What It's Like to Overdose

[Mustachekitteh]

No this wasn't me trying to commit suicide or anything, it was an accident.

The incident happened around 4-3 years ago and it was at night. The medication that I had overdosed on was my adhd pills called, "vyvanse." At the time I was taking one 50mg pill each morning. I also have other medication for my asthma which I take at night time.

When I went to take my nightly asthma pill I actually don't remember much about it. (From time to time I get these black outs in my memory and not sure what I was doing for a couple of seconds. I have no idea what causes it or why it happens.). Anyways I know I was going to take my night medication but I don't remember what I had put in my mouth. It's like my memory shut off for a little and I don't even remember what I saw. This took place either at around 8 or 9pm.

Then about an hour later I started to feel funny and like my heart rate was going up. After the funny feeling started to become worse I started to question the hole in my memory and wondering if I might have accidentally took my vyvanse instead of my asthma med. (Doing that is not good due to the fact that the strongest dosage for vyvanse is 70mg. So the fact that it ended up that I had took my vyvanse again means I had 100mg of it in my system. Vyvanse takes 14 hours to stop work, so the one I took that morning hadn't of warn off yet.)

Around 10pm was when I had no doubt in my mind that I must have took my vyvanse. The symptoms were worse and I was starting to be in horrible pain. Where every blood vein in my body felt like they were going to explode and were burning horribly. My heart rate was skyrocketing and I became dizzy beyond belief. Trying to move my body started to become impossible and I wasn't able to get out of my bed.

My head also start to hurt like hell at that point too. I couldn't go to the hospital due to the people I was staying with didn't believe me and said if they found me passed out or dead in the morning then they would take me. So anything that happened, I had to go through it alone. I had tried to Skype call my boyfriend (who I'm in a LDR atm and he's 5 hours ahead of my time.), he didn't answer sadly and I knew he had some kind of math test that day. So for the entire night I just laid in my bed hoping it doesn't become worse. I wasn't able to sleep for the whole night but it was a scary and painful experience.

By the time it was morning most of the worst symptoms had passed. Then later that day I bought me a medication box to help me organize my meds better. That way I would know if I took the right one and to help me know which ones to grab, since I got that I haven't had anymore accidents. So if anyone takes medication, PLEASE organize them well. Accidentally taking the wrong ones is NOT a fun way to spend your night or day. For any of your that ever do try to commit suicide, for the love of everything don't do it. Even more don't do it like this because it will be horribly painful.

[Hidden_P]

The only time I remember the effects overdosing... I had taken about 16 paracetamol with alcohol about 13. I remember lying on my bed and thinking nothing's happening, I'll take more. So I sat up, and that's when it hit me.
I went extremely dizzy, my memory went hazy, I couldn't stand. I felt unbelievably sick and I don't know if I was sick.

The next thing I remember was crawling to bed and being freezing cold and shaking. I crawled inside my bed and eventually fell asleep. In the morning I felt a bit sick but I was okay.

[OrangeBoy]

Good advice. It' a real proble, specially with elderly people (and they are more sensible).

But...
" the people I was staying with didn't believe me and said if they found me passed out or dead in the morning then they would take me."...
... that's messed up.

[Mustachekitteh]

It was late at night and they were cranky. I know they didn't truly mean what they said.

[redeyemindtricks]

To be honest, yr symptoms were almost certainly mostly psychosomatic.

The toxic dose of amphetamine, depending on yr body weight, is about 20 to 30 times the unit equivalent of 100mg of lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse).
And, according to studies, the addition of L-lysine (= how they make Vyvanse from amphetamine) actually reduces the toxicity potential of Vyvanse even further.
Recreational users -- many of whom don't even take Vyvanse or other amphetamines on any kind of regular basis -- often take 200, 250, even 300mg of Vyvanse to "party", and they are fine (other than insomnia and the psychological addiction risk).

If you were experiencing an emergent amphetamine overdose, you would have suffered severe nausea and vomiting, in addition to the accelerated heart rate and headache. (Yr dopamine receptors would have been over-triggered throughout yr body -- and yr GI tract is one of the places with the highest concentrations of dopamine receptors.) Like, you'd have felt like throwing up yr guts for hours on end.

So, what you experienced here was more like, say, ingesting too much caffeine. Unpleasant, to be sure, but not at all actually dangerous.

__

Disclaimer:
There ARE some people who are hyper-sensitive to amphetamines.
If you **actually were** suffering GENUINE O. D. symptoms at just 2x yr usual dosage -- which, again, you almost certainly weren't (since you described no nausea) -- then you may be one of these unfortunate individuals, and in that case you'd be well advised to switch to Strattera or some other non-amphetamine based ADHD drug.

[Mustachekitteh]

So bottom line I had just made it all up in my head?

[redeyemindtricks]

That's too harsh -- psychosomatic symptoms are totally real symptoms, with real consequences. (People with terminal illnesses who tell themselves they're going to die become something like 40 times more likely to die on an accelerated timeline.)

That especially goes for things that are "positive feedback loops", like tachycardia (fast heartbeat) and stress. You see what I mean? Stress can cause tachycardia, which can cause more stress -- and the amphetamine can amplify the effects of the tachycardia.

So, no, it wasn't "all made up". The things that were happening to you were real, but, yr mental state definitely aggravated them.

If you *do* make this sort of error again, try meditation -- it will help a LOT. Should have pretty much exactly the opposite of the effects you experienced.

[Mustachekitteh]

I wasn't telling myself anything was wrong with me and then it happened. I believed I took my asthma meds and went on with my night as normal. Until I started to not feel to great and I'm not sure if I felt sick to my stomach. Just remember being extremely out of it, blood veins on fire and like they would explode, and couldn't move or walk well.

[Mustachekitteh]

I wasn't stressed that night.

[redeyemindtricks]

Well, you also took the pills at exactly the wrong part of yr circadian cycle, and that has a HUGE effect.
I mean... most people take 7-14 days to adjust to jet-lag, so, you can imagine how much yr body wants to say "fuck you" when you give it pills that say Stay Awake! in what's supposed to be the deep-sleep portion of yr cycle.
That's part of the impact, too.

If you took 2x yr normal dose at yr normal time of day, you'd probably be jittery, and kinda "high" / euphoric, but you probably wouldn't feel terrible at all. (I am NOT suggesting that you actually try this.)

[redeyemindtricks]

By the way -- Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) attenuates the effects of amphetamines, and flushes them out of yr system faster.

If you make this mistake again in the future, then, on top of meditation, take a megadose of vitamin C (3 to 5 grams = 3,000 to 5,000 milligrams). If you do that, the duration of the Vyvanse should be knocked down to about 8 hours, and its effects should be shortened as well.

(If you need to intensify or prolong the effects of Vyvanse for whatever reason, you can do that by swigging baking soda in water every 1-2 hours. If you do that, Vyvanse will last as long as 18-20 hours. Warning: Drinking baking soda is fucking nasty, but those extra hours are so worth it.)

[redeyemindtricks]

When I say stress, I'm talking about the physical stress/shock imposed by the drug, plus the psychological stress/shock of the "oh shit" moment of realizing that you'd taken two of them. that whole heart-in-yr-throat thing.

[guyngals]

Are you a doctor or a pharmacist? You seem to know an AWFUL lot about prescription drugs.

[redeyemindtricks]

@guyngals Yes, I know a lot about drugs.
I have no professional licenses (which, ironically, allows me to give my actual clients much more complete advice than an actual doctor or pharmacist ever could).

[Mustachekitteh]

I didn't even know I had taken the wrong medication at all and thought I had taken my asthma meds. I didn't get a heart in my throat thing and nor did I have any of my normal stress symptoms. The worse I've felt stressed all that did was cause my heart to burn from my heart beating so fast. Didn't feel dizzy or anything. So I know that if I'm horribly stressed I don't have my blood veins feeling the way they did or feeling dizzy.

[redeyemindtricks]

Yeah -- I read yr story again -- it's just that these things have a dastardly way of working in sync.
Like, at 10PM, when you **had no doubt you had taken the Vyvanse**... that's the point at which things really could have started spiraling downward into a self-reinforcing cycle, once you'd made that realization. (The headache also arrived at around the same time when you realized what had happened.)

There's no way to establish causality here, really. It probably runs both ways. Take pills, feel shitty, realize what went wrong, feel more shitty... those last two things ("realize what went wrong" and "feel more shitty") have a horrible way of riffing off each other. It sucks. The mind and body are a team, and they play all too well together sometimes.

I hope I don't come across as trying to minimize any of what you experienced here -- that is certainly not my intention. Just pointing out that it becomes a chicken-and-egg thing as soon as you have that oh-shit moment.

[redeyemindtricks]

And what kind of assholes were you staying with, who wolud actually say something like "If we find you motionless in the morning then we'll take you to the ER"? Srsly? SMH

[Mustachekitteh]

When I made that realization I tried to remain calm and distract myself. When I'm faced with emergencies that could go horribly wrong. I always spring into action and not fall apart like most people. Naw the worst of it started to happen around 11pm and lasted for the rest of the night.

[Mustachekitteh]

My cranky old father but I don't blame him. He doesn't handle well if someone wakes him up and he loses sleep anyways due to being a farmer.

[redeyemindtricks]

Hmm... When I first read the story, I thought you'd taken two of the pills at once. I looked at it again, and, it seems you took *one* extra pill. Is that right?

If that's right, then, at 11PM -- which would be about 16 hrs (?) after yr morning dose -- you'd have a little under half the morning dose still bioactive. See this graph:
patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/.../...002.png

So, at the very most, you would have 1.5 times the peak dosage in yr system at the highest point.

If 1.5 times peak dosage is causing these kinds of issues, I'm kinda worried about that. Did you have an empty stomach? Had you gone a while without eating carbohydrates? Were you dehydrated?

[Mustachekitteh]

Yeah I had taken the one in the morning like I always do and then during that black out with my memory I ended up taking my vyvanse instead of my asthma meds. Only figured that out due to my body not acting happy after that. The morning dosage would have ran out at 8:30am so then yeah it would have been out by 11:30pm. I know my symptoms later doesn't make any sense unless I had taken 2 vyvanse pills which is possible since I have 2 night medications. Though I don't remember how much of the vyvanse I took and thought I might have just took one but I don't remember having the meds in my hands and how many there were though I know at least 1 was there.

[redeyemindtricks]

I bet you took 2. The symptoms yr describing start sounding more in tune with having 2.5x peak dose in yr system (and at exactly the wrong time in yr sleep cycle, too).

I'm glad yr ok -- and I'm glad yr default reaction is as calm as it is! Lord knows it doesn't sound like yr father is as on point as he should be...
My father went sleepless plenty of nights just to drive me to the shop so I could weld, when I was too depressed to sleep. That was truly above and beyond -- but, it's incumbent on ANY parent to be there for their kid in case of a potential medical emergency! Sleep can wait!

And, yes, yr lesson about labeling medications clearly is well taken.

[redeyemindtricks]

Just checking -- Do you use the downloadable coupons when you get yr prescriptions? They reduce the price to $30 per fill, for 30 pills (or they knock off $60 per fill, if it's more than $90).

[lumos]

Wow. The people you were staying with were assholes. I have no idea how someone can even react that way to someone else saying they took the wrong meds/just overdosed accidentally. Like I would freak the fuck out and get that person to the hospital asap, even if it was in the middle of the night and I was sleepy/cranky. Lucky for them that nothing happened to you, they could have been held responsible if you died and they didn't do anything about it. But judging by the way they behaved, it wouldn't surprise me if they had lied about not knowing about your OD.
Great reminder to those who take many different medicines/pills. Everyone with meds should have boxes like that, even young people who supposedly still have great memory. I'm on the pill myself and sometimes I forget if I've taken it or not, and end up having to check the packaging. Sometimes you just do stuff without even thinking about it and that can be dangerous when it comes to meds.

[SovereignessofVamps]

That sounds really scary but I have heard it can be easy to overdose on lots of meds! I've heard of diabetics overdoing on insulin and dying, totally by accident.

[HentaiMaster23]

Wow that sucks, I feel bad for you, but I'm glad you're doing well, but that sounds like it sucked, but you could of called 911 and told them, about it, but I dunno maybe you couldn't srry if you really couldn't

[clampfan101]

Woah. I'm so sorry... 😰
I have a pill container similar to that pic for my epilepsy pills. (Well, I used to for a long time. I have a fancier looking one now. lol)

[Skadouchebag]

umm... wow. I just take ritalin and an antidepressant.

[helloitsmethere]

I did that once, it was the most horrible feeling ever...

[Waffles731]

I've had a similar expreience with accidentally taking the wrong pills

[Decentguy]

i know what its like to be overdosed on sleeping pills and i must say the feeling was good

[Bandit74]

"said if they found me passed out or dead in the morning then they would take me."

Wow, those people are assholes. :o

[Mustachekitteh]

I think it was due to them being extremely tired. I know they didn't truly mean it and were just being extremely cranky.

[Bandit74]

So if you had pushed for it more they would have taken you?

[Mustachekitteh]

If they saw me passed out and not responding yeah and I'm sure they would have had a heart attack.

Again I can understand why they didn't go rushing into it. Since all my life I've always had something physically wrong so they didn't know what to think of that.

[Bandit74]

ok, fair enough.

Also with those blackouts you mentioned, are you left in a state of confusion afterwards and has that ever happened while driving?

[Mustachekitteh]

Haven't happened while driving but it's happened while I was going down these 3 stairs. All of a sudden I forgot these 3 stairs existed and walked off them. Caused me to sprain my ankle sadly. :(

I'm never confused when I snap back, I keep going on like either nothing happened or I do noticed something is off and catch it.

[Bandit74]

Scary.
Do you know why this happens to you?

[Mustachekitteh]

Either I had more trauma than I thought from my car wreck or lack of sleep.

[Bandit74]

Did these blackouts happen before you were in the car crash?

[Mustachekitteh]

I don't remember having them before it though my memory only became more clear once I started taking my adhd meds correctly.

[OrdinaryGentleman]

Yeah Vicodin is one hell of a drug

[sixnineanon]

I'm glad nothing bad happened to you

[jesusnicolas768]

Damn that's sounds scary af

[Anonymous]

that was hardly an overdose lol, you'd get the same feeling from eating too much chocolate

[lumos]

Overdosing doesn't always have to be super dramatic and end up with someone having a seizure or dying. She said that 70mg is the most you can take, and she took 100mg. So 30mg too much. That is indeed an overdose.

[Mesmaeker]

Ask tafkap

[Keepcalm89]

I'm glad your ok