Questions about Ritalin

[Anonymous]

My family doctor says that ritalin is addictive. Is that true?

What happens if you just stop taking it cold turkey? Are there problems?

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[Geoduck]

I don’t know, but I got the same bit from the pharmacist when I got my adderall (amphetamine salts). I’m still figuring out the ritalin, which I just started taking instead of adderall (made me a little more chatty cathy than I already was).

Sure, it is addictive, it says so on the prescribing information. If you have an addiction history, it’s not for you. However, So are many prescription drugs. My post-partum anti-depressants came with NO warning of addiction and were highly addictive. So now I wonder why that doesn’t come with a warning. Probably because people don’t sell lexapro as a street drug. Although, my percocet, given after recent surgery, also came with no warning, and that IS sold as a street drug. Who knows why one drug is labeled as addictive and another is not?

I’m thinking there must be a dosage amount or time amount that makes a difference. With the adderall, I had no side effects at all when I just stopped taking it. I was just my normal spacey self. I assume that maybe because I was only on it for a few months and I was only taking 20mg a day, NOT swallowing the whole bottle. Any drug can become addictive when abused, and ritalin is sold on the street, so has a reputation of abuse and addiction, like amphetamines do.

Still, you have to pay attention to these things, and carefully decide whether or not the risks are worth it. For me, since my ADD was horribly impacting my social life, and I really like having friends and family, it became necessary to do something about it. However, my doc and I have a plan so that medication is just one small part of therapy, and hopefully, I’ll be able to come off it eventually, without worrying about addiction.

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[Anonymous]

Well, given the sleep problems that I’ve had, I don’t think I’ll be coming off meds once we decide what I need. I weaned myself off asthma meds about three years ago, and we finally figured out that I needed to be on them again, my asthma was worse, not just the dry cough that it originally presented as (I didn’t see my doc for 2 years, my fault).

The ADD psych I’m seeing totally poo-pooed what my doc said. For ADDers, they are not addictive since we don’t get high on them. He actually asked if I’d crushed & snorted it 😆 and of course we hadn’t.

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[Geoduck]

Is your ADD a psychologist or a psychiatrist? A psychiatrist is an MD and should be able to prescribe, I think.

Some docs probably have experience with all sorts of patients, and have seen people become addicted to all sorts of drugs. Being human, he probably is just applying the few anecdotal experiences to everyone. I had a doc like that. For the most part he was great, but he would have these odd warnings based solely on things happening to one of his patients.

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[Anonymous]

Any of the psychostimulants, if taken in excess can cause toxicity including psychosis and potentially addictive. However, ADDers don’t usually seek these medications for recreational use. There is plenty of literature to support the fact that the use of medication may also be protective from further abuse self-medication.

The bigger problem is not abuse but diversion (i.e. giving the medication to someone else) either to sell or just because you want to be nice and help that struggling student who needs to do an all-nighter (and who is now dead because you didn’t realize they had a preexisting heart condition!).

Always seek out your medical doctor to ensure the medication is first safe and look into the issues.

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[Anonymous]

The ADD consultant I’m seeing is a psychiatrist, but he only diagnoses, doesn’t treat. So I have to eventually go back to my general physician once he issues the final report. Have to have a sleep study first, and that’s taking time, clinic in my city is way busy so I’m trying to get my doc to refer me to Toronto where my mom had her sleep studies done. Their wait time is a few weeks versus many months up here.

Thanks Dr J. for the reminder about non-prescribed drugs.

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[Anonymous]

Prescribing information can be obtained from the http://www.caddra.ca Practice Guidelines which is free and downloadable. It was designed for family doctors and general psychiatrists so make sure your doc knows about this as this is the clinical standard.

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[Anonymous]

Thanks Dr J.

I am having some difficulty with my family doc, she used to be very easy to talk to but now that I’m coming with more issues (and initially I didn’t know what was wrong), she is being more difficult.

It could just be that she’s reluctant to prescribe stimulant drugs, and also that she wants a formal diagnosis for both ADD and sleep issues, but I just have this feeling that I’m being flagged as a problem patient. I don’t normally get that feeling so I’m going very careful.

I do have trouble speaking with clarity in the few minutes I get to talk with her, and I feel I’m being cut off. I’ve asked her what’s wrong on a few occasions now since I have sensed the change in attitude. I don’t think she is knowledgeable about ADD at all but she still needs to feel she is in charge and has the expertise. It’s hard to balance all of that with my need to be a partner in my care.

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[Robbo]

Dang that sounds like an awful potential problem with your doctor no_dopamine, I think I may have some of the similar issues/concerns. The hardest thing for me is how slowly the health care system tick tocks along, I always show up for a doctors appointment with a list of topics I need/want to talk about, listed in priority (actually, just came up with that priority part ) Patience ain’t easy for me. I’ll print out that page Dr. J posted for my doc, and psychiatrist. My psychiatrist used to be a pharmacist, I’ve had good luck getting good information from pharmacists, sometimes I think I may be afraid of being judged based on very short conversations and the medications I take, that sux plain and simple. People will judge us, and be wrong sometimes. But I insist on being very involved in my own health care. I have fired doctors, it’s important to really think a lot about it before you replace your doctor if you think you’re not getting the best care available, I like to ask for a lot of advice before making a very big decision like that. I have much more experience in hospitals, and with many kinds of doctors than I would like to have. I’m not the adrenaline junkie I used to be, but I’ve paid dearly for my desire for excitement in the form of hospital stays/surgeries. Ugh, I could go on and on. As usual, but I’m on a new kick to keep my posts shorter. I got the idea on how to keep my posts shorter from watching the hours of interviews about the making of the Star Wars movies. So I try to write each post in a word processor first, then edit out all the useless boring yadda yadda blah blah stuff. I think I’m done with with one. It’s amazing, I didn’t have to delete anything out of this post. This ADD business is terrible, awful, bad, and ugly. It’s a dang can of worms but I’m sure this community can help each other recover from it and the symptoms. I wish I could talk more about all my adrenaline chasing adventures, mostly when I was younger, seemingly invincible… But dat’z against my new “keeping it shorter” rules. This time… Oh I know!, I can put it on a new web site I’ll be bringin back up some time soon. Ack! Eer I go again, huh? Hehe. The website will be a fun place to let myself write lak crazee man!, and track the suckess of recovering from ADD and yackitty yack attacks. Chatty Danny episodes! Etc.

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