Posted by laima on August 27, 2006, at 12:03:32
In reply to Re: Tell Me About Longterm Ritalin » laima, posted by mayzee on August 27, 2006, at 11:11:36
With Emsam 9 I'm, using just 2.5 mg, in Am around 7-8, and then again around noon. So far it's working out gorgeously- I'm much more "alive", alert, and doing the things I need to and want to do! How satisfying! I'm not worrying about what I didn't get done... A huge help! This dose seems to be working well for me with this dose of Emsam- I am not getting ANY anxiety or jitteryness or anything like that. More like the calmer satisfaction of being able to concentrate and not beating myself up over not being able to do stuff, or for not being able to de-faintify myself.
My doctor did say, YES, Emsam can "amplify" effects of other drugs- perhaps that's why I had that panicky spell when I went up to the 9. I was using 15 mg per day then now it's 5.
I've taken it for months at a time before, at varying doses and in different drug combination trials. Too high of a dose for sure has side effects- including tendency to fixate, get overly enthusiastic, overly ambitious, euphoric, talk to much, not sleep or eat--sounds a lot like the descriptions of manic states that I've read about. But ps- that severe condition happened to me only on very high dose, long ago- when I moronically wondered, "hmm, if less is good, would more be better? Let me cheat and see..." This was somewhere in the appalling neighborhood of 90 mg- and it still never damaged my heart. (NO. DONT ANYONE DO IT. That idiocy caused me loads of problems, everything from bizarre behavior, to suicidalish crashes, to losing the trust of my then psychiatrist, to having to sheepishly try to get refills from pharmacists who threatened to call police, etc. And got branded as "drug abuse risk" for awhile. Dumb dumb dumb of me. I regret the "experiments", and they sure caused and exasperated mood swings, too.)
Even lower doses can stall one's appetite.
It's definately an abuseable drug, and like benzos, can have a dark side to consider. However, I feel both can also be wonderful. I think I'm reasonabley safe at the low dose I'm on, and I am confident that the improvement in my mood and functionality right now are worth the small risk that I do have to know exists.
There is debate about whether or not it can cause brain damage, and there are new FDA warnings that it can cause heart problems and/or damage. It raises blood pressure-good in my case! That's part of the rreason I'm using it in the first place! But my blood pressure and pulse are being monitored carefully. It helps that I am in good physical shape (I excercise a lot in order to help my mood-bonus side effects include being in good physical shape!), and my heart, despite the recent low and high blood pressure snafus, is actually in pretty fine shape. So again, I believe, and my doctor believes, that the benefits I'm getting from responsable, low dose use outweigh the risks, in my case.
Unlike my klonopin stuggles, I actually am not feeling any temptation these days to abuse or cheat with the ritalin. Don't know if that's a chemical reason- or just the memory of what happened when I did. I also don't want any hypertensive crisis. But whatever the reason, it's a good thing!
When I recently quit that 15 mg cold, all that happened was two days of dullness and fatigue, but then I was back to the same old "faint" that I described.
> > I got back today to a low dose of ritalin, much lower than before
>
> Hi Laima,
>
> What's your daily dose of ritalin?
>
> What's the longest period of time that you took ritalin before? Did you have any side effects from the ritalin?
>
> Thanks,
> mayzee
poster:laima
thread:678814
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060825/msgs/680520.html