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Front page of NYT this morning


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MFA you beat me to it! My God, there is an entire day's worth of reading from this article. The article itself is NINE pages long and the related articles and stories could keep you busy all day long! I spent 10 minutes on it, and concluded that it read just like the articles and stories posted on this web site. Conslusion: adderall is over-prescribed, easy to get, and it ruins peoples lives. Duh....

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Poor family. You know, when ADD was first invented it was called Minimal Brain Dysfunction (MBD). I think they should go back to calling it that. I bet not as many people would have it. It doesn't sound quite as cool and destimatized and commonplace as 'ADD.' Sometimes a little stigma is a good thing, not for the individual but from a larger social perspective..

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If you read the comments it's a typical merry-go-round of finger pointing. It's the doctor's fault, it's the system's fault, it's the addict's fault, it's the parent's fault, blah blah blah. Nothing will change.

I disagree, Cassie, amphetamines have been a drug looking for a disease ever since they were discovered/created. Doesn't matter what the diagnosis, they'll always be in our system one way or another.

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Is this an arguement for the "I shouldn't go cold Turkey" crowd tho. I quit of the same crazy amounts as this man did...and I felt none of the extremes described...but he did...and someone else could too..I would think. And a life was lost. I may rethink quit advice I give...any other takes on that???

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I read the whole thing. that was so powerful. the writer really captured the whole experience of adderall addiction. 40 adhd experts were consulted on it.

I have so many things to say about it..so many times i was reading that and was like that is MY story too...

what a tragedy. And the ending with the parents at the Shire sponsored meeting..

i couldn't believe how the doctors kept giving him prescription despite everything the parents did.

just wow.

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Is this an arguement for the "I shouldn't go cold Turkey" crowd tho. I quit of the same crazy amounts as this man did...and I felt none of the extremes described...but he did...and someone else could too..I would think. And a life was lost. I may rethink quit advice I give...any other takes on that???

i dont know what to say...its almost like he couldnt or wouldnt accept a life without adderall.

at the end of my addiction i was like, this is too exhausting for me. it's over. it has to be. and then i sort of felt free. scared as hell but free. I did have suicidal thoughts like for a couple days but they stopped very soon.

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i remember my mom going through a similar fight as his parents did (my dad passed away years ago)...fighting with doctors and with me..Its so hard for the families. I went to dinner with my sister before i left for school and somehow we started talking about the whole adderall thing, and i tried to explain to her what i was going through in my psychosis and she burst into tears at the restaurant table remembering the whole thing...its so difficult for our families..I feel awful for putting them through that. i was a totally different person, completely irrational.

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I relate to so much of it and what you guys have said...I too was just too tired to chase it for even another day,and that kinda shocked me. But first time especially..my bottom was total loss of self. I was in denial for a long time...but vividly remember when I felt where I was and that I couldn't walk away if I wanted to. I would still use for a couple more years. The guys parents screamed so loud for their child....really targeting the nucleus too ...the prescribers. And no one wanted to accept this...and now he's gone.oh the venom that could sit in parents that endured an end result like this and they aren't going after anyone....God bless them in a kind of acceptance that only he can provide.

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Is this an arguement for the "I shouldn't go cold Turkey" crowd tho. I quit of the same crazy amounts as this man did...and I felt none of the extremes described...but he did...and someone else could too..I would think. And a life was lost. I may rethink quit advice I give...any other takes on that???

Heather what would you change about your advice? I think it's been terrific...

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I think when you choose to end your own life ...there certainly are a lot of internal things all collsing at once...but if someone is having such thoughts due to going off adderall too...should I still tell them that is the best route..I know for myself and others it still is and was...but for someone who could be posting an edited version or life...or an accurate one....if someone took their own life coming off medication...I would be beyond beside myself of course. I know its an extreme scenario ...but it just kinda made me think.

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"[....]Adding that “the medication itself is pretty innocuous,†Dr. Katz continued that someone without A.D.H.D. might feel more awake with stimulants but would not consider it “something that they need.â€

“If you misdiagnose it and you give somebody medication, it’s not going to do anything for them,†Dr. Katz concluded. “Why would they continue to take it?â€

Un-fuckin'-believable!

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Sadly there was a lot going on for Richard in addition to adderall abuse. I am appalled by a medical/MH system that perpetuated this problem when it's common knowledge that amphetamines do nothing but worsen psychotic symptoms,not to mention anger. My heart goes out to the parents. I sincerely hope that their son's legacy will bring increased awareness to the extent of this problem. So glad to see this on the front page of NYT.

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I think when you choose to end your own life ...there certainly are a lot of internal things all collsing at once...but if someone is having such thoughts due to going off adderall too...should I still tell them that is the best route..I know for myself and others it still is and was...but for someone who could be posting an edited version or life...or an accurate one....if someone took their own life coming off medication...I would be beyond beside myself of course. I know its an extreme scenario ...but it just kinda made me think.

I dont know...I think you can tell them to be mindful that suicidal thoughts can be one of the symptoms of quitting adderall (but it's also a symptom of being addicted to adderall!!!). But you can let them know to be mindful. I did feel suicidal and I knew it was because I quit adderall that was making me feel that way. i started taking an anti depressant (effexor) which made me feel much better. I didnt know about this site at the time. I'm sure it would have been so helpful then to know i wasn't going it alone.

edit - if i found this site, i doubt i would have been as depressed..

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So great to see this on the front page today. I hope the story spurs more media coverage about the less extreme but increasingly common cases of Adderall abuse and addiction.

I just can't believe doctors (who are supposed to be smart, right?) accept this circular logic of Dr. Katz at the end, that it's an innocuous medication that will work on people with ADHD and those who don't have ADHD won't feel it working, so they won't take it.

It's a stimulant. It works similarly on all people and it can be abused.

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So great to see this on the front page today. I hope the story spurs more media coverage about the less extreme but increasingly common cases of Adderall abuse and addiction.

I just can't believe doctors (who are supposed to be smart, right?) accept this circular logic of Dr. Katz at the end, that it's an innocuous medication that will work on people with ADHD and those who don't have ADHD won't feel it working, so they won't take it.

It's a stimulant. It works similarly on all people and it can be abused.

That is what I believed when I first started on it. I thought if I don't have ADHD then it won't work for me, but since it works forme, I must have ADD. I didn't know it worked everyone all the same. There was so little info on it back then.

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So great to see this on the front page today. I hope the story spurs more media coverage about the less extreme but increasingly common cases of Adderall abuse and addiction.

You just made me think of something. I agree that bad press about the dangers of adderall is good press, because it raises awareness of the dangers of it when used to excess and abused so significantly. But is this at the risk of turning a blind or naive eye to the much more common and perhaps just as dangerous abuse that happens with people who take it at "relatively low" doses over a very long period of time? Many of us here fall in to that category, and we know just how much damage it can do at these levels, and it's so much more commonplace.

It worries me how many people are thinking along the lines of rationalisation that says, "oh I knew someone who took cocaine every day of his life but wasn't addicted".

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I've been following the comments throughout the day, this one to me seems both pertinent and foreboding:

ADHD medications are very tricky.

I've been on one for three years. I tell myself I could stop any time I want, but I know I'm an addict that can't function without the drug because once you've taken it, even for a short time, stopping makes you confused and despondent.

I'm 65 years old and smart enough to limit my dose. I found that I need only 1/8 of the recommended dose to function, but of course on that you miss out on the euphoria and intense concentration.

Even at the lower dose I feel the drug is keeping me alive and killing me at the same time. I don't connect to people as well as I did and have fewer emotions.

My psychopharmacologist writes me Rx's for so much that I could become a street vendor. When I tell her I think it's become a problem, she tells me I need it and writes another 90 days worth. Of course I fill the Rx to stockpile in case it gets hard to get, as it has at certain times.

Those teens and 20's don't stand a chance.

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