Ritalin

[Sanctorum]

Hello there, community.

First, I should mention I don't have attention deficit disorder. I probably have some sort of mild sociopathy, but as long as it's not harmful for myself or any other person, I don't believe it's a problem.

I'm a psychology student and, unfortunately, an alcoholic. So, I decided my first psychological research to be the treatment of alcoholism. My research goes something like this until now:

Alcohol is at first a stimulant. Its first effects include energy, euphoria, rush and self confidence. So, what do we need to replace these feelings? A stimulant.

Then alcohol works as an anti-depressant, making you feel really calm and euphoric. What do we need to replace this feeling? A strong anti-depressant (maybe benzodiazepines).

Finally, alcohol works as a hypnotic drug, so we need a strong hypnotic drug like Remeron to replace this feeling.

The next stage of the treatment, of course, is treating the addiction on these drugs, but that's off-topic.

So, I decided to experiment on myself by telling my psychiatrist to prescribe me these drugs. What he prescribed me was Ritalin (tablets 10mg), Valium and Imovane (I asked him to do so after I made some research on these drugs).

The problem is this: RITALIN DOESN'T WORK. I took 20mg, without any tolerance on amphetamine, methylphenidat or anything similar. The only experience I had on stimulants was five years ago when I sniffed a line of cocaine. That's all.

So, I took the 20mg and FELT NOTHING AT ALL. This happens for three days now. No effects, no side-effects at all. Nothing. I even feel sleepy sometimes after consuming the pills (normal, sober drowsiness). Today I also snorted 20mg of Ritalin and felt nothing at all again.

I think there is a problem with the pill. Maybe the pharmacologist made a mistake or something, because the exact same thing happened with the Lonarid (Paracetamol, caffeine and codeine) I took from the same drug store. No effects at all, without any tolerance on opioids.

I informed the psychiatrist and he said he doesn't know and he'll search if Ritalin takes some days to act or something. But I don't think that's the case. I would like your opinions on this.

Thank you.

 

[missmeyet?]

So I have a few questions and comments if you dont mind. Oh and welcome to BL.

Does your doc really just prescribe whatever you ask him to because YOU think it will work?

Also, the above statements regarding alcohol and its effects as a stimulant, anti-depressant and hypnotic, do you have sources that you can site for that information or are you basing that on your own personal experience of how alcohol affects you? I tend to disagree with some of the statements so I am just curious. Plus it is common courtesy (and a rule) here a BL that if you make statements as fact then it is often good to provide a source for them so that others can verify/read up on the information. Please let me know if you have sources for that.

If I recall correctly then alcohol only has very slight stimulant properties and that is only at the lowest active doses. According to this article, alcohol is not considered a true hypnotic as it interferes with "good" sleep..." The British National Formulary states, "Alcohol is a poor hypnotic because its diuretic action interferes with sleep during the latter part of the night." Alcohol is also known to induce alcohol-related sleep disorders. (from http://http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa41.htm--I looked it up because I knew that alcohol was known to interefere with sleep habits so I just wanted to double check).

As far as alcohol being an "anti-depressant, this is just NOT true. Many people who are depressed do drink (so maybe subjectively you feel that it helps your depression) but ALL of the research show that the exact opposite is true. It may provide a small mood lift when you first begin to drink it but after that it has been proven time and time again that in larger quantities or upon continued intake it most definitely has a depressive effect on people's mood. If you are interested (or anyone else is) I can also provide tons of data from research (the links to it) to back this up.

As far as the Ritalin pill having something wrong with it this is pretty unlikely. It can happen that occasionally there is a "bad batch" of meds but usually they will receive so many complaints (and that would be from people who take the med regularly and have something to compare it to) that it will be recalled. So as long as you obtained your med through a legitimate pharmacy with an actual prescription the medication should be ok.

You might keep in mind that all meds affect all people very differently sometimes. This is especially true if you are on other meds and sometimes certain physical and/or psychiatric issues can affect the way a medication works on someone. This could quite possibly be the case for you since you said you have some issues with alcoholism and possibly sociopathy. Also, sometimes certain meds can just have certain paradoxical effects on some people.

That leads me to my next question (out of curiosity), what have you been diagnosed with (besides the alcoholism)? Have you ever been diagnosed with the sociopathy or if not, then what leads you to believe that you have this problem? Do you mind telling me your age? I am just very interested in your issues here. I have been a nurse for 20 years and most of those years were spent working in acute care/inpatient psychiatric hospital at a research/University hospital so I have a lot of interest in your topic.

I am also just so surprised that based on the facts above that any medical professional would be very familiar with (or should be anyways) as compared to a psych student who is only subjectively looking at how he feels certain things affect or help him personally with psych and addiction problems would be willing to go along with what the patient requests because he feels it is what will help...if you could just enlighten me if you are in some special circumstances where it makes sense to why this is the case.

 

[Rybee]

For a Psychology student, you're SO misinformed.

Alcohol is not an antidepressant.
Benzodiazepines are not antidepressants.
You don't need a strong hypnotic to mimic alcohol.
The pharmacologist did not make a mistake when making your pills.
You probably wouldn't feel anything from Lonarid.
You should be worried that your Psych will prescribe Ritalin but isn't sure if it is fast acting or takes a few days to act.

OP, having read your other post, it's clear you're on BL for the wrong reasons.

I suggest other users refrain from replying to this bogus nonsense. This is not what BlueLight is for.

 

[missmeyet?]

For a Psychology student, you're SO misinformed.

Alcohol is not an antidepressant.
Benzodiazepines are not antidepressants.
You don't need a strong hypnotic to mimic alcohol.
The pharmacologist did not make a mistake when making your pills.
You probably wouldn't feel anything from Lonarid.
You should be worried that your Psych will prescribe Ritalin but isn't sure if it is fast acting or takes a few days to act.

OP, having read your other post, it's clear you're on BL for the wrong reasons.

I suggest other users refrain from replying to this bogus nonsense. This is not what BlueLight is for.

I agree 100%. It is bullshit to mislead the good people here on BL and have them waste their time trying to help when the OP doesnt really care and has another agenda.

 

[Sanctorum]

No, he says his opinion, I say mine and that's what we do.

I'm basing my conclusions on alcohol upon the facts that most people who drink suffer from depression, anxienty and insomnia. I would say it works as a hypnotic as much as Zolpidem does (just for a few hours, then you wake up). In a long period of time, however, it can even cause sleeping disorders which alcoholics tend to treat by drinking every time they wake up.

The current treatment for alcoholism is supposed to be antagonists of alcohol and anti-depressants. Both me and my psychiatrist consider both these treatments incorrect, as anti-depressants won't replace almost any affect of alcohol. In fact, they may make you want more buzz and cause you to consume them along with alcohol. I know that from both personal experience and experiences of alcoholic friends. If someone drinks JUST TO GET DRUNK, he should certainly have a pill to replace alcohol's stimulation, a pill to treat his anxiety and depression and a pill to sleep. These can even prove to be even better than alcohol, so he won't need to abuse it again.

For example, what if an alcoholic wanting to get alcohol's stimulation snorts some cocaine? Well, probably he won't need alcohol anymore until the evening when he will be wanting to feel sleepy. Here is where the anti-depressants and hypnotics come in.

My research is both based on personal experience, on the experiences my psychiatrist has on his patients and the experiences some former alcoholic friends of mine had. I'll tell you my own experience:

I used to drink three bottles of vodka everyday, all day. I woke up and had to drink two glasses to say, "Now it's a new day." When I got asleep at night, if I was waking up in the middle of the night instead of staying asleep, I would drink once again to fall asleep.

I'm a moderate alcoholic abuser now. Drinking just a bottle of wine each night and not feeling any sort of withdrawal symptoms during the rest of the day. I just want the stimulation and the anti-depressant feelings, as well as to sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night however, so I wait for a few hours to feel sober and then fall asleep again using some Baclofen.

So, when I used Ritalin, I was completely sober. In fact, I hadn't even drink the previous night. Also, I used 70mg of it and they had no affect at all. It doesn't matter what you are, 70mg of methymphelidate (just asked a pharmacologist today) while you don't have any experience on this substance all anything containing amphetamine, should give you some kind of affect. Even overdose effects. However, I even consumed a whole tablet (100mg) and had no effects at all.

 

[Sanctorum]

I see my other topic was closed because it wasn't considered urgent and legal. Well, it is considered urgent by me because I have an appointment with my psychiatrist in one hour to get these pills and it is legal because the psychiatrist judged so. Who are you to judge better?

 

[missmeyet?]

That is because it is the rules of the site....you cannot ask for advice on what kind or how to get meds from a doc....read the rules. This was a rule long before you asked the question yourself so it is not anyone judging just abiding by the rules. Your psych doctor has no ruling over this forum so it doesnt matter that he said it is legal and ok...his word is nothing here. Also, you are saying that your psych doctor told you, yes, it is ok to go on a forum that discusses drugs and drug use and abuse and ask all these anonymous drug users on the internet what they think is the most euphoric drug there is that will work to help treat your alcoholism??? If you are not lying about that then you gotta find a new doc. A REAL doctor would not take advice from a patient or whatever he comes up with on a drug forum. A real doctor would already know what was considered a euphoric drug...and I guarantee you a real doc is not going to just prescribe what you tell him because you FEEL that is what will work for treatment of alcoholism..Im sorry but in the real world it just aint happening and I totally call BULLSHIT!! It concerns me that you think everyone on here is stupid enough to believe that...do you think that there are no people with personal or professional experience here that knows more than that?? Hell common sense tells you that is not true.

You said he has his opinion and you have yours..what and who are you referring to? Your psych doc? What do you mean? He is the doctor and he prescribes whatever you to him to? And if you are referring to what Rybee said her point is if you have a doctor who doesn't even know off the top of his head whether or not Ritalin is fast acting or takes a few days to kick in then you got big problems..it should just be common knowledge..even most laypersons are aware of Ritalin and its effects.

As far as the statements you made about alcohol most of it is just absolutely not true. I understand that you feel like that is the way it should work but that and no matter how many times you say it, it still wont make it a true fact. Research (unless you are talking about how one just researches a topic for their own use which may be what you are talking about) is not just what you feel is correct...matter of fact, personal opinion makes it NOT research because one will always be biased. If you really were a psych student that was anywhere past your first year of college/university then you would know this and the basics.

Do you mind telling us what type of psychology student you are or how far along are you in your schooling?

I dont think that you read my comments in my post at all about alcohol not being an anti-depressant, nor is it a true stimulant and it is absolutely NOT effective as a hyopnotic, by definition. Rather than respond to what I said about those things you just restated your position on what you FEEL it is not what the fact actually are. I truly am not trying to pick on you but explain so that you can see that your reasoning is totally faulty and makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever...again, you can SAY those things about alcohol til your dead, but it still doesnt change the facts. It may cause you personally some stimulation when you first start drinking..but regardless IT IS NOT A STIMULANT..quite the opposite, it is a CNS depressant. As far as it being a hypnotic, it may make you sleep but it has no value as one because it does not allow the brain/body to experience any quality sleep.

"......alcohol are known to shorten sleep latency, increase slow-wave sleep, and suppress rapid eye movement (REM) during the first half of sleep. During the second half of sleep, REM increases and sleep becomes shallower. A study of the acute effects of alcohol on the relationship between sleep and heart rate variability (HRV) during sleep has found that alcohol interferes with the restorative functions of sleep." http://http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110815162220.htm

And the biggie...alcohol is NOT an anti-depressant nor does it work as one. Just because people drink when they are depressed has nothing to do with it being an anti depressant, they do it because it dulls reality for them. It has been proven time and time again that alcohol CAUSES depression not helps it. Again, by definition it is not an anti depressant.

I have just decided all of a sudden maybe you are just trolling to get a reaction out of people..that or you are really just young kid, around 12-15 years old. Because other than those 2 situations (a troll for reaction for some outrageous statements or a young kid who doesnt know any better) there is no way that someone is that stupid..not trying to be mean, but what you are saying does not make any sense. Your reasoning of this information is totally faulty.

If you really want to tell us what the back story is because you have some questions or even if you just want to express what your opinions or own experiences are and then get some feedback from everyone on it or hear others experiences then hey, that is totally cool. But dont come on here insulting us with how you are a psych student with this knowledge of facts (that are totally just not true) or by saying you tell your doctor what to prescribe you based on what you THINK will work or because he told you it was ok to come here and ask all of us what we think he should prescribe you to give you euphoria to treat your alcoholism ....it just doesnt make a damn bit of sense.

 

[missmeyet?]

Jeez, that is 15 minutes of my life that I will never get back again..I cant believe this..I just saw what he said in the other post...what complete and utter bullshit.

Dude, why dont you just tell us what the deal really is? The story you gave about your psych doc letting you pick a drug to give to heroin addicts and allowing you to try it out on yourself and then administer it to these imaginary addicts is even stupider than what you were trying to tell us before.

Either you are a total dimwit or you are just trolling to get a reaction and some attention...if by some slight chance that is NOT the case and there is something else going on then why not just tell the truth?

If you really are just some young kid wanting some info we would be more than happy to help and if that is the case and you are inquiring about fentanyl then either ask or just forget about messing with it. Fent is a terrible drug for people to accidentally OD on. There have even been cases of deaths of member of Bluelight in the past and I know that at least one of them was VERY experienced with taking all types of drugs and specifically experienced in taking fentanyl. Your best bet is to just leave it alone.

 

[Mendo_K]

Troll level 5000.