ritalin addiction/how to detox?

[Le Junk]

UPDATE: This thread is rather old and the issue has since been resolved. I'll leave the thread up as harm reduction for anyone else going thru a similiar situation.


I need serious answers from only qualified respondents please. This is not for me, but for my wife. She was originally prescribed 20 mg.s of Ritalin per day for what she described as chronic fatigue. She was able to talk her doctor into uping the dose to 60 mg.s per day. What I didn't know was that once all of those 90 pills were gone for the month, she purchased another 60 pills from a friendly dealer. I know she consumed those 60 pills as well before the end of the month because she'd be completely out of everything by the 25th day of each month. I would estimate she was consuming around 100-140 mg.s of Ritalin per day. Well, the party is officially over, but I need to know how I should proceed from here. This is what I know for sure;

She's been taking 100-120 mg.s of Ritalin per day for nearly 6 months now.

When she runs out of Ritalin, she takes these pink and round Didrex pills. When taking Didrex, she consumes 3 of those pills per day.

Her weight has dropped over the last 6 months to about 105 lbs., down from 125 lbs. She's 5 ft. 7 inches.

She is a completely different person now.

So here are my questions;

Without her going to rehab, where should I begin with this? Is Ritalin a tapering drug? If so, knowing where she's been, what would a recommended dosage be? How soon to finish? Should I give her Valium during the withdrawal? How long will it take for her to become herself again?

I appreicate any and all qualified advice. Please, please, if you don't know what your saying, then refrain from responding. Thank you.

Le Junk

 

[brutus]

Sorry to hear about your wife Le Junk. I wish I could give you a good answer, but I honestly don't even know if I have ever even taken Ritalin. Since it's a stimulant, I would go cold turkey if I were her. Just keep an eye out on her. Hope you are doing good yourself as far as drugs are concerned. PM me if you need to talk man.

 

[Le Junk]

Sorry to hear about your wife Le Junk. I wish I could give you a good answer, but I honestly don't even know if I have ever even taken Ritalin. Since it's a stimulant, I would go cold turkey if I were her. Just keep an eye out on her. Hope you are doing good yourself as far as drugs are concerned. PM me if you need to talk man.

I'm doing great, thanks. I've tappered my hydro addiction to 20 mg.s per day, down from my peak of 70 mgs. It's been a slow, but manageable effort. Thanks again, now back to my wife...

Le Junk

 

[ingannilo]

I'm not super qualified here either, but I'm pretty sure ritalin is a short acting drug, so I wouldn't interrupt her dose schedule if she feels stable with it. Then experiment a little bit with lowering doses to find a comfortable % to drop, and apply that change to each dose taken through the day.

Truth is everyone has to find their own comfortable taper speed, and it's not difficult: asses where she is right now and discuss with her how much she thinks she can tolerate dropping and at what intervals. Be generous, don't rush things.

That all seems pretty obvious, pretty intuitive. Sorry if it isn't any help

 

[CretiNation]

I've done 60-120mg ritalin per day for weeks to months at a time and, although the fatigue and depression are not nearly as intense as with amphetamine WD, the psychological craving is VERY overwhelming. for this reason i would not suggest tapering, the cravings just don't really make it a possibility. of course, this is just me and my body, i'm sure you're familiar with how differently stimulants can affect people...

my advice is just go CT; take a few sick days or do it over the weekend. in my experience ritalin WD is painless once you get past the first few days of intense cravings. benzos could help for those days, but i wouldn't recommend it because, well there isn't much anxiety as far as the WD goes but the main thing is replacing one pill with another...

in short: rest and food for the first couple days, after that i recommend exercise and anything else she enjoys that keeps the mind and hands occupied. maybe even a weekend getaway, not only as an escape from the environment associated with the drug, but also as a way of reminding her the drug isn't necessary to get outta bed and have fun in a productive way.

anyway, i hope this was some help. keep us updated LJ, the more detailed the info, the more we can help!

 

[clonicjerk]

Ritalin is safe to come off of without "titration" of the dose. Expect that she will be extremely tired - in body and spirit. For possibly quite a while. Days to Months. Or worse. It depends. The bigger factor is the Didrex. It´s generic name is Benzphetamine Hydrochloride. It´s an AMPHETAMINE. It´s not the strongest one to be sure, but has some of nastier side effects in this family. Coming off of Didrex will cause severe physical\mental fatigue.

I have to tell you, that trying force someone you care about to quit is not really a viable answer.
She is a drug user. You too right? It doesn´t mean it´s bound to be all bad. You two can have a good life. even so. After all, 6 months is not a very long time at all.

If you can´t live with who she is.... don´t try to turn back time with rehab. If you love her, then let her make her own choices. If you can´t love her because she has a penchant for stimulants.... then you might need to make other arrangements.

Sorry for being blunt.
I hope it works out for you two.

 

[Le Junk]

I'm reading all of your replies with the most appreciation. Thanks to all and feel free to keep the advice coming. Special thanks to CretiNation for actual experience advice.

Le Junk

 

[superampd]

Ritalin does not need to be tapered off, but can cause severe psychological addiction.

I wouldn't recommended using benzos to help with the crash if you want to help your wife with an amphetamine addiction, because benzo addiction is MUCH worse, and IMO you shouldn't risk the possibility of that.

Lots of sleep and a little bit of therapy helped me a lot with stimulant addiction. One thing that may work, but I don't believe any doctor would recommend would be using small doses of DPH to help with Ritalin addiction. I don't know this from experience, but your post made me remember a story I read on Erowid where he was able to stop his Ritalin addiction with Dramamine.

http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=54351

In terms of being professionally qualified, I am completely unqualified, but I figured I should just post this anyways in case you wanted to consider it. Good luck

 

[Le Junk]

Ritalin does not need to be tapered off, but can cause severe psychological addiction.

I wouldn't recommended using benzos to help with the crash if you want to help your wife with an amphetamine addiction, because benzo addiction is MUCH worse, and IMO you shouldn't risk the possibility of that.

Lots of sleep and a little bit of therapy helped me a lot with stimulant addiction. One thing that may work, but I don't believe any doctor would recommend would be using small doses of DPH to help with Ritalin addiction. I don't know this from experience, but your post made me remember a story I read on Erowid where he was able to stop his Ritalin addiction with Dramamine.

http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=54351

In terms of being professionally qualified, I am completely unqualified, but I figured I should just post this anyways in case you wanted to consider it. Good luck

Excellent read. Thank you superampd.

Le Junk

 

[Dxmmonster]

A ritalin addiction shouldnt be too much of a hassle. You just get fatigued easily. Also things in life that were originally interesting/funny might seem dull and without any "color". Long periods of sleep and cravings.

You best bet is to cold turkey the Ritalin as it will not produce very bad withdawals. Entertain the person that is in wd and dont let them get bored.

maybe coffee andsome modafinil would help with the fatigue.

 

[hexxx]

Stimulants cause dependence not like opioids do but by causing imbalances on the body's metabolic rate control mechanism / loop. It's a negative feedback in that your body is trying to slow down the metabolic rate while the drug is increasing it (so increasing the drug levels causes your body to attempt to slow down - hence the negative). Stopping the drug will then prevent your metabolic rate from increasing but your body will still be trying to slow it down as well (the body learns and adjusts accordingly over time, it reminds me of a control loop in engineering / computing, basically we use the same tricks, learning defaults over time and good starting points to maintain accurate control). The body has a dampened response time (for very good reasons) and will not instantly respond to variations in certain feedback systems. The parameters are variable depending on the system and the metabolic rate isn't changed very easily. It will take some time. So basically you crash hard for an extended (yet temp) amount of time. The duration of the crash will depend on the particular person. I'm lucky in that I adjust quickly but I've never really used consistently until recently and it's not high levels compared to recreational use.

You were quite into coke at a stage right? You are the unofficial purification guru WRT to this substance it seems, so you must have some personal experience with this type of thing from the cocaine PoV. Ritalin should be less difficult to stop but still problematic. Your wife says she has chronic fatigue, if this is the case she is probably self-medicating a large amount so the huge amount is not really 100% abuse. Unless she doesn't really have any real fatigue issues, rather fatigue as the result of metabolic crash due to prolonged stimulant use? She needs to come clean if the fatigue is caused by the stims otherwise you guys need to find out what is causing it (hormonal, external chemicals, fitness level). If you can treat the fatigue at the source she will not be so eager to get tweaked out on stims.

I am someone who is self-medicating stims as a treatment to fatigue and cognitive problems caused by past chemotherapy. Luckily although it is long term, it isn't permanent according to research. If I get rid of fatigue and am able to concentrate at levels prior to being treated, I have almost no desire to mess around with drugs. I'm using something to help but it's not what I want, more desirable from getting high perspective but not from a functional member of society perspective or easy on the wallet. If I go out now, I don't have any desire to score drugs, I drink maybe 5 or 6 drinks max over the course of the evening (as opposed to about 1/2 bottle or 15 shots in total of vodka or whisk(e)y over the first 2-3hrs).

What I recommend either way, is maybe look into Modafinil. I've been trying to convince my docs to give it to me but he is not well-informed on the drug.

I can sympathise why your wife would want to use so much if she is indeed suffering from fatigue issues. Something that a lot have people on this site have said, is that for someone to stop something, they have to want to stop (try not make it an ultimatum, I'm thinking from my PoV that that would be a bad, bad thing and would make the situation 10x worse). You should try make it so that she wants to stop, getting her primary issue sorted out will be a big step towards this. She needs to go for blood tests, complete scans to make sure there isn't serious problems with her health if she is fatigued because it isn't normal. It took radioactivity and extremely potent toxins to induce it in my case.

She will find everything will lose it's magic for quite a while while her body has to start making and using neurotransmitters differently and re-adapt to how it was before. It does eventually come back though so she has to hang in there. I think methylphen shouldn't really have caused permanent neurotoxicity otherwise there would be more warning regarding it's use ESPECIALLY since we give it to 3 year olds. If I can come back from weekly (sometimes twice / week) use of high dose MDMA/X and be totally fine now, I'm sure Ritalin users can bounce back much easier.

The Dimenhydrinate link pointed out by superampd may have something to do with it's weak antidepressant properties. I know that diphenhyd. exhibits these, was wondering about dimen. Apparently diphen is what caused fluoxetine (prozac) to be developed so that's probably a big hint. Dimen. is basically diphen. reacted with a stim according to wiki, dunno if that's true but it could also be the stim properties preventing "w/d-like" symptoms from surfacing. So 2 birds 1 stone perhaps?

Modafinil will probably do her good - it helped cocaine addicts and I think the study included meth addicts as well. You are in the US so you shouldn't have any difficulty getting it. Good luck to you and your wife.

 

[Cane2theLeft]

From what I can tell by your questions, you seem to be interested in the discontinuation alone. I can understand why you want to be informed about what to expect and how to treat/handle this but I don't think that is the biggest issue you should consider.

The immediate aftermath will not have much physical withdrawal like say opiates, it will mostly be psychological but it can be pretty intense. She will likely be extremely fatigued, depressed and have strong cravings but she can get through this relatively short period just like opiate addicts get through c/t withdrawal... what follows is what I think you really need to address.

If she has really developed a relationship with this drug, if she is quite psychologically dependent and if she is using to self-medicate any psychological issues then these will really come out and stay out after she stops using. I think you should really consider some form of counseling/therapy to address why she is using these drugs and get help to remain off them.

I have helped a lot of rape/trauma victims understand that despite their reservations, anxieties, etc. about going to counseling, that there are just certain things that people can not overcome with will power or desire. No matter how strong someone is, there are certain things in life that people need help to deal with so they can get back to normal.

I don't know if this is the case for your wife, but if she has really changed that much since she's been using, I think it could be. If she really has difficulty stopping then I think this is indicative that there are other underlying issues and the drug use is just a symptom.

I admit I am a little biased because I am studying to become a drug counselor but I think you should consider this if you really want her use to cease for good.

Take care, and please keep us updated on the situation if you would.

 

[Le Junk]

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to respond to this thread. I must have unchecked the instant notification button, because I haven't received any. Anyway, I wanted to update you guys with a little of what's going on.

It's now day # 2 of complete withdrawal. Yesterday wasn't so bad, but today is getting pretty ugly. She's wide awake with insomnia, nauseated, irritable and tired. She wanted me to ask how long the physical WD's will last? We can address the psychological issues and underlying problems later, but for now, what's a general ballpark for the physical?

Thanks, and I'll be anxiously awaiting your responses.

Le Junk

 

[norco]

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to respond to this thread. I must have unchecked the instant notification button, because I haven't received any. Anyway, I wanted to update you guys with a little of what's going on.

It's now day # 2 of complete withdrawal. Yesterday wasn't so bad, but today is getting pretty ugly. She's wide awake with insomnia, nauseated, irritable and tired. She wanted me to ask how long the physical WD's will last? We can address the psychological issues and underlying problems later, but for now, what's a general ballpark for the physical?

Thanks, and I'll be anxiously awaiting your responses.

Le Junk

Usually day 1 isn't too bad, days 2, 3 and 4 are the worst. but she shouldn't feel as bad on the 5th day. once it's been an entire week she shouldn't be feeling any withdrawl symptoms (i.e. insomnia, aches, etc) but of course she'll definitely be craving the "want to" to take them. be sure she stays strong and doesn't interrupt the withdrawl cycle, cause I'm sure today and tomorrow she'll want to take a handful to quit feeling so shitty.

Good luck my man.

 

[Eagleman]

I would consider myself addicted to Ritalin. So I may be qualified here. I take it for ADHD and occasionally a few extra on the weekends for a party boost. I seriously doubt I could live without them at this point (well, I could but you know what I mean).
Anyway, stimulants are not a tapering drug, but if she is ingesting massive quantities you may want her to taper or her moods could shift violently. Start knocking out 10 mg a week and see where that goes. And it's only going to work if she knows she has a problem and is willing to fix it for you and herself. So the next time she gets her hands on a big quantity of pills, see if she will let you dispense her doses for her, and go from there. Good luck.

 

[Le Junk]

So the next time she gets her hands on a big quantity of pills, see if she will let you dispense her doses for her, and go from there. Good luck.

We tried that and it didn't work. Turns out she had an extra key to my safe that she forgot to tell me she had. Anyway, everything went down the toilet day # 1 and she's CT'd it from there. And there will be no more pills, period! So today is day # 5 and she's almost completely back to normal. She went thru a pretty rough 4 days, but today's been good. A little frazzled, but I'd guesstimate she's running at about 80% normal. Updates will follow, but thank you to all that have replied.

Le Junk

 

[Eagleman]

That is so great to hear, man. Glad things are working for you and the cold turkey thing didn't fuck her up too bad. Although stimulants are not physically addictive like opiates, heavy long term use that is is suddenly ceased can cause serious mental problems due to the heavy psychological addictiveness. But it sounds like your wife wasn't a complete slave to them if it's only day #5 and things are sailing somewhat smoothly...
I know what drug addiction can do to a marriage, dude...I have first-hand experience. PM me if you need any more tips, advice, etc...
And again, way to go. I'm happy for you both.

 

[abbeymills]

I have a problem with Ritalin, too. I wasn't sure where else to post, so I hope no one minds me posting here. I've been stealing it and snorting it for a few months now. It started out as just once or twice a month and eventually became once or twice every day. I take an antidepressant which usually wipes me out, and so this gave me an instant jolt of energy which was a really nice change. And it makes me happy too - I feel more patient, sympathetic, generally appreciative of life. So I know I need to stop taking it just because I cannot keep stealing it. And I know I'm abusing it, it takes more and more for me to get the feeling I want now. It's been one day cold turkey, and it sucked, but it was manageable. I feel very cranky, uninterested, vaguely depressed. Like it is a nice day, one I know I should be able to enjoy, but I can't find a way in. The Ritalin takes the edge off much better than my antidepressant. So I was considering going to my doctor and seeing if I could get a prescription, but I know if I did, I'd still probably just absue it, and so it wouldn't be a good idea. I know I need to stop taking it. But I am terrified to consider the idea that I might never feel this energetic, this happy again. Does that pass? Are there other things I can do that don't involve snorting pills? Are there any suggestions anyone has for how to make this withdrawal more managable and the not taking the Ritalin anymore stay effective?
Any replies or advice is very much appreciated.

 

[Virtuoso]

Unfortunately, Ritalin is similar to coke or meth as far as the detox experience. There is little in the way of physical withdrawal (except for maybe fatigue and general drowsiness), but the psychological aspect of the addiction can be extreme. Emotional withdrawal, depression, etc.

Using other drugs to cope with the withdrawal (like benzos or opiates) will ultimately lead to a substitute addiction.

Her best option in to immediately cease usage, and go to an NA meeting. There she can find resources, such as a therapist. Using is a symptom of addiction, not the disease itself. Through therapy, and strong family support, she should be able to pull through. I wish you the best.

Also, if you are having trouble getting her to recognize she has a problem, and intervention can be very effective. Ignore the exploitative crap you see on A&E, interventions really do convince people to seek help for problems they cannot control.

For the record, while my experience is not extensive, I am working on my degree in clinical psychology with a specialization in addiction medicine.

 

[daddysgone]

We tried that and it didn't work. Turns out she had an extra key to my safe that she forgot to tell me she had. Anyway, everything went down the toilet day # 1 and she's CT'd it from there. And there will be no more pills, period! So today is day # 5 and she's almost completely back to normal. She went thru a pretty rough 4 days, but today's been good. A little frazzled, but I'd guesstimate she's running at about 80% normal. Updates will follow, but thank you to all that have replied.

Le Junk

hi there
i truly hope you dont take this the wrong way, and i dont mean to question your approach here, but im a bit surprised that someone like yourself who has clearly had his share of drug use/abuse, is so intoleranant regarding his wife's use. is there a particular reason that you felt she needed to go cold turkey? you mentioned that you tried to do a taper but that it didnt work. What was her state of mind when you tried the taper? was she on board with quitting or was it against her will? whats her state of mind now? im only asking because i doubt you and she will have much success if this cold turkey approach is being thrust on someone who may not even wish to quit in the first place. if she is not sold on the idea of quitting, you will probably have the best success with an approach that causes the least amount of discomfort. good luck