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ADHD, ritalin

L

lotus_biter

Bluelighter
Joined
May 2, 2002
Messages
51
Location
New Zealand
my boyfriend has just been diagnosed as having severe adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but as yet is not on anything. he is completely insanely hyperactive and it stresses me out beyond belief but i heard that ritalin can actually make your symptoms worse and inhibit your ability to think creativly...what else is there? and how does it slow a add person down but speed a normal person up? and i want him to get somthing good so i can have some as well. i heard that for a normal person ritalin or whatever is not even as strong as speed, but on the other hand i have heard that if you dont have add it is as strong as coke...does anyone know anything about this??
 
Ritalin isn't anywhere as strong as speed (amphetamine or methamphetamine - whichever you are talking about) .. as for what options he has - well, being an adult he might actually be prescribed something like Wellbutrin (read: no recreational value) .. if that doesn't work (and "it wont" if you're looking to get high *wink* *wink* *nudge*) .. in that case he could actually do really good - Adderall, Dexedrine, a few others, and he could even work himself all the way up to Desoxyn, which as we all know is pure methamphetamine!
He needs to first decide what is of more important to him - having his ADHD maintained or getting high .. now if he has a severe case of adult ADHD he might find that in orer to get a speed buzz from his meds he would have to take a LOT .. if you work with the doctor they can get you all patched up, so if this is really hindering you in your day-to-day doings you might want to settle for a drug that DOESNT get your girlfriend fucked up but DOES take care of your problems!
 
There actually IS a difference in the way that ritalin works in someone w/ ADD opposed to someone who doesn't. If you have ADD, the ritalin will help zone you in to focus more, but it will also give you a high for about 30 minutes. If you do NOT have ADD, I believe it just gives you the high and then you come crashing down, as you would from another drug.
Also, on the topic of Adderall, I was just precribed that for my ADD and am really getting no high OR help from it. This may be because it's the XR version, but I liked snorting ritalin rather then popping capsules.
 
Ritalin -- and other stimulants -- work the SAME WAY in people with ADHD and normal people. They do the SAME thing. If you take speed/Rit/whatever, you will notice that your ability to concentrate on things is vastly increased. For example, normally I can barely be bothered to keep my dirty clothes in a pile, but tweaked out, hell, I can concentrate on cleaning the house for hours...
Seriously, the difference is that people with ADHD have a natural deficiency in their 'stimulation' or 'reward' circuits. The signals that their brain sends them saying "pay attention: this is important!" just don't get through[1]. In some people, this makes them unable to pay much attention to anything -- the 'inattentive type' of ADHD. In others, their brain compensates and tries to amplify the "pay attention" messages. But since messages don't get through, there's just a lot of background noise that gets amplifies, so these people's brains jump around telling them to pay attention to pretty much anything. This is like your bf, the 'hyperactive-type' ADHD.
Stimulants like meth, ritalin, etc act to fix this by (properly) amplifying the pay-attention signals. In normals, the same thing happens as in ADD people: if you take a low dose of stims, just your brain's actual signals get amplified, and you'll find you can concentrate better on the things that interest you. If you take higher doses, the stimulant starts to amplify background noise too, and you can find yourself paying attention to random, stupid things, becoming obsessive about them, jumping around flightily, and so on.
Make sense?
Here's a good article I read on Ritalin recently: http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v286n8/ffull/jmn0822-1.html
[1] Dougherty DD et al (1999). Dopamine transporter density in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Lancet 354:2132-2133.
 
Originally posted by lotus_biter:
my boyfriend has just been diagnosed as having severe adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but as yet is not on anything. he is completely insanely hyperactive and it stresses me out beyond belief but i heard that ritalin can actually make your symptoms worse and inhibit your ability to think creativly...what else is there? and how does it slow a add person down but speed a normal person up? and i want him to get somthing good so i can have some as well. i heard that for a normal person ritalin or whatever is not even as strong as speed, but on the other hand i have heard that if you dont have add it is as strong as coke...does anyone know anything about this??
I'm a sophomore in high school without ADD and when i snort ritalin i fucking love it. You achieve much of the same feelings that you do with cocaine such as numbness of limbs and a warm, tingly sensation. I love doing lines in the back of class. It's also a great drug if you actually want to get some work done.
Click to expand...
 
This isn't a simple answer, so only read it if you want to really think about shit for a minute.
ADD... It sort of exists, it sort of doesn't. How many people do you know that found out recently that they had ADD their whole lives? How many people do you suspect might have ADD, and other people suspect it too? How many times have you wondered if you had it?
How many "classic stereotypical they definitely have ADD" people do you know? I can't think of any...
I have ADD. Or maybe I don't. I really don't know. I take 40mg of Adderall every day, and I can tell you, anyone who thinks that stimulants work concretely differently in "ADD" people is wrong. Sometimes the amp speeds me up, sometimes it calms me down. Sometimes it makes me able to "focus" more, sometimes it makes it worse. Sometimes the effect stays the same for several weeks.
It's all in your head, no joke. It's what you expect the amp to do that it does... What you really deep down think is going to happen. See, I wasn't diagnosed with ADD until less than a year ago. Since then, the effects of the drug have varied a lot, but they have never been the same as when I took the same drug recreationally before I thought about ADD. It doesn't matter if I have no tolerance, how much I take, where I take it, there's some part of it that just doesn't feel the same. It can have completely unexplainable effects - sometimes I will take a significant amount, with no tolerance (or with it) and I won't feel any change for several hours, then suddenly I will become amped out of no where. In the beginning, I noticed the drug would often seem to take effect right as I swallowed it, when the chemical could not have been in my blood. Then I noticed that on days when I forgot to take it, I would still get amped at a certain time. The physical signs would be there too - dry mouth, twitching head muscles, reflexive foot tapping...
The effects are a state of mind, not something directly produced by the drug. If you take it enough over a period of time, bizarre unexplainable phenomena will occur, showing that the drug and the high really aren't connected at all. It's the power of suggestion
 
wicked, thanks so much for the replies..i also heard that the side effects of ritalin can make youe symptoms worse -ie being *unintentionally* violent towards your girlfriend- and inhibit your creative thinking etc has anyone experienced this? people who use alot of amphetamines are prone to violence, right?
 
MoFo_S: i dont know what to make of that? have you tried other add medications apart from Adderall? have you had add all your life and didnt realise or did it just happen when you got older or whatever? my brother had add as a child and was really hyperactive and so on, but *grew out of it* but is now in jail for assault, i think his add was affected by very frequent use of drugs..exactly what im not sure his friends tell me shit like pcp, but he used to do shit like sniff petrol. i suppose he's brain damaged.
at any rate, my bf and i smoke alot of weed which seems to make him way more paranoid, violent etc than it does me..?
 
mofo, i know what you are saying. remember for drugs, pretty much any psychoactive drugs (not just psychedelics) that set and setting matters.
[ 04 May 2002: Message edited by: NESSxix ]
 
nicely put nessexx, A friend of mine was using Ritalin to study for uni awhile back, he said made him able to focus on the task at hand, studying, the setting being the room and the set being his desire to study.
really goes to show how big a part the brain itself plays in drug experiences, like how much of taking a pill at a rave is due to you WANTING to have a fun, wild time and how much of it is the pill.
 
I don't know why all of you are wasting your time talking about Ritilin when there is wonderful adderall!!!!!!! GET ADDERALL!!! It's twice as good as Ritilin. I never take Ritilin, only adderall. The bosy and mind high is comprable to MDMA without the touchy sensations.
 
Originally posted by AnDx:

I'm a sophomore in high school without ADD and when i snort ritalin i fucking love it.I love doing lines in the back of class. .
You do of course realize that since both cocaine and ritalin are CII drugs, if you get caught "doing lines (of ritalin) in the back of class" the penalties could in theory be the same as if you got busted doing coke in class. Do you really think that it is worth it? Can't you just go to the bathroom to do lines like most people? Just my .02.
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Probably 75% of all those diagnosed with ADD/ADHD don't actually have it, honestly, it's one of those diseases made up to justify something that has an easier explination - kids don't focus on their school work - so what? They are kids, they are not supposed to pay attention in class but rather drift off into space thinking about playing freeze tag in the woods, riding their bikes or going to Mr. Albert's house for some "special games" and pictures that kinda make ya feel funny in your bathing suit area .. not to say there are not legitimate cases of it, just not that many..
In those that truely have the disorder *DO* react differntly to amphetamines - the drugs have a calming effect..
 
ADHD is no less a real disorder than any other; if you think this then you simply haven't met anyone with a severe enough form of the disease. Some people are barely able to function normally because of their hyperactivity.
However, it's much more of a spectrum thing than with other mental illnesses... not clear cut at all. Probably a ton of people (including myself) actually have very mild, sub-clinical 'ADHD' and aren't diagnosed. Some of the people in the middle of the spectrum are diagnosed, and I don't think this is bad if the treatment (stims) helps them overall.
But stims DO do the same thing to everyone, at low doses they help you focus in one task... the difference is just far more dramatic in hyperactive kids.
 
Don't forget all the drugs these damn people are taking with them. They don't make ritalin and adderall for people who take them with all sorts of other drugs. Half of these kids probably don't even have ADHD, they're just twitching off their other illicit drugs they took the night before...
 
Originally posted by lotus_biter:
wicked, thanks so much for the replies..i also heard that the side effects of ritalin can make youe symptoms worse -ie being *unintentionally* violent towards your girlfriend- and inhibit your creative thinking etc has anyone experienced this? people who use alot of amphetamines are prone to violence, right?
IMO the comedown of any stimulate leaves the mind feeling dull and useless.. For a few hours life seems worthless and so boring without stimulants.. Also it becomes very easy to become agitated..
So, if your taking stims everyday, the time between doses could easily exhibit those symptoms, though probably not so dramatically.. instead of violence, probably just angrier acting..
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by PhreeX:
Probably 75% of all those diagnosed with ADD/ADHD don't actually have it, honestly, it's one of those diseases made up to justify something that has an easier explination - kids don't focus on their school work - so what? They are kids, they are not supposed to pay attention in class but rather drift off into space thinking about playing freeze tag in the woods, riding their bikes or going to Mr. Albert's house for some "special games" and pictures that kinda make ya feel funny in your bathing suit area .. not to say there are not legitimate cases of it, just not that many..
In those that truely have the disorder *DO* react differntly to amphetamines - the drugs have a calming effect..
75 percent false diagnosis rate huh? I don't think so. Have you gone through a ADHD eval with the local headshrinker? It's not like you go in and say, "Hey doc. I'm squirrely and can't study worth shit how 'bout you give me some speed yo", and then he just hooks you up because he's getting some kick back from a pharmeceutical.
Most MD's I have encountered are very careful how they prescribe this med and they make sure that all the bases that can be covered are covered. I had to go to about 8 appointments taking numerous cognitive exams that measured the likelyhood of the ADHD as an impairment in daily functioning.
I never cease to get really annoyed when people say ADHD is a "made up" problem and/or it is over diagnosed. But I guess I can't get really angry when people don't understand how difficult life can be when dealing with a disability like this.
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I know most docs are somewhat skeptical about prescribing adderall, but I got ritalin like cake...
 
I was diagnosed with ADHD and took meds (Ritalin then Dexedrine) for several years, I knew a ton of friends in the same boat, some taking HEAVY doses of HEAVY amphetamines - we were all the same, when we were working on something that held out intrest we could focus like a lazer, but shit, sitting in school 8 hours a day studying compound fractions, hell, most normal kids simply don't want to be there .. when yer 13 years old do you really give a shit about learning about english? Some kids do, many don't ..
Look, if you put a kid on meds then he is going to snap in line abnd focus more on his work, but that doesn't mean you have "cured" a "disease" ..
Now don't get me wrong for a second - THERE ARE PEOPLE WITH LEGIT CASES OF ADD/ADHD, from little kids to adults, and for them the meds really work... but MOST PEOPLE DIAGNOSED WITH ADD/ADHD are just regular ole kids that have their mind in other places...
When I was in 7th grade I was so "hpyeractive" I was placed in a class with a 3/1 student/teacher ration.. I simpyl didn't want to do my work, well, I can say with a great deal of certinty that most of these kids simply wantedto be outside skating, riding bikes, smoking, or feeling girls boobs...
The 75% figure was a guess based upon the people I knew - we all had ADD/ADHD but we were not truely suffering from 'disease' - we were just kids that didn't give a shit about the stuff they were tryingto cram down our throats in elementry/middle school so we would goof off, not pay attention, and generally be a pain in the ass..
I HAVE MET plenty of people that TRUELY have ADHD, and they can get so frustrated when they REALLY, TRUELY want to do something but their mind is somewhere else... the thing is, for every kid to which this holds true, there are probably 3 others that are on the same meds, diagnosed with the same 'condition', but they are just your normal you kids ... maybe a little too much sugar and video games but it's not something they need to be medicated with strong amphetamines for...
Feel free to disagree, thats what great about this place - jsut be diplomatic about it!
 
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