So how dangerous is Ritalin / Methylphenidate?

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izzeme
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17 Mar 2015, 3:55 am

Ritalin strongly increased my blood pressure and gave me an irregular cardiac rythm. i never realised untill i stopped using it; i feel a lot healthier now; i wont touch that stuff again.

the increased sensory issues it gave me were a reason to pause using it, and the aforementioned health benefits prompted me to not start again.

and yes, it can indeed kill, it has 'sudden death' printed right on the possible side-effects



AngelRho
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17 Mar 2015, 5:24 am

Holy necro, Batman…

The thing about "sudden death" on the label…they have to put that on there. When they do studies on the effects of drugs, they have to list all the not-so-good things that happen to people while using it. If someone runs a red light and T-bones your car, they have to say "may get hit by car." Any number of things can cause sudden death, and a correlation between everyday life and the risks that come with it don't indicate that the drug caused those things to happen. You have to take the listed possible side-effects with a grain of salt.



HarvPratt
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26 Mar 2015, 4:46 am

Nice Discussion here about this topic,and my opinion is that Ritalin and Methyphenidate both are not dangerous for anyone,its totally up to you,because my friend also used it and he is very satisfy about this and he has no problem about both of it...



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26 Mar 2015, 8:34 am

Methylphenidate made me EXTREMELY angry----like, I wanted to HURT somebody, angry. It was reported that Adam Lanza was on it, and I can DEFINITELY see why he felt like killing a bunch of people.

As for the OP (I know this thread is really old): that amount of Ritalin PLUS Concerta (which is the SAME thing), TWICE-a-DAY, seems ridiculously excessive!! What kind of IDIOT doctor would prescribe such a thing?









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Lavenderjhon
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27 Mar 2015, 5:53 am

I know Ritalin and other stimulants have helped a lot of people, so don't take this to mean that I think Ritalin is evil. I'm just saying that my experience on Ritalin was really bad even Methylphenidate is also



JakeASD
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27 Jan 2017, 1:23 pm

Later this year, I am to undergo a test to determine if I have ADD/ADHD as well as autism. If it is concluded that I have either ADD/ADHD, am I likely to be prescribed Ritalin or something similar?

Working over the past two months has really highlighted how poor my attention span and memory are. If I can, I would like to markedly improve both.


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foxant
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28 Jan 2017, 11:07 pm

By the time I used it (it was a very short time), I found it cool in the beginning. in the first day, i was so energetic that i was running on the street to do my things instead of walking. it must be funny as a stranger watching me in the first day in the street, running like rocky balboa because i was late to get the train lol. my mind was focused and working, but my heart was racing and my mouth was dry cause i was also anxious. i was feeling reborn. It was nice to have that feeling that I was finally concentrating and thinking faster. But gradually I became impatient, and with more difficult expressing myself. My memory and perception of reality has changed a bit, you could say i was less shy and more confident.
but this euphoria I felt made me feel kinda dead inside. i started to doubt if that was really myself, and i started to miss my old shy and quiet personality. When I was sitting in a chair, thinking about my life(2 hours after one pills of ritalin), when suddenly, my whole body moved in a spasm all by itself. tourret, that drug worsed my tourret. This had never happened before. i decided to stop immediately. but that spasm never leaved me, it most damaged some part of my brain. Every time I get too anxious now, I feel my waist spasm. There are some spasms that sometimes move my whole body, if i near a hostile situation or person that happen, its not violent, but its there. This drug took me to paradise and then to hell in a few days. I hate the psychiatrist who poised me with it.
And I hate the internet that convinced me to use it after much research. This was in time that I did not know that I had autism, I thought it was attention problem. I wonder sometimes if this drug would affect me the same way if i was in a peaceful environment with a lovely family instead of a hostile one.
said that, i say by experience, if you has any trait of Tourette or you had to problem with anxiety dont ever get near this drug. its very dangerous.


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30 Jan 2017, 5:49 am

I was on Ritalin, Phenobarbital, & several other mind meds as a child and teen. None of them cured my depression. Ritalin put me in a fog, and made me robot or zombie like. I hated that foggy, numb, zombie feeling. Even thru the numbness, I was still depressed. I eventually took myself off of the meds without discussing it with my parents or the docs, as I could see they weren't helping me, and I hated the side effects. I was not about to have adults try to overrule my judgement on this, as I knew I was right to get off this crap. Drugs tend to have dangerous side effects. You should take as little of them as possible. I haven't been on mind meds since then, & I am in my late 50s now.

All I take on a regular basis now are aspirin for pain (arthritis), vitamins, herbal supplements, and sometimes I take allergy meds, either Zyrtek or Claritin.

I have had opioids for a limited time after surgery a couple of times, and once during a shingles outbreak. I found the opioids didn't do a thing for my pain, they just made me groggy. Both forms were combined with over-the-counter pain relievers. The one combined with Ibuprofen helped just a little, the one combined with Tylenol didn't do a thing for pain, as I never get any pain relief from the active ingredient in Tylenol. I know what it's called, but can't spell the darn thing. It was the same opioid in each case, so it is obvious that the opioid wasn't responsible for the slight pain relief that the Ibuprofen provided, otherwise it would have worked when combined with the Tylenol.

My advice--stay away from meds, except when absolutely necessary. For me this includes chemotherapy. Did you know that chemo drugs actually cause cancer? This is an absolute fact!! ! I had cancer once that was treated with surgery, and then 3 radiation treatments. At the time I did a lot of reading on cancer treatments, so I know how bad chemo drugs are. Because of my cancer history, there is a chance I might get cancer again. If that happens, I won't do chemo. There are some safer treatments using large doses of vitamin C, Vitamin D, turmeric, and other healthy things to build up my immunity, which will help me fight cancer. I have already increased my dose of some of my supplements, as a preventative. I will definitely use alternatives to chemo, should I get cancer again.

Sorry, I got off topic. I tend to do that. :D


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30 Jan 2017, 9:48 am

I was (erroneously, I believe) diagnosed as hyperactive by my kindergarten teacher and put on Ritalin. That stuff turned me into a zombie. Luckily, I only took it one time before my mom said there was no way I would continue to take it.



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30 Jan 2017, 2:02 pm

With appropriate health checks, it's pretty damn safe. There's been so many crisis over giving it to children, that's it's well researched. Not in the sense of a life time, mind, but certainly between the ages of 5 and 18.

I'm currently on 30mg + 10mg so far. No side effects whatsoever including objective measures such as electronic and manual pulse rate, blood pressure and ECG.

Not yet finished stabilising but I'm told that the daily total (40mg) is pretty normal, even if I'm been slow to respond.


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nick007
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30 Jan 2017, 11:45 pm

My girlfriend's psych started prescribing her Concerta for depression after she tired lots of antidepressants. It helps some but she noticed headaches & excess energy she didn't know what to do with. She takes it every other day now & that works well for her.


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Fraser_1990
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31 Jan 2017, 3:44 pm

nick007 wrote:
My girlfriend's psych started prescribing her Concerta for depression after she tired lots of antidepressants. It helps some but she noticed headaches & excess energy she didn't know what to do with. She takes it every other day now & that works well for her.


Everybodies metabolism is different. Concerta is supposed to survive in the system for around 8-12 hours in the average person, but for some people, they get hit with all of it in the space of a few hours, others with slower metabolisms could feel it's effects for 24 hours or beyond.


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spiderman123
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31 Jan 2017, 7:15 pm

doctors get 8 hours of training in food. That crazy. Diet most important part of your health.



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31 Jan 2017, 11:20 pm

I don't think your doctor knows what they're doing. Concerta and ritalin are the same thing, so basically you're taking 28mg of methylphenidate twice a day equaling 56 mg for the day. That's a lot to prescribe someone for a beginning dose. It should really be 5 or 10mg twice a day to start, then increased as you build tolerance, which shouldnt happen too often as long as you're not abusing your meds. It's weird that they give you a prescription for two different brands of the same med. No wonder you're having heart palpitations. You need to lower that dose asap, and change doctors.

I used to take ritalin when I was a kid, that stuff made me eat the skin off the inside of my mouth, and also gave me sensations of bugs crawling on me. That stuff sucks!

Adderall (amphetamine) is awesome though. I recommend it. It feels cleaner and doesn't have any weird side effects like ritalin does. Adderall energizes and helps me focus without causing zombification. The only down side is sometimes you get headaches after the med has worn out, especially if you haven't been eating. Benzos help with the "come down" and sleep if your docs willing to prescribe it.