Krax

I had it prior to taking ritalin. I didn't get much out of it except for a nasty side effect I'd rather not describe. Have you tried wellbutrin?

Ally I'm sorry you don't have much support. You know my wife was the biggest help for me but I think she got frustrated too, she was just happy I wasn't grinding my teeth and flipping out all the time. Your physical recovery gets better and better, but it takes 4 months for most of us. After that, the psychological recovery is very non-linear, real up and down, so you have to be ready for that. I agree though that you've done the hardest part, those first 4 weeks or so are the toughest physically. On an unrelated note I was born in Rockford.

One more one more thing: I took very low dose, 75 mg of WB in morning only.

I wanted to add something: the idea that you can go from using such a drastic central nervous stimulant like amp, to nothing, without major withdraws for a sustained period of time is absurd. I'm not blaming the user, I think if any of us had had any idea what it would be like we would have been more hesitant to use it amp in the first place. For me, with my professional obligations, I could not have sustained my quit without some help, and Wellbutrin was it. You know, after 3 or 4 weeks you feel so great, then things go bad again in different ways - WB gave me some stimlulated stability for which I am forever grateful.

Chris my advocacy is based only on my personal experience and I have no medical background. I just note how similar time line wise so many forum members' experienced in recovery have been. Okay, so here goes: I have a very limited lay person's understanding of some of the chemistry involved, which is that amphetamine does 2 things, it releases dopamine and it inhibits the reabsorption of it back into the brain cells (?) so that more is swimming around in your head making you stimulated. The release of dopamine is what is so addictive. That is why appetite and sexual activity is decreased because you normally get dopamine released from those things but with amp who needs it? So right there you see how amp messes with God's engineering (designed to propagate the human race). That's a red flag right there. So when you take amp the artificial release of dopamine throws your system out of wack and you stop producing and releasing dopamine normally. This is why you are so tired when you don't take amp. I had a psych tells me brain cells should recalibrate after about two weeks off amp. To this I cried bullshit! Now the thing is amp creates it's own dependency in that the more you take it the more you need and crave it, so when you awake and take one pill you auto are withdrawing because again, you are telling your brain NOT to release dopamine on its own, you've got it covered with your pills. It takes a long time to get back to normal. I never would have made it without wellbutrin, I would have given in out of exhaustion. Wellbutrin does not release dopamine, but it does the 2nd thing amp does, it inhibits the reabsorption. It feels like a even coffee buzz all day. First few weeks are weird, buzzing feeling in your head, but in my case that went away. It is not addictive. I quit after 4 months. I can see why it's so successful as a smoking cessation cure. Hope that helps

Quitting for 5 or 6 weeks is no small feat - I wouldn't feel like a failure for that. Those are 5 or 6 long weeks. If you can do that you can quit for much longer.

I can't wait to read the responses to this one

Antidepressants is such a vague and general term, in fact I think amphetamine could be characterised as one of the first anti depressants . There is nothing similar between SSRIs like Prozac or Effexor , and Wellbutrin, they are totally different. I know many of you know this, but I'm pointing that out for everyone else. I had tried quitting while using Effexor and prosac, but it just made me even more tired. Wellbutrin doesn't release dopamine however it does inhibit the reabsorption of it, so it' was really a perfect transition to sobriety for me and non addictive. I know it sounds like I'm a sales rep for Wellbutrin, but it's just that I get frustrated reading peoples posts who are still using but are making all these grandiose plans to quit, and then I never see them again. I think there are a lot of unrealistic expectations out there, I should know I had them too, but to quit using such a cataclysmic central nervous stimulator is so hard.

With regard to myself I may or may not fall within the definition of ADD or ADHD, but in the final analysis this question is irrelevant. Even if I have a condition like that, the fact is that amphetamine while somewhat effective does more harm then good, and it's a bull-in-the-china-shop solution to a condition that is not insurmountable.

It takes 4 months - this was my experience any many others - to regain just basic minimal energy. I've said over and over to people that Wellbutrin saved my life in that I couldn't have stayed off amphetamine without it. After 4 months enough of my natural energy returned to quit wellbutrin. I've had many people respond that "oh I don't want to put any other drugs in my body," this coming from someone still taking adderall. That's a user's way of seeing everything black and white. I don't know how people quit, and I know some do, without something like wellbutrin.

Very much agree. Trying to be positive or happy by telling myself to be happy is like trying to fall asleep by telling myself to fall asleep.

Ask you dr about Wellbutrin, that got me through my first four months clean

Ritalin was my primary drug for 4.5 years. I substituted concerta for it for awhile but went back to the ritalin because I liked being able to dose more often. My breaking point that directly led me to trying to quit (which took 6 months to do) was focalin. That drug is EVIL. Unlike ritalin, where after taking too much of it for too long I would experience massive gas pains, it seemed I could stay on focalin forever. The thing that helped me quit (besides telling my wife not to let me take it anymore) was Wellbutrin. I took that the first four months off of amphetamine. At that point as my vitality returned I couldn't tolerate the wellbutrin stimulus anymore, but for those first four months it saved me.

Albuterol by itself wouldn't cut it for me, I'm surprised your Dr hasn't tried you on QVAR, it's a steroid preventive inhaler, like Flonase for asthma and it works wonders.

Justin do you use Qvar or other inhalers?

Though I completely agree with quit once that you are asking the wrong question, and that it is irrelevant why you cannot take it in moderation, I think there is a relatively simple reason. My lay person's understanding is that once you take amphetamine your brain has an unnatural release and inhibited reabsorption of dopamine, in a way that God or our designer never ever intended. As a consequence of that, your brain's natural production and release of dopamine is thrown out of whack, and from that first pill you begin to withdraw from that synthetic mass release and crave the same thing. I'm sure someone else can correct me in some way or explain it better, but the bottom line is that the drug itself creates the need and craving for additional doses, sort of like with nicotine.

You know, I've had allergies for years-which is common in the NW, and when I first went on Ritalin I honestly believed it reduced them in some way, I felt like they weren't as present as before. After I started trying to quit, going on and off on a regular basis, I realized it only reduced how much I noticed my allergies - in other words when on Ritalin when I thought about it I could see my allergies weren't any better but rather I was just able to ignore them more. Related to that was the fact that though my sense of taste was not deficient when on Ritalin, my ability to enjoy tasting things was. Amphetamine just disconnects me mentally and physically, good and bad. It's a bull in the china shop remedy for dealing with things.

Thank you for sharing that

Quitonce where did you read that hitler had Parkinsons?

I got into recording, mixing ect when my son was in a band in junior high. I had always been interested in it and it gave us an activity together, which was cool. This was shortly before the ritalin era, as I call it. At the time, I had external pressures to learn what I was doing, for their sake, and it was rewarding. When on ritalin, I went real crazy with doing my own stuff, some hardware but mostly virtual instrument stuff on cubase and numerous plug ins. Just went nuts! I'd be up all night just on some drum loop, or whatever, totally obsessed. Since I quit though, absolutely no intererst. In fact, thinking of it kind of turns me off as it reminds me of the ritalin days. You know some of the IOS apps are killer: electrify, DM 1, Funkbox, the Korg apps, it's just crazy, but I can't keep any motivation or interest going very long. So it's like a part of my past now.

FW like home recording, digital? That's my activity, or it was.

Anyone soured on an activity because they associate it with adderall?

Are you changing you name to LILOHIO

Or like arguing with someone who does believe in global warming.

where is MFA?