Stimulants Can stimulants/ambien cause parkinsons? Rigidity symptoms, really worried!

[glab]

hello,
i have been taking ritalin and dexedrine for adhd for 2 years now. i started with ritalin, later on switched to dexedrine.
sometimes i would take them interchangeably one day ritalin, the other day dexedrine and so on.
but i didnt overdose or abuse anything.

now i have been noticing for a while that my forearms exhaust extremely fast!!!! for example when i was trying to get some frozen icecream
out of the cup with a spoon afterwards my hands were so weak and trembling that i wasnt even able to hold a pen!!!

when i noticed this i thought maybe this simply means that i am not used to exercise anymore.
but this feeling in my forearms is getting worse. it's totally freaking me out!
i have been paying more attention to my forearms the last few days and they simply feel strange.
usually you dont feel body parts. i dont feel my thighs or my shoulders. but i feel my forearms all the time.

do symptoms of parkinson occur over a long time or can they get worse in very short time like days or weeks?

i am really scared now.
i read about the cogwheel stuff and when i for example hold my hand close to my face and then move it away from my face
by extending my arm then my thumb/wrists starts to shake!!!!
i have this in both arms!

i do not have tremor in my fingers. when i stretch them out they dont shake. but when i extend my arm then the movement
isn't fluent and this is damn scary. i never paid attention to this! i mean who pays attention to this!? damn.
i have no clue how long i have been having this.

i am so damn concerned now. what if these damn stimulants messed up my dopamine neurons!?

or is it possible that ambien could cause any of these symptoms? i found nothing in the leaflet.
i have been taking ambien daily for the last 4 weeks.
sometimes i would take 15mg cause 10mg wasnt enough. but the leaflet says that 10mg is the max
dose you can take per day. is taking 15mg ambien dangerous?

i wish there was a harmless explanation for this. i wish this was all stress or anxiety related. i have stress
and i have anxiety but these cogwheel like symptoms extremely worry me. i dont know how many harmless
explanations exist for symptoms like these.

i have been feeling generally bad the past few days. i feel overall weak and also have some kind of vertigo.
when i walk them i feel a drift towards the left side.

but my balance is normal. i can stand on one leg.

since i read about the cogwheel stuff today and then looked at my movements i have been feeling so miserable
as if i was getting a panic attack.
i hope to get an appointment with a neurologist as fast as possible.

i think the anxiety made the symptoms worse. is this possible?
i wish that this can be explained some other way. i wish it was just ambien withdrawal or whatever but i dont know
how realistic this is.

 

[SKL]

it's not parkinsons, stop. google could tell you that. if it worries you see a doctor.
if you're worried about what you may have read about speed & parkinsons that's long term stuff (not that it's not worrisome.)
it sounds more like the stereotypical amphetamine jitters multiplied by anxiety.
how much have you slept in the past 48-72?
standard disclaimer not medical advice.

 

[SterlingM.Archer]

I think that when your brain drains all your dopamine, tremors can occur.

 

[SKL]

when "brain drains all your dopamine" (not speaking literally, this isn't how it works)
a variety of unpleasantness can ensue
particularly getting paranoid about your health and posting on message boards
it is either so bad you need to see a doctor or something you can sleep off
this leans strongly towards the latter; this stuff acutely is almost all temporary, i.e.
it's time to lay off the drugs and sleep

 

[Memantine]

Of all the stimulants only methamphetamine is directly toxic to the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Other stimulants just deplete dopamine and desensitize dopamine receptors in the striatum causing parkinson like symptoms on withdrawal.

Parkinsons disease is a slowly progressing disease. The most common factors that can induce acute parkinsonism are:

- Dopamine depletion, dopamine receptor desensitization, dopamine receptor blockade (temporary)
- The neurotoxin MPTP and manganese (permanent)


Ofcourse it is possible that you coincidentally did get PD but it is very unommon at young age. How old are you?

If you are really concerned it is possible to test for PD by a neurologist.

 

[SKL]

^this, if you want it politely and using big words
my posts, if you want it impolitely and in layman's terms
(I can do both but was in a misanthropic, tough love kind of mood.)
anyway OP you''ll be OK
just don't overdo it and remember to sleep
if it doesn't go away look into lottery tickets and stay out of lightning storms.

 

[glab]

hi, yes i'll try to see a doc asap but most of them have pretty long waiting times for an appointment.
it cannot be a lack of sleep.

due to taking ambien the last few weeks i have slept a lot. what could this be? and what about the cogwheel motions?

i dont know how cogwheel looks in reality but i read what it looks like
and my arm movements stutter!
when i bend my arm and then extend it then it's not fluent.
and during extending the arm i see how my wrist/thumbs are trembling!
right now my arms also tingle.
this is totally scary.

i also noticed a few times in the past few weeks that when i laid in bed on my back and was holding up my
smartphone with one hand then my thumb started. i thought that
maybe this is due to the "weight" of the phone.
i also cant hold anything up like this for long. i cannot lie in bed and read a book for a long
time cause my arms start to burn! but this isnt anything new. i have been noticing this even years
ago.

i also feel strangely dizzy. i didnt take stims the last 2-3 days.


it's not like i went on a stimulant binge like i said i didnt abuse anything. could ambien possibly have anything to do with this?
i looked up the side effects and found nothing which sounded like this