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Adventures in NMDA Receptor Antagonism
Memantine & DXM
Citation:   viscosity. "Adventures in NMDA Receptor Antagonism: An Experience with Memantine & DXM (exp86496)". Erowid.org. Dec 22, 2020. erowid.org/exp/86496

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
10 mg oral Pharms - Memantine
  T+ 4:00 10 mg oral Pharms - Memantine
  T+ 16:00 20 mg oral Pharms - Memantine
  T+ 0:00   repeated oral Pharms - Memantine
  T+ 48:00 100 mg oral DXM
  T+ 50:00 254 mg oral DXM
BODY WEIGHT: 115 lb
Having tried the NMDA receptor antagonist Memantine, I thought it would be good to share my experience with it (due to somewhat limited information on recreational use). I had been using DXM for 8 years prior to this experience and consider myself to be quite familiar with its dissociative effects.

First off, Memantine tends to kick in somewhat slowly and has a long half life (2.5-4 days). So if I were to immediately (and repeatedly) increase a dose just because I don't feel effects within the first hour or two, I would end up way more dissociated than I intended for several days in a row.

I had 100mg of Memantine, but I figured it wasn't crucial to take it all at once so I took 10mg Monday evening and waited. After 4 hours I felt something, but nothing significant, so I took another 10mg. Three hours later I felt a mild, but definitely dissociating feeling. This kept me awake a little that night, but nothing too bad.

The next morning I still felt some mild effects, so I took 20mg of Memantine around 11am to boost them. I decided a good approach would be to wait 3-4 hours after a dose, then take another 20mg if I still wanted more of an effect (since it seemed to take 3-4 hours for the effects to plateau). By early afternoon I had become very aware of the subconscious chatter in my head, but it seemed more relevant than the chatter I usually get while dexing. I also started having the same attraction to thinking in odd analogies and metaphors.

If DXM is a warm, snugly blanket, then Memantine is a silk sheet.

Classic dextrovision and hearing were there as well, where things took on that distinct alien look/sound that they have on DXM. I was feeling increasingly dissociated as the day progressed and synchronicity was quite apparent, with sights and sounds seeming to line up with my movements and thoughts. However, things didn't 'feel' quite the same as DXM because I didn't experience the same emotional connection to things around me or the drive to get out and do something crazy. I was definitely in a pleasant mood, just nothing like the magical mania of DXM.

Memantine is definitely dissociating, but lacks the emotional warmth and depth of DXM. It is like DXM's more rational, less emotional cousin; more functional and less wacky. Like the engineer and the artist, Memantine is all about the workdays and DXM is all over the weekends. Memantine is more likely to stay up at night reading or writing quirky things in a spiral bound notebook and DXM is more likely to end up prancing around the neighbor's yard doing an interpretative dance in a rabbit costume at 1 in the morning.

Another difference was that I didn't have nystagmus at all. I found it strange that reading was surprisingly easy even though I felt fairly dissociated by this point. In fact, I felt highly functional in general despite feeling removed from the normal world, and my focus and memory were completely fine. I'm normally pretty proficient at functioning on DXM, but there are still some things that can give me trouble (like say, reading a calculus book).

My memory in particular seemed to work even a little better than normal. I heard a song (The Republic Tigers - Fight Song) I liked on the radio Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday night I was able to remember not only the band name and song name, but also the melody and the chorus. Usually my auditory memory isn’t that great, especially if I hear something just once.

By Tuesday night I had taken all 100mg and felt quite solidly dissociated at the peak (similar to maybe 400mg of DXM, or a mid/high second plateau). I also had developed CEV radar vision, where objects around me became glowing outlines when I closed my eyes or turned out the lights. It was very much like the CEV world I see on DXM, only it appeared more accurate because there were less closed eye hallucinations to distract me from the actual objects around me. Even at this point I had no trouble programming things on the computer for a school project and my spatial skills still felt decent. That night I did have significant insomnia, so I took some melatonin to sleep.
______
Wednesday morning I woke up feeling almost exactly as I did the night before, just slightly lower in intensity.

It's a good thing I like NMDA receptor antagonism, otherwise waking up like this would be a bad thing. I’m glad that my years of dexing enable me to function well while whacked out on dissociatives.

I never felt any afterglow brain fuzz or trouble finding words like I can get after waking up from a DXM binge. It seems Memantine maintains the same quality of effect, just declining in intensity over time (unlike the metabolism of DXM->DXO).

Memantine is pretty straightforward, but DXM is more complex and mysterious.

Wednesday night, I decided to take some DXM in addition (I checked beforehand and couldn’t find any interactions other than them both being NMDA receptor antagonists). After a test of 100mg to make sure I wasn’t going to catapult myself off the deep end, I took the other 254mg a couple hours later. This combination significantly increased the dissociation, synchronicity and my ability to see with closed eyes. It also gave me the feeling of super-precise coordination and dancing like an idiot was enjoyable (as it usually is on DXM). However, the emotional effects of DXM did seem a bit blunted.

The Memantine did take away the nystagmus I usually get with DXM, and it felt a little weird not to have jerky vision on DXM (but in a good way). Interestingly, I did a search online and came across a study that found Memantine did reduce nystagmus.

It’s amazing what I can do when my eyes aren’t wiggling around crazily.

On Thursday morning, the effects of Memantine were less intense, but I could still feel it quite clearly even though I hadn't taken any more since Tuesday. The subconscious chatter was still there, but slowly fading, and I was no longer having trouble sleeping at night.

By Friday, mild dissociative effects were still noticeable, but by Saturday I was more or less back to baseline.

While I would definitely not consider Memantine a replacement for DXM, I did find it interesting in its own right and would probably take it more often if it wasn‘t so expensive. The long-lasting dissociation was a big plus for me, especially since it didn’t make me feel mentally impaired or fuzzy over time like repeated doses of DXM can. When taken with DXM, I found Memantine was useful for reducing nystagmus, although I would probably take less Memantine next time if using it for this purpose.

All in all, I considered it a successful adventure in the world of NMDA receptor antagonism.

Exp Year: 2008ExpID: 86496
Gender: Female 
Age at time of experience: 23
Published: Dec 22, 2020Views: 3,097
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DXM (22), Pharms - Memantine (309) : First Times (2), Combinations (3), Unknown Context (20)

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