Adnama Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 Ok, so stimulants for depression- yeah they do that sometimes. In fact it's even on the wannabe-pi-sheet-medication-guide that I got from the pharmacy, in "other uses." But how about Stimulants PRN for depression? I have an as-needed happy pill! Damn my doctor must trust me. I forget when I saw my doc, last week some time [tuesday maybe?] so far I've used the ritalin once- and I can report that it did seem to help some. It's hard to draw too much of a conclusion from one time however. Though by the way tonight's going I might be useing it again. I don't know if I'm a lab rat or if my doctor's just crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meg Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 But how about Stimulants PRN for depression? I have an as-needed happy pill! Damn my doctor must trust me. LOL, that's what I thought when my (then new) Pdoc prescribed me Adderall. He 100% left it up to me to decide when I needed it. To be fair, he did try Focalin (ie:the DEVIL) and Adderall XR first, but then we talked and he prescibed a waaaay huge amount of regular adderall (20mg, 3x a day! that's 90pills of 20mg adderall). He did say that it's really rare to give this much free-reign, but he thought he could trust me as I'm "very self-aware and determined to get better." Good thing I'm not a dealer or someone who can get high on it (it actually makes me kinda sleepy because it calms down my thought process so much-- this is actually what cemented my ADD diagnosis with him...but he gave it to me first for depression). I decided that I'd personally rather take it on a schedule (I take 20mg in the AM with all of my other meds--see below) so I wasn't tempted to treat it as a 'happy pill' and end up relying on it/taking too much/having it lose effectiveness/and so on. I do take a 2nd in the afternoon if I need to though, but mostly just the 20, so those 90pills last 3 months). This just happens to work very well for me since I know myself and I think the other way would lead to problems for me. Sorry for writing so much, lol, I'm just surprised to hear of another doctor who did something like what mine did, it *is* pretty rare I think. I also think that it should be on the rarer side- this stuff can be pretty destructive in the wrong hands! meg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adnama Posted December 5, 2007 Author Share Posted December 5, 2007 wow, i didn't think i'd find someone else with a doctor who did anything like this. You're right me thinks, it's something that should remain relatively rare as there is too much potential for abuse. Yet at the same time it's unfair to lump every being out there into that "you'll be bad and start dealing it and getting high" category. There's a few good'ns out there. In my case I think my doc's just running out of ideas. We've run the gamut, we've tried everything else- really. So lets see about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meg Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 wow, i didn't think i'd find someone else with a doctor who did anything like this. You're right me thinks, it's something that should remain relatively rare as there is too much potential for abuse. Yet at the same time it's unfair to lump every being out there into that "you'll be bad and start dealing it and getting high" category. There's a few good'ns out there. I know, I hadn't heard of such a doctor either. I refer to my Pdoc "the Quack," but as fast as he does shoot out ideas and ask questions, I think he actually really knows what he's doing, lol. I was a little skeptical at first but we've reached a good balance of his shooting and my rambling. I think it's unfair also to just assume that everyone is going to abuse or sell these meds too, and man does it make life a paininthebutt sometimes-- but at the same time I understand that it can be really hard for doctors to figure out who-is-who when they have such short time with the patients. I understand erring on the cautious side, but I hate ruling out entire diagnoses so you don't have to deal. I wish there was a "standard" suspicion. For instance, I go to school in GA and live in VT. Get ready for a massive generalization: South=more laid-back prescribing methods when it comes to many 'controversial' meds like stims and benzos, much less 'testing' and 'specialists' are involved in process, trust the patient, trust the pdoc North= suspicious first, specialist next, then testing, then some sort of 3rd-party specialist, testing, confirms it all, and you always have to go back to *the specialist only* to get those meds, but still go to your Pdoc for everything else. oh, and if you ever switch doctors, the diagnosis/testing/track record of great success with stims goes out the 2nd story window because everyone has different testing. I think when I go back north after graduating, I'm going to have to 100% wave buh-bye to my veryveryvery helpful adderall and the ease and comfort that it brings to my life sometimes. I don't know if I'd ever be able to find another doc on the same page as my GA pdoc in the north, or if I'd technically pass 'testing' for ADD even though med reaction and everything else points to it. ((steps off soapbox)) meg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scatty Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 meg, If your records indicate that you adhered to the daily dose for a long period of time I see no reason why a doc up north wouldn't continue your treatment with adderall, unless you rely on medicaid, which I believe is more strict regarding controlled substances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SashaSue Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I had no problem getting adderall, once I got the ADD dx, from a couple of different pdoc's in NYC, for whatever that's worth. I really don't think you'll have as much trouble as you seem to be anticipating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meg Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 meg, If your records indicate that you adhered to the daily dose for a long period of time I see no reason why a doc up north wouldn't continue your treatment with adderall, unless you rely on medicaid, which I believe is more strict regarding controlled substances. I've been doing the 20mg in the AM thing for 7months now (?) except when I ran out in the summer for a month because I was in VT at home. I guess I should try another pdoc at home in VT, I shouldn't take the reaction of my GP and the pdoc I saw over the summer put me off asking any future doc about it. I saw a pdoc up here and she looked at me like I was a druggie when I even mentioned the word adderall - she let me go on about it while looking skeptical and then said "I don't deal with that kind of medication. I thought I made this clear before you made an appointment. It was in my message, I'm sure I mentioned it in conversation." yeah, I never got that message and she didn't talk with me, she talked with my mother-- I would have picked a different doctor. serves me right for having my mom do some of the footwork while I was at school. I shoulda found time. a few more appointments later I mention it again and ((long pause and eyebrow raise)) "well if you think that you need to get assessed for this------I suppose I could refer you to a specialist." me: "um, ok.." pdoc:"in my opinion a person with depression like yours really shouldn't be taking stimulants at all in the first place. -- but if you really FEEL like you NEED to get tested for this, this...I guess I could refer you to a specialist, if you really think you need to see one." shee took off without giving me names or numbers and then I went back to school in GA. bleh, sorry scatty for babbing on, I guess I should just let that experience go and trytry again. I would be able to get good documentation from my GA pdoc I'm sure. VT pdoc just made it sound like you had to go to these one or two specialists because they were the only ones with real testing. thanks for the input a lot, meg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthea Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 My family doc rx'd Ritalin (10mg bid) to augment my anti-depressant after a terribly unsuccessful appointment with a pdoc who among other offenses claimed to have no opinion about my meds since i have dysthymia and "meds never work for that - just get used to it" - he seemed not to care that i am in the midst of a serious episode of MDD and have been off work for a while and really need some help... I tend towards really sluggish depression (especially at this time of year) and with my fibro I have terrible fatigue. Since I have been taking to Ritalin I have had the energy to get off the couch and do some of the non-med things that i know will help. I can see other people and get outside in the sun etc... I have seen some research about using stimulants to augment anti-depressants and it makes sense to me... I have to run (out to lunch with my parents - that wasn't possible for me before) but will look for some of th references later. i guess i'm lucky that it doesn't seem too hard to get stims from docs up here in canada! Synthea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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