My Ritalin is About to Run Out - What do I do?

[Cindy Brady]

Hi everyone,

Been visiting often and finally decided to post. This site is so helpful!

I’m a 36 year old woman and I currently have a prescription for Ritalin, highest dose allowed. They work great for me but they only last about 20 days so I wind up feeling crappy those other 10 days.

What can I take the other 10 day (that I’ll actually be able to get) that would be somewhat similar to the Ritalin? My first choice would be to be prescribed the same (or similar) drug from a different doctor but I don’t think I can due to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program in my state

* Mephedrone – Available but does not seem too safe
* Research Chemicals – Open to trying some but no luck finding them
* Phentermine and similar diet pills - Online pharmacies have become scams
* Meth – I wouldn’t know where to start and not sure it’s for me
* Diet pills from my local vitamin shop – All the same and not effective

Anybody have any thoughts? I’m about to feel crappy again and I’m dreading it lol

 

[UpdownUP]

Mephedrone picks you up in a way similar to Ritalin, not quite like it, but it'll probably be the most useful.

Don't go for Meth, it'd be like enjoying skimmed milk then trying fullfat, you won't turn back!

Go Mephedrone, but the best thing would be to put 5 away, so you have 15 on the Ritz then, combine mephedrone on the last 15 having the 5 at irregular intervals, day 17, 19, 23, 26, 28 that will make it a little more bearable!

I wouldn't fancy mixing those pharm diet pills with Ritalin, they will have the most similar effect, but the side effects could very likely be catastrophic...Other diet pills probably aint going to get you where you want to be...

My 2 cents

Good luck

 

[sekio]

Tell your doctor?

 

[TheFDA]

I used to find myself in situations very, very similar to yours all the time; it really does suck.

Obviously, the best thing for you to do would be to get off Ritalin completely, but I'm assuming you know that & at this point in time aren't ready & willing to do that.

Unfortunately, there really is no easily available "substitute" for Ritalin. I saw that someone above said that Mephedrone has somewhat similar effects as Ritalin does, & that's the one thing I never tried (I wouldn't even know where to find it... honestly, I've only ever heard it mentioned before on this site), so it sounds like that could definitely be worth a shot. Definitely do as much research as possible on its safety, though... If you're more concerned about the saftey level of Mephedrone than you are of that of Meth then, well, that's saying a lot.

Other than that I think your best bet would be to seriously consider switching to another ADHD medication, particularly Adderall or Dexedrine. It sounds like you simply cannot get prescribed any more Ritalin than you currently are, but perhaps if you were on a different ADHD medication you'd be able to manage to get prescribed a daily dose that's more potent than the daily dose of Ritalin you're currently prescribed? Plus, your tolerance to Adderall or Dexedrine would be slightly lower than your tolerance to Ritalin (a tolerance to Methylphenidate will largely "carry over" to an Amphetamine tolerance, but not entirely).

If possible, though, you'd probably be better off switching doctors than switching medications. In the United States at least, there's no "official" maximum dosage that simply CANNOT be exceeded. With most medications "maximum dosages" are just guidelines basically, or at least that's how most doctors consider them. I've been prescribed ADHD medications for over six years, & not once has a doctor ever even mentioned to me in any context anything about a maximum dose that can be prescribed. Whether switching doctors would be beneficial or not however depends largely on the dose of Ritalin that you're prescribed. If you're prescribed like 180mg a day or something, it's quite unlikely that any doctor would prescribe anything higher (actually, if you're prescribed that much a day, don't switch doctors, 'cause another doctor would probably insist on lowering your dosage). If you're prescribed like 60mg a day though, there's definitely a good chance that another doctor would be willing to prescribe more (hell, I'm currently prescribed 60mg of Adderall a day, which is equal in potency to 120mg of Ritalin).

Good luck. Hope that helped somewhat.

 

[Cindy Brady]

I wasn't aware 60mg was just a guideline. I will certainly look into that. My doctor said he couldn't go above that amount but maybe he was referring to the guideline and I assumed he meant the law.

I'm not sure where to find Mephadrone. either. I know it's online but the one time I tried ordering Methylone I'm pretty sure I got ripped off.

Thanks for the input. Any more info from anyone would be great!

Thanks

 

[rangrz]

MDPV or desoxypipradol? Both are DARI's like methylphenidate.

both are far more potent have a much longer half life, so caution and judicial dosing would be highly advised.

They're both not too hard to come by if you dig into the RC world a bit.

 

[LivingOnValium]

^what he said!

 

[ABCDFG I Ate The E]

MDPV or desoxypipradol? Both are DARI's like methylphenidate.

both are far more potent have a much longer half life, so caution and judicial dosing would be highly advised.

They're both not too hard to come by if you dig into the RC world a bit.

^^This.

Go with MDPV though, it's pretty easy to find imo and desoxy is good too but lasts like 3 days on one 5mg dose so I wouldn't even thik about desoxy

 

[TheFDA]

I wasn't aware 60mg was just a guideline. I will certainly look into that. My doctor said he couldn't go above that amount but maybe he was referring to the guideline and I assumed he meant the law.

I'm not sure where to find Mephadrone. either. I know it's online but the one time I tried ordering Methylone I'm pretty sure I got ripped off.

Thanks for the input. Any more info from anyone would be great!

Thanks

Oh God, no wonder you run out of your 'script early every month! Most people who have been taking Ritalin for an extended period of time will eventually, at some point or another, need their daily dose to be higher than 60mg.

Your doctor definitely doesn't seem to be giving you the facts straight up, & as a result his ability to therapeutically benefit you is being severely compromised, which is simply NOT acceptable. I really, really believe that your life could be made so much easier by switching doctors. Of course, there are many other doctors that pretty much always refuse to prescribe more of a medication than the recommended maximum daily dose, but there are just as many doctors (if not more) who don't really seem to care at all about recommended max. doses.

There's actually absolutely no laws that say a doctor can only legally prescribe X amount of a medication. He can prescribe you HOWEVER much he wants to (well, I don't know if he could get away with prescribing you something like 700mg a day, but that's just absurd anyway), & if he tells you differently he's lying.



Also, on a somewhat different note, another suggestion for you that I forgot to mention in my first reply... Perhaps until you get this whole Ritalin mess sorted out you could try using something that's not a Stimulant to help you get through the days you have to face when your Ritalin has run out. I'm sure there are a ton of substances out there that don't really have anything in common with Ritalin that could still help make the horrible discomfort of those 10 Ritalin-free days much, much better.

 

[Korn3x]

see if he can switch you to focalin. focalin is pretty good. it's the R isomer of ritalin, and the dosages for it are about half the amount of ritalin i believe.

much better than ritalin too.

 

[TheFDA]

see if he can switch you to focalin. focalin is pretty good. it's the R isomer of ritalin, and the dosages for it are about half the amount of ritalin i believe.

much better than ritalin too.

There's very little difference between Ritalin & Focalin.

Also, how would switching to Focalin help the person who created this thread with their current dilemma? If Ritalin works really well for them, why switch to Focalin? Just because 1mg of Focalin doesn't equal in potency 1mg of Ritalin doesn't mean anything, since they'd probably just switch her to Focalin at a dose that's equal in potency to her current Ritalin dose.

 

[Cindy Brady]

This is great info. I really appreciate it!

For sure my preferred option would be to simply get enough Ritalin. It works perfectly for me.

What would happen if I went to a different doctor and also kept the original one? I mean, if I get a prescription for Ritalin from another doctor will get flagged by some monitoring system if I am prescribed the same drug by two different doctors?

 

[Korn3x]

There's very little difference between Ritalin & Focalin.

Also, how would switching to Focalin help the person who created this thread with their current dilemma? If Ritalin works really well for them, why switch to Focalin? Just because 1mg of Focalin doesn't equal in potency 1mg of Ritalin doesn't mean anything, since they'd probably just switch her to Focalin at a dose that's equal in potency to her current Ritalin dose.

idk i was just guessing that the max dose of focalin might be higher in potency when compared to the max dose of ritalin.

This is great info. I really appreciate it!

For sure my preferred option would be to simply get enough Ritalin. It works perfectly for me.

What would happen if I went to a different doctor and also kept the original one? I mean, if I get a prescription for Ritalin from another doctor will get flagged by some monitoring system if I am prescribed the same drug by two different doctors?

yes. doctors can look up to see what other doctors are prescribing you. there's a website they can go on to see if you're scoring the same general type of medication. not sure if they can look up the actual prescriptions or not, but like say one doc is giving you pain meds, they can look up to see if there's another doc that is prescribing you pain meds as well. (this is what i've been told, for my state at least. not sure how it works in other states, or if this applies over the US or not)

 

[Lolie]

This is great info. I really appreciate it!

For sure my preferred option would be to simply get enough Ritalin. It works perfectly for me.

What would happen if I went to a different doctor and also kept the original one? I mean, if I get a prescription for Ritalin from another doctor will get flagged by some monitoring system if I am prescribed the same drug by two different doctors?

Here's a link to information on Florida's PDPM. Those of other states look similar.

http://www.flgov.com/drugcontrol/pdmp/faq.html

As you can see, both physicians and pharmacists can check a patients prescription history for "doctor shopping", but doing so is not mandatory.