>A drug is addictive or it isn't. People get addicted to pain killers
>all the time (ask Rush Limbauh) because they began taking them for
>legit medical reasons, why would speed be any different, and this is
>speed.
>
>To Lew the "doctor" who wrote that
>
>I don't know what "feeling addicted" means. If it is just that you
>take something consistently, it is probably not a big problem, right?
>If you take B vitamins everyday, are you addicted to those?
>
>are you serious, if you take crystal meth everyday are you adddicted to that?

It has something to do with dosage and side-effects. I like to point
out that air is highly addictive. Most people, having gotten their
first mouthful, keep breathing it their entire lives. It seems they
can hardly live without it. But air addicts rarely complain about it.
It is, in the end, not so harmful as it is a useful thing to use.

At therapeutic doses, Ritalin, (which incidentally is a stimulant but
is not "speed"), has more positive effects than its negative
side-effects. Of course that's for most people. Other's don't get
that benefit.

What characterizes an addiction is the way the body tolerates and
then requires a drug, just in order to not suffer withdrawal (as
opposed to just a return of symptoms). This is usually not the
experience with Ritalin. However, if somebody did dramatically have
that experience with Ritalin, I'd recommend not taking it.

Part of what makes stimulants potentially addictive is the effect of
much higher doses. If you kept ramping up the dosage of Ritalin, (or
any stimulant, including coffee), in an effort to get a buzz from it,
you'd be in more danger of forming an addictive habit.

Nicotine, in cigarettes, is considered highly addictive. However, I
have never heard that second hand smoke, which is in much lower doses
than a cigarette, can be addictive. It's not healthy, but it is not
going to be addictive in such a low dose.

There's lots of information on the web about addictions and about
Ritalin. Most informed health care providers do not consider Ritalin
to be addictive at therapeutic doses.

And for the record, I do have ADHD and I do take medication every day.

Lew
--

Lew Mills, PhD, LMFT

mailto:LewMills@...
415-550-7672
PO Box 720302; San Francisco, CA 94172-0302