1. Antidepressants:
Like many people, I've been on an antidepressant or two in my life. Initially I was very wary of them, and due to a bad experience with effexor (if I hadn't been a naive kid at the time I would have pushed to sue the doctor) was frightened of them for many years. But one day many years later I realized that I was just all over the place, and there was no identifiable trigger, and that made me suspect a chemical problem. Even then I went to an endocrinologist first and eventually he pushed me back into antidepressants, and I wound up with wellbutrin.
That led to a few years of much improved functioning which really let me start to put a life together. But eventually it didn't work as well and the side effects got worse. Then I got moved to generic buproprion and the seizures started. So I jumped off that and went to a proper neuropharmacologist, with my own ideas of what was wrong and how to fix it. There was a lot of resistance at first to me presenting ideas and suggestions, and I was often wary of being forced into some kind of program, but after a few months we got comfortable with each other and started to work as a team. It took a bit but eventually I got sorted out and now things are much better. I'm not all rainbows and unicorns happy, but most days I feel like I want to keep going and keep working at fixing the crap in my life instead of just staying in bed until it kills me. It helps to be able to read more than half a page of text without completely wandering off and then being frustrated I can't remember what I was doing.
I think a lot of people get pressured to go on antidepressants that really shouldn't. Especially kids. A lot of parents or teachers seem to have this reflex to just throw any kid who doesn't sit quietly behind a desk for 6 hours a day on to whatever drug is currently being marketed. This is a huge mistake. I've met people who wound up with severely dysfunctional psychologies and metabolisms later on. But at the same time, I don't want to say this is evil and these drugs have no use. They can be a huge help to many, if used properly. I'm among that number myself, as much as I hate to admit it. I hate the thought of being dependent on something, but the alternative is to be pretty useless, so it's really the lesser of two evils in my case. But I would be very very hesitant to suggest someone else go on one until all other factors (diet, sleep, allergies, etc) are accounted for.
2. Sleep aids:
As for sleep aids, I've also got a sleeping disorder, a reasonably rare and hard to treat one. I got lucky in that a medication that was relatively unsuccessful for most people works for me (rozerem/rameleton). It's not cheap, but it's not hard to get and it seems to help. During my early days of treatment with my current doctor she put me on klonopin (clonazepam) for the anxiety and seizures I was experiencing at the time (this was a good move and saved me many times). But once I stabilized I had to push to get off them. She kept wanting to keep me on a low (~1-2mg) dose to regulate sleep, and I kept being wary of how hard it was to get off the damn things. Eventually when I came up with another option that worked I got my way, but quitting them was damn hard. I was down low the bare minimum dose too, so I can imagine for people on high doses quitting must be next to impossible.
Back in the crazy days I'd had a period where constant tooth pain just destroyed my sleep schedule, and a doctor who didn't really see me as anything more than a number on an assembly line gave me zopidiem (ambien/stilnox). This was after I refused xanax (as it was still in my fear of antidepressants days). This was also before the whole thing about ambien craziness was well known. I also didn't have any experience with really any kind of intoxicant (since I don't drink) let alone psychedelics at that time, so it was new territory for me. I don't recommend it as an introductory drug to others as it was for me, it was awful. I got too easily hooked on the stuff, and they never told me it was supposed to be for short term (a few weeks), they just kept giving me refills for months. I started being told I did things I didn't remember. The real shock was when I bought a book I'd been waiting for, read part of it, and put it on the shelf only to find another copy of it with a bookmark over 200 pages in. I had no recollection of ever reading it, or buying it, or anything. That scared the crap out of me and I struggled and forced myself off it. Benzos were about as hard to quit. Nicotine was a joke in comparison. I'm not surprised the neuropharmacologist I went to later told me that ambien is completely discredited by most reputable doctors these days. It certainly never put me to sleep!
These days I can get by with a minor prescription and some OTCs like benadryl (diphenhydramine) or unisom (doxylamine) if I really need to back it up. But when stress is low and health is good I often don't need them.
3. Stimulants:
Depends on the stimulant really. I wound up on dexedrine, because adderall was just too expensive, and honestly when I was on it, I found it less effective since it made me a bit moody. Certain pharmacy chains pressured me heavily to change to more expensive prescriptions, so I hopped to a new pharmacy each month until I found one that stopped being a pain about it. It's been a huge help to me in terms of being able to get up and going, and focus on getting things done, which leaves me less frustrated and depressed overall.
I think most of us probably consume way to many stimulants casually. I know caffeine for me was always a big one. I tried cutting down on it a lot, and it seems to have helped some. The only problem is now when I have some once in a while I find I'm much more sensitive to it. Nicotine is also everywhere, and while I don't smoke I found the patch form is a superior stimulant to caffeine. Also good for repairing or building muscle tissue, better than almost any steroid (there are patents filed on this if you dig bit it's considered one of those well guarded secrets by some people). Sugar is one I find I'm unable to kick though. The cravings are just worse than anything else I've tried to dump. So I guess I'm stuck with that one.
Funny thing though, when I was younger my parents used to give me a lot of sudafed because I often had bad allergies. I used to take it pretty much daily. Later, when I stopped having as severe reactions as an adult, I stopped taking it. That's about the time I started having all these dopaminergic depression symptoms. Coincidence? Want to compare the structures on pseudoephedrine vs buproprion vs dextroamphetamine? I suspect having a maintenance dose of a dopamine stim through much of puberty caused an improper baseline to develop, and then once it was removed... bam. I don't blame anyone for it, as they didn't know. But it makes me wonder exactly what all this lithium and ritalin and adderal is doing to kids who start it really early.
4: Methamphetamine:
Dodged a bullet with this one myself. I only ran into it when I got curious and went looking to see what the fuss was about. Then I was stupid about it and got lucky I didn't wind up hospitalized or worse. The recovery after that was so awful I've lost most active interest in the stuff. It's the kind of drug that if people are sharing and expect me to have some to be socially polite, I might have a bit. Cocaine is the same class for me. But I'd never actively seek out or pay for either of them really.
I can't figure out why someone would want a drug that has like 1/10th the fun of MDxA and 10x the low after. I think its allure is that unlike serotonin-based drugs, you don't run out of reserves that make it stop working till you've had a rest. You can just keep taking more to prevent that completely awful crash you've bought yourself. But really all you're doing is effectively paying off bills with credit, eventually it'll catch up and the interest will be even worse.
