Were you ever on stimulants?

[Axe]

I'm interested in how many of you grew up on, or are still on, drugs. I'm not talking about the illegal paraphernalia you have stashed away (smoke weed every day), but medically prescribed stimulants such as methylphenidate (Ritalin) or antidepressants.

 

I've been drug free my whole life, but growing up it seemed like everyone around me was on something. To me, it seems like I would be a sellout if I were ever to succumb to the drug industries.

 

Anything is prescribed without asking much questions. Not that there's much testing that can be done on mental problems, but if that's the case why prescribe it at all? It's an easy way for parents to see results in their kids without trying alternative methods. To me it seemed like the kids in school on Ritalin were cheating. Sports athletes aren't allowed to take performance enhancing drugs, why should kids in school be able to? It also should be noted that putting kids on addictive drugs early on probably isn't the best idea ever conceived.

 

Not to say the problem doesn't exist. I'm well aware of it and had a problem with it myself. As high school came around concentrating on things became difficult as school quickly faded in importance and other things were always occupying my mind. I could open a book and stare at words on a page, but my mind would be somewhere else. I think the whole method of "teaching" by having to memorize endless amounts of useless data is faulty, but that's another story.

 

In conclusion: bad science will kill us all.

 

So take a moment and share with me the wild ride that is your life. I want to know what kind of impact drugs had on your existence.

[Osi]

nap

[Nekton]

I had to take paxil for about a two years. It really didn't seem to do much for me, except that I was physically addicted to it and when I tried to quit I got really sick for about 3 days.

[Jusander]

I've just recently started taking anti-depressants. For me, it was after a long thinking period and only because I know it will be just temporary and because I want to be sure I don't repeat yet again my previous mistakes I made when trying to deal with my problems without any help. A permanent solution to my problems will hopefully come with the help of regular therapy but thanks to the bureaucracy of our health care system the Uni's health care center's psychiatrist has to observe me for at for at least 6 months to see that I actually need the therapy - only after that I'm allowed to apply for the funding for it.

 

I've tried two different anti-depressants and both had very unpleasant side-effects that caused me to abandon them. The first one's bad effects were purely physical: difficulties when urinating and constantly dry mouth. So, when I got to see an actual psychiatrist instead of a general practitioner he ordered me another one that suits my condition better. This one I ended up hating.

 

After starting taking this medication I became constantly tired and lost practically all the interest in everything. This actually caused me to fuck up a promising beginning of a relationship because I lost all the interest in also to the girl in question - first the sexual interest and then also emotional one. I stopped taking the medication but this lead to me having all my problems falling on me again. I had an appointment with the shrink again yesterday and he gave me another medication which I hope will suit me better than the previous ones. I'm quite hopeful because both these medications did help me not to get consumed by anxiety attacks or general depression - the side-effects were just too much.

[Michael-Corleone]

Don't need any of that crap. :o

[meat`]

i have never been, nor will i ever be, medicated into submission and turned into one of those zombies without personalities of their own. some of my best friends were either tricked in to, or forced in to, the easy way out for their lazy dumb-fuck parents: the 1990s pill salad.

 

with that said, i am completely in favour of using drugs to treat legitimate chemical imbalances like low serotonin. celexa has worked great for everyone i know who has used it and it didn't mess with their personality at all.

[meat`]

DISCLAIMER: this post is half a novel long.

 

for some reason i thought i'd share my experience with this whole area, so here goes:

 

(continued from my first post)

 

i guess it demonstrates the level of independent thought and decision making the parents had.. given that they let some doctor in a corporation's back pocket decide what was best for their children. if MY parents ever tried to put me on a drug like that, i would have been looking through their medicine cabinets to see if they're already on that mind-controlling bullshit.

 

i have dealt with this situation, and i have seen the ignorant and almost conspiratorial nature of the doctors and "professionals" who, under the guise of care and concern, will do anything they can to convince your parents and yourself that you are in dire need of medication. you have an imbalance!

 

when i was 14 i went to a particular private school here, in the summer, to basically buy my entire grade 9 credit equivalent so that i could make up the year i had wasted previously in school. by the end of the summer i found out that this private school was for people with ADD, ADHD, and a plethora of other popular problems of the 90s. this was a surprise to me, as it seemed to be a completely normal small-class private school that offered one-to-one tutoring.

 

at any rate: when the time came to have a meeting at the end of the course - which i had taken longer than i should have to complete, because it was the summer and i didn't really want to be doing school work - i brought my father and my grandmother in with me since they were the ones who found the school and so on..

 

they gave me a glowing report! it was about the same as all the other ones i've recieved about my mental capacity and capability, with one added part at the end:

 

i would definitely benefit from attendance at a military school for the rest of my high school years, which here in ontario in the 90s would have been 4 more years after grade 9, and considerable medication to help conquer my "ADD, ADHD" and "to help him settle down and do his work."

 

that one set off alarm bells for me. i was 14 and i knew something was up. i looked at my father, then at my grandmother, and neither of them were saying anything - i think they were in disbelief. i told the principal and her little minion "i'm not taking any fucking drugs and i'm not going to any military academy. fuck off." and i left.

 

my father and grandmother supported my decision and basically told them to fuck off as well, after i had left, in nicer terms. i never took any meds, i never even got a prescription. i went to a high-school i liked, where my friends were(HI SABIN!) and i did just fine without prescription medication "helping" me.

 

i found out later that the principal had sent a lot of people to that military academy, and she had become great friends with the administrator. i have no doubt she was shipping off kids just for the kickbacks. same way doctors got the kickbacks for shoving ritalin down kids, and then adults, throats.

 

 

i suppose i'm lucky to have parents who, by their nature, distrust the establishment.

[Kindred]

Only prescription drug I ever took was that pyscho shit they gave me for my "headaches". The feeling of my head blowing itself apart has gone and I have not taken the med in about 9 months. Wasn't a stimulant though, more of a depressant. I mean shit anything that make the world feel like its moving in bullet time or makeing you feel like you are doing everything underwater cannot be considered a stimulant...

[dj_de]

not for any real amount of time. althought when i was finally diagnosed with some sort of illness last year, they were gonna give me steroids if i didnt improve

[Pestilence]

I was never prescribed anything of the sort when i was little, just your usual cough medication and what not. Alot of the kids i grew up with where though, at one point it seemed like i was the only kid that wasnt on ridalin.

 

I do have a history with drugs though, in grade 9 i smoked pot for the first time, and periodically after that. About half way through grade 10 i became "a pot head" and was kicked out of school for not attending class (didnt really have anything to do with pot actually, i wasnt going to class becuase i was skateboarding all day) I had my first drink that summer, and many more followed. In grade 11 i ate 4 grams of mushrooms at a party and was fucked for about 4 hours, did shrooms 4 more times after that (i actually have afew grams upstairs which im gonna be eating sometime soon) That year i also did K and Jib (one is crystal meth the other is some worse garbage) In grade 12 i snorted coke for the first time and coco puffs for the first time (coke and weed in a joint). I think thats it...there is this period thats a little foggy, but im pretty sure i didnt do anything else during that time...Im not proud of doing all those drugs, and i wish i stopped at shroomz, but atleast i didnt take it to the extreme, alot of my friends became addicted and shit and it really fucked up their lives...there are times where i miss those days, but i know its for the best...

 

FIN