Taurine for ADHD

Bit of a weird one... tl;dr - thoughts on Taurine for ADHD?

I usually have dextroamphetamine 20mg up to twice daily, once in the morning, then once in the afternoon if necessary... recently I've had to just have the morning dose as I've been running low on them (prescription is late going through.. long story). So it's left me looking for something more in the afternoon. The other day, after having 20mg dex about 9am, I had a red bull (355ml) about 3.30pm. I then felt AMAZING for the rest of the afternoon / evening. Best I've felt in quite a while, I was training and that went well, I was sociable, positive, etc. Just felt good.

I don't like to have them regularly, but having some kind of energy drink normally perks me up like that to a certain extent. This was a bit better than usual though. Perhaps there was some dex left in my system that it interacted with.

So I've been thinking how / if that can be replicated. I looked up taking caffeine with dex and apparently it's not a good idea because it can build the amphetamine tolerance... and obviously that's something I want to keep as low as possible. So that's not worth it.

Kind of disappointing, but then I was looking up random supplements for ADHD, etc, tonight and came across taurine. I remembered that from the ingredients in red bull so I'm wondering if that was part of the effect it had, instead of just the caffeine.

Thinking about it, if I have caffeine and l-theanine in tablet form, it's nothing like the effect I have with a red bull. The effects in general are fairly minimal actually... I was thinking it was potentially just the sugar in red bull... but maybe there's something to the taurine thing? Or perhaps another ingredient I'm missing.

Looking up taurine it doesn't appear to be stimulating at all... but my ADHD brain is a bit weird. I have amphetamine and it calms me down and reduces anxiety.... so I guess anything's possible haha.

Is it possible that taurine calmed me and stopped my racing thoughts enough to kind of turn off my social filter and make me more social, etc? If not... what happened the other day and can I replicate it in a sensible way?

Rae

Its helped me before. Not to be relied upon on bad days, but it can be used as a boost

Dan

I supplement with taurine for ADHD and find it calms my anxiety to the extent i believe i can handle social situations better

Suzanne

Taurine is a great add to any stimulant containing stack. It helps provide protection for your heart in addition to preventing energy depletion. I take 500 mg I think some people dose up to 1g. Would be helpful for anyone taking ephedrine or caffeine as well.

Nathan

Taurine seems to act on some GABA receptors, particularly in the thalamus, meaning it probably has some sort of "calming" effect. Some people are saying that there might be a risk with high doses because the elevated levels will cause downregulation of these receptors, thus leading to increased risk of anxiety when you stop.
Personally I love the stuff. Don't use it every day (I don't think you should use anything every day) but given that it is one of the most plentiful amino acids in your body before supplementation I don't think the risk would be any higher than creatine.

Otto

Many people think taurine is a stimulant because it is used in so-called 'energy drinks', but it is not. It helps u relax and unwind from high levels of adrenalin, much like GABA.its safe.

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