Ritalin

[LunasGoRawr]

Hi, so I'm a female, about 5'2", and about 165 lbs (shut up, i know i'm fat). I just snorted 20mg of ritalin about 20 minutes ago. I feel nothing other than a burning in my nose (first time i've ever snorted anything) and a nasty taste in my mouth. I have 60mg (3 20mg tablets) left. should I take another tablet? or should I wait? The ritalin is mine (i'm bipolar and my doc prescribed it to me about a year ago for whatever). Have i built up a resistance? I usually take 1 20mg tablet each morning. Any advice would be great.

 

[ro4eva]

^^ You think you're fat?

I wouldn't worry too much, you've got a lonnnnng way to go until you hit morbid obesity. No seriously, don't worry about it. You're not that fat.

Anyway, are you on any other medications? Because that could be playing a major role in how you feel (or don't feel + not to mention weight gain) after snorting your ritz.

Neuroleptics in particular can kill a ritalin buzz in seconds.

 

[blakmike]

If you wanna get twacked, then take em all. Swallow snort shoot take your pick.....
If you wanna get horny or study or something, take another one.......

 

[LunasGoRawr]

yeah. I'm also on prozac, abilify, and equetro.

 

[Alex000]

It very well could be the Abilify blocking the effect of the Ritalin. The Equetro and Prozac would not help it particularly, either, but would not really effect the high that much. I think the main culprit is the Abilify.

 

[SerotonergicHaze]

Yes. I second that it's the abilify.

The reason for this, is that methylphenidate produces its effects by prolonging the activation of Dopamine receptors by blocking the reuptake. Abilify blocks these receptors, meaning they are never activated in the first place, and thus methylphenidate does nothing.

Abilify has a long half life, so it will take at least three days to leave your system.

Why are you taking Abilify? If you're bipolar or schizophrenic, methylphenidate may exacerbate the problem.

 

[ErgicMergic]

It is definitely the Abilify, and you should NOT discontinue an antipsychotic just to get high off of stimulants, in case you were considering it. Stimulants can make bipolar worse by making you hypomanic and by increasing the intensity of mania episodes, from what I understand, you brain is already stimulated (excess Dopamine) during your manic and hypomanic episodes, so why take something like Abilify and Ritalin at the same time? Makes no sense...

Plus, the extra NE reuptake from MPH can make you even more irritable... why were you even prescribed stimulants in the first place (you say "for whatever")? And why are you trying to get high off of stimulants? Are you trying to get that hypomania back? This is of course if you're truly BP, a lot of BP diagnosed people are not really bipolar, as it seems to be the new fad diagnosis.

 

[SerotonergicHaze]

Worse yet, many people are just thrown antipsychotics for general mental health problems.

None the less, OP is bipolar, which is in my view a valid reason for antipsychotics if prescribed sparingly with good pharmcovigilance

ErgicMergic is 100% right. Bipolar + MPH is a terrible idea. A dear friend of mine who has borderline personality disorder (shares many bipolar features), started messing with stimulants, and it turned into a bit of a habit/addiction and he would take ridiculous doses of methylphenidate (120mg+) on a near daily basis. It ended with him having a psychotic episode, and being hospitalized for several weeks, and drowned in quetiapine. He used to be a highly achieving student, but everything went downhill since being hospitalized.

While I'm not bipolar, back when I was prescribed Dexamphetamine, I started having hypomania symptoms from it, and switched to a low dose of methylphenidate. If stimulants can make a stable person hypomanic, think what they can do to an unstable person

 

[ro4eva]

About Abilify (bear with me, I know I'm repeating what others have said) - Basically, it blocks the chemical in your brain (dopamine) which Ritalin interacts with from ever being made available (released into dopamine synapses) for Ritalin to manipulate into making you feel high. Think of a synapse being a fireplace and dopamine being the fire. Well, Ritalin would be like you pouring fuel into the fire and Abilify is the fire extinguisher. Probably not the best analogy but you get the picture I hope.

Also, I may be wrong on this but I swear I remember reading somewhere that statistically speaking, bipolar individuals are at greater risk of becoming addicted to recreational stimulants - namely cocaine (and I would guess Ritalin as well since it works in a similar fashion when it comes to dopamine).

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to preach to you. It's your body, and I don't feel I have a right to tell you what you should and shouldn't be putting in it. I just wanna educate you about potential risks and so on so that if you do decide to try it, you've at least noted some of what possibly could go wrong (harm reduction).