Posted by steve on April 16, 2000 at 13:11:02:

In Reply to: Re: addicted to Ritalin posted by peg durkop on February 02, 2000 at 00:56:47:

How are you doing? please let us know.

steve.
: :I completely understand your position. I don't understand why doctors don't use Ritilan in a conntrolled manner. Instead I have to get mine from Mexico. Does snorting the dosage have any benefits from swallowing the pill?
: You might be able to taper off by using the pill form if it has a longer delay method.
: I have found that I have sleep disorders, and sometimmmes it is ritilan that has me standing on my own two feet.
: Let me know your progress.....Good Luck
: Peg

: I'm sitting here. I didn't sleep Friday night or this night (Sun to Mon morning). I am a student at a small University studying biology. I take Paxil for my depression...

: : But Ritalin works better as an anti-depressant. I usually crush and snort 10mg tabs which I get from friends or steal from others. I'm at a bad spot again, as I can't hold myself back from crushing 3 at a time and doing them all at once. I mostly study when I do ritalin, since it helps me concentrate. But, as I start to come off my rush (10mg lasts me ~1.5 hours) all I can think about is packing more rit into my nose.

: : I hardly eat because the rit kills my appetite, though my stomach still feels hungry.

: : I'd really like to stop snorting ritalin and let my paxil work its magic. I'm only 2 weeks into the paxil program (max effect starts 2-3 weeks into medication use) and I can feel it working now.

: : Here are 2 more of my 'but's (lame excuses):

: : Paxil makes me drowsy all day, so studying is hard
: : I am at least 1 full week behind in sleep, so I do more rit to stay awake and feel better

: : I had a similar experience (which I didn't seem to learn from) at the end of spring semester last year. During finals week, I did 50 20mg tabs of ritalin in 4 days. Never slept. I crashed for 16 hours, got up, packed for home, then had a mental breakdown. I made it home ok, but I was massively depressed for a week or 2, presumably because of severe sleep deprivation, not eating, ritalin psychosis, and ritalin withdrawl.

: : I don't want to go through that again. Can someone give advice for easing off the ritalin while still keeping my resolve to quit? Should I go cold turkey?

: : Michael