Question:

  i can give you direct testimony (not professional opinion of course) of the   addictive effects of ritalin… Yeah, just like I am addicted to my asthma medication.  If I stop taking it I feel like I am suffocating; I can’t work and can’t think. Of course, thats just how I felt before I was medicated – I just didn’t know any better.

And just like I’m addicted to my new eye-glasses.  Before I got them I could see fine.  Now I have to wear them all the time or everything is fuzzy. Like the onld saying goes "You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone" I think it’s also true that you don’t know what’s wrong with you till it’s fixed -jason

Response:

i can give you direct testimony (not professional opinion of course) of the addictive effects of ritalin.  from what i gather, physical addiction potential is very small, almost to the point where its negligable at worst. but there is a catch.  along with many symptoms of add, something along the lines of high drug dependency rate is on there somewhere.  this is all

It’s not a symptom of ADD per se. It is not uncommon for people with ADD to pick up a drug addiction, particularly to stimulants, but this is often more a side effect of the depression that ADD, and the way people treat people who have ADD (ie, the "if you weren’t so lazy you’d succeed" syndrome), can cause. You might want to check the CD-ROMs in Rush Rhees for some journal articles on ADD, Ritalin, and addiction. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -chemical of course and we have that wonderful little mind that can get us by this.  well, what it boils down to is this:  it probably wouldn’t be so bad to be off ritalin for a bit or forever.  last week, sunday night with an allnighter for a math class and two tests coming up, i ran out of ritalin. i was bugging my doctor all week, and stuff happened, anyway, i ran out. sunday night.  i worked the night thorugh, took my tests and by midweek was a wreck.  not because of all that petty stress.  i felt BAD.  jittery, jumpy, felt that add-euphoria come back.  i was so eternally pissed off at the government and their schedules, my doctor, and many others.  i just wanted my ritalin.  i would have done a whole helluva lot to get it. nothing extreme, i mean i DID wait till that friday night.  how much of this is psychological and how much is chemical, well same question apllies to add itself.  wh oknows, i don’t know, but being yanked off like that was quite bad.  i skipped a few classes and just bummed around for a few days.  i had my first REALLY BORING days since i started the ritalin.  someone, gimme a comment to reply to because i would love to analyze this more by answering some questions

I’m on Ritalin for ADD myself. I’m not truly addicted; if I were, I wouldn’t forget to take it so often. However, I don’t like myself when I am off it. Until I had the Ritalin to give me a frame of reference, I didn’t know how bad things were. I suppose this could be called a psychological ‘addiction’, but I think that’s debatable; I would call it a preference. It’s also a survival adaptation– without Ritalin, I wouldn’t have a chance with some of my classes. On the other hand… I can’t wait for the weekend so I can go off the Ritalin and take some Sudafed… this cold is killing me. Anyone else out there with chronic sinusitis and ADD who is saying "God, why me?" –Rob — –Rob Levandowski   Computer Interest Floor associate / University of Rochester

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -I’m on Ritalin for ADD myself. I’m not truly addicted; if I were, I wouldn’t forget to take it so often. However, I don’t like myself when I am off it. Until I had the Ritalin to give me a frame of reference, I didn’t know how bad things were. I suppose this could be called a psychological ‘addiction’, but I think that’s debatable; I would call it a preference. It’s also a survival adaptation– without Ritalin, I wouldn’t have a chance with some of my classes. On the other hand… I can’t wait for the weekend so I can go off the Ritalin and take some Sudafed… this cold is killing me. Anyone else out there with chronic sinusitis and ADD who is saying "God, why me?" –Rob — –Rob Levandowski  Computer Interest Floor associate / University of Rochester

     I find that when I take ritalin I can concentrate and remember so much    more than when I am not on it. It’s great being semi-normal. But on the    other hand, I hate to take it because of the side effects. I try to take    it as little as possible.      When the ritalin is wearing off, I often get headaches. Sometimes mild,    sometimes fairly strong. It happens every day at the same time, so I    know that it has to be the ritalin. That’s why I don’t take it on the    weekends unless I have to. I get along just fine without it, as long as    I don’t have to do any work. I can play involved strategy games, cards,    and work on hobbies while not taking ritalin, but only if it truely    interests me. And even then I don’t work that long on it before I move    on to something else. — Dave Myers                 |  "Epa! Epa! Arriba! Arriba! Endele! Endele! (permanently, it seems)    |                            -Speedy Gonzales

Response:

…     I find that when I take ritalin I can concentrate and remember so much   more than when I am not on it. It’s great being semi-normal. But on the   other hand, I hate to take it because of the side effects. I try to take   it as little as possible.     When the ritalin is wearing off, I often get headaches. Sometimes mild,   sometimes fairly strong. It happens every day at the same time, so I   know that it has to be the ritalin. That’s why I don’t take it on the   weekends unless I have to. I get along just fine without it, as long as   I don’t have to do any work. I can play involved strategy games, cards,   and work on hobbies while not taking ritalin, but only if it truely   interests me. And even then I don’t work that long on it before I move   on to something else.

This is exactly how Ritalin affects me. Slight headaches as R. wears off, at least during the first few months: now the headaches are minimal. Also, without R. I can ONLY focus if there is an EMOTIONAL component to what I’m doing. It’s simply impossible to pay attention to, say, the ordinary day-to-day things that we all have to do. This of course leads to procrastination, incomplete projects, spaced-out attention to people around us, and so on. But with Ritalin, I can focus on almost anything I start on. If I like what I’m doing, I don’t need Ritalin. If not, I do. Alas, the mortgage has to be paid, and duties call….  :) Cheers. — John Hesse        : Was it a Bunch of Alcoholics, Troublemakers and Fuckups, Moss Beach, Calif : But certainly not those Fumbling Bumbling Idiots.

Response:

i can give you direct testimony (not professional opinion of course) of the addictive effects of ritalin.  from what i gather, physical addiction potential is very small, almost to the point where its negligable at worst. but there is a catch.  along with many symptoms of add, something along the lines of high drug dependency rate is on there somewhere.  this is all chemical of course and we have that wonderful little mind that can get us by this.  well, what it boils down to is this:  it probably wouldn’t be so bad to be off ritalin for a bit or forever.  last week, sunday night with an allnighter for a math class and two tests coming up, i ran out of ritalin. i was bugging my doctor all week, and stuff happened, anyway, i ran out. sunday night.  i worked the night thorugh, took my tests and by midweek was a wreck.  not because of all that petty stress.  i felt BAD.  jittery, jumpy, felt that add-euphoria come back.  i was so eternally pissed off at the government and their schedules, my doctor, and many others.  i just wanted my ritalin.  i would have done a whole helluva lot to get it. nothing extreme, i mean i DID wait till that friday night.  how much of this is psychological and how much is chemical, well same question apllies to add itself.  wh oknows, i don’t know, but being yanked off like that was quite bad.  i skipped a few classes and just bummed around for a few days.  i had my first REALLY BORING days since i started the ritalin.  someone, gimme a comment to reply to because i would love to analyze this more by answering some questions

Response:

   i can give you direct testimony (not professional opinion of course) of the    addictive effects of ritalin… Yeah, just like I am addicted to my asthma medication.  If I stop taking it I feel like I am suffocating; I can’t work and can’t think. Of course, thats just how I felt before I was medicated – I just didn’t know any better.

Response:

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