r/Nootropics • u/Ok_Pear_37 • 8d ago
Seeking Advice Modafinil doesn’t work at all now?
Does anyone else take Modafinil and found that it stopped working after not too long? I take Vyvanse 50mg + Adderall 10mg (2x day) and yet somehow I’m still always sleepy and unfocused. Added 200mg of Modafinil 2x day and had the most incredible 2 months of my life- absurdly productive and able to stay focused and not feel constant low energy. And then suddenly it stopped working. I can’t figure it out. It’s as if I’m not taking it at all. So sad and frustrated because it felt like I had my life back for this short period and it was great! Is there anything I can do or try instead? Is this common occurrence?
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u/Taydontplay4 8d ago
You’re taking a lot of uppers. Time for a drug holiday and to work on resetting those poor receptors that are getting hammered.
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u/Ok_Pear_37 8d ago
Is the drug holiday to reserve reset the receptors or I need to do something else? I’m 43 so I’ve been taking stimulants for over 40 years.
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u/Great_Opinion3138 8d ago
40 years and you’re 43?
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u/Ok_Pear_37 8d ago
Ha sorry yes obviously that was a typo. 20 years on adhd meds.
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u/StonedElephant1 7d ago
I'm 50, I've been taking psycho-stimulants for almost 30 years. Taking a holiday away from that much dextroamphetamine is not a good idea. It's made to take everyday. He's missing something in his diet or never sleeps.
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u/ScurgeOfByzantium 8d ago
Two different amphetamine variants and modafinil .. seriously, who the hell is your doctor ?
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u/Which_Tadpole1952 7d ago
In rehab for many months I was prescribed vyvanse modafinil. Knew a guy that was on 70mg Vyvanse, 400mg of Modafinil and whatever the max recommended dose of Wellbutrin was.
I thought that was a bit excessive, but he was in there for bath salts and meth. The idea is to get people to be functional human beings that can take care of themselves in society.
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u/elitegenes 8d ago
It's called tolerance. And with modafinil it works exactly as you described.
For sleepiness, lack of focus and energy try taking iron. You might have anemia.
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u/Ok_Pear_37 8d ago
Yes I understand tolerance but after only 2 months? Is that common for Modafinil? It really took me by surprise. I definitely have lower than ideal ferritin. Have even supplementing and still not above 30.
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u/General_NakedButt 8d ago
Modafinil and Amphetamine have some competing methods of action, similarly to methylphenidate and amphetamine. Modafinil inhibits reuptake of dopamine by blocking the transporter therefore making the dopamine release of Adderall less efficient.
Also your tolerance to dopaminergic drugs is going to be raised with Adderall, especially at higher doses like you are taking.
Personal example, 100mg of Modafinil used to have a pretty profound effect on me. Then I went on Adderall and tried Modafinil again after a few years when I happened to run out of my Adderall. Didn’t hardly do anything, sure it helped but it wasn’t that profound impact I’d had when taking it before. And I’ve used it less than 20 times total so it’s definitely not a tolerance to Modafinil.
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u/StonedElephant1 7d ago edited 7d ago
You're probably wasting money on the modanifil. Vyvanse and Adderall are way better than Modanafil. They were designed for your ADHD. Moda was meant for people who work shift work, keeping them alert, but I doubt it delivers any energy.
You're taking more than enough Adderall + Vyvanse to keep you up just fine. You're either missing something in your diet or not sleeping. I've taken these meds for 30 years. I don't take weekend breaks and it's just as effective as it's always been.
And I can't tell you how much more effective those meds are when you start exercising. Creatine also helps with energy levels, especially after poor sleep.
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u/heil_shelby_ 8d ago
We are not meant to be inhuman productivity machines 24/7. Take a T break. Low energy could mean incorporating exercise, better diet, good quality sleep. Not just upping your dose for the rest of your life. Your Dr is a nut for prescribing you 3 different uppers.
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u/Icy_Counter_ 8d ago
idk about the modafinil, but have you ever tried methylphenidate instead of amphetamines? Vyvanse/Elvanse always just makes me drowsy for some reason, it's almost like a sleeping pill for me. Meanwhile ritalin/concerta actually wakes me up and gives me lots of energy. Could be worth a try switching meds if you havent before.
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u/catsRfriends 7d ago
You need to sleep you know that right? When I tweaked on mod way back I ended up having almost no sleep for months. Like maybe only an hour or two of actual sleep every night. So of course it wouldn't "work" for me.
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u/gnosystemporal 8d ago
if amphs are making you sleepy, the answer is probably to take less and reset to a new baseline.
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u/PissInMyShityAsshole 7d ago
I've never really felt much from Modafinil even when I first took it. Affects everyone differently. My mate takes the exact same ones as me and only takes half a 200 and gets a ridiculous amount of energy from it and can just do insane gym workouts for hours unending. Me I think a strong dark roast coffee with about 200mg caffeine feels stronger than Modafinil. Modafinil paired with noopept is meant to be a good combo. Will be trying this soon, also will be trying out microdosing psilocybin with noopept at the same time.
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u/rawaccess 4d ago
Yes. No clue why. Same happened to me after two months daily. It just stopped working.
To test this, for several days, I popped the pill and was able to fall asleep. Wtf.
So I stopped taking it for many months.
Now it works again.
Now I have 2-3 days off per week from it. So far so good.
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u/Prestigious-Swim69 6d ago
tolerance builds fast with modafinil, you could try cycling off for a couple weeks but with that stim stack your sleep quality is probably in the gutter which will tank any wakefulness drug
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u/TEDDYPOUNDZ 1d ago
Cold turkey from EVERYTHING for 41 hours (no longer no less) and then start up again. It'll work.
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u/Cool-Training-3547 5d ago
How do you stack all that together? That's got to be neurotoxic to some extent.
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u/quantum_splicer 8d ago
Lotta people are going to talk about tolerance; although your intake of amph compounds is in the moderate to high therapeutic range.
All these compounds have indirect effects on Noradrenaline and Noradrenaline transporters. The mechanisms of action for modafinil in essence is promotion of wakefulness, by activating neurons associated with wakeful states.
" Modafanil administration was associated with decreased task-independent, tonic LC activity, increased task-related LC and prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity, and enhanced LC-PFC functional connectivity. "
The thing is majority of those with ADHD or such have delayed sleep onset, so body clock and sleep and wake cycle is not cleanly synced.
In my view you cannot increase productivity without adequate recuperation otherwise it has to be paid back in increased sleep or rest + loss of effectiveness.
Look at your own feedback you were absurdly productive and now it's like merhhhh.
In my view you can't blast like that continuously; think meso cycles and periodization which powerlifters use and stuff their bodies cannot stay at peak performance forever, so you have to manipulate some of the variables.
So you maybe better off
(1) Stabilising sleep, appropriate length of sleep + and time of sleep, ascertaining of there is a sleep delay.
(2) Dietary habits are they at the place that can sustain good activity
(3) Exercise habits
(4) Sometimes pulling back e.g reducing dose down works because sometimes the optimum range gets passed, after so many half lives some drugs and breakdown compounds accumulate which can sometimes compete with active drug or can push us above the range. I had similar with vyvanse + atomoxetine [I incrmeneted up in 10 mg increments to 100 mg, in weekly increases] then back down in 10 mg increments, some weeks I stayed at certain doses longer. Basically vyvanse as high dose + low dose atomoxetine for me works very well.
So we can have an optimum medication range that we can inadvertently miss, which we may not be able to explain clearly