Yo folks,

Here's the real deal: I'm pretty wired into the stimulant scene daily doses include Vyvanse, Adderall, (used to) tina, plenty of nicotine, and a chug of Celsius. But, damn, 60mg Sudafed flipped everything on its head, and not in a fun way.

So, picture this: I'm just out for my usual walk, I pop a Sudafed, and 20 minutes later, I'm a complete mess. My heart’s slamming at a wild 135 bpm, blood pressure’s spiking between 150/105 to 165/105. My hands? Ghostly white except at the joints, veins popping like I'm some anatomical display. I thought I could handle my highs, but this tiny red OTC pill had me questioning my life choices. Meanwhile, I’m guzzling a Celsius, working through some nicotine gum, and had already slammed 70mg of Vyvanse and 30mg of Adderall.

I will go full throttle and take Adderall with Vyvanse like I’m Billy Joe Armstrong at Woodstock 99, chase it down with a Celsius that has 270mg caffeine, 1000% of your daily vitamin b intake, and probably some research chemical that’s a long string of numbers and letters that could give an arrhythmia to a blue whale or power New York City (sometimes two), tear through 6 4mg Nicorette gums exclusively double fisting them, do this like clockwork for the last couple months, walk for 10 miles on autopilot, and the recommended dose (60mg) of prescription pseudoephedrine you can take every 4 hours catapulted me into sheer mental terror.

How the fuck is this the final boss?

My friends asked me if I wanted some before school during allergy season. This would be worse than when I hit a cart and it restarted an acid trip in highschool. What if I took that shit? One of them took three? How was this two?

They didn’t nerf Sudafed just because it was the precursor to cooking the purest cheapest meth. They did it because making P2P that pure takes a Walter White, and Sudafed was so hyper galactic it was giving meth a run for its money, turning every pharmacy into Kensington, with big meth lobbying hard for its prohibition.

This shit is stronger than the Preludin The Beatles took in Hamburg. This shit would have Joe Biden breakdancing on the south lawn. This shit is the stimulant equivalent of a Quaalude.

I’m such a degenerate I took 500mg of Benzedrex, equal to 120mg of pseudo. In comparison the benz felt like I popped three ladders.

This is literally a conspiracy theory so they can sell phenylephrine. They sell that shit like it works and it’s not proven effective over placebo. I am going to find every bottle of Sudafed PE, Dayquil, and Mucinex Severe and burn that shit. Let the neighborhood geek again.

Looking back, it hits me this was a script from 2022, how did it not affect me like this back then? I usually carry around 10mg and 20mg propranolol tabs and 0.2mg clonidines, the propranolol not even prescribed to me anymore. They work well for physical anxiety. In a panic, I popped 30mg of propranolol and 0.2mg of clonidine to cut down the crazy vitals. Helped a bit, but still feeling off, I chugged a whole bottle of lemon juice trying to speed-cleanse my system of stimulants. Big brain move, right? Nope. Then I realized I’d just loaded up on blood pressure meds with the stimulants crashing out fast. Almost disaster territory.

After ditching propranolol for a year, bringing it back into the mix for the Sudafed emergency it had a weird twist: I started fucking hallucinating. This was super unexpected because propranolol is usually just used to keep your blood pressure in check and help with anxiety shakes, not make you trip. If you’ve ever taken acid and every letter on your screen is a different size, then yeah, that happened.

“Although propranolol is not known to have significant effects on vision, a small percentage of propranolol users have reported hallucinations after taking the medication.” -Hims

This whole mess felt like playing a dangerous game of chemical Jenga stacking uppers and downers until it all tumbles down.

While I'm ranting why the fuck did my doctor prescribe so much propranolol? I understand the opioid crisis now. He would say "I'll say you take four a day on the bottle, but you can continue taking one or two." If blood pressure medicine was in demand I would but #1 trapper. I did the math and I have like 1,600 10s and 300 20s. It's good for physical anxiety symptoms and it's the drug you get for acute anxiety when you don't lie to your doctor.

I hit up ChatGPT with a ton of questions, over 100. Starting off with some basic concerns about heart issues and the effects of mixing meds like pseudoephedrine and caffeine. I wanted to know if these combos were risky.

As we dug deeper, I focused on how the meds I was taking, particularly clonidine and propranolol, might be causing symptoms like a hot face and body tightness, raising worries about potential heart problems. My anxiety spiked as I started feeling weird sensations, bubbling in my lungs, gurgling near my heart, and tingling in my arm. This freaked me out, and I was concerned about the safety of continuing the blood pressure meds.

The symptoms escalated to a sizzling sensation in my chest, warmth around my heart, and persistent tingling. I was firing off messages trying to understand if I was having a heart episode, especially considering the increased dose of lamotrigine and the stimulants I’d been using.

By the end of our conversation, I was also experiencing ringing in my ears linked to my breathing, low blood pressure, and frequent urination. I was trying to figure out if these were signs of a serious issue like a heart attack and desperately seeking reassurance about what was happening to my body.

But here's the kicker, it wasn't just the Sudafed screwing with me. I was ramping up my lamotrigine dose from 25mg to 50mg to 100mg over six weeks, thinking it’d sort out my moods. Instead, it threw my body into chaos, edging me right into the early stages of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. Yeah, those hives and rashes should’ve had me sprinting to the ER. Instead, I blamed a boatload of bug spray. Thought my immune system was just flipping out over any stimulant it saw.

After a day of pure hell, with my heart still racing while on meds, I dragged myself to the ER. Dodged a bullet with that Stevens-Johnson scare. catching it early probably saved my ass.

Stay safe, guys. Don't underestimate those OTC meds, and definitely keep an eye on how your prescriptions mix. Sometimes the real trouble starts with what you thought was harmless.

✌️