| HN Mirror

  > Haha. I'm afraid to look like I'm asking for my own
  > recreational purposes, but what doses would that be?

GP here (separate work/home accounts). Anecdotally, I get a mild high from 10 mg of dextroamphetamine or adderall, and have experimentally taken as much as 30 mg. But I have zero tolerance; I've taken amphetamines less than ten times in my life.

  > Again, this is anecdotal and doesn't prove anything,
  > but when I've taken too much Adderall at once I haven't
  > found it very pleasant at all. It wasn't fun and nothing 
  > about those dosages made me want to repeat the 
  > experience, much less experiment with even higher 
  > dosages.
  > (For me, "too much" would be taking 15mg in a single 
  > dose. I know that's not a huge amount in the scheme of 
  > things.)

Yeah, at 20-30 mg there are definitely negative side effects; I wouldn't want to do anything social, like the article's author describes, at those doses.

  > > I agree that typical meth use is 
  > > very different from typical medical adderall use.
  >
  > I don't mean this rhetorically at all... what do you 
  > feel is the reason (or reasons) for this?

I think they are introduced to people differently, on average. I think adderall is primarily introduced to people as medicine by some authority figure the person respects (doctor), and they're likely to stick to their prescribed doses. Vs, I think meth is more frequently introduced as a fun energy drug (or advertised as MDMA), with vague dosages, unknown quality and purity, etc. Maybe meth users titrate until they feel good, which means escalating dosages quickly due to tolerance. (I can't speak from personal experience here.)

I think some minority of both adderall and meth users (ab)use the stimulants to try and overcome drowsiness and focus more on their work, like some college students (including article author). I think a fair number of people do this without any bad outcomes (myself included). But a fair number also escalate in response to tolerance, and this kind of use is problematic. Maybe awareness of tolerance, neurobiology, etc, would help? I read a lot of erowid before I ever consumed any drugs, but I also have pretty strong self-control, so I don't know that it would work for everyone.

Anecdotally, I don't even try to use amphetamines for productivity anymore because they don't clear from my system fast enough to avoid interfering with my sleep. I'm more productive for one day (if that), but less productive over a two-day period.