Feeling tired at work in Thailand? Try Actifed
I used to struggle to stay awake during the day when I was working in Bangkok. This made office hours a chore and I often found myself taking mini naps of between five and 10 seconds to get through the day. Every now and then I’d take a mini nap and do that thing where your body sort of jumps back out of sleep for comedic effect. I tried to pass off such convulsions as part of a vigorous stretching routine; I’m not sure if anyone was fooled.
I was sick one day and went to get some aspirin. As you can imagine in Thailand, the whole HR department freaked out and supplied me with all manner of colored pills – all this for a headache and a runny nose! Thailand wastes a lot of money on unneeded medicine, but I got a little something extra from the cocktail of medicines I was given – I got the Actifed effect.
I spent the rest of the day high as a kite and stole the pack for future experimentation. Actifed is available over the counter in Thailand and it’s commonly used by people who have colds. One of the side effects of Actifed is that it perks you up like you’ve drunk half-a-dozen cups of coffee.
Feeling a bit dozy this afternoon, I necked my remaining two pills and got on with work in a kind of hazy bubble. I wouldn’t recommend anybody take Actifed every time they feel tired, but now and then it seems to be more effective than Red Bull. As for coffee, well, I can’t drink it without shaking afterwards and feeling like my head is about to explode.
Actifed in Thailand is made of 2.5mg Triprolidine and 60mg pseudoephedrine. It was the pseudoephedrine that had bells ringing in my head. Ephedrine is commonly used by students and office workers to stay alert and awake. It’s also occasionally passed off as ecstasy in clubs. The effect is similar to a strong cup of coffee.
Pseudoephedrine can have similar effects, as I will testify to. Outside of Thailand, Pfizer, the company that makes Actifed, changed the formula to contain 4mg chlorpheniramine maleate instead of pseudoephedrine. This change hasn’t hit all of Thailand’s pharmacies yet.
Have you come across any other weird and wonderful over-the-counter medicines in Thailand?
July 27th, 2007 at 1:08 am
This is a rather surprising effect! Indeed Actifed is usually known to make you sleepy, but if as you say the Thai version contains pseudoephedrine, then the effect you experienced is genuine.
Side effects of using Actifed include:
fast, pounding, or uneven heartbeat, confusion, hallucinations, unusual thoughts or behavior, severe dizziness, anxiety, restless feeling, or nervousness, increased blood pressure (severe headache, blurred vision, trouble concentrating, chest pain, numbness, seizure);confusion, hallucinations, unusual thoughts or behavior, easy bruising or bleeding, unusual weakness, fever, chills, body aches, flu symptoms or urinating less than usual or not at all.
Some of the above may be useful in your work !?
It should not be taken with Aspirin and interacts with many others medicines! Neither if you have kidney disease, heart disease diabetes and a few other.
I would not recommend its use as a stimulant… drink tea…
July 27th, 2007 at 1:24 am
Maybe just that one time then. I did notice that I was starting to hallucinate a little bit when I stared at my computer screen. And every now and then I found myself feeling rather confused.
July 27th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Actifed has always make me sleepy. Ever since I used it when I was having spring allergy, I always felt like numb half an hour after I necked the pill. I sometimes use half a pill when I can’t find sleep.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:52 am
In the US, pseudoephedrine has been more or less outlawed because it is the main ingredient for home grown methamphetamine. During the transition, they put all pseudoephedrine behind the counter. You can buy only so many at a time AND they card you.
That ingredient has been replaced by phenylephrine HCl and the pills are back out in the shelves again.
More? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoephedrine
July 28th, 2007 at 4:09 am
I just took Actifed last night with 2 Capols to relieve sinus pain. I nearly crawled to bed after that. Anyways, feel very fresh this morning …. Actifed makes you sleep, sleep and sleep …. ZZZ
July 28th, 2007 at 4:34 am
So how come it made everyone else sleepy?
July 30th, 2007 at 2:15 am
As oakley said, Actifed is used to make meth. Basically, what you are saying is that you are now an ethusiastic user of yaa bah “lite.”
July 30th, 2007 at 2:18 am
Not really.
July 31st, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Wait till the cops have your urine tested.
August 1st, 2007 at 4:35 am
interesting! actifed makes me sleepy actually.