Alchohol/illegal drugs treating ADHD

[Hans]

I would like to start this tread to help others who might have or had alchohol/illegal drug abuse issues..and proper medication helped addiction habits..

As I got older I began to have severe anxiety and stress. I had been diagnosed for depression and anxiety. My first Dr. perscribed Prozac and Xanax. It partially helped….

I began to notice that everyday at about 4:30 to 5:00 pm my anxiety would build up.. I started a habit of grabbing a beer out ot the refrigerator. Then a second one and a third one. At this point I had self medicated with alchohol and the anxiety/stress subsided to a tolerable level.

I went to a New Dr specialized in ADHD for diagnosis….

After being diagnosed ADHD and on medication I have discovered that my anxiety and stress has been greatly reduced. I no longer had the desire or the physical need to medicate with alchohol… (MY THOUGHTS_DISCLAIMER). I thought about my nephew and his previous Meth addiction. When I spoke to my sister she related that he had been checked for ADHD when he was 8 years old but nothing ever became of it. Meth like Ritalin affects the brain and I began to wonder how many people on Meth might also be self medicating to controll the stress/anxiety…

I brought this self awareness up with my DR and he said that many of his ADHD patients addiction habits had disappeared after starting medication…

This posting is to give thanks to my wife and DR for helping me climb back out of a deep hole and give me my life back….

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[Anonymous]

I have treated lifelong cocaine addicts with ADHD and on proper treatment and commitment, they stopped their addictions.

Self-medication is a dangerous sport.

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[Anonymous]

Self-medication is a dangerous sport, but quite fun! In all seriousness, I use alcohol to self-medicate. Usually once per week will do it, but sometimes more. Been a drinker for most of my life, in my younger years I was a binge drinker. Alcohol helps me slow my brain down to a “normal” level and it usually takes me a few days to spool back up to a frantic pace after a night of drinking. Not good right? But I’d prefer to have some social medication once per week than take daily doses of drugs that all have side effects ranging from suicidal thoughts to depression to lack of sexual drive.

I’ve been on a half dozen different ADHD meds and only the stimulant based ones seemed to really work and didn’t make me feel like a Zombie. The last one I was on was Concerta. I was taking 36mg then 54mg and then 36mg twice a day after telling my doc I was feeling a lot of anxiety. He kept upping the dosage. I finally figured out on my own that I was good on 36mg UNLESS I became stressed out and then I went directly from excited to frantic and feelings of impending doom and despair. I have since given up on meds.

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[Carrie]

My Uncle who currently is a crack addict, was treated for anxiety and depression (before crack), Prozac as well which made him 100% times worse. I was talking with him and I guess he was prescirbed Ritalin because his doctor figures he has ADD, but my uncle said that it took away his sex drive and at this point thats all he has left so he refuses to take it. I told him there are other options and he should listen to his doctors instead of ignoring what the prescribe. He never takes what they give him after his Prozac experience. I believe if he would listen and accept the diagnosis and treatment he would be successful. I know he has ADD. Hes my most favorite person in the world, has been my best friend since I was born. I would give anything to have my uncle back!

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[Anonymous]

I’m sorry to hear about your uncle Carrie, that is a shame. At the same time, I can completely identify with the mistrust of doctors and their “cure in a pill” mentality.

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[Carrie]

I totally agree. I had that mistrust too. When I was 15 I too was prescribe Prozac… How? I just went in and said “I think im depressed”. He signed the prescription, and as soon as my mom and I got into the car, she ripped it up and said “NO!”. She was right. Thank goodness for her! That tainted my views…. Until I went to school and became a nurse and now work with Doctors… Not all are the best no, but at least there are some good ones out there!! Crack is a harsh drug. Hes almost lost it all. Well pretty much has. I cant even say he has his sanity left. At least when I visit him he still smiles and we have a great time because I dont judge him like the rest of my family. Hes still my uncle, my best friend and always will be.

Ive talked to him recently about ADD. I just wish I lived closer to help him and encourage him. But I dont Ah well.

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[Anonymous]

You are 100% correct on how easy it is to get meds. I’ve gone into the doctor and have had him try to push Prozac, Xanax and a host of other anti-depressants on me, even though I wasn’t there about depression. If I want pain meds, I can go to the doc and say “Wow this really hurts…” and *poof* vicodine or codine instantly.

It’s sad how much we depend on drugs as a society, prescription or illegal.

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[Anonymous]

Dr. J – you are so right…self-medicating is dangerous, even before one realizes that’s what s/he was doing! Yes, it’s dangerous, but can I cry since it seems in retrospect like it could have been like the holy grail for my ADHD?

So this past summer (2010), I met a hottie who happened to be a self-described connoisseur of drugs. Long story short, I shot up methamphetamine (meth) a few times and liked it! The hottie I was with made sure I took small doses so I wouldn’t OD…which probably is why I still have a “what’s the big deal?” attitude about meth. I had a job as a graduate teaching assistant in mathematics, and I was still able to do it…maybe even better than before! Mind you, the course I was teaching was post-calculus linear algebra for engineers.

So much for drugs frying brains like eggs and turning people into psychotic idiots. I wasn’t addicted by any means, either. I wasn’t seeking it out in huge amounts, stealing, being violent, killing, or anything. I wasn’t any of these things that people think of when they think of druggies.

Honestly, I still feel like meth is a wonderful drug! Except for the palpitations and tachycardia after the hit, and another thing that I’ll get into later, it worked much better, longer, and with less side effects than any perfectly legal ADHD drug I’ve taken. (Mind you, meth is legally available for ADHD in the USA…brand name Desoxyn…but is almost never prescribed due to its stigmatized status.) It even helped me rapidly lose weight without even trying…25 lbs in a month…and this weight loss is NECESSARY since on any given day, I’m either morbidly obese or slightly less weighty. This drug is like a MIRACLE!

Well, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Uh yeah, shooting up is the easiest way to get a scary skin infection. Mine was MRSA cellulitis (think: swollen, red skin + fever). It was worse than it felt…semicircular on both sides of the right elbow and the humerus side of the left elbow. IV vancomycin + 3 days in hospital + I&D + Bactrim DS = cure. (I& incision and drainage…think: slash the spot and squeeze it until everything comes out, and then leaving gauze in and on there for days until it quits draining.) I might be more scared of it if I weren’t convinced that the first 2 terms on the left side of the equation were unnecessary.

All that suffering and you think I wouldn’t be so positive about shooting meth. But omg…you’ve got to understand…I’m 27 and have literally been obese all my life! I was not even thinking about losing weight, yet here comes meth and it helps me lose 25 pounds in a month. For the first time ever, I have hope that I might reach my ideal weight someday! This felt so easy and so effortless. This made dieting easy! People who didn’t know my secret were actually telling me I looked good Had it not been for the infection and corresponding fatigue, it would have been great! Not only that but this stuff could have also given me more motivation and focus had it not been for the fatigue/infection?

If only meth pills weren’t so stigmatized. I want to cry. I need a hug. I feel like the best treatment for my ADHD *and* morbid obesity is meth…yet all the moral/political forces are so against it. Having it as pills would mean no nasty skin infections from shooting it…taking away the only downside that I see to meth. But the stigma makes me feel bad about even wanting meth pills. Concerta is helping…but meth seemed to bring about a possibility of total mind and body transformation.

Not to mention that one of the druggies the hottie introduced me to was a hardened one…and people described him as “healthy” when he got off the meth and gained weight even though the gain made him overweight and even obese! OMG I’d say that other than the meth-induced psychosis he was healthier on the meth…or at least at his ideal weight.

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[memzak]

You are so lucky you didn’t lose your arm to the MRSA. My husband lost both his feet to MRSA infections. They tried for a year to clear up the infection in the first foot but ended up amputating. the second foot followed a year later and the damage the infections did to his body has left him with kidney failure. He is in a nursing home now on dialysis. Be careful about needles.

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[Anonymous]

(((((HUGS))))) Thank you for your honesty. It’s a rare thing. I have self-medicated, long term, using codeine based pain killers at a dose that’s available over the counter here, just to shut my brain up enough that I can sleep, as well as to ease off my restless legs. I hate how thoughts race through my brain constantly and stop me from sleeping. Codeine helps because I have inherited my grandmother’s sensitivity to it (as well as her restless legs!) and it makes me quite foggy/sleepy. I would take a dose at tea time to begin the wind-down process, another dose at bed time, and often a third partway through the night if I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. Not good for a med that’s supposed to be for short term use only. I have managed to cut right back now I have medication to treat the restless legs (and man, it wasn’t easy to cut them back!!), but I still find a single night time dose often helps shut my brain up when I wake partway though the night. But it’s certainly an improvement on the amount I was taking. It’s not easy to make a change though, especially if a drug is “working” for you. I am hoping that I can get ADHD diagnosed and treated when I see a psychiatrist later this year (it’s a long wait for an appointment ). I score 9/9 for the inattentive traits (5/9 for hyperactive/impulsive), and I am certainly aware that it impacts my life massively and to a degree that I am not happy with. I am encouraged by the fact that my ADHD son says that his Ritalin helps keep his brain quiet without making him sleepy/foggy, and it certainly helps his focus and concentration, as well as his mood (less likely to get frustrated/angry). There is hope for me out there!

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[Anonymous]

memzak – make that both arms! I did totally luck out on that one. I’m not using the needles anymore, thankfully, and I did learn a valuable lesson. Sorry about your husband…that’s so sad I hope part of that year was in the hospital on iv vancomycin…that stuff is a godsend for most MRSA.

I probably shouldn’t have been on Effexor since that stuff, I swear, is a pretty good analgesic. The cellulitis might have hurt like hell had I not been on Effexor. Normally, I wouldn’t want to hurt like hell, but when something is horribly wrong, it’s easy to pay attention to it if it *does* hurt like hell! It’s so easy to write it off if it doesn’t!

Speaking of which, in another thread I mentioned cold-turkeying off the Effexor…and yeah, it totally covered up a really bad sinus headache. Today it hurt like hell until I had a chance to take Aleve, Flonase, and use a salt-water nasal wash.

KrazyKat – thanks for your reply! I’m glad that my response helped you vent despite it being something you’d rather not tell the whole world. Isn’t Internet anonymity great?

But yeah, I wasn’t fully open in that post. I’m gay and I fall for guys who look like typical white trash. The connoisseur of drugs I met was actually homeless, quite scruffy, but yet he was only willing to go so far with me. I don’t know if he just took advantage of people, didn’t want to admit that he went both ways, or what. Long story short, I was a total fool acting on impulse in my interactions with him.

Luckily things have improved since then. October was the hospitalization/MRSA episode. December I saw a brilliant psychiatrist who suspected the meth abuse was an attempt to self-medicate ADHD. OMG he asked me what it was like being high on meth, and I told him the truth. It really wasn’t a high at all. I didn’t see what the big deal about this demon-drug meth really was. I was still highly productive, in that I could still do my job teaching college-level mathematics. He asked if I daydreamed in high school…uh yeah. RX: Vyvanse.

Unfortunately that brilliant psychiatrist couldn’t keep two attempts at a follow-up appointment with me. So I had to start seeing an ARNP (advanced registered nurse practitioner…often the first 2 words are omitted but I’ve seen websites with these initials so I’ll keep them). We’ve been through Vyvanse, IR Adderall, IR Ritalin, and now Concerta. I like the Concerta. But all this time I’ve been on Effexor XR. I cold-turkeyed off of it because I couldn’t stand the side effects of the combo. I feel so much better in terms of side effects except that the Effexor was hiding a sinus headache which pretty much felt like hell.

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[Carrie]

Bige – MDMA was my self med. I got the awesome calm, clear, understanding of everything! On it I could listen to anything anyone was saying and understand them completely and see their true feelings! I saw me for who I was, my situation and how to deal and fix it all. I remember looking at my pile of laundry (I hate laundry) and thinking “If I want it done I need to stop feeling sorry about myself and how I cant do anything and just do it!” And so I did. I remember telling my husband ‘Im so sorry! I am putting all this big burden on you for taking care of me when you get home bossing you around. We need to work as a team” and at that time I was coming off a 4 day high and was in a big lul and those were the best days of my marriage. We did work as a team. I saw how to do it. That movie limitless was EXACTLY how I felt. I saw the answers and it all made sense. If it was legal, and somehow we could get small safe doses I would take it in a heart beat! Problem is, there are complications. I took too much once… Of course you cant sleep or eat on it. I was up all night, hadn’t eaten in 2 days… I remember walking up the stairs, seeing my husband go out the door and saying “everything is black” next thing I knew he was holding my shoulders saying “Carrie!! Carrie!! are you ok??” I just looked at him and said “yeah. leave me alone im going to bed” My arm was then hurting bad so I told him that and he said “You just fell head first into the closet and I caught you!” I had no clue it happened. Im so glad he was there. All that day I had to take things very slow or I would start to black out. Besides that, theres the depression part that roles in. The down sucked! Gross grungy feeling. My husband also hates drugs and anything to do with them. Smart man he is. I would never tell him I took them until after I was on them and was wide awake in bed and depressed on the down. But… I didnt get that calm, clear, understanding until after the high and down. So many time ive thought… I could just take such a small dose to get that calm, clear, understanding. I thought the ADD meds would do that for me, that was a big let down. hahahaha The understanding part was the best…. Gosh… Ive often thought.. I could just take it enough to reach my goals then stop! But noooooooooooo. Even though I came to all those understandings… as soon as they wore off.. I remember them, some… but dont do anything about it. Where as on it, I did and would.

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[Anonymous]

Scary stuff! I think the thing that keeps me from going further down the self medication track is knowing that it’s so hard to stop. I did go through a stage of drinking on and off in order to help me sleep, just to get a good sleep every now and then, but living at home made it hard, and the cost was an issue because I impulsively spent all my money and then couldn’t afford to buy alcohol lol. My son’s Ritalin is such a temptation, just to see if it helps, but I am terrified of it helping so well that I won’t be able to stop myself from taking more. I am so frustrated that good psychiatrists are either not taking new patients or booked up for months. I am scared that the psych I have booked in to see will not believe in adult ADHD, or will try treating me for depression or anxiety first. I do have anxiety, but not enough to have a really bad influence on my life, and much of it I can identify as having ADHD roots. I have pretty well become comfortable with my anxieties and am fairly good at not letting them rule my life. I know I am not depressed. I have been there once, when work sucked and I dreaded having to go, and I would be on the verge of tears just thinking about work (and of course, my brain was always busy with thoughts about the stresses of work), and I am certainly not like that now. I am generally pretty upbeat, with the attitude of why bother wasting life worrying about what might have been, and I don’t feel “down” like I did when I went through the “baby blues”, so I would be really pissed off if I was diagnosed with depression because I am positive I am not depressed. Anyway, I will just have to play the waiting game and hope things pan out the way I would like.

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[Anonymous]

About 3 years ago to date I thought smoking weed was the perfect self medicating drug. I smoked for 2 years on a very extreme level which lead to me going to the hospital several times for uncontrollable panic attacks. After having such reactions to weed I quit and struggled for several years. Recently moving up to Washington near Vancouver, BC. I found myself closer to the idea of self medicating with MDMA. It was delightfully wonderful to use for such a short period of time. Though it was not a solution to hiding my problems with ADHD it gave me some freedom for the moments when I was high. It felt good to release from my problems of feeling sorry for myself. No one was going to pick up the pieces for me or lend me a hand with my problems.

After so many years off and on those 2 different drugs I learned one thing. You can’t mask problems with more problems or by the use of drugs. Unfortunately I live with someone who thinks that masking her feelings with alcohol is the solution to her problems. I’m moving out in a month thank god, but you can’t do that. I don’t promote the idea of using nor hiding your problems. Having adhd for so long has taught me that facing any problem directly is so self for filling and a huge learning experience. So thats a +1 instead of the usual -2 for treating a problem with directly instead of indirectly with drugs games etc..

Has anyone considered World of Warcraft a drug addiction yet? Crack?

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[Carrie]

I played the vanilla WoW… Then got back into it… 2 years ago. Got level 85, 11k DPS, feral druid……. Lots of good epic gear… Addiction? pfffffffffff yeah right 😉 I play a lot… Well did. Actually stopped about 4 months ago on a dare. Was an addiction, got depressed and decided to sleep insead if I wasnt playing hahaha Only because it was my escape… What? Alcohol is bad? Drugs are bad? Affairs are bad? Eating too much is bad!! What else can I do?? Deal with the things ive been running from for years?? What!!?! Who does that! WoW time! What? No more WoW! Alright! Sleep it is! hahahaha However… Now if im very stressed and being a complete b!tch and in one of those moods where I hate everything and the world and dont come near me or I will kill you (oh the joys of PMS), I throw on my headset and play WoW. The guys in my guild always know that im on because im raging. Im usually in a better mood after playing and having the guys make fun of my mood swings! These days however… I have been playing Call of Duty Black Ops on the Xbox. Its productive! Im by the washer and dryer! Im keeping the laundry going! HEY! hahaha

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[Author]

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