ritalin abuse

[mariapa108]

has any one who abused their ritalin or related stimulant med stayed up for a week? what is the longest anyone has stayed awake?

[syncope]

has any one who abused their ritalin or related stimulant med stayed up for a week? what is the longest anyone has stayed awake?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I stayed awake for a week once, and I was on no psych meds at the time. It was not intentional- I simply could not sleep.

I was hallucinating by the end.

[Velvet Elvis]

More than one night without sleep and my anxiety and OCD go bonkers.

I have used dexidrine to stay up all night and finish a paper and stuff like that.

[gracelikerain]

i haven't abused my adhd meds to the extent that i didn't sleep (just *began* w/ 40 mg of adderall xr when i was supposed to have 20 mg as my starting dose- and it was a confusion, not intentional).. but since we're sort of on the topic of taking extra, does anyone else here who has issues w/ self-esteem/depression/wanting to "run away" from life etc find it really tempting to just take a "little" extra of the stimulants?

specifically if you are trying to deal with other behaviors like eating problems and are scared of eating too much and want to take extra of the stimulants  instead..

..i don't *want* to do that and i know that it's bad, but part of me finds it sooo tempting at this point

aside from the adhd stuff , i also am afraid of sitting still, afraid of my laziness showing through etc.. and i have a lot of self-hatred .. and sometimes i binge eat (used to be bulimic- also was anorexic in the past,now just recovering but fucked up) .. it's like i need some "rush/release", but i never resorted to abusing drugs or alcohol ..

my p-doc is away for the weekend and i just am really freaked out about some things..i'm wondering if 40 mg would be ok (he told me to take 20 mg)..

and does dosage have anything to do with body weight? (e.g.: would someone who is around 100 lbs or less be more affected by 40 mg than someone heavier.)

it's not dangerous..i just know i shouldn't do it, and i most likely won't, as i can be very self controlled. it is just so damn tempting sometimes 

[Catnapper]

I think the longest I've been awake is about 50 or 60 hours, and I've made 45 hours several times, both without stimulants and with the Adderall I just recently started as part of my anti-depressant cocktail.  I can't imagine a whole week awake!  I've done shift work in the past that would goof up my sleep pattern without drugs, but now I feel like Alice in Wonderland as I try to sort out the right dose of Adderall, which is basically four different types of speed in one convenient pill. 

My pdoc has given me a little leeway to start slowly at 10 mg and work up to 40 mg if I need that much.  I suspect he would prescribe the max at this point if I asked him for it as this depression I'm in seems to keep hanging around.  I can sleep right through 10 or 20 mg, and if take the second 20 too late in the day, then I'm up for a couple of days, like right now when it's 4:30 a.m. and I'm typing away!  Thirty mg and a couple of cups of strong coffee seem to be the happy medium, and I'm still working on the getting the timing right.   

I know that screwing up your sleep cycles messes with all those critical neurotransmitters and is a bad thing to do if you're trying to come out of an episode of major depression.  The one advantage I do notice after staying awake for an extended time is that when I finally do crash I sleep very deeply and awake refreshed, something that only happens very rarely during depression. 

   

Since I've had binge eating disorder for years and years, I had contemplated abusing the Adderall as a possible solution, but that was before I started taking it.  It makes me feel too jumpy and weird at 40 mg with a cup of coffee so that I don't really want too much of it.  It has stopped my bingeing some, but I notice that my regular eating is much reduced, which really isn't good in terms of staying healthy.  It would be better if it would magically take away my desire to binge (loud laughter!) and leave my normal balanced meals alone.  It's not like I'm up late at night pigging out on fruit and bran cereal!

I think there is some validity to the body weight/dosage theory, but it seems to vary so much from person to person that I'm not sure anyone can make a blanket statement.  I can't really make a blanket statement about myself because even though I'm very overweight I feel terrible at less than the maximum dose of Adderall; however, I can drink all night and never really seem to get drunk.  I guess that leaves the site's saying of, "Your mileage may vary."

I think my pdoc wouldn't mind if I mildly abused the Adderall as it would be less detrimental to my health than being more than 100 pounds overweight.  I told him I was concerned about liking it too much when he first prescribed it, but he said we'd cross that bridge if we came to it, and ending my depression was the first priority.  I just happened to pick chocolate as my drug of choice instead of alcohol like everyone else in my family, but that itch for a numbing sensation is definitely hard-wired into my brain.  So instead of having a petrified liver, I'm a real big girl, and if I hear rude remarks at the gym, I tell the ignorant assholes there that I'm chairman of the Women's Sumo Wrestling Foundation and to quit fucking with me.  I don't think they've figured out yet if I'm serious or not!

[zsandoz]

hehe yeah back in college as an undergrad i used to snort the adderall and ritalin.  i liked the adderall better.  i tried smoking the ritalin once hehhe (talk about stupid addictive behavior!)  i stayed up 3 days on adderall.  IT'S NOT GOOD FOR YOU