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: My story is almost the exact same as yours. It has taken the FDA pulling ephedra off the shelves to finally make me stop. I have only been off of the drug for about 4 weeks and the withdrawal symptoms are killing me. I am chronically tired and lathargic. What did you do to get your energy level back to normal? I can work out, but as soon as I get home, I will have to take a 3 or 4 hr nap. My life has severally been affected by this drug, and I am ready to get control back. Please let me know if these symptoms are normal and what can I do? : bc : : : : Has anyone had any bad experiences with these : : : products please e-mail me your story!Doing some : : : research .Thanks!!!!!!!! : : I began taking ephedrine hcl in the form of mini-thins when i was in high school. a friend gave them to me for the first time, and being that i didn't do drugs at the time, the feeling i got was amazing. at first i used ephedrine about twice a week, but my use gradually increased over time. with continued ephedrine use, you build a tolerance. in my case, once i started using the drug more and more often, the effects began to wear off. in order to obtain the desired feeling from the drug, i had to either take a couple of days off, or take a higher dosage. toward the beginning of my use, i would go for a couple of days without using the drug in order to regain the desired effect, however as time went on, my solution became taking a higher dosage. by this time, i was in college and my friends (of whom many were heavy drug users) became concerned. the fact that they were concerned made me realize that i had a problem. at the peak of my use, i was taking between 20 and 25 ephedrine pills (mini-thins) at a time. (that dosage equates to between 400 and 500 mg of ephedrine, and 4000 to 5000 mg of guaifenesin at a time.) i got to the point where i could not go a day without using the drug. my friends (most of whom were heavy drug users as i said before) were insistant on calling my mother, and filling her in on the situation if they caught me taking the drug. with this realization, i began hiding my use, however it didn't slow down in the least. as in the stereotypical recovering drug addict sob story, i felt like i was in control until it was too late. the addiction process completely snuck up on me, and before i knew it i was in a very dangerous place. i can vividly remember countless nights laying in my bed literally watching my heart beat through my chest, and praying that i wouldn't end up having a siezure (sp?) or heart attack. i could feel how much i was hurting my body. : : the ephedrine high is a very dirty high, however you become addicted to that feeling. after my friends realized the severity of my addiction, they began trying to get me to take other (in their opinions) less harmful stimulants. i tried taking adderall and other similar stimulants, however none of them could replace the ephedrine (i later found out that i have adhd which could have had a great deal to do with reasons that i was not satisfied with those drugs). : : in some strange way, i feel like i was almost as addicted to the dirtyness of the high as i was to the speed aspect of the drug. at that time, although it scared the hell out of me, i can remember craving the feeling of my heart pounding in my chest, and my entire body shaking. there are times now when i still crave that feeling. : : at the height of my use, i realized that i needed help, however i didn't know where to go. the problem that i had was admitting what i was doing. it wasn't admitting that i was an addict or that i was in a dangerous place, but admitting what i was addicted to. ephedrine is generally considered a high school drug. i felt that i would be laughed at if i sought counceling for my problem. most people who have used ephedrine use it for a brief period during their adolescence because of it's cost and availability. this fact (at least for me) made it difficult to even consider professional help. i felt like whom ever i talked to would see me as some stupid paranoid kid worrying about a problem that couldn't compare to the problems of elicit drug users. i didn't feel like my situation would be taken seriously, and to some extent still feel that way. in most situations, the kids who use ephedrine don't develop serious problems with the drug. generally, most people who have used ephedrine don't get to the point of addiction. they can't comprehend taking such a high dose of the drug, and craving a feeling that would send most people driving to the hospital in fear of having a heart attack. the lack of understanding that i felt i would encounter was the sole reason that i never sought professional treatment. : : after several attempts at quitting (unsuccessfully), i was finally able to stop taking the pills. that lasted for about two months until i moved from wilmington nc (the town i was living in) to richmond va. when i got to richmond, i became depressed due to my lack of friends and fell back on the familiar crutch. within about a week i was back up to using the same quantity of ephedrine that i was using before i quit. : : one of my first "friends" in richmond was my downstairs neighbor who was a pharmacist. i eventually confided in her about my problem. i told her the frequency and dosage that i was using the drug, and she looked me straight in the eyes and said "you're lucky you're not dead," her bluntness scared me into a four day vacation from the drug, however i went right back to using it as much as i had before. : : my lowest point (biggest moment of clarity) during the whole situation was as i was trying to go to sleep one nigh. to go to sleep, i would take 6 melatonin, about 2 shots of nyquil, and between 8 and 10 tylenol pm's (not really tylenol pm, just the pm part. no acetomenaphin). one night as i was taking all of the pills, to help me get the most unrestful sleep you could ever imagine, i seriously considered what i was doing to my heart, and decided that i needed to quit. that night, i got the last bottle that i had taken, dumped out the pills, and wrote, "done..." (and the date) on the bottle. that, and several more attempts at quitting were unsuccessful, however i finally had the desire. : : the thing that finally got me to quit for good was meeting my present girlfriend. i knew that it wasn't fair to bring her into my problems with ephedrine, so i decided to try and quit again. after i quit, i found out that she was a former cocaine addict. i feel to this day that she was the reason that i was successful in quitting that time. i didn't want her anywhere close to any kind of stimulant, and knew that being a former addict herself she would know if i was on something. i took my last pills, and once again wrote on the packed, "DONE 2-17-03." since that date, i have only slipped once, however at first i was drinking way too much to compensate. : : it is now april 2004, and i have yet to have a normal blood pressure reading. i am a 23 year old guy, i ride my road bike to the point that most people think i am excessive, i eat healthily, and i am in very good shape, yet i have the blood pressure of a 43 year old beer slugging couch potato. i have my ephedrine problem to blame. : : i've been rambling for way too long now, and i could write a book on my thoughts. i am very concerned about this drug, and it's little known effects. please please feel free to email me for anymore information you may need. i know a lot about the drug, and i would really help raise awareness of the potential effects. so... like i said, feel free to contact me if you need any more info. : : p.s.- anyone else wanting info, or someone to talk to about the situation, also feel free to contact me! : : ---Nathan

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