I was just wondering if anyone else had tried stimulants to alleviate the negative symptoms, and what your results were. My psychiatrist prescribed me Ritalin 10 mg and Concerta 108 mg, and I am currently stabilized on Risperdal 3 mg. Concerta and Ritalin help a little, but not as much as they did before taking antipsychotics.
My pdoc is reluctant about stimulants, he wouldn’t prescribe them to me. I suffer from strong negative symptoms. Not sure if they could help me, but it’s worth a try and my pdoc is denying me this chance. I went to 2 other pdocs and they too were reluctant, maybe because they believe it can trigger a psychotic episode? Dunno… but this sucks.
I’ve taken a adderal…it helps tremendously with negative symptoms…I would be stable on it…
I’ve been on stimulants before (adderall/concerta). They triggered a psychotic episode after the doctor increased my dosage before.
Just be careful and try to take the minimum effective dosage.
I tried modafinal, it made me psychotic 
on paper that just isn’t really okay to do.
I mean that is one drug pushing a switch up and another pushing it down.
It can and does often trigger psychosis. So can normal stimulants like caffeine and nicotine. I would hate to be on amphetamine salts without being on some sort of miracle pill which just zaps schizophrenia symptoms away for good.
But amphetamine salts does sound like a nice boost to productivity. Too bad I am productive enough without.
If you are on it, damn, I guess be really careful not to take too much on accident. Also be careful with triggers…getting triggered on legal, watered-down speed sounds horrific.
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I rarely drink coffee bcoz im hypersensitive to caffeine but i did once and a couple hours later i had remission of my negative symptom alogia thats been giving me alot of trouble, it was a small cup of coffee. I didnt become psychotic so i guess that indicates that caffeine at a low dose shouldnt make u psychotic.
I think stimulants can improve ur executive functioning which may lead to u taking action more and feeling more organized and able to get things done. Thats an improvement in cognition but it would present similarly to an improvement in negative symptoms bcoz there is s significant overlap between the two categories of symptoms.
Amphetamines and other stimulants increase dopamine in the brain so they could lead to exacerbation of positive schizophrenia; thats something you dont want.
With stimulants any benefit u have from them is transient if it lasted all day u wouldnt b able to get to sleep at some point. That is the nature of stimulants they kick in quickly and poop out just as promptly. So naturally after you get the high there is a corresponding low when the drug is no longer in ur system.
maybe u can use the stimulant in a low dose whenever you need to get something done. If u have a low tolerance for stimulants like me save it up for that big project or event.
Im not a psychiatrist so you shouldnt trust my input without asking someone more qualified.
If u dont already maybe u could start drinking coffee in the morning or a bit later and see how it effects you…or caffeine tablets from the drugstore it isn’t a controlled substance so you can experiment on ur own.
I was prescribed all different brands of adderall, concerta being one. I was still in school though, and before I really gave up and lost all my motivation I was on them.
it helped me yeah, but I just felt super jittery all day every day.
I would be very careful with stimulants, including using caffeine or sometimes antidepressants.
Stimulating medications and substances can exacerbate psychosis, anxiety and mood symptoms.
Some people with psychosis can handle stimulants, many cannot.
Personally I cannot tolerate any kind of stimulant, including antidepressants ( not true stimulant)
Stimulants would instantly send me into a psychotic mania and I would need a shot of Haldol and Ativan to bring me down 
I can handle a couple of cups of coffee
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All stimulants have made me psychotic
Ritalin - Made me violent and psychotic
Modafinil - Worked for 2 years at 100mg and then i became paranoid
Sertraline(ssri) and lexapro(SSRI) - became psychotic on it
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ive taken stimulants illegally and theyve helped but they also causes psychosis for me
Coffee winds me up - have to have tea.
Tobacco can set me off so vape low concentrate now.
These two measures have helped me.
The ritalin ‘high’ helped a ton with negative symptoms, too bad once ur brain develops tolerance to it, it becomes more and more short-lived, then dissapears. If they could make a pill that’s like one continuous ritalin high that would be a miracle imo.
When I was 19 I started taking amphetamines, and stopped seeing the Doctor. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was not long before psychosis set in. After this I decided that sanity was more important than taking illegal drugs. So while my friends indulged I simply stood by, but still people referred to me as a nutter. I am 44 now and don’t regret either the drugs I took nor the drugs I did not. Sanity has kind of prevailed, but i still have some symptoms even though I am on quite a high dose of anti-pychotics.
I think you would respond very well to a dopamine partial agonist - it prevents psychosis while simultaneously being stimulating, or so it is in theory. I’ve yet to try one myself.
I’ve tried abilify and vraylar, neither really helped, not at all like a ritalin high either
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I’ve tried these two drugs before and my experience with them has been the same.
That’s really depressing. Here I was hoping that a partial agonist was the solution but now it doesn’t seem like it.
Wasn’t there something about ritalin doing more than just dopamine?
I’m told they make psychosis worse otherwise I could use one for my add.
Im currently on 54mg methylphenidate(Concerta). I have also adhd. Staple on anti-psychotics and methylphenidate does not seem to worsen my psychotic symptoms that much. It helps a bit. Still very lazy, but more functioning than without stimulants.
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