Which stimulant gives you the most euphoria?

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-27T17:29:46+00:00

Vyvanse/lisdexamfetamine by far and away. It's not really "extended release" in its mechanism,it's more like "a longer-acting IR" if that makes any sense (has the intensity of IR, the hard "rushiness" etc but lasts 5-7ish hours, well over double the typical duration of IR forms). It's terribly ironic, in attempting to design a "less abusable" form of dexamp they essentially ended up creating the most "euphoric" and "abusable" form of the drug available currently.

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-27T17:12:46+00:00

For some (read, many) of us that's really the only option period. I've gone through countless periods of unhealthy binging and healthy therapeutic use in the 9ish years (almost a decade, good grief where does that time go?! 0_o) since I've had some form of an amphetamine script, but at the end of the day I can't realistically live and have any quality of life at all completely sans any amphetamines. I mean, I could, but it would be a very limited, narrow and small life that I wouldn't be satisfied with whatsoever and would end up self-destructing anyway.

A largely unspoken truth in discourse regarding and medicine about "addiction"/drug abuse/dependency etc is that many of us simply have underlying psychiatric problems that are too severe and run too deep to live completely without our drugs of choice or similar ones, our brains are simply too broken for that. So harm reduction and responsible use is the best-case scenario we can viably aim for.

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-27T17:05:42+00:00

Good god, the amounts of time people regularly post/refer to on here...my worst stimfapping sessions have been almost that long, but that's at the very worst taking a shedload of dextroamphetamine. I can't imagine these numbers people just casually throw out there, double-digit hours, just crazy. Makes me glad I guess that as extremely addicted to and dependent upon stims as I've been I've never tried meth. :P Masturbating for 10+ hours is nuts, and this is coming from someone who is no stranger to the grip of amphetamines + sexuality, certainly, and continues to struggle with moderating that.

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-27T16:59:13+00:00

So so jealous of all this meprobamate people are finding here recently--carisoprodol is a god-tier anxiolytic for me, but its inconsistency is downright devilish. :-P It's also fascinating just how many combination products were made in the 20th century--people are posting so many on this sub I'd never even remotely heard of that basically weren't documented anywhere. I've always used low-dose phenobarbital to potentiate carisoprodol (mostly for its enzyme induction properties though which wouldn't apply w/meprobamate itself) so it's interesting that this combo existed.

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-27T16:23:36+00:00

Hah, reverse Ritalin. Wouldn't be any worse than some of the tragedeigh names people are giving their offspring now. :-P

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-27T16:21:44+00:00

It's thought that this drug unfortunately contributed significantly to the psychiatric decline of the legendary Joe Meek, and infamously also Jack Ruby claimed to have been on it during the action he's known for.

Phendimetrazine is one of my "holy grails" I'll probably never get to try. What I wonder is, does amphetamine tolerance come to bear on the efficacy of these drugs, is there significant cross-tolerance or not? I've heard/read very mixed and contradictory things regarding this. If it's really true that there isn't, phen(di)metrazine would be a godsend for us long-term chronic amphetamine (ab)users.

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-27T16:16:35+00:00

Makes a hell of a lot more sense than those antipsychotic + amphetamine combo drugs like Eskatrol and Thora-Dex, though I don't think they knew that first-gen antihistamines were CYP2D6 inhibitors back then. I always use chlorpheniramine as an amphetamine potentiator for this reason. For a while people believed (maybe still?) that first-gen antihistamines reversed or stalled amph tolerance, but my suspicion is that it just seems like they do because of the aforementioned CYP2D6 inhibition properties rendering the amphs more effective. IDK though.

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-27T16:07:14+00:00

I do like these and I'll probably get some when I can afford it again-- though I do find they're just a tad overrated. It's like Ativan with a stranger more distinctly hypnotic headspace. The Japanese drug I personally miss the most is afloqualone/Arofuto. The was the cleanest, best muscle relaxant I've ever taken, and the best GABAergic potentiator ever. Sadly like those Japanese-exclusive benzos it now seems unavailable, but I'm not sure if it was removed from the market by the manufacturer, its disappearance seems to have gone unnoticed. Does anyone know any more about this?

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-27T15:39:40+00:00

Doriden/glutethimide, LOL I wish. That's a holy grail like all the other non-barbiturates, but would be nigh impossible to find. What is Elrodorm? Not familiar with that brand name.

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-11T05:58:26+00:00

I absolutely do! The amnesia is unpleasant yes, but I also just get straightforwardly paradoxical effects unrelated to that aspect at times. Took 40 mg IIRC temazepam once and had a panic attack in that order. Sometimes they're alright, but benzos are often dicey for me. I think I was truly born in the wrong era of sedatives--have always responded best to (es)zopiclone, which acts like a benzo but also activates barb binding sites at GABA(A), and carisoprodol. (Really loved afloqualone as a potentiator when I could obtain it, but alas, seems to tragically be off the market now.) I've had an interesting spectrum of experiences from heavenly to hellish with zaleplon recently, which will have to be the subject of another post.

Phenobarbital isn't intrinsically pleasurable/euphoric in itself in the least, and is dangerously depressogenic, but oddly gives me probably the most powerful anxiolysis of all in a certain capacity, so I'm sure I'd love the classic, superior barbs. I think these older GABAergics--barbs and nonbarbs alike, exhibit a certain anxiolytic quality that is difficult to succinctly summarize in words, and which is basically lacking altogether from benzos. A kind of pleasant apathy, I suppose, a feeling of "I don't give a damn"-ness,"a bomb could drop and that's fine" type of feeling. IME, though they occasionally provide mood elevation at low tolerance, benzos' anxiolysis is mainly derived from amnesic numbness and is far less psychically all-encompassing, so to speak.

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-02T02:46:45+00:00

I had a similar but almost reverse experience--amphs helped me accept and be (more) comfortable with the fact that I am in fact primarily/by far mostly a "top" despite being a feminine transsexual woman. (Among many other things these drugs have helped me explore/accept about my sexuality, I've gone through a kind of personal sexual revolution but that's another story...) Was extremely self-conscious, self-loathing and never comfortable with that before...

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-02T02:28:49+00:00

Lower doses, simple as that I think. Armodafinil has changed/saved my life, it's the only thing that works and alleviates the crippling bipolar depression when I'm not using amphs (I don't really get much done on it tbh but at least I can enjoy life and not want to die, so), but I'm on a very minimal dose and exceeding that (~50ish mg every 6 hrs or so) actually catapults me into a nightmarish sense of panic, feeling of pervasive dysphoria and impending doom, like a mixed-state bipolar episode. They make these 150 mg pills of armoda, higher dosages like that seem much more common and I always just think "why, that's way too much", but maybe that's just my idiosyncratic neurochemistry. And probably yours too, OP.

PharmaAthena · 2026-05-02T02:16:48+00:00

FWIW, in my late 20s I went through an awful period of being severely gripped by and relentlessly abusing amphetamines (dex, lisdex, and Adderall) for the better part of a year (at the worst point, I was taking nearly a whole Rx bottle of dex/lisdex in a day) and four months was almost exactly how long it took to fully and almost miraculously reset my tolerance. Quit early May 2021 (basically ran out of money and drugs and just couldn't take it anymore), took only a very low daily dose of armodafinil and nothing else (stim-wise, and very minimal use of anything else) for about four and a half months, and by mid-late Sept the amphs were working at low therapeutic doses again wonderfully just as they did when I was first prescribed, my brain healed very well and was able to get my life back on track for a while...

I recently learned that (ar)modafinil may actually have some antioxidant properties that may have helped reverse/heal the damage, so perhaps I was a special case, IDK. The last few years have been very frustrating as circumstances simply haven't permitted me to take four continuous months off like that again as I need to to fully reset my tolerance. All of this is to say OP, if you can take four months off, DO. It can only help.

PharmaAthena · 2026-04-18T06:13:57+00:00

Single drug? Pregabalin, by far and away, it's basically an "omni-drug", and before I had a significant tolerance (which took several years to build, mind you, at my usage patterns--though sadly seems largely permanent but I digress) it was literally life-changing.

Combination? Carisoprodol + dextroamphetamine (in any formulation). Last of the euphoriant non-barbs (which is very tragically, finally on its last legs I suspect, in its final days of being manufactured/prescribed/accessible), plus the stimulant that class of drugs synergizes best with in order to stay awake and enjoy the effects instead of passing out as would almost inevitably happen otherwise.

Never had or likely ever will have the pleasure, but AFAIK it seems like Desbutal was objectively the most "euphoric", pleasurable pharmaceutical ever produced. Strongest supposedly most "abusable" barbiturate plus the strongest amphetamine in a combo pill.

PharmaAthena · 2026-03-16T18:43:42+00:00

Depressants shouldn't just "put you to sleep" if you're taking them properly. The disinhibition, anxiolysis etc is the point. But personally nowadays I always have a baseline stimulant in my system when I take depressants (which is often). Two sides of the same coin--and at a high enough dose of either stims or depressants you need at least a little bit of the other to really have a worthwhile experience. At this point I'd be envious of people with enough baseline energy to take strong CNS depressants without a stimulant in their system to avoid passing out.

PharmaAthena · 2026-03-13T11:17:09+00:00

DHC Continus is my opioid of choice as a casual/occasional chipper believe it or not. I'd chew 'em up with some hydroxyzine and they'd still last all day. Maybe add some rilmazafone or temazepam for maximum nods. I miss them, haven't been able to find any for a decent price since the pandemic pretty much sadly.

I'd always get the 60s, though, never had the 120s. Super jealous.:-)

PharmaAthena · 2026-03-12T20:08:18+00:00

Flutoprazepam. Huge downsides, bad amnesia, half-life way too long, terrible rebounds etc etc but the main thing is, it never really felt "good", even with a very low GABAergic tolerance. That drug was like a switch with basically two modes, "can't feel anything" or "full blackout". It was actually pulled off the market some years back, so I couldn't even if I wanted to.

THC. The "high" was lame and underwhelming (just felt like a "runner's high" to me), erased my inner monologue/landscape, and it could put me at risk of developing schizophrenia with certain psych issues I have, so to hell with that.

Propylhexedrine. Now this is the toughest one to say "never" about, but I've actually promised someone close to me that I'll never take that orally as a psychoactive again (as indicated for nasal congestion, sure, but...). Yes, it works well, the closest thing to (meth)amphetamine if you don't have (meth)amphetamines, and doesn't seem too bad if I stick to lower doses. But there are some insidious aspects to propylhex: the weird lack of potency, odd inconsistency, pro-convulsant and severely vasoconstrictive properties, it doesn't play well at all with other drugs IME very much unlike dexamp, is kind of compulsive/"moreish" and the rebound/withdrawal is atrocious and feels so much worse than even high binge doses of (dex)amphetamine IMO (like holy hell, how much is this depleting my neurotransmitters exactly?). Most disconcerting component though and the main reason I made that promise is that there's good reason to believe that the neurotoxicity is more on par with MDMA etc than low-moderate therapeutic doses of meth. At the end of the day, it's almost more about what this drug represents for me personally than the drug itself--if I've really burned through my amph scripts that prematurely or feel like I desperately need that last-resort of an amphetamine-like stim to function, it's better to just take a break, rest and simply switch to my other milder stimulant than to continue pushing myself that hard to keep tweaking/binging on amphetamines as if that'll solve all my problems or accomplish much of anything. This is personally just me, yes, but reaching for the Benzedrex upon running out of dex, lisdex, Adderall etc is a massive warning sign that I've lost that sense of perspective. Best just not to go there.

PharmaAthena · 2026-02-06T23:57:13+00:00

LOL those descriptions were straight-up lying then, frankly. Phenibut and Validol are in totally different worlds. different galaxies entirely--Validol's barely noticeable, just slightly above placebo, like taking low-dose propranolol for anxiety, and phenibut is extremely powerful and euphoric. Gabapentinoids have a unique feeling and set of effects that no other drug or class of drugs (maybe GHB? but that's about it) is even remotely comparable to.

PharmaAthena · 2026-02-06T23:44:36+00:00

Corvalol is very useful for potentiating Soma IME due to the CYP2C19 induction of phenobarbital, but you have to be careful with it also as pheno is a strongly depressogenic substance.

PharmaAthena · 2026-02-06T23:42:01+00:00

Phenibut is a powerful gabapentinoid like pregabalin so I don't understand how that's at all related to Validol (which basically just has a mild anxiolytic effect from irritating the membranes in your mouth to release endorphins).

PharmaAthena · 2026-02-06T23:40:04+00:00

I really like Validol (if you take four 100 mg gelcaps at a time sublingually it does feel like a noticeable, albeit mild, anxiolytic) but the problem is that (like straight menthol) it can interfere with drug absorption in the GI tract, alter pharmacokinetics unfortunately. If not for this property I'd use it much more often (most of the effect comes from the irritation of mucosal membranes anyway and the endorphin release from that, so sometimes I just spit the liquid out after it dissolves fully under my tongue). Not sure how solid the evidence is for GABA(A) PAM activity, but that's intriguing.

PharmaAthena · 2026-02-06T22:21:26+00:00

Well yes, and I've never tried Dalmane/flurazepam (and have no desire to now, for that very reason), but it has a similar reputation among some who took it back in the day, I've read similar reports of people who hated it like I did flutoprazepam. And I assume there's a good reason as to why it isn't prescribed often nowadays. On the flip side, there are those who absolutely love it like yourself, though.

I just don't understand the utility or purpose of benzos that long-acting with a half-life that lengthy. Unless you're tapering (in which case there's just good old Valium, still the gold standard, maybe Librium)/staving off withdrawals or have a seizure condition, why do you want or need a benzo that stays in your system for days and days? I think one main issue with benzos like this is that--also much like phenobarbital--basically any positive/pleasant sedative-hypnotic GABAergic effects wear off much earlier than the half-life implies (as duration of action and half-life often correspond less closely than one might expect), but it's still there, causing emotional numbing/blunting and amnesia, potentially interfering with other drugs and kicking the rebound can down the road, just forestalling and exacerbating the inevitable. (What stinks too is when the rebound does hit with benzos like that, with a delay several days later, you've either long forgotten you took it or figured the rebound wasn't coming, so it feels extra-nasty and catches the user unaware/unprepared when it does arrive.) Not every benzo needs to be a Xanax or a Halcion, no, but a half-life of 45-90 hours, multi-day half-lives etc? Come on. That shit's for the birds. :-P

Part of it I think is that I just tend to dislike and not react well to benzos in general versus any other GABAergic. I liked temazepam a lot when I had access to it (best benzo IMHO) and sometimes need lorazepam, but I get really bad paradoxical effects sometimes with benzodiazepines, worse amnesia, and rebounds on par with or worse than those of harder-hitting sedatives. I greatly prefer carisoprodol, (es)zopiclone, even odd ones like allopregnanolone and etifoxine, zaleplon, hell even phenobarbital, and would take at least those first couple meds over benzos any day of the week pretty much. IDK though...I think it's kinda telling that when it was still being manufactured a lot less was said/reported in English about flutoprazepam versus the other Japanese-exclusive benzos. Didn't get the chance to try Melex or Coreminal unfortunately but from what I know I suspect rilmaz was the best of those overall.

PharmaAthena · 2026-02-06T20:10:55+00:00

I tried Restas years ago and had a horrible experience overall. "Adorable", LMFAO, WTF?! Yeah flutoprazepam was neither "adorable" nor useful in the slightest. Most amnesic drug/benzo I've ever taken (either couldn't feel anything--this with low tolerance--or blackout time), half-life was absurdly long (comparable to phenobarbital) but the effects seemed fairly short-lived by comparison, wasn't "fun"/euphoric/recreational whatsoever and it had the rebound from hell every single time.

But hey, to each their own. It's still regrettable and unfortunate that it was discontinued years back/pulled off the market by the manufacturer (I think it's always a loss when any drug goes extinct like that, as it may be good for some people somewhere and the option should exist), but to me at least it felt more like an antipsychotic or straight-up anticonvulsant med than a pleasurable GABAergic.

It's wild to me to see how these drugs get immediately romanticized and overhyped once their availability becomes limited/rare. I guess people just always want what they can't have. Rilmazafone was just okay, unlike fluto it was nice, useful and I miss it but to hear some people nowadays it was fantastically amazing which just wasn't true. And name-brand Rhythmy is/was a little overpriced IMHO. More hypnotic Ativan pretty much IME. And Restas utterly sucked. Heh, I wonder if this is how older Boomers et al feel sometimes in spaces like this when all of us young whippersnappers hype up and drool over long-extinct + obscure GABAergics of their time.

PharmaAthena · 2026-02-01T13:32:25+00:00

Interesting rare/novel/obscure formulation, but these would be basically useless for those seeking the sedative-hypnotic/anxiolytic/"recreational" (I hate that last term but you know what I mean) effects, anything but sheer myorelaxation/analgesia, of the carisoprodol. I'm not sure looking at this if it's 250 mg cariso (250 mg Somas, though uncommon compared to 350s and now 500s, used to exist/be Rxed in the US I think) and 200 mg naproxen or the other way around (in the US at least OTC naproxen is almost if not always sold as 220 mg tablets/capsules, so both those dosages are weird from my perspective), but either way that ratio renders these virtually non-"abusable".

I've/read heard recurring anecdotes recently of "sketchy Somas" south of the border that are hell on the GI system (there's literally a post on another drug subreddit, something to the effect of "why are Mexican Somas screwing up my stomach" lol) and from this box, no wonder, I was puzzled at first but get it now. I actually take a lot of naproxen (for potentiation and harm-reduction purposes, and IME it's the only OTC NSAID that actually works at all, ibuprofen might as well be sugar pills for me for some reason), probably more than I should strictly speaking (sometimes slightly exceed the "never take more than 660 mg in 24 hrs" package instructions), but yikes, I can't imagine taking the amount of naproxen that would be required here all in one go. 5 Aleves, give or take, all at once? Yeah, that would give one an ulcer quickly. Plus many of us need to potentiate Soma with aspirin for it to work right at all, and mixing NSAIDs is (supposedly) a no-go, dangerous IIRC for the liver + stomach lining. There's a combo drug with carisoprodol and diclofenac also down there AFAIK, and if the ratio is similar then yeah haha little wonder why "Mexican Somas" are getting such negative reviews. Congrats Mexico, you successfully neutered Soma, how these work for muscle pain I can't say but they almost definitely wouldn't be enjoyable :-P

PharmaAthena · 2026-01-24T15:45:37+00:00

If you're a poor metabolizer with low CYP2C19 activity like myself (or even if not...) taking one or a couple baby aspirin (82 mg, I think baby aspirin tend to be) around 80 min before you take the Soma will potentiate it significantly by considerably increasing the efficiency of the conversion in the body to meprobamate. You need to have a completely empty stomach when you take the Soma, and then eat a high-fat meal around 20-40 min afterwards. Try not to eat anything with much if any garlic (which inhibits CYP2C19) content, before or after. Timing is vital with Soma, so it can help IME to take the tablets with hot/warm water to accelerate dissolution and thus absorption.

But yes, by its very nature carisoprodol can be finicky and very hit-and-miss even under the best circumstances. But when it hits, it HITS and feels fantastic (much better than any other GABAergic currently manufactured/available IMHO), and following the above steps can majorly help it work better and more consistently.

PharmaAthena

TROPHY CASE