Self Medication with Cocaine or Speed???

[akiss4u]

I went to my Psych yesterday. After 2 hours of testing and questioning, I was diagnosed with ADHD(not to my surprise). I noticed he was very "lax" on what medication I should use. He asked me if I had ever self medicated with cocaine or speed and if so which one was my greatest weakness (that I liked the most). I have not self medicated with those drugs and I am not sure how that would effect what he prescribed to me. Later I started to think about it and Please correct me if I am wrong.

He said there was 3 basic types of medications used like:
1) Ritalin (methylphenidate)
2) Adderal (amphetamines salts)
3) Stratara (antidepressants)

Does methylphenidate act more like Cocaine and the Amphetamines more like Speed?

Just curious if anyone knows from experience. My doctor said it was very common for ADD people to abuse these kinds of drugs and once they are prescribed a medication that helps they usually do not abuse them.
I worry about my son and drug abuse as he grows up. My sister abused these types of drugs and I am wondering if she is also ADHD.

This link refers to the abuse of Ritalin and explains that it is similar to Cocaine.
http://www.iprc.indiana.edu/publicat...e/ritalin.html

[Nucking_Futs]

In my opinion. People do not use drug's because it's already in the family. My father was a drug addict, my brother abused pot and I had a sister who almost killed herself on Crystal Meth. But, my parent's still raised a lot of other kid's who have never touched narcs of any kind. One of my sister's will not use pain killer's of any kind but tylenol and novacaine because of the fear.

I do however think it very important to inform your son that he is more susceptable to becoming a user and that he must alway's treat all drugs with respect and take them correctly as prescribed.

My children and I have gone to many workshop's about drug and alcohol abuse...will this help? I wish I had an answer for you but my children have not gotten to an age were peer pressure is significant...so unfortunatly I may be doing exactly the wrong thing. That's the problem with kid's in the end you can only pray you taught them right and gave them the skill's needed to say NO and mean it.

I do wish you all the best of luck and hope you find just the right med for you. While we use talk therapy and the children have coaches thru the school system we do not use med's for control of ADD symptoms. Mind you that if it became necessary I would have NO trouble what so ever making sure my kid's were given the right med. It's my responsibility to give my children every opportunity to excell the rest is up to them.

[Ian]

A pharmacist would be a good bet for knowlegable answers as to the effects of each of the drugs you mention.

My experience shows that the primary element in my own troubles with addiction stem from long standing issues surrounding self esteem.

At least for the medication questions you might want to repost some of these questions to the "medications" forum here if you don't get answers that help you in this forum.

I really don't know much about the drugs themselves.. just how to go to hell and back abusing them.. Life is better now.. < vbg >

Any time you have questions about abuse of substances I hope anyone would feel free to post here or to send me a note privately if you are uncomfortable posting to the forum.

Cheers! Ian.

[akiss4u]

My son is also very ADHD type and my older son is mildly ADD, my husband is ADD inattentative. Our house is in chaos most of the time. Hopefully we can all find a medication that works best for all of us. I just thought it was strange that the doctor mentioned self medication and the effects of hard drugs such as speed and cocaine. I think any abuse is repetitive in families if the cycle is not broken at some point and I think we are all different and some of us may be less suceptible to abuse because of our mindset or personalities. Everything effects our lives in some way ... how we handle it is another story.

[KenO]

Originally posted by akiss4u


Does methylphenidate act more like Cocaine and the Amphetamines more like Speed?

Just curious if anyone knows from experience. My doctor said it was very common for ADD people to abuse these kinds of drugs and once they are prescribed a medication that helps they usually do not abuse them.
I worry about my son and drug abuse as he grows up. My sister abused these types of drugs and I am wondering if she is also ADHD.

Your doctor is correct. Speed is also known as "meth", short for methanphetamine, which is also prescribed for ADD as Desoxyn or Desoxyn Spansule.

I recovered from a cocaine addiction 16 years ago when I was in college, and for most of that time I used it was more to "feel normal" than it was to "get high". I can remember times before finals where I would use just so that I could focus and study and stop being distracted in the library. I never liked meth, but coke always made more "feel more even". After several years of using though it got out of hand and I had to stop. Thankfully, I was able to overcome and I've been sober for 16 years (almost 40 now), but I'm still struggling with treating my condition in a way that doesn't involve stimulants or SxRIs (too many side effects and complications).

[akiss4u]

KenO:

I am really sorry about your difficult time. Have you found any medical help for your ADD?

[KenO]

I found a bunch of MDs who will write prescriptions, but no one who really understands the condition, let alone for adults, and who can provide comprehensive treatment with a full understanding of the condition.

But I'm not going to be deterred, and am channelling my over-focus tendencies to finding the best possible solution.

Oh, and no need to be sorry because this isn't really that difficult of a time, now 20 years ago that was a different story, but I've learned a great deal and developed some great coping skills. At this point its more about optimizing and fufilling my potential than dealing with an immediate crisis.

[akiss4u]

As an adult still struggling with ADHD, I hope to help my ADHD son by experiementing on myself first. Neither of us have taken any Meds yet. I am going to try my Ritalin LA soon and I know medication is not the one and only thing. However it may help.

Cocaine is serious business. My dad has a friend he met at a church group who has been addicted for over 30 years. My sister is a smart, beautiful girl, who won Miss Kansas at 20 and she also battled cocaine and won. She is taking medication now and graduated from college. She is married and working a sales job - living a full life now - she too is ADHD. She has no kids yet because she feers history may repeat in genectics. Our family is full of smart attractive people who struggle with problems just like everyone. We are all human and we all have our strengths and weaknesses that vary - but hey thats what makes us special RIGHT. Take your best qualities and run with them - give it all you can becuase guess what life is too short to waist. HUGS TO YOU!

[Gregster]

An addictive personality is very common in ADHD people - it's all about impulse control, as well as low self-esteem, which is common side effect of ADHD. Poor impulse control, low self-esteem and drugs that give an "escape" can add up to a big problem if left to naturally run their course. It's no wonder self medication is so common. I thankfully didn't run with anyone in school (I was in the nerd group) who would have given my easy access to cocaine or meth - hell I didn't start smoking grass til I was past university and it's good thing too! - because I definately have an additive personality. Never tried them for just that reason.
If there's an addiction that is going to kill me, however, it's an addiction to food!
My ADHD Dr wasn't worried at all about potential substance abuse - I guess he knew that the ritalin would help that rather than make any problem worse.
So far I find that ritalin gives me a level of impulse control that I didn't think I had in me! I have completely stopped binge eating and my smoking has decreased dramatically.

[Gregster]

>Does methylphenidate act more like Cocaine and the Amphetamines more like Speed?
Acutally, yes. This comes from http://www.biopsychiatry.com/ which is an interesting web site, but I'm not sure it's completely accurate, but I haven't found any technical mistakes yet.
"Whereas cocaine blocks the neuronal re-uptake of the catecholamine neurotransmitters noradrenaline and dopamine, amphetamine triggers to a much greater extent their synaptic release. It feels coarser, lasts longer and costs less."
"In spite of its structural relationship to amphetamine, methylphenidate resembles in many ways a benign version of cocaine, yet with a much longer half-life. It blocks the reuptake, but doesn't significantly release, the catecholamines noradrenaline and dopamine."
This is an oversimplification of course.
I'd imagine the Dr's question was aimed at finding out if one mode of action worked better than another. Methylphenidate being a reuptake inhibitor and amphetamines being an agonist (I think?).
Greg

[clueless]

Wow. I can't believe your doctor actually asked you what your greatest weakness in regards to drugs was and is considering supplying you with some more of it. I have never heard of that before.

I can barely get Wellbutrin prescribed to me.

[akiss4u]

I think he was searching for addiction problems and checking to see if I had ever self medicated. I have never tried any drugs - I am way too fearfull of bad reactions and the law! I doubt he would have prescribed me any medication if I were an addict. He did tell me a 45 year old female was diagnosed with ADHD and she said she had abused (self medicated) methanphetamine in highschool for a year and tried cocaine but did not like it's effects. She said the methanphetamine helped her get through her senior year and graduate. He also shared that she did well with Adderal but very poor with Ritalin. That is why I wondered if there were some kind of chemical similarities in Ritialin is like cocaine and Adderal is like methanphetamine. Just curious what you all had to say about it. I am on a huge research hyperfocus deal with all this ADHD stuff right now so parden my strange curiousness....
I guess it is just the investigative side of me.

[Nucking_Futs]

I am on a huge research hyperfocus deal with all this ADHD stuff right now so parden my strange curiousness....

There is nothing strange about your curiousness. We've all been there and there is NO other way better to deal with ADD then to know thy enemy. I think your taking huge leaps in the right direction. Good luck and slap on the back for a job well done.

[akiss4u]

I read something that made me very angry in my research! I don't think I will post it here because it really isnt the right area. I will post it under medications general area. You should check it out...

[Nucking_Futs]

I'll do that and please keep in mind that everyone is different and view's on ADD and meds differ. Your going to run into a lot of thing's that will anger and offend you it's normal happen's to me all the time. I even offend people without knowing it with some of my own view's.

Send me the link in case I should happen to miss it.