Quick background: 25 year old male, law student, good physical and mental condition, no regular prescribed medications. I tend to go to sleep late and wake up early for class and work. I would say I typically get between 5.5-6.0 hours of sleep nightly. I don't think I have any sleep-related disorders beyond what is probably the natural "afternoon-dip", which itself is never uncontrollable.
I've been taking ephedrine in various formulations for about 7 years now to "get me going" on a level more than caffeine products alone can. Since the ephedra ban, my product of choice has been Bronkaid (2 tablets with coffee or energy drink). I also obtain Adderall (both 'regular' and XR) from my classmates, when they are willing to part with their own supplies. I greatly prefer Adderall to ephedrine/caffeine.
I starting growing tired of feeling somehow indebted to my friends for selling me Adderall so I began the hunt for my own alternative. After reading all the hype regarding provigil, I set out to find a source that didn't include a going to a doctor and paying insane prices for branded Provigil (my insurance plan is a University plan, so needless to say, drug coverage is poor). After searching for sellers and reading forums to decide who was legit and who wasn't, I found a source for reasonably priced Modalert (Sun Pharma), 50 x 200mg tablets. The order arrived surprisingly quick. The blister packs were intact and looked identical (as far as I can tell) to those I've seen on other threads.
The first day, I take a 200mg tablet. After about an hour or so, I can feel 'something', but I wouldn't be able to desribe it. After 30 minutes, I begin to feel like I'm 'drugged', but not in a good way. My ability to be productive has declined. I have a much more difficult time collecting my thoughts than normal. My memory feels poor, as though nothing I'm reading is taking. I generally feel like my mind is in a fog and my overall cognitive ability feels like it has really fallen. I'm scattered and can't maintain focus on anything for even the shortest amount of time. This continues for another 3-4 hours (more or less 4 hours after I swallowed the pill) until the fog starts to lift. Over the next few hours, I slowly return to a condition where I feel I can think clearly.
This is exactly opposite from what I expected, based upon what I had read in the marketing materials, experience reports, forum postings and media accounts.
The next day, right after I wake up, I take another 200mg tablet. Virtually the same negative effects. After 6 hours have passed and "the fog" has lifted signicantly, I take half a tablet (~100mg) and an hour later, I'm back in more-or-less the same fog, diminished mental abilities and all.
The last 2 days I have taken a quarter of tablet in the morning (~50mg) and I barely notice any effect--which is good considering the effects I've experienced thus far have been negative, but bad in relation to my expectations.
I'm at a cross-roads with modalert: keep experimenting with doses to find the "right one" or discontinue use altogether.
If anyone has any thoughts on my experience, I'd like to hear them. Did anyone else have the same experience? Maybe my brain chemistry is such that modafinil "doesn't work". Maybe my expectations were misguided.
croc_choda - I have personal experience with both Modalert and Provigil and I can unhesitatingly say that their is
a significant difference between the two with respect to efficacy, it is my firm conviction (and many, many others) that Modalert is ineffective and that Provigil is
vastly superior when they are directly compared for efficacy. Just exactly what accounts for this difference, and why Modalert is ineffective, I'm not qualified to say because I'm no pharmacological chemist. You will observe many on this forum and other similar forums making dogmatic pronouncements (some of this crowd probably never even took organic chemistry or pharmacology) as to why there exists no difference between Modalert & Provigil in terms of efficacy or chemical structure.
Well, I can't take such individuals into the lab and prove them wrong via sophisticated chemical demonstrations, but there are very good reasons to believe my version as it relates to the ongoing Modalert/Provigil debate - it is also suggested by some (the middle roaders) that the particle sizes are different, or that the two drugs are metabolized differently in the body due to different pharmacokinetic action which produces different effects, but really nobody knows except Cephalon & Sun Pharma Pharmaceuticals so it is really futile to conjecture about why people respond differently to the two compounds, so the reality to highlight here is that
people do respond differently to them, or more accurately, people respond to one and not the other.
There exists ample anecdotal reports among other forums that give credence to what I'm claiming here, i.e., that Modalert is almost entirely "inert" regarding all the alleged cognitive enhancing properties ascribed to Modafinil (ok ok it's not entirely inert, it did give me explosive diarrhea). Some have argued that there is very little evidential force inherent in anecdotes (especially the kind found on the internet), I for one challenge this notion, I believe there is great epistemic value to be derived from first person testimony and that it should not be dismissed, and this whether affirming or denying something to be the case (being a law student, I'll be surprised if you disagree). The preponderance of testimonial evidence should be objectively assessed even if it consists solely of unverifiable testimony, this is no less than how historical knowledge is arrived at (of course always being vigilant against the fallacy of ad populum). Therefore, based on my assessment, the evidence overwhelmingly points to one conclusion --->
MODALERT DOES NOT WORK! Now, if someone out there claims to have tried both Modalert & Provigil, and based on extensive experience with both comes to the conclusion that Modalert is
superior to Provigil, then I will have nothing more to say about the matter presuming they are being honest, BUT, I have yet to see such a claim, and I doubt I ever will.
So then, my advice to you croc_choda is to obtain a script for Provigil (must be made by Cephalon) from a doc and give it a trial run - I believe you will most likely experience a remarkable difference in efficacy, that is, you will likely experience
some of the cognitive enhancing properties that Modafinil is reputed to possess. Also, something to keep in mind, if you do not respond to 200mg then it's ok to titrate up until you do, all the way to 500-600mg a day (just don't dose this high daily due to the long half-life of Modafinil). There exists an abundance of randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled studies that experimentally substantiate the safety and efficacy of these doses (don't let anyone tell you different, PM if you desire additional research because I follow the studies).
Alright, that's enough out of me for right now, but lastly, I wish you nothing but success in academia, I'm there myself right now so I intimately understand how grueling grad school can be, and also how desirable it is to somehow achieve that coveted
mental edge - never give up the quest!!
