shootingstar

brokers are NOTORIOUS for doing cocaine. Its not a secret. Welcome to the real world.

FVPV

That wouldn't be Ritalin, but lots of anti-depressants drop your sex drive a ton. Just about any SSRI would take that away (prozac, paxil, lexapro...). I wonder if hellomello would think that you were cheating because you were taking prozac to stop intrusive thoughts about the Schweser girl.

trogulj

I was just diagnosed about 3 months ago, and have been taking Vyvanse for the last 2 months. While I do agree that these stimulant ADD medications are often abused, they do serve a legitimate purpose in helping those with ADD focus more like a person without ADD. ADD is not a smart pill. It doesn't increase your brain power, and people who don't medically require the medication can have adverse side affects such as increased agitation and an over caffeinated kind of a feeling, which makes it even harder to focus (after all, stimulant ADD medication is a mild form of methamphetamine). You see, I have had ADD my whole life. I was even tested for it in middle school, and was misdiagnosed (I am 28 now, so ADD research was only so good back in 1993). I didn't really suspect it until I took time away from college and went back. When it came to studying the last couple of semesters, it would take me 4x as long to read the same material as other people. I always had trouble focusing in conversations and missed a lot of simple details. Essentially, my brain always felt cluttered, like a messy bedroom. Instead of laundry all over the floor, there were thoughts. Like a broken ipod with every song, picture, movie, conversation, and any possible tangents all swirling around in fragments. Eternal stream of consciousness so to speak. Since many people (hellomello) don't really understand what ADD is, let me educate you.

ADD is caused by a lack of certain neurotransmitters (think a chemical bridge or conduit for information in the brain), more specifically, dopamine. Dopamine is used in controlling the flow of information from the other areas of the brain to the frontal lobe. It is also responsible for memory and attention. So as you see, a person who has a lack of dopamine will have trouble paying attention and remembering information. Now as far as memory is concerned, it my long term recall is fine. The more commone symptom of ADD is an impairment of "executive functions" such as short term recall. For instance: I could read a page in a book, and by the time I got to the end of the page, I wouldn't remember what I read at the beginning. Depending on certain factors such as stress or anxiety, I may not even be able to recall the last sentence that I read and have to start over. This isn't by any means a lack of intelligence, it is simply a lack of certain chemicals in the brain that enable these functions. People with ADD may also have difficulty maintaining focus in a conversation or lecture. It isn't for lack of effort. It is simply because the brain is looking for a new stimulus. External visual and auditory stimuli temporarily increase dopamine levels. This is another reason why people with ADD are easily distracted by sights or noises. I will try not to get into too much more detail, but allow me to analogize it for you.

Think of your brain as a radio. It is constantly receiving information. A person with the proper levels of key neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, will get a clear signal and can easily focus on that one signal. Now imagine that the signal is weak, like when a radio dial is between stations. In this case, the signal is not very clear. It is weak and spotty and nearly drowned out by static and white noise. This would be the equivalent of a brain with a lack of dopamine, or more commonly called, ADD. No matter how hard you try, no matter what tricks you do to try to get yourself to focus on the words on the page, or the person talking to you... No matter how many colors of folders and post it notes you use to remind you of small things, the ADD brain struggles to maintain focus on any one thing for too long. The proper amount of stimulant medications such as Ritalin, Adderal, or Vyvanse increase the dopamine levels in the brain to a level where a person with ADD can "tune in their radio." The message comes in loud and clear, and while they are aware of extraneous stimuli such as a phone ringing or a person walking by in the background, they are able to maintain their focus on the task at hand just like anyone else would. They are able to remember normal details such as the material that they read a half of a page earlier without backtracking, or the name of the person who just introduced themselves 90 seconds ago. This is why when persons with ADD finally get the proper medication (if they need it), they feel more calm. It is not because the medication acted as a depressant. It is because the medication simply enabled the brain to find a proper balance so that it could sort through all of the information coming at it. So in the end, this isn't really giving a person with ADD an "unfair advantage." It simply helps them to avoid needlessly spinning my wheels.

By the way; ADD has some steep costs. Getting diagnosed involves a lot of time and testing (if you go to a good and thorough doctor who doesn't simply hand you a 15 question survey with check boxes). These are expensive (can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars) and in many cases, is not covered by health insurance. Furthermore, people with ADD are seen as having a preexisting condition by insurers, which can increase premiums by up to 50%, if they are able to be covered at all. Finally, the medication is not cheap with insurance and is extremely economically prohibitive without it.

Sorry to ramble on...