A plea for help/sense of direction

[flyingspoon]

What up everyone, before you read this thread I ask all reading to please disregard all bias on the topic. thanks a lot.

I need advice on whether or not it is even worth attempting to get a script for medical marijuana........I reside in Rhode Island as a current student and have hit the end of the road.

background: I was first diagnosed with ADD/ADHD in 7th grade.... My doctors started me out on Ritalin (SP?) the drug worked wonders for my attention and drive, literally wonders. But after about a month or two the side affects were just way to harsh...lost all motivation to eat, lost the ability to get an erection, developed insomnia...couldn’t for my life even contemplate sleep till like 3am, on average I get 3-4 hours of sleep a night AT MOST, my heart races even at what my doctor says is "pre school amounts" 10MG which is what I am taking now, when I first got put on Ritalin in 7th grade they had me at 56 ****ing milligrams!!!!! I sweat an unbelievable amount...imp literally waiting away....

when I presented my doctor with these symptoms they switched me to concerta........nothing, literally concerta did not even phase me....went to my doc and they switched me to adderall which brings me to what im taking now...10 mg of adderall daily and I love it!! it takes me from someone with a very serious case of ADD/ADHD and turns me into someone with incredible drive to learn and no problem paying attention which I need and love...but my side effects are becoming worse and worse.... currently in the past 2 weeks of weekday daily use of 10 mg I’ve lost 30 pounds.... I’ve lost all motivation to eat, have developed what seems to me a full blown case of insomnia, no more then 4 hours of sleep a night if that...I lay in my bed for hours tossing and turning trying my hardest to go to sleep but I cant, my whole body sweats, I shake, again imp literally waiting away, after my classes end I only have the power to lay in my bed and dream about being able to sleep and eat.... its really getting bad

in all seriousness marijuana in small amounts for me in conjunction with my ADD medication alleviates (SP?) EVERY negative side affect. Ive smoked pot a couple times in conjunction with my adderall and it really is what I’m desperately in need of. Marijuana provides me most importantly with a drive to eat, a drive to maintain my incredible personality even when on aderall, and also very important to me is it provides me with the ability to sleep when sleep is needed....... for a doctor to deny someone like me access to something that I desperately need like harmless marijuana but would love to prescribe something that is basically methamphetamines in a pill BOOGLES MY MIND..... ceasing my ADD medication cannot be an option for me, getting prescription sleep aids cannot happen because ive had problems with addiction to sleep aids in the past and is not an option for me, I am getting down to going to my local doctor on my hands and knees and beg for medicinal marijuana... don’t think im some 18 year old just looking for a reason to get high..... That is not the case at all, im sorry if marijuana provides relief to all my current health problems associated with my much needed ADD medication... for a doctor to not even let me state my case and just deny me based on my age is just WRONG.


do I stand any chance in receiving medical marijuana???? if not im horribly afraid of being forced to drop my ADD medication. I don’t no what I would do without this medication, again ive been prescribed every sort of ADD med since I was in 7th grade I cant even make it to class without my ADD meds....literally I loose all drive associated with everything. But loosing 20 pounds every week and a half could very easily end up killing me....I weigh 135 now and im 5 ft 9, last week I weighed 160....

please I need guidance on what to do, who better to ask then you guys?

thank you very much for your time it is much appreciated

[Gangwalla]

Your response is to some degree like yours.  I managed my ADD for years without medication--common sense, parents who were effective at using behavioral techniques.  But years later after a serious illness the ADD symptoms became much more pronounced and so I started taking stimulants.  All my doctors in the beginning were Family or GP or Internal Medicine practitioners.  Later I tried psychiatrist.  Three months of Adderal at 60 mg and I told the doctor I had to take something else--I felt edgy, nervous,then would take more than directed to attempt medicating the horribleness of anxiety.  Adderal will cancel the anxiety and you'll begin to feel better--but for me within 90 minutes I had all the anxiety explode on me very quickly, and the unpleasantness of the anxiety was five times more severe.  Adderal fortunately had very little 'likability' to me because I became more impulsive, and made little effort at taking it as directed.  The shrink thought I wanted to be back on Ritalin, which he felt was more addicting and so in insisted I stay on Adderal, but he'd reduce it to 50mg.  But I had come to really hate it my then.  I told him I wouldn't take it, and I didn't want the prescription.  That was it--I didn't go back, and i felt really bad for several weeks--but not as bad as I felt taking Adderal to relieve anxiety  (I can't believe I was that stupid--it about like putting out a fire using gasoline.  First bucket might make the flame disappear -- for thrity seconds.
After six to ten months I started to look for a new doctor.  This time I searched and searched until I finally found an addition specialist with both a Ph.D and an M.D.  He was really good, as was my next doctor after moving.  Both thought Adderal to be a nightmare inflected on patience--it was to them a way to combine to generic drugs and create a nice expensive one.  They said it often led to addition since it dosen't always release the dose at a steady rate.  Might all hit you at once in 30 minutes--or it might lie around and not start working for hows.  I caused a lot of folks to get edgy and a hostile.  They strongly disliked the drug and didn't recommend it.  But . .  . they both thought the older drug, the extended release is known as Dexirine, At a quite release tab it is usually written as Dextro/Amphetimine.  it is an older, cheaper version of amphetimine, but without the 25% of L- added to it.  It worked very well.  Could stay calm, no anxiety issues.  It worked in a way that it started slowly and smoothly.  for 4 hrs it work very will with none of the  'ups and down' that Adderal produced.  I started to sleep (but took clonzapam(?) to  stop these seizures I'd get falling to sleep..It was real hard to find an expert, but that I believe is the only thing that works--a really good doc.  We recently moved so I started a new doc.  I'm changing.  He was always making too many mistakes so I'd have to come back from the pharmacy so he could write it correctly.  He was a bit careless--like prescribing the wrong amount--suddenly seeing the prescription was writtten for 100mg a day when I was doing well at 60mg.  He wasn't, but at times he seemed like he was a "Dr, Feelgood."
The grass isn't a direction you want to go.  It is illegal--and many after daily use for several months become hostile and even somewhat paranoid.  And if they test you, and it shows up in your blood (and it hangs around detectable to a test for 30 days. If a test screen you possitive your medical folder code you as someone hooked on drugs--and then you want be able to get a doctor to see you at all for a long time.,   your doctor has a medicine cabinet with a lot better stuff.  Just be sure to explain your simptons.  So select your doctor very carefully, and the addiction specialist don't limit themselves to just treating drug addicts--the see a lot of different people with problems.  But they clearly know the effects of the different drugs better than your family doc--and knowing the hard realities on all the meds means that arn't afraid to prescribe you exactly what you need.  The prescribe the best drug for you--they don't care what the DEA say.  God luck on it all.  for me help with sleeping was a very big turning point

[ModelBehavior]

It is so crazy to me that other people experience the same stuff.  I am a 21 year old college student on a prescription of Adderall XR 30mg twice a day (yeah, it is pretty ridiculous, since it is the highest dosage of Adderall extended release and to need it twice).  I have always been real small and it is kind of crazy that Adderall doesn't affect my appetite because if I lost any weight I would be forced off of it since I am just 90lbs to begin with.  Anyways... my doctor never gave me an EKG or did any heart tests for that matter and I would literally see my heart pounding out of my chest sometimes - not to mention my mom's side of the family has a horrible heart disease history.  (I took matters into my own hand and went to a health center back at school and had the tests and lab work done and thankfully, I am healthy - my heart was just a little fast and irregular but the doctor said it was nothing at all considering some people have worse problems naturally and I was on Adderall at the time) Well, I smoke weed all the time, whenever I can get my hands on it really.  Not only does it make me eat more, but since I have smoked weed for awhile now I don't get all tripped out like I used to in high school- instead I just get ridiculous ideas and thoughts, I think 'out of the box' so to think.  I used to wait to smoke until all my homework was done or if I didn't have anything important to do, but one night I was just so anxious I smoked to chill me out regardless of a paper I had to write in a 500 level class.  The first paper I wrote in the class I got a 76% on and I was pretty satisfied considering I was the youngest student in the class and papers weren't always my favorite thing.  (Naturally, with the ADHD I am a people person and will talk talk talk and would find it hard to get all of my thoughts on paper).  I wrote the paper while I was high and thought that for sure I was going to get a D or F.  I got the paper back and I got a 94%, it was pretty sweet.  I did the same thing then for the last two papers and got a 96% and then a 98% which ended up scoring me an A in the class which was higher than many grad students.  This wasn't a blow off class either, my professor had a degree from Brown University and wrote many of the scholarly articles we would analyze.  Ultimately, I have found that Adderall helps me get motivated to actually care about school and do my work (since I flew through high school in AP classes without studying and came to college and almost died after the first year from the culture-shock) and weed gets rid of the negative effects of Adderall and actually has helped stimulate my brain in a sense.  I have a hurniated disk in my back that steroid and cortozone shots couldn't help, used to go to the chiropractor every week, get anxiety quite easily from worrying about everyone else's problems and could definitely gain weight.  I am positive that I would benefit from a prescription to weed.  I have told my parents who are completely against pot and never did drugs in their life, but there is nothing I can do because I don't live in a state that could even give me an Rx... it stinks!  People think of weed and assume that everyone gets high and acts ridiculous - I definitely don't get 'high' when I smoke.  My boyfriend who is in love with his car checks and cleans the 24 inch rims daily and I have drive the car high countless times and never even came close to cutting a curb.  It is ridiculous that weed is legal in some places and considered a drug and looked down on in other countries.  Nobody except my close friends even know I smoke weed because I was always looked at as the goody-goody smart girl next door and I hate being judged when I know its true effects.

[Captain_Rit]

wow you have severe side affects.  

well first off you stand no chance for multiple reasons.   first off the doctor would loose his license and go to jail i believe.

secondly maryjane may work for a bit but i really think it will lose its affect and you will have to take more and more.  

you need a specialist in this that you can see frequently not a pediatrician or general practitioner but a specialist.    i really dont think you stand a chance.    

by the way im not biased