Would Being Prescribed to Ritalin Help?
Question by John F: Would being prescribed to Ritalin help?
My name is John and I’m 19 years old. I abuse drugs, I’ve never had a girlfriend, and barely passed high school. Please be patient and read. Or, if you’re not in the mood to read a life story look to the very bottom of the paragraph.
Let me give you a little background about myself. I never got along with other kids in elementary school and was some what of a problem child. I did horrible in elementary school, junior high, and high school. In elementary school, teachers plead with my parents to have me see a shrink because they were convinced that I had ADD (I’m pretty sure I did, too). My dad convinced me that “I shouldn’t think there’s anything wrong with me.” When in reality, it was really him not wanting to spend a dime on his youngest most unsuccessful child. Now I’m not saying that drugs are the go to problem for everyone, and I’m not saying that it would have helped, but then again, who’s to say it wouldn’t? Around high school I got in to drugs. The drugs were pills called DXM. DXM is basically a chemical found in cold medicine that chemists use to make meth. It’s basically an amphetamine, which is basically what Ritalin is. So in short, I was self medicating myself with a drug, that was similar to a drug, that I SHOULD have been given if I was diagnosed with ADD. Funny, huh?
So around the time of high school I was taking the pills and doing well because of them. I could concentrate in school, I cared about my responsibilities, and for once I seemed to be getting along with people. Everything looked, smelled and felt different; it was like being thrown into a completely different reality–a reality that I liked. So at one point when taking the drugs I decided to have a talk with my parents and told them I was abusing pills. I told them how it made me do better in school and confronted them on never taking me to see a shrink. They knew I had problems and did nothing about it. My parents sort of apologized and made an empty promise to take me to see a shrink. After the confrontation the drugs seemed to have a lasting affect, and I didn’t have a need to take them anymore. But I got into inhalants because of other reasons. I know that the inhalants fucked my mind up, and threw my ‘chemical balance’ out of whack. I was sure the pills helped me, and I’m convinced they were helping me, but it was as if I became immune to the pills that had helped me. I was horrified and kept taking the pills that were no longer having an effect on me. I was trying to recapture a feeling I knew had been lost. Eventually I stopped taking drugs entirely and went back to my same old shitty life. A life without drive, without motivation, and a life who can’t concentrate worth a dime. So now here I am, 19 without a job (I’ve tried really hard), going to college and not doing very well in it. I still have parents that think psychiatry is some great evil and aren’t even fucking willing to try to take me to see a shrink. I’ve tried really hard in school without any form of drugs, but it’s no use as I simply can not CONCENTRATE. I feel helpless. With parents that really don’t care that I’m doing nothing, and going nowhere with my life. What do you guys think I should do, and do any of you feel like you’re in, or have been in a similar situation.
Best answer:
Answer by Bailey
I take adderall, and before I was getting D’s and F’s in all my classes but now my grades are starting to come up. I dont think dextromethorphan and amphetamines are similar, though, since DXM isn’t derived from ephedrines? (yeah, I don’t know a lot about dxm, but i’ve never heard of meth from it. Just pseudophedrine and ephedrine. did you know they actually sometimes perscribe meth for ADHD?). You could try, even though this is illegal, self-medicating, though that might get in the way of drug testing. I’ve heard of some people taking sudafed to self medicate, but that could just be a placebo thing..
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