Self Medicate for ADHD, Depression!

All my life I have been on one form of Ritalin or another and responded greatly until other unneccessary medications were perscribed that some how negated the effects of ritalin. When I turned 17, I stopped using them and thought I grew out of ADHD. However, I never felt the effects of ADHD...until weed. I am 19 years old and just started using pot this last semester. My reaction is unlike anything I have ever experienced. I could see better, started working out like a machine, have greater cognitive periphreals, enhanced memory, better awareness of myself and my surroundings, and all my senses are super hightened. My focus is phenomenal. It was then that I discovered the true disability of my condition. I realized this was the way everyone else saw their world. Finally I could function normally.



This phenomenon interested me, and being a molecular bio student, I decided to look up if my theories are indeed correct. Turns out, I was right. While stimulants inhibit the dopaminergic take up, weed works on the other side of the scale. Being that ADHD is suspected to be caused by having 70% more dopamine transporters and therefore leaving us with only 30% of the normal amount of free dopamine in the brain, the following has been concluded:

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain, associated with a pleasure output of a sensory imput. Dopamine's job is to control neurons that control the amount of input from sensory that is let in. THC9 in pot activates the cannibinoid receptors in the brain that creates the production of free dopamine in the brain.

In lame man's terms that means that stimulants keep free dopamine in the brain to accumulate to a normal standard, weed adds the normal amount**. They both get the same job done, just use different methods. The Dopaminergic system is like a Dam. The upstream water is our inputs, our dam is the processor (in our case broken processor) that decides how much output to produce. Our output is a constant flow. We have no time to sift through the thoughts.

I have set up an appointment with a neuropyschiatric doctor to give adderal another shot and see if it has the same effects. If not, I do believe from experience that pot has the same capabilities or better in the increase of focus.


**Hitting light hits of weed has been shown in this study to medicate the codition. A hit lighter than one would take to get "high". However, if too much TCH is present, then dopamine levels will surpass normal levels and you will end up just as high and suffering the same effects (memory, lethargy, ect) as the next guy. Basically there are 2 types of adhd people who smoke: those who use small amounts for medication, and those who are using it for illicit drug purposes.

On a personal note, i have to say: God...its like I was operating at 1/4 capacity before. My vision becomes eagle like comparatively, My memories are like living every detail and sensation over agan. My peripheral cognition is huge! I am fully aware of my surroundings now. Every input can now be focused together in my mind. Every sound, sight, memory, smell, and touch is all combined to paint a portrait of my surroundings constantly. Its almost like living in 3rd person out of body style. The quality, quanity, and depth of my thoughts increased. I have better understanding of foriegn concepts. My sense of touch becomes so focused with the rest of my brain that i can "see" as clear as day...all with touch. My memory is picture perfect. My pain threshold increased.

I never could have imagined the capacities to live normal. I feel like my iq jumps 30 points up, all when under the influence of pot.

 

I've seen it do what you've described. We had a 7th grader, ADHD, who was failing badly. He started coming in REEKING of pot- and doing his work. He passed with a low "C". He moved that summer so I didn't get to see if the trend continued in 8th grade. I normally do not think pot should be used at such a young age (you need to form your personality first), but occasionally there are exceptions. (In case you are wondering, my cannabis use started when I was exactly 19 years, 3 months old- a late bloomer lol)

Kiki- click either link in my sig, I think you will appreciate the studies on ADD/ADHD that I've collected. (and it's layman's terms, not lame man's! lol) Best of luck to you all- keep toking and keep those grades up!

Granny

 

nice work there kiki and also to you storm crow.

You can tell a difference from being mildly high with ADHD and working harder than being very high and it affecting you in a less than positive way.

 

Yep, I started smoking 2 years ago. My average GPA in high school was around 2.5~2.9. Now my last year in high school with the regular use of weed I'm rocking a 3.77 GPA and I'm still not trying 100%. It just helps me put up with all the BS life throws at you. Helps me get motivated in school and actually put forth some effort in paying attention and actually learning instead of just doing work for the grade. Essentially, it made me value school haha. Unfortunately for me my school doesn't value it! We have drug dogs come by unannounced, of course, to sniff our lockers, cars, jackets, belongings...everything. It's all good tho 2 more weeks woooooo. I agree with what your saying, although I'm not a molecular bio student haha It makes sense

 

Hey man, I've take adderall and it does work except theres some negative side affects. For adderall has Amphetmine Salts in it which makes you extremely wired. It will affect your sleep drastically. It made my mouth dry, and I would have lock-jaw all day. It completely took away my appetite and made me anxious. Then i figured out that weed could keep me focused for schoolwork and i started using that instead. The only problem that I run into is that certain strains of weed work well to focus me and others don't. So the only way to keep a constant supply of a weed that works for you is to grow it yourself, since the streets cannot provide the same quality consistantly and med clinics buy there weed from the street so they are not consistant either, (and way too expensive). The strain that works best for me is L.A. Confidential so if you can get your hands on some try that. But remeber, less is more when it comes to smoking in order to study. If you smoke too much you will be very into your work, but it will be hard to recall it later on tests. So to avoid this, Granted your in college and dont have to turn in your work the day after its assigned, smoke, then do your work until the effects of the med/weed wears off, or you lose your focus, and dont retoke until the next day, because the you will eventually start haveing to smoke more and more and while you may still get your work done and everything will seem fine, your test scores may show different.

So having both adderall and weed is good because neither is the "Perfect" answer but if you have both you can usually cover all your bases.

 

Cannabis is excellent for depression. I use it for just this purpose.

 

Agreed. I have really bad anxiety and a slight depression, however the anxiety can make me hyperactive and antsy. I bit my nails for almost ten years, have had the jimmy legs (restless leg syndrome), and other obsessive compulsive like quirks. Because of pot, I not only quit the majority of these habits and I quit using my prescribed paxil and valium. The only problem is that pot is still illegal and I really dont want to have to go back to paxil and valium when I need to get drug tested for jobs.

I Pee for Enjoyment not for Employment!

 

I've been taking vyvance for about a year now, used to be on Aderall (20mg). I love the time release capsules that I'm prescribed to, they really work wonders. The only thing is that it gives me a high, more so than any other aderall or vyvance pills I've bought from other people. It's a very optimistic, creative, I can do anything in the world type of high that is very pleasent for the 30 minutes that it lasts. Then it just has the same effects that most other pills (aderall/vyvancy) have. Normally that would be great, but with my addictive personality it always makes me want to take another when it wears off, and then I will compensate on the lost pills by going out and buying more. I just hate the feeling of being sober, and the days that I don't have any pills are usually rough... I'm starting to worry about the health effects these pills could have on me though. I just went through a fucking rough week of finals, taking 2 pills everyday to study, chuging coffee, and then xanax or sleeping pills to get to sleep. The only pills that are available to buy around here are from this one kid whos doctor (or whoever prescribes them to him) is giving him vyvance pills that are equivalent to 50-65mg of aderall (might even be 70, I can't remember). Either way it's just overkill, and it isn't time released. Soooo, to the point now, my senior year just ended and I'm really thinking of getting off them for a while, for my healths sake at least (I've lost too much weight) and just smoking weed and I'll see what happens. I've never stayed off of those pills and only smoked for a long period of time, do you think I will notice anything? Are you guys still taking your prescriptions along with weed?? And if not, how long did it take until you really started noticing changes from the weed?

I'm also going to be getting off of dairy, it's a crazy thing, yes, but I'm pysched for it. When I was a kid (2-3) I had terrible ear infections, turned out it was being caused from dairy products. My mom took me off all dairy and put me onto all that rice milk/soy milk crap, and the ear infections went away. Eventually I started drinking regular milk and my parents really just thought I grew out of it. However, my pediatrician says otherwise, and told me it sticks with you throughout your adult years and that it causes ADD. The ADD part of it seems like a bit of a stretch, but maybe I'll start feeling a lot better and will actually be able to motivate myself to do activities without the help of a pill. Anyone have any input on this?? I'll probably be starting all of this in a couple of weeks. I'll have to post something after that to share the results.

I love how the threads dealing with aderall always have huge posts in them, go us any feedback would be appreciated

 

I know exactly what you mean. The perception change is huge. It's also worth looking into neurofeedback, I'm doing that and it is working very well for ADHD. Same perception shifts, but all the time.