2 weeks ago I found out that “ADHD” drugs can cause permanent damage to the brain. (I’m pretty pissed. Imagine the goals I could have completed!)

I’ve been prescribed methylphenidate at age 10 and took them (intermittently) for 3 years.

  • DankZedong ☭☭☭
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    2 years ago

    I think it would first be important to determine whether or not you have actual damage to your braind and how bad it actually is. Without actual testing you will never know whether or not your brain was affected.

    Purely guessing here but I believe the damage you’re referring to is mostly damage to the prefontal cortex (the part that’s mainly responsible for focus, motivation, planning and regulating emotions). Uppers, which are drugs like methylphenidate, speed, adderall, cocaine etc., do have effects on this area of the brain, giving it basically a higher tolerance for hormones. In short this means that these drugs very suddenly bring a lot of hormones like dopamine etc to this area, causing you to feel happier, more focussed etc. If you take these drugs long enough you will raise the tolerance of these areas. If you then suddenly stop taking these drugs, the natural amount of hormones you produce just isn’t enough to have an effect.

    It’s not completely certain this change is permanent or not, the subject is still being studied really. But it appears to change the way this part of the brain works, especially when you take it at a younger age.

    How to deal with it? Depends on the severity of the ‘damage’. Based on your post history and you being here, you don’t appear to have severe brain damage lol. Don’t worry about that.

    And don’t beat yourself up for your past. If I had done everything perfectly up until now my life would’ve been different, but I also wouldn’t have learned from my mistakes. Me not eating that one hamburger ten years ago may have completely changed my life, but I don’t know that. Rather, learn from your past mistakes and apply your lessons learned to future decisions. You will never know what the perfect way forward will be, nor will there ever be one perfect way forward.

  • Soviet Snake
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    102 years ago

    I am not an expert and I am unsure on how bad do these cause permanent brain damage, but I am a junkie and can tell you while brain damage exists is not necessariliy something that will make your brain useless. I have done LSD with cocaine, cocaine with ketamine, the three together, while smoking weed and drinking booze, cheap meth pills, popper, I smoke weed almost every day and I binge drink on week ends and a lot of times during the week. Point is, it is impossible I do not have some degree of drain bamage, and while I certainly have met people who fucked themselves with drug abuse, it is a lot harder than what people think to fuck your brain. I can only expect a well prescribed, taken with moderation medicament will do better. I would contact your doctor to make sure you are fine, but I would not get depress over it. I mean, I think I can still produce some nice thoughts otherwise the up votes I get are the compassion for some deranged lunatic.

    • @panic@lemmygrad.ml
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      62 years ago

      otherwise the up votes I get are the compassion for some deranged lunatic

      It could be a case of the deranged upvoooooting the deranged, SMH /s

  • Hey homie, it sounds like you might be kind of young. I can’t comment on anything medical, but even if you have brain damage, not all damage is permanent (like, stroke victims can learn how to walk again).

    I don’t have anything really helpful add, just remember to give yourself grace and room to grow.

  • @holdengreen@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    anarkiddie told me antipsychotics are chemical lobotomy and that scared me…

    I wouldn’t worry about it too much unless you think you can notice an actual cognitive issue. In that case try to do something constructive about it.

    I don’t think they should be giving kids these drugs so young imo… Not that I’m against medicine but psychiatry is a front for capitalist exploitation. People aren’t getting the lifestyle investments they need that capitalism is not giving them so instead the cheaper and more convenient route for the capitalist is to shoot kids and adults full of experimental drugs that may or may not be doing permanent damage.

    But don’t fall for scaremongering your probably ok. And we are prone to anxiety which could be worse if you weren’t on them.

    • AmiceseOP
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      2 years ago

      I wouldn’t worry about it too much unless you think you can notice an actual cognitive issue. In that case try to do something constructive about it.

      But don’t fall for scaremongering your probably ok. And we are prone to anxiety which could be worse if you weren’t on them.

      Good point. I think I’ve been getting paranoid of screwing up my health permanently.

      Imagine if I wanted to join the revolution; but I can’t contribute well because my health is too fucked up to do anything.

      I have been getting random headaches though. Maybe I’m not drinking enough water.

      • @panic@lemmygrad.ml
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        32 years ago

        You’ll be surprised at how resilient the human body can be. I see this type of research is causing you harm and I will recommend you avoid it for some time. Not every symptom you get is proof of your body decaying, most of the time you can fix it over time improving little by little.

        Anxiety used to give my physical symptoms so severe I thought my body would stop working. But after working on my health (over a long time) I can’t say it happens as often as it did.

        I’m not even a pinacle of fitness and nutrition. The changes I did were not as drastic as my brain would have me believe before.

        I will clarify that I’m not claiming every physical symptom you experience is mental illness. But that taking care of those issues helps you point out the physical problems you can’t will away with “water and sunshine”.

        • AmiceseOP
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          12 years ago

          You’ll be surprised at how resilient the human body can be. I see this type of research is causing you harm and I will recommend you avoid it for some time. Not every symptom you get is proof of your body decaying, most of the time you can fix it over time improving little by little.

          You’re right. Adaptability is a distinct trait of humans after all. Someone survived being stuck under an ice lake for days; I’ll probably be fine.

          I agree with your other points. 🙂