Ritalin, I think it's destroyed me

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Hi, I posted a thread about this before except I havn't been the same since the overdose I did, my thoughts have gne, my iterest in everything has gone, I feel nothing and I feel deatched from my old self, I don't feel depressed or anything even though I'm desperate to be my old self again, I thought that this would only be a temporary after effect but it hasn't changed at all in neally three days, I cant tell my Mum becuase she would go mad, I've lost all of my creative, intelligent and thoughts for the future, my emotions are gone, I just had to say this to someone, can somebody tell me what to do?

If you did a short term overdose, it MIGHT be a loss of receptor sensitivity and residue left over from it. In EITHER case, part of the ideal cure would be to go off of it for a while. Of course, they CAN also be addicting. BASICALLY, that is a reduction in receptors, etc... The cure is the SAME, but it would take longer.

There is a lot you aren't saying, in the sense when I look at your profile it says nothing about any possible comorbids. So I would guess, since I didn't see your other post about it, why were you on Ritalin to begin with?

I did another type at one point and I only vaguely remember I said it helped, but they so over medicated me for something else, tt was worse then what they were treating me for.
I'm going to be very insistent tomorrow that we look at this option again. Time it took for the Ritalin type drug I was on to get the job done, again I'm so vague on it i couldn't tell you. As for readjusting to it, in your case, again I can't say. I would suppose it has a lot of variables. I would assume this could be something to discuss with you Doctor? You don't state your age or if you allowed the privacy of discussing this issue without your Mom around.

I was diagnosed with Asperger's and ADHD so I was put on Ritalin, but I then decided to have an overdose because I was feeling quite hurt and insecure, and I can't tell you how much I regret it, I am 16 years old and I stayed up three nights ina row because of it, and I had really odd thoughts and by the third day, I think I got psychosis and I believed that I was schitzophrenic and I had a multiple personality disooder, I went into ym room and wrote a 3 page letter for the doctor saying why it isn't Asperger's or ADHd that I've got. Looking back now I was totally out of my mind, but at the time I really believed it,
I regert this so much and I hope it is only some kind of shot-term sensitivty thing because right now I feel stuck.

Yeah I have ADHD as well, but it has been ignored for about 10 years. Bipolar as well. Lol, now they're bringing up OCD. General anxiety disorder, personality disorder, are on the "list" as well. Maybe a couple I have forgotten or don't know they've added. Do I need to go on? Didn't think so.

Yeah, I know a little about speed over dose's. Lead a self destructive life style for a while, umm understatement. I think you may find it will settle back in by itself. But if it doesn't, it is far better to face a bit of whatever reaction your Mom might take to get to discuss it with your doctor and stress you've learned your lesson. And make damned sure you have learned your lesson. For another thing you're probably over thinking it as well and that in itself can take the form of what you first descibed.

This is all an outsider looking in and not my call. Be good to yourself, we have all made mistakes in our lives.

And it destroyed me too... I was forced to take the medicine and in the end, I fared worse than before, never recovering from the aftereffects of Ritalin.

It's destroyed me in a different way. It gave me a glimpse of what it would be like to have the same productivity in my life as a normal person, only alongside too many negative effects to continue it beyond necessity, so when I stopped taking it I knew who I could be, and thus who I am will never be good enough to make me happy or content in myself.

For a long time after I stopped taking it I thought it had f**ked up my brain, because I couldn't seem to be creative and daydreamy anymore, but although it took a year, that side of me has eventually come back.

Just give it 1 or 2 weeks and everything will be back to normal.

When did you stop taking it? And for how long did you take it?

go see a naturepath to heal your brain. it may be that you needed to taper the medication.
start taking lots b vitamins c e d fish oil magnesium and other micronutrients

unfortunetly you may permantly injured you brain, but no one can reallly no for sure

wow..this post just made me grateful that i never filled the ritalin prescription for my 9 year old. i threw it in the trash instead.

I stopped taking it a bit over a year ago, and I took it for three years (over the time it took me to complete y11 and 12). Looking back, I see it was pretty vital at the time; I probably would have failed high school without it, but with it I not only passed but got into the top 1-3 percentile of the state. Again looking back, I think a lot of my issues with high school might have stemmed from the combination of AS and ADHD (it would explain a lot more than just plain AS, and later in my life; at around age 17, a doctor diagnosed me with ADHD as well as AS (which I was diagnosed with when I was 11)).

Yes, I think prescribing ritalin to a 9 year old is an extremely stupid idea, because at that age while their brains are still fragile and developing I think it could do serious damage.

I went on ritalin as a last resort, from when I was almost 17 to when I was 19, and for half that time I actually was only on a quarter dose (I think it was), and the other half a half dose, so it wasn't even that much. Furthermore, I only took it for the part of the day during which I was at school (while the doctors suggested taking it to cover 24/7 or at least all daylight hours). Ritalin is a seriously dangerous drug; being on a half/quarter dose of it was enough to bring me to the brink of anorexia, change my personality - I was a different person while on it, cause depression, brittleness, inability to ever relax, and all kinds of other stuff.

It has taken me a year to go back to the person I actually was (my true personality) before I started taking it.

Sounds like anhedonia to me. Many people get it after discontinuing a drug, and other things. I have had it come and go several times after tapering off Celexa (citalopram).

And yes it really does suck.

WOW, you sound like my mother! She did the SAME thing! I met a LOT of people that were put on ritalin and seemed to be more like poor robots than thinking humans. I hear some LUCKY people with ritalin, and wonder where my life would have been if she filled that. OTHER times, I remember those people that were UNLUCKY, and am thankful that she did what you did!