coping with withdrawls from ritalin

[zork]

I am 33 years old and am prescribed ritalin 20mg 4 times a day. I have been on it for 4 years (smaller dosage in the beginning). I usually end up snorting from 5 to 9 a day and running out of meds before the month is up. I have tried tapering off, quitting but I dont have the willpower. The scariest thing is the withdrawl symptoms are almost unbearable physical and mental. I am afraid to tell my shrink cause I dont want to get shut off. If someone dispenses my pills for me it seems ok, except I can always find them to steal extra no matter how good a hiding place. It does help me but I think I can do fine without. Max Ive gone is 2 weeks without. How long does it take to feel normal mentally and physically?? I know I need them out of my life compramises are not an option. Sometimes I feel its impossible. No enthusiasm for absolutly anything constructive including work do I feel when I dont have any meds. I am not a lazy person by nature quite the opposite in fact. What do I do? Am I ever going to be able to find my old self? Going away to a treatment faciliy is not an option. I just need info on what to expect, something to give me a little hope so I can follow through with this. Concerta, adderall (adderrall), metidate does not matter I will take more than i should.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

You describe an addiction to medications inasmuch as you always feel deprived is you can't "steal" more.  Don't be ashamed to talk to your doctor about this, it is part of your therapy, and your hope for the future lies in talking about the addiction, not the specific pills...

[garko]

get help from people at
www.alternativementalhealth.com
www.safeharbor.org
www.drugawareness.org
and report your abuse case for the benefit of others to
www.cchr.org
hope this helps
Garko

[usc4meandu]

******URGENT*******

I have been searching and communicating in online chat forums of all sorts on this subject.  I read so many desperate postings about people who have suffered and continue to suffer because of their meds.  

There are SERIOUS side effects that people need to be aware BEFORE they get on these meds.  That does not include being given an explanation in their medication box that consists of a 4-font.   And one should not need a PhD to read this information. (I was getting my Ph.D. in a social science the first time I was prescribed these things.  When I asked my doctor some technical scientific information about the meds, he didn’t know and had to look it up.  I marveled at his lack of instant knowledge about this.  But I should have been even more suspicious when he had a hard time reading the results that the company of the medication had published).

Also, there seems to be a common theme in that people complain that their doctor's overlooked this or that.  For example, why would a doctor prescribe a depression meds to a recovering alcoholic, especially without doing blood work or an ultra sound, when such prescriptions can further irritate or cause liver damage, some of which is irreversible?  Then, there can be a high probability of alcohol relapse if the drugs make symptoms worse!!!

I do not mean to belittle these drugs.  They must work for some because I have read quite a few success stories. But, FAR TOO MANY people are suffering, especially when they try to stop taking antidepressant meds.  My *** if are not habit forming.  Otherwise, why the withdrawals?!?!?

Join me in the fight to make people, and organizations, aware of your story.  I am putting together our stories for others like us and for those people who need to read them (like doctors, psychiatrists, etc.)

I am not here for profit. I am not here to make money. I can keep you name anonymous, or you can make up a handle (madashell, depressedinphoenix, helpmeinca, etc.)  I just feel so angry that I think it is time our voices and complications are shared and heard!  And, if I need to work around the clock to be the ambassador of our struggles then so be it!!!

***@****