DOSE:	1 capsl	oral	St. John's Wort	(daily)
	1 mg	oral	Pharms - Risperidone	(daily)
		oral	Pharms - Methylphenidate	(daily)
		oral	Metoprolol	(daily)
	10 mg	oral	Pharms - Methylphenidate
	47.5 mg	oral	Metoprolol
	10 mg	oral	Pharms - Methylphenidate
	47.5 mg	oral	Metoprolol
		smoked	Tobacco - Cigarettes

BODY WEIGHT:

120 kg

I should say beforehand that I suffer from OCD, PTSD, am an Asperger autist, and was recently diagnosed with ADHD, for which I started a treament with Methylphenidate (Ritalin).

I am also currently receiving St. John's Wort (1 capsule a day) and 1mg Risperidone (0.5 for the night, 0.5 at noon).

Furthermore I suffer from Tachyarrhythmia, for which I have a prescription for Metoprolol tablets.

Quite a bag'o'worries I am!

Recently, doing my usual routine of looking up drug and meds which I do basically every day, I was reading about Propranolol; I'm really a pharmacology nuthead, when i was 17 I used to buy big calibre Pharm books which you usually only buy when you are a pharmacist or physician. Of course I'm also interested generally in drugs, but I always had a special interest in pharms, for some reason.

OK so, I was reading about Propranolol which is also a beta-blocker like Metoprolol, used for lowering blood pressure and a few related problems, and also used off-label for treatment of social anxiety disorded, stage fright, and related. Now, I *know* this all, but it just slips a little from my mind so I just don't think about it all the time, and also partially forget. I also knew that Metoprolol is related to Propranolol, and has a similar spectrum of activity (?). Ok so I keep saying I knew this all, the point is, reading the Propranolol Wikipedia article brought this information back into my prefrontal cortex :)

I became curious as to how Metoprolol and Methylphenidate would mix. I was not sure at all. I even hardly remembered how Metoprolol in itself 'feels', since it's around 2 years that I used it, I only remembered what it does physically. I imagined they might partially counteract each other, for a second even pondered a cardiac arrest, but, what the heck!

So I took 10mg of Ritalin which is a dose I take multiple times a day, however this was this day's first dose and I don't think there was still much Methylphenidate in my system; I also didn't take any Risperidone or Wort this day yet, the effects of which might not have been totally gone from my system but at least I had no acute concentration of the relevant compounds in my blood.

I don't know how long it took, but I do remember that it seemed somewhat unusually fast for both to take effect; maybe 10 minutes earlier that I expected. I don't recall the *exact* details, but it did both seem to start working simultaneously. It did not feel much different at first, I only noticed that I was VERY calm, both mentally, and physically. Now it should be noted that an OCD's mind is never fully calm, but it's a different area of the mind I'm referring to. I am the hyperactive type of ADHD person and I usually have an extremely strong leg restlessness. Now I could sit perfectly still, and I mean perfectly really. But that was just for a moment, as I had to go to my therapy session (I have therapy sessions once a week in order to treat the OCD and PTSD).

In the subway I felt very calm, very VERY much in control, like nothing could touch me. It was a rather powerful feeling. Not the powerfulness of Opiates, or not even benzodiazepines, but nevertheless it was really strong; one way to describe it is intense but 'light', but directly in the sense of weight, not in the sense of intensity. I know, that probably doesn't help much :)

I get a partial effect like this from Methylphenidate alone, but this was much stronger. The thought occured to me how it is possible that this 'being in control' feeling can be enhanced by a substance that blocks receptors, and especially adrenoreceptors?

The solution I came up with sounds pretty straightforward, but I do not know if it is also the truth. I simply thought that maybe there is a feedback loop in the brain (among many others of course) that gives positive feedback when I manage to stay calm. It might just be the normal feedback loop that keeps people in check when something frustrating or invasive happens (I bet this loop is partially dysfunctional in ADHD people).

Anyway I forgot about that again and kept riding the subway. I was sitting on a corner seat, and I was sitting, again, perfectly still. Uncannily still. It was really very eerie, but I want to add that sitting still is very abnormal. In this very moment, while writing, I just can't stop fidgeting with my legs. It's late at night though and I don't take Ritalin at night... I also seemed to be a little empathic, but this is a trait I usually bear. A girl was standing next to me in the subway and I was sure, just very slightly, but distinctly, that she liked me. Well she didn't exactly love me but I felt that if it would have been a yes/no scenario, she'd have said yes. It was not so with everyone in the subway car.

I arrived at my destination finally, went to my therapist, and we had the therapy session (1 hour). Throughout, I was still very calm, and very focused and alert (from the Methylphenidate), although the Methylphenidate started to wear off (it has a rather short half life, and in my body, the mainline effects stop after around two and a half to three hours). When I rode home, the effect *was* still there, of both medications, and still to a rather strong degree, but it was not the initial kick of perfect composure that it had just after I delivered the chemicals into my system. I came home, but was actually on the go again since I was appointed with a friend in the student's dorm, he wanted to show a movie in the small 'theather' at the dorm.

I noticed that I had strong leg restless again, so 1 came to 1 and I though allright, and I took not only another 10mg of Ritalin, which would have been pretty normal, but also another 47,5mg of Metoprolol, and left the apartment immediately, not waiting for the effects.

I rode the subway for something like 20 minutes, and then had to change a bus. Again, both started working around 10 minutes earlier than the Methylphenidate starts working for me usually. I felt EXTREMELY calm. I could position myself somewhere on the sidewalk, and 'just' stand there, not moving at all, for minutes (well maybe not 10 minutes but definitely 2-3 minutes without actually moving. Not an exaggeration!)

My movements were sorta slow, but not sluggish. I also had a feeling of weakness in my hands, arms and legs, but it seemed to be only that - the feeling, because whenever I grabbed something or walked, it felt perfectly normal, maybe I even felt a little stronger than usual (I put that on the Methylphenidate).

I had a very pleasant body sensation. I get slight body sensations from Methylphenidate alone, but this was much stronger. It was like not at all unpleasant tension was running through my arms, legs and focused on the chest, in which I seemed to have a 'lump' of positive feeling. I could feel like it was in there, and it felt simply good. Whenever I moved my arms or legs or any other part of the body, it just felt very good. Nothing absolutely ecstatic, but it *would* give me shivers.

I also, sadly, became slightly paranoid. I was constantly watching people, although not frantically, just unnormally often and unnormally intense, but not freakish-intense. It was nothing that'd usually be worth noting, but I think it's appropriate to note such things here.

I arrived at the dorm and went to B's room. He came out and we went to the film room to set up the hardware. While we were doing this, we discovered that the DVD player would not play the movie I burned. That's where things took a turn. B was accusing me, albeit still friendly, that I 'blew' it and was still trying connect all the audio and video hardware while the audience, already present, was just waiting. I became pretty aggravated because of him accusing me in front of the audience, which I *really* did not like (the accusations), and became very fed up with the whole situation. I went outside into the corridor to smoke a cigarette, and even after I was done, I refused to come back inside.

After some while of probing whether I would stand going back in, I did. Everyone looked at me, which was very unpleasant.

We decided on watching a Monty Python movie instead. B started the whole machinery and we watched. However, I couldn't stand it in the room, and went outside to smoke a cigarette. I felt very restless because now, I was sure, the Methylphenidate stopped working. I walked around the campus, went to B's room to get something to eat, and eventually came back. After the movie was done we went to B's room, where I just couldn't stop arguing with B on why he had to accuse me in front of the group; I just couldn't stop arguing. I wanted, but I just couldn't. After a while I calmed and became quite normal again. It was soon time to go so I smoked another cigarette (which taste VERY good btw on the combination of these two meds, and invoke the euphoric lump in the chest) and left. When I arrived at home, I felt badly shaken so I took my other meds, the Wort and Risperidone.

Summary:
--------

Very nice feelings overall, the control, the calmness especially is super fun because I can freak people out just a little bit when placing myself in a spot on a not too crowded subway station, essentially not moving, and start observing everyone heheh. BUT, the negative aftermath made it really bad again. Maybe it was just my PTSD-mood and not the meds, though, but I'm sure they had a role in this. It wasn't something that would stop me from doing the whole thing again, though, because doing it just 1 time doesn't give me enough material to analyze the effect of this combination, so I will definitely do it again.

Exp Year: 2009	ExpID: 76410
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 26, 2010	Views: 13,877
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Metoprolol (510) : Combinations (3), Alone (16)