Adderall and Online Poker

[ginko]

And the doctor just pwned this thread.

[suzzer99]

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OP,

My argument against it - gl playing without it after you start. I have a good amount of friends who can't study without it.

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Winner. Take it from someone who's done just about everything in excess (sans heroin), and had tons of friends who are "functioning X-holics". Drugs for partying is one thing, drugs for work or study or just to get through every day is a whole nother animal. Both are bad, but there are plenty of people who can live it up on the weekends and pull out in a few years when they get sick of it, with little ill effects. Of course there are plenty more who go down in flames. But no one who does some drug to get through work or school for any length of time, pulls out of it w/o a lot of ugliness. Do you really want to get to the point where you can't play poker w/o adderall? And need a little more all the time?

I have several friends who can't face their boss w/o Xanax, or Vicodin, or Rohypinol (back when you could get it). I know one's an upper and one's a downer. But both are a chemical crutch to get you through something you can't natually handle. You need to address the source of why you can't handle this, which in your case may be that the human brain is not meant to 8-table for 12-hours a day. Drugs are not going to eliminate that restriction and turbo charge your brain. You can't cheat like that. They're just going to mask some warning sign your body/brain is giving you--until something snaps.

One other note, all these drugs are brand new and WAY WAY overprescribed. There's almost no regulation except that it won't kill you, but no real restrictions on what new markets drug companies can push them into. It's capitalism in action. ADD? - sure here's a miracle drug. 12 years old? - no prob. Hate to study? - don't you mean you "have a hard time focusing"? - ok then, here you go.

We may not know the downside of these things for 30 years, as in long term health problems or all the wrong places to prescribe them. Only one way to find out that second thing - you are the guinea pig. I can't tell you how many Paxil-misdiagnosis horror stories I've heard--mariages almost ruined, people almost killing themselves--all because they are naturally kind of shy. They've dialed way way back on Paxil prescriptions since the early days. May happen with Adderal, Concertor, Focusin, too.

I know you're not gonna listen to me. I wouldn't either if I was your age. If they had adderall when I was in college I'd have been all over it. I'm sure it beats the hell out of a 2-liter of Mountain Dew and some Vivarin. But I promise you, once you go through the process of acquiring and ridding yourself of a few "additions" to your daily state of mind, and all the pain involved, you'll be a lot more reluctant to invite a new one into your life. I'll just take caffeine for now, thx.

[DCWGaming]

Thank you all for the detailed posts, espcially Skip and suz.

Suz, you pretty much summed up my concerns when you said "drugs for work or study or just to get through every day is a whole nother animal."

I'm not scared of recreational drugs at all. I wont touch the heavier/more dangerous stuff (ex, coke, meth, heroin, etc etc) because I've also met people who are hopelessly hooked on that [censored]. Its dirty.

I've read a few times (not just here) that adderall is almost identical to meth. I just have trouble believing that... People who do meth f ucking DO METH. Its sick. But I've met plenty of people who take adderall regularly and have no complaints whatsoever. But most of my friends are still pretty young, so maybe they just havent gotten to that 'withdrawal stage' yet.


It seems to me like: Adderall is to Meth as Apes are to Humans.
2% difference in DNA but a world of difference in actuality.



Skip - Do you think there would be any serious side effects from say, use of adderall only on weekends? (and of course never in excess)

[steamboatin]

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Quote:
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If you are a level headed guy, responsible, intelligent, bla bla bla you should take the pills.


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most ignorant and irresposible piece of advice i have ever seen on 2p2.

that's saying ALOT

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This is worth repeating and a bump.

[suzzer99]

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Thank you all for the detailed posts, espcially Skip and suz.

Suz, you pretty much summed up my concerns when you said "drugs for work or study or just to get through every day is a whole nother animal."

I'm not scared of recreational drugs at all. I wont touch the heavier/more dangerous stuff (ex, coke, meth, heroin, etc etc) because I've also met people who are hopelessly hooked on that [censored]. Its dirty.

I've read a few times (not just here) that adderall is almost identical to meth. I just have trouble believing that... People who do meth f ucking DO METH. Its sick. But I've met plenty of people who take adderall regularly and have no complaints whatsoever. But most of my friends are still pretty young, so maybe they just havent gotten to that 'withdrawal stage' yet.


It seems to me like: Adderall is to Meth as Apes are to Humans.
2% difference in DNA but a world of difference in actuality.



Skip - Do you think there would be any serious side effects from say, use of adderall only on weekends? (and of course never in excess)

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It's not like doing some adderall here and there is immediately going to reach out and ruin your life. But if you start getting the mentality that you need a pill to get through this, and a pill to get through that, you wind up a pillhead like a lot of my friends. I was into Vicodin every day for a bit. But then I just woke up one day and said "fvck this". I don't like being beholden to something like that, and I've seen what it does to my friends.

I guess it's more of a philosophy I've come to embrace through experience. You don't want to start implanting the idea in your head that you can't do stuff on your own, that you always need some kind of a boost. It's not an optimal way to live your life. IMO.

[goodguy_1]

Intensive aerobic training ie running or swimming,rowing,cross-country skiing etc will enable you to put in more hours,play at a higher level and tilt less. It will enable you to focus better and longer and lift your mood. The discipline involved to stay focused on a training regiment will also flow over to your poker beleive me. How you say? well if you do any sort of difficult aerobic training ..I swim ..doing interval work is part of increasing fitness. Interval workouts are not fun.. forging ahead in a training regiment will force you to focus on doing one task at a time ie focus on one set of interval within a main set of groups of intervals..no matter how painful..this crosses over and helps your discipline and focus in poker no doubt.

by forcing your body/mind to only focus on one task within a broader range of tasks you are helping yourself build mental and physical endurance-just dealing with the moment and nothing less.. Similar to the need we all have as good poker players to treat each hand separately on its own merits and the need to separate oneself from our results day to day--

I'm sickening by the over-medication of the US population particulalry kids on ADD meds.

My recommendations is forget about medicating yourself. If you want to find a way to build up your endurance mentally and physically for more poker train aerobically make it a part of your daily regimen..you will feel better and play better poker within days..but you must be disciplined and consistent. Sporadic training is better than none but it wont cut it..

If you build up your physcial stamina thru training you should easily be able to put it in more high quality hours of poker ..I know I can ...but it's not just the volume of hands you can play..you will also play better no matter what level you play at.

Training is a misnomer really ..I'm not training for anything. I am thinking about joining a more serious Masters swimming team that has daily 2 hours workout but I havent committed yet..

by training I just mean 5/6 day a week regular aerobic regime..and staying with it..

it's really all about mental discipline, if you have the discipline to train-you wont even have to force yourself to play more you just do it..if you hate to play poker whether you are conditioned or not that is a whole other problem..

btw I think even a modified program of consistent aerobic trainig/strenght will help you alot but to get a permanent bump and continue grind heavy hours it needs to be consistent..sorry for blabbing

[joedot]

If you're trying to do medical research on how this affects your body I hardly think a 2+2 forum is where you should be looking. You have access to the internet, use it. And then if you want to fk up your body nobodys going to stop you.

[Skipbidder]

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Skip - Do you think there would be any serious side effects from say, use of adderall only on weekends? (and of course never in excess)

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I think that the risk-reward ratio is skewed against you here.

If you were my patient and asked me about this, I would very strongly recommend against it. I am very strongly recommending against it to you.

It sounds like you are going to do it anyway, so here are a few tips.

You absolutely should not mix your amphetamines with certain anti-depressants. (Especially MAOIs)

You are at risk for amphetamine psychosis, especially if you are chronically sleep-deprived. If there is family history of schizophrenia, take the warnings even more seriously. (I don't know if there is data to support this claim, but it was taught in school.) This risk is not as high as it is for infrequent users as it is for chronic users.

Not likely to be relevant to you, but hyperthyroidism and glaucoma are big contraindications.

Tolerence to the euphoria develops quickly.

You are very, very unlikely to experience sudden death from taking it. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Isn't that reassuring? If you have some cash to blow, you can ask your doc to check you out for structural heart abnormalities.

Just brainstorming here...you could try something like this...tell your doc that there is something that you want to discuss but absolutely can't go into your medical record. Your doctor SHOULD tell you that he can't promise that...that there are certain things for which he cannot guarantee this. Tell him that it doesn't pertain to any disease (he will be worried about you asking him to hide a reportable disease) and that it doesn't involve you putting anyone else at risk (he might have a legal obligation to warn and protect them) and that it doesn't involve you having suicidal thoughts. If he seems like he is now game, you can try just telling him straight up. After he tries talking you out of it, tell him that you intend to do so anyway but want to be as safe as possible.

If you don't want to tell your doc the truth, try some story like...I was thinking about trying scuba diving and had heard that you needed to worry about heart trouble. Kind of lame, but might work.

[krazyace5]

You gotta think rocks n rings.
If you want to get on point you got to get
KickButt Amped Energy Balls

Well I gotta bite from my baby, were gonna go listen to some deepdish and then hotwire.

R&R out..



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The ‘ball’ format also made it easy to take. - Antonio the Magician

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[ChunLisBF]

thnx for the advice goodguy...

"My point is, drugs and gambling don’t mix. Alcohol and gambling don’t mix. Exercise and gambling do. That’s a good mix." -- Stan Tomchin, professional sports bettor.