Would there be a difference in the effects? Would it ‘help’ the non AD/HD person focus on a task? Also many people with AD/HD have reported something along the lines of a vail being removed from their vision and being able to see clearly for the 1st time in their life the 1st time they try Ritalin, is this also the case with non AD/HD people?
I am talking about doses that would be perscribed to someone with AD/HD.
Basically, you get spun out, as if you took amphetamines. Try it, see what happens. Enjoy!
I expect that it would have the normal effect of a stimulant - make them jittery, awake, etc. I don’t know why stimulants work so well to help AD(H)D people concentrate - although I have my own theories based on personal experience - but I don’t think it would have the same effect on someone without AD(H)D.
Probably the opposite effect. Ritalin is a stimulant, which has a mechanism very similar to amphetamines. Indeed, amphetamines are sometimes also used to tread AD/HD. For this reason, ritalin has a definite abuse potential. One of the oddities of ADD or AD/HD is that normally stimulant drugs actually treat the “hyperactivity”.
Well, as far as the “Attention Deficit” portion of the treatment, I know I concentrate a lot more when I’m spun out on serious stimulants. Details become more important, etc. So that might be the idea there.
As for the hyperactivity, I have no idea.
From what I know hyperactivity is a form of self medication of sorts, an attempt to focus on what is going on around you by creating a situation that holds ones interests. So if true, someone who can concentrate (due to Ritalin) doesn’t need to ‘act out’.
Panzerfaust you seem to indicate that you have tryed other stimulants (ok outright say you have), if you don’t mind, which ones and have you ever been screened for AD/HD (your answer might cause other questions)
At one time I was diagnosed with non-hyperactive ADHD and prescribed the stimulant Adderall. In retrospect I think the diagnosis was somewhat hasty, as I’m generally able to concentrate and focus quite well - the psychiatrist changed the diagnosis to that of mild anxiety.
When I took Adderall, I became … well, productive. I was quite a lot more active than what was normal for me. I cleaned a lot more, read faster, didn’t watch as much TV, certainly wasn’t very tired most of the time. I really wasn’t very jittery (the psychiatrist told me that amphetimine-style drugs don’t cause those side effects as much as stimulants like caffeine).
Ok to be fair - anyone posting personal experence is subject to follow up questioning.
But you had no problem concentrating before? did you just have more energy to do the things or did your ‘drive’ to do them increase? When you say you can focus quite well, I assume this applies to things you don’t want to be doing as well as things you love to do.
I don’t mind, but I’m afraid I won’t be particularly helpful.
I don’t have any real problem concentrating, but I should say that the Adderall did make me focus better on those tasks I didn’t want to do. (Nobody’s got a perfect attention span.) I suppose I felt like I had more energy - as well as being more compulsed to do stuff. I just didn’t feel like sitting there as much. I wanted to get stuff done.
My best friend was mis-diagnosed as being ADHD, and she was prescribed Ritalin–it gave her very intense hallucinations. She said she saw people walking through walls and cars everywhere.
Ritalin is a psychoactive stimulant similar in structure to amphetamines and cocaine. In fact I have a few friends who started out using it recreationally and moved on to coke. The effects are similar, if somewhat less intense.
Ritalin is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor (just like cocaine), meaning that it prevents dopamine from going back into the signaling cell after transmission, increasing the sensitivity of the next transmission. This ‘hotwires’ the brain in certain ways.
Since the dopamine receptors in the medial forebrain bundle are excited, there is a strong feeling of pleasure and well-being. As well as an intense feeling of focus and competency. You feel like you can take on the world (note that these dosages are more in the 40 – 60mg range where the usual prescribed dose is in the 10 – 20mg range). Of course as the dopamine supply gets exhausted because it can’t be recycled, you fall into a depressive hangover afterwards, for which the only real cure is more Ritalin (and such begins the addiction).
It is a controlled substance for a reason and in many high schools there is an underground Ritalin market where the ADD kids are selling them for the money and to get rid of them because of the side effects; which include loss of appetite, inability to sleep, and as my brother (ADHD) described, a ‘flattening’ of the personality. Of course there are plenty of kids ready to forgo the side-effects for a night of social or academic bliss.
The list of stimulants I’ve partaken of is too extensive to be written here, as I’m a firm believer in trying everything once, or at least a dozen times. Given that for many years, extremely powerful central nervous system stimulants were my drug of choice, I’ve pretty much tried them all.
As far as the ADHD goes, while I’ve never been formally tested for it or anything, but I’ve never had any problems with hyperactivity, nor a diminutive attention span. My previous comment about amphetamines increasing my focus is the difference between reading half a textbook on probability theory at a sitting (normal) and meticulously counting every vowel in said textbook for four hours straight (spun out).
Men’s health did an article less than a year ago about non-prescription use of Ritalin, generally in colleges, where it is called ‘vitamin R’ or ‘ritty’. One guy said it helped him concentrate a lot better, no matter what he was concentrating on. Another fellow apparently wrote a play in 18 hours on Ritalin, and the author wrote a few journal entries while he was experimenting with working under the influence of ritty.
kanicbird: Why do you type it `AD/HD’? That isn’t the correct spelling, as I’m sure you must have noticed by now. The correct spelling is ADHD or AD(H)D for Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder (the Hyperactivity qualifier is optional).
I’m honestly curious as to whether you have a reason.
No, don’t. Taking prescription drugs not prescribed to you is illegal. We do not permit encouraging people to break the law here. Don’t do that again.
Let’s stick to discussing the physiological effects, preferably based on clinical data rather than personal experience.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
ADD has gone through many spelling changes over the years, the one used now, as I understand it, is AD/HD which is some combination of ADD and AD(H)D. See:
http://www.chadd.org/webpage.cfm?cat_id=7&subcat_id=35
To see someone else use the /. I did read why it was now AD/HD but don’t recall where. It is far easier to type then AD(H)D too.
gjbq8 now that your mentioned it I did hear it being called Vit-R. For many with AD/HD taking Ritalin has made such a differnece in that it allowed them to do things they actually could not w/o Ritalin, would this be the case for a non AD/HD person? Is the improvement as profound and how does it differ?
Let me clarify my position. If you were prescribed Ritalin and turned out not to have ADHD, you are free to discuss your experiences. If you took Ritalin recreationally, it’s best if you not discuss it here. If you have knowledge about another person’s experiences using Ritalin recreationally, you may post about it, but only within reason. Encouraging or glorifying the recreational use of Ritalin is definitely out.
As usual in GQ, I would rather see verifiable facts than personal anecdotes, but the latter are not forbidden.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Also I want to clarify my position, I am interested in the doses used to treat AD/HD. I really have no interest in the recreational doses that appear to be 2-4 times that of the prescribed doses. I am somewhat supprized that the doses for recreational use and treatment for AD/HD are so close.
If you have any personal experence that would qualify as ‘glorifying the recreationaly use of Ritalin’ and it is the only way you can describe it, please email me with the details as bibliophage has forbiden posting it here. Let me add that I have absolutly no intention of illegally using Ritalin, just trying to understand it’s effects and want to know if such effects are universal or different for people w/ and w/o AD/HD.
I think I may be able to offer some sort of explanation for this phenomenon. I’m an avid non-drug user, but many of my close friends are very expirimental. They have informed me that most of the time (at least locally where I live, near Atlanta, GA) ritalin is ground into a powder and snorted like cocaine, which would make sense since it is chemically related. Apparently this not only quickens the rate at which your blood absorbs the drug (thus getting you high faster) but the high is also more intense and therefore less of the drug is needed. Hope that explains at least a little bit about why the doses are so close. What’s the saying, “A little dab ‘ill do ya’?”
Thanks oldman_withers, I have heard of that practice along with others but as not to incure the wrath of the mods, lets not go into how to use Ritalin recreationally, just it’s effect at doses usually perscribbed to those w/ AD/HD.
It does make more sense as to why the recreational dose and perscribbed dose is so close though.