etc.

Neverag... I'd be interested in research on that, as well.

[Deano99]

Well I will tell you how taking amphetamine type drugs helped me (I don't recommend anyone taking them, they can be illegal to be in possession of and could end you in prison or addicted)

They helped me in a paradoxical way. I hate the first signs of a panic attack, like sweating, increased breathing, nervousness, over active mind and thoughts etc..... But here is the very twisted thing that helped me, when you take these drugs, those are the symptoms you experience......so instead of hoping I would not experience anxiety and nervous symptoms when I was out my home, I expected to feel those symptoms. So I convinced myself it wasn't me feeling that way, it was just the drugs in my system.

However, the problems that these types of 'street' drugs can cause is immense, and was like putting a sticking plaster on a massive wound. So please no one think I am in any way recommending them, I am not.

BUT........I do feel that there is massive therapeutic scientific research potential in drugs like Ecstasy, LSD, Amphetamines and the like. If you Google this you can find that research has been spatially carried out, but the science community faces large obstacles from governments stopping them conduct research as the drugs are illegal. It could be the case that loads of research gets carried out and no therapeutic benefit is found......but we should at least allow our research scientists to investigate this area, freely and without governments stopping them for nothing but ideological purposes.