Herbs to aid (What I believe to be) major dopamine deficiency

[TheBlindHarper]

Long story short, I believe my years of chronic abuse (Over an ounce a week) of amphetamine has led to problems in the dopamine department, resulting in absolutely no motivation or get-up-and-go, along with a rather scattered mind.

I am looking for plants or herbs that can help with this. I am thinking of trying out Mucuna Pruriens (L-DOPA) with a low dose of an MAOI. I have tried Syrian Rue on its own but to no avail. I have tried microdosing mushrooms, but while beneficial they have not done what I needed.

Any suggestions or recommendations, or comments on the Mucuna & MAOI combo?

Thank you

 

[Jees]

Hi,

...Contraindications

The use of levodopa is contraindicated with the concurrent use of monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) because it can lead to hypertensive crisis. There should be a 14-day washout period when switching from levodopa to an MAOI or vice versa...

Source:

Levodopa (L-Dopa) - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf

Hope this helps.
Take care

 

[TheBlindHarper]

Hi,

...Contraindications

The use of levodopa is contraindicated with the concurrent use of monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) because it can lead to hypertensive crisis. There should be a 14-day washout period when switching from levodopa to an MAOI or vice versa...

Source:

Levodopa (L-Dopa) - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf

Hope this helps.
Take care

Thank you mate. I'm aware of this but I have read reports of people trying this combination, with no ill effect.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Redex doesn't fix a knackered engine, so to speak.

You'll want to be looking at proper nutrition to be supporting neurological recovery - B vitamins and the correct balance of essential fatty acids, for example. Hericium/Lion's mane is a fungal supplement known to support neurological regeneration as well.

Besdides nutrition, the rest of the advice is the usual boring stuff - regular sleep and waking times, fresh air, sufficient exercise, contact with nature, finding something creative to do, and finding your way to helping people with something socially beneficial. Don't worry, I struggle to do a large proportion of these myself without even having had a meth habit. There's just that 'bootstrapping' thing of making your self do it. Ever heard of Wim Hof?

Wishing you every success in your recovery.

 

[bismillah]

Have you considered what they call a "dopamine fast"? It seems like a very difficult but rewarding way of exploiting the brain's natural propensity to adapt. My first thought is the issue is more a lack of sensitivity than a lack of volume (of dopamine itself). But I'm talking out my @ss on this last part.

 

[Elrik]

...You'll want to be looking at proper nutrition to be supporting neurological recovery...sufficient exercise, contact with nature, finding something creative to do

Why is there no 'like' button on this site :lol:
Thankfully, amphetamine abuse is one thing I never got into. But I did abuse the shit out of cannabis and I made other mistakes. From my experiences I believe pharmacological tricks are not the best way to rebuild after long abuse. It's like pushing your body by force too far one way because you pushed it too far the other way, it might get you closer to the middle but it does so by stress.

Greatly and fundamentally improve your diet. *
Get exercise. I don't mean curl some 5 kilo dumbbells once a day, I mean more like briskly walk several kilometers on an empty stomach every day, except a few days a week when you run 5K.
Find something to be passionate about, in a good way. Especially creative things.
If you do caffeine, stabilize your intake in both quantity and timing throughout the day. Unstable caffeine intake drains people more than they usually realize.
If you smoke either stop or reduce it to the comfortable minimum and stabilize your intake in both quantity and timing.

If I was in your position and I wanted to do something more 'drastic' before settling into that routine I'd fast, consuming nothing but water, for a bare minimum of 3 days before starting the above while also beginning a 2 month course of ashwagandha root extract.

* If you manage to really, really improve your diet you may have to significantly increase the quantity of food eaten. Many people who go whole food vegan, for instance, feel like shit within a week simply because they aren't eating enough.

 

[Sabnock1990]

I take a Mucuna extract with standardized L-Dopa content, twice a day. I get a total of 600mgs of L-Dopa a day, 300mgs twice a day. I've taken it daily for 3 years, stopped for awhile, then a few months or so ago i started back taking it again. One of the best supplements i've ever tried/taken, no side-effects at all, no harms/risks that i can tell, at least for me personally. People should keep in mind there's a difference between those with Parkinsons taking L-Dopa, and those who are healthy taking L-Dopa. I've also mixed it with Harmalas/Rue, and with Moclobemide, and noticed absolutely zero negative reactions or side-effects, the only time i noticed a side-effect with MAOI's is when i've taken the Mucuna extract at the same time as the MAOI, and the only side-effect i've noticed was a bit of an increase in heart rate and some potentiation of the L-Dopa, but if i take the Mucuna extract 2 hours before, or 2 hours after the MAOI, no side-effects, no potentiation, all is well.

I'm actually very surprised that they don't recommend L-Dopa/Mucuna for people outside of Parkinsons, and while there's been some studies done on other conditions using L-Dopa, they really haven't done much study on it, especially over the long term. I think a lot of benefits are seen from Mucuna/L-Dopa over the long term, while there are some benefits in the short term, long term is where it's really noticeable.

I can't say what it would be like for other people, but for me, it works great. Also, Rue, because it contains Harmaline, and Harmaline also inhibits COMT, can further increase Dopamine and Noradrenaline content, i think.

 

[rOm]

Yes, just also advocating for the number one dopamine herb " Mucuna Prurens" if you're defficient,this is as close as clean L Dopa as you can get.
It can evenbe used in conjoncturewith some other herbs for great enhancement.
One of my favorite for dopamine surge was kratom and Mucuna.
Well, if you are in a region where you may have access to good mambe, of course this will be good too.
Butmost poeple will have access to mucuna and its extract. it is highly backed up and used for parkinson patients with success.

Why mixing it with harmalas ? IT is conterindicated.I knoxw the very low tryptamines could make you think its fine but its not the tryptamine with the levodopa itself that isn't good with RIMA.

 

[Ramma]

long distance jogging and weight lifting.
*5HTP
*Magnesium+Vitamin c+ V b12+ fish oil
*B Caapi

none of these are dopamine related...and thats good for this case.

*Adrafanil (Modafinil)
*Aniracetam
in some way these two work on dopamine, particularly Modafinil, and it wont get you high--but they will make you spacey, particularly aniracetam.

 

[Spiralout]

I'm going to echo what Downwarsfrom0 and others mentioned. For any problem someone has, you want to take care of all of the basic, general things, before getting in to the specifics. Of course there may be specific treatments but to find these means you need to know for sure what the problem is.. And then, doing any type of specific treatment will not be effective, or anywhere near as effective at least, if you aren't taking care of the basics. So, sleep, nutrition, stress, exercise, hobbies, etc. Maybe you already have all of this stuff covered? If not, then taking care of them will behoove you no matter what the major ailment may be. I would talk to a doctor in real life though too of course.

Edit** : Aside from specific, aimed, treatments possibly not being benficial, they may also end up making things worse. There's a ton of misinformation, half-complete information, etc particularly in the supplement world. Some of this is just honest mistakes and some of it is people trying exploit others.. Even an expert in the medical field doesn't understand nutrition/lifestyle entirely; the jury is not in and probably never will be. So, given that doctors are shooting in the dark to some extent, lay men, and people you find at online forums related to 'supplementing' and 'biohacking' and all that jazz, are TRULY shooting in the dark. Don't take anything at face value and always look to see if there is something that you are missing or if there may be other possible effects from any given possible treatment/supplement.

 

[dreamer042]

DFZ nailed it.

Dumping more dopamine down fundamentally broken reward pathways is only going to prevent the ability of those receptors to rebound. Think neuroplasticity, the idea is to step out of the well worn ruts and start creating new pathways.

Don't discount the natural mammalian triggers. Laughter, intimacy/shared experience, good food and drink, meditation, exercise, etc. The pleasure in these experiences is much more subtle, but also much more sustainable, and pharmacologically should be different enough that mindful focus and consistent effort begins to start carving out new routes for these healthy experiences of pleasure and reward.

Be well 8)