Your shaky and offhanded grasp of ‘mental addiction’ or rather “dependency” is woefully wrong and I fear for the day you no longer have “YOUR” Adderall for whatever reason. I mean the fact that you decided all of the sudden to post a long internet screed about how great your medicine is indicates a touch of dependency (to me at least, being one familiar with dependency).
Being Mentally Addicted to something isn’t the same as wanting it and not having it. It is not like sex, or air. Mental addictions come with painful physical withdrawls that can culminate in a speedy trip to the hospital. What are your statistics on the ‘very low’ rates of physical dependence? You’re not offering any statistics. But I assure you that with any physical dependence comes physical withdrawl, and if they’re even 1/3 of what Narcotic pharmaceutical withdrawal are, you’re in for a big sharp, painful surprise.
The bottom line is, your medication works for you, and I know how it feels. When I first started taking some of the fifty thousand prescriptions I have taken, it was like a lightswitch in my brain and life just got 100 times better. That doesn’t mean that it’s absolutely, 100% safe or that everyone in the world should be on it.
First off, I have a rather severe case of adult ADD/ADHD, and I spent a great deal of time with a specialist in figuring this out. My college GPA went from a 2.0 to a 4.0 (2 years of straight As), so I’m a pretty big fan of what it helped me to accomplish. Namely, it allowed me to actually study.
That being said, the effects this drug can potentially have on you after prolonged usage may be rather negative. My insomnia kicked in after a year or so (maybe more), then I got to the point where I was useless coming down off the stuff. After another couple years, I had to have several beers when coming down off of a day’s-worth of dosing. For the last 6 months to a year, I needed to almost be hammered before I could think about falling asleep.
Obviously, the prolonged effects are different for everyone. However, you should watch yourself on this drug over time. I haven’t taken it regularly in years, but I still take one on occasion without too many negative consequences.
Oh yeah, you’re right. It’s N-methyl morphine that doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier, not methylmorphine. Thanks for pointing that out – wouldn’t have wanted that tidbit of misinformation to stand.
(And in all honesty, I have no idea what the N- in “N-methyl” means. L- or D- I know, but N? I beg for assistance from those in the know.)
Is that from this article about IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry? The “Amines and Amides” section tells specifically what the “N” means:
Having last taken chemistry ten years ago, I can’t quite parse this – I vaguely think that it means that N-methylmorphine has two methyls on it instead of just one, but again, I beg assistance of all you folks who know more about it.
Sorry for the hijack, hruka. For a more on-topic reply … have there been studies about how safe and effective Ritalin is compared to Adderall?