Which Drugs Can Trigger Psychotic Episodes?
One of the very most common classes of stimulants effective at producing psychotic symptoms is amphetamines. These generally include: amphetamines, ephedrine, MDMA (ecstasy/ Molly), dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine) and lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse). While most cases of amphetamine psychosis from prescribed medication (e.g. Adderall) derive from taking excessive amounts, it’s possible to experience a psychotic episode from these drugs even at therapeutic doses.
Ice is another major culprit in inducing stimulant psychosis, as is cocaine. Actually, an estimated 50 per cent of cocaine abusers experience psychosis with a degree.
The ADHD medication Ritalin (methylphenidate) can be effective at triggering psychotic episodes. While taking a therapeutic dose for a short while is unlikely to produce any psychotic effects, taking high doses or utilizing the medication for a protracted time frame greatly escalates the risk.
Surprisingly, even the absolute most commonly used stimulant, caffeine, can produce psychotic symptoms at high enough doses. The good thing for regular coffee drinkers is that this really is exceptionally unlikely to happen in normal circumstances and is typically related to a variety of other factors as well as excessive caffeine consumption.
Symptoms of Stimulant-induced Psychosis
Stimulant psychosis is characterised by the knowledge of one or more of these:
Hallucinations
Auditory: Hearing issues that aren’t there
Visual: Seeing issues that aren’t there
Tactile: Feeling issues that aren’t there (often insects on the skin)
Delusions
Persecution: False beliefs to be followed, watched or that folks are out to harm you
Reference: False belief that everything you feel includes a special personal significance
Grandeur: The false belief that you are superior and more important than others
Parasitosis: The false belief that parasites are burrowing beneath your skin
Behavioural ticks: Rocking, pacing, fidgeting
Mania: Rapid thinking and speech and unusually euphoric mood
Flat affect: Having little to no emotional response, staring into space, failing continually to answer stimuli
Other symptoms: Aggression/ violent behaviour, irritability, anxiety, confusion, difficulty sleeping, pupil dilation, catatonia
Symptoms can persist long after the drug has left the body – days, weeks; some even
experience residual symptoms for years. Typically however, symptoms subside within 10 days and 80 per cent of people recover at www.evokewellnessfl.com/what-does-oxycodone-feel-like/ after 30 days stimulant-free.
What Does Stimulant Psychosis Feel Like?
The expression of stimulant psychosis may differ greatly depending on the individual person along with the drug, or mixture of drugs, consumed. With such many different symptoms, stimulant psychosis can look very different case by case. We explore a couple of examples below.
Methamphetamine and Ritalin
Laura, who binged on ‘legal highs’including analogues of methamphetamine and Ritalin, describes her experience the following:
For nearly nine months I believed my home was haunted, that spirits were attempting to possess me and that I really could see auras around everybody and smoke coming from my skin. I contacted druids, mediums, clairvoyants and spiritualists for help… I’d cry and beg my husband to maneuver house.
‘Molly’and Adderall
Kim, after abusing MDMA and Adderall had these psychotic experience:
I thought I had invisible microscopic bugs. I lost my mind for days. Leaving class and stripping in the bathroom hoping someone could come in and help because these were in my clothes.
Speed
Sylvia, a long time recreational drug taker, didn’t experience any problems for decades until she got an order of speed laced with a not known substance and suffered a psychotic break with dangerous medical effects and severe delusions:
… I discovered myself wandering the backyard confused and drenched in sweat, my heart was racing and I was frightened, confused and alone. I called myself an ambulance after eight hours and survived. However since that date I was in a permanent state of confusion and started having delusions that all my friends were persecuting me and sabotaging my life. I believed I was targeted in a residential district stalking program, that my partner was a secret underworld figure only pretending to work in a hospital, I believed I was under surveillance by a secret government organization, that I had been micro-chipped as a child, and that 100% of the people in my entire life and surrounding me were out to have me and involved with my persecution. I believed my children were an unfamiliar race covertly hiding among humans and were about to take over the world and that I was half human and therefore an abomination to my alien family.
Prescription Drugs
By contrast, Emily describes the behavior of her husband suffering a psychotic episode from prescription medications very differently:
Not acting out but unable to stop outside danger. For example, walking across the street, lost in his thoughts and a shuttle is coming. Even if alerted to increase he didn’t. Or becoming so agitated he would drive erratically with your children in the car.