Comment by strbean
7 hours ago
Consuming that much caffeine is terrible for your heart.
If you find yourself consuming a lot of caffeine regularly, you would probably be much better served by Adderall. You can get the same stimulant effect with much less wear and tear on your body. If you want to put it to the test without breaking the law or going through the hassle of getting a prescription, you can try taking 1 or 2 Sudafed (the real stuff that requires ID), which I've found to be functionally equivalent to a low dose of Adderall.
(The normal caveats about health risks of stimulants apply to this comment - avoid if you have a heart condition, etc.)
I agree it's not good for my heart. I keep my caffeine intake considerably lower now, always less than the 400mg max that the FDA recommends, usually less than that.
I'm not sure that adderrall is significantly healthier for the heart. I did take it for a bit but I found adderral to be unbelievably terrible. I would take a small dose at like 7am, and I still would have trouble getting to sleep at night, and when I did get sleep it didn't feel terribly restful. I was only on it for about a week and that was enough.
Obviously if it works for you, don't let me take that away from you.
> I would take a small dose at like 7am, and I still would have trouble getting to sleep at night
Was this an extended release verson like Vyvanse? I had an absolutely terrible time with that for the same reasons. If that was your experience with plain dextroamphetamine, totally sounds like it's just not meant for you!
I tried the three big ones: regular Adderall, Adderall extended release, and Vyvance. None of them really helped my focus and all three really screwed with my sleep.
Kind of ironically, it turned out that a lot of my focus issues were due to (at the time) undiagnosed sleep apnea. The caffeine and the adderall sort of became band-aids that covered up the real problems.
Good Lord no. Sudafed is nothing like Adderall and Adderall is nothing like caffeine, for starters.
I was on a low 10mg time release dose of Adderall for about 6 years. I had a lapse of insurance and could no longer afford it. I weaned myself off over a month and the withdrawals were absolutely fucking terrible.
Just fucking bad advice dude.
Why do you expect pseudoephedrine to be less nasty on the cardiovascular system than caffeine?
Recommending going from caffeine to amphetamine comes across as rather weird to me. 'It seems you have trouble regulating intake of a weak stimulant most people have little issue with, how about you take one of the strong, seriously treacherous ones instead?'
> Why do you expect pseudoephedrine to be less nasty on the cardiovascular system than caffeine?
I'm not advocating for substituting pseudoephedrine for caffeine, but rather using pseudoephedrine as a one time proxy for amphetamine to see how well it works for you.
> Recommending going from caffeine to amphetamine comes across as rather weird to me.
With respect for the potential for abuse and addiction, that's a good point. My suggestion comes from a firsthand account of an adult with undiagnosed ADHD who self medicated with grossly excessive coffee drinking. Their doctor suggested getting assessed for ADHD and making the substitution out of fear for their cardiovascular health.
I assumed the parent commenter was overusing caffeine to self medicate for attention issues, but didn't think of the possibility that it was pure addictive behavior.
Amphetamine is no stronger or more treacherous than caffeine, when dosed properly. As someone with EXTENSIVE experience with both, I would say caffeine is probably substantially more treacherous.