I read an about the damage meth does to you and how it takes way too long to recover from it. How is Ritalin different even tho chemically they are cousins?
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Meth is actually a prescribable drug in the US under the name Desoxyn. Dosage and usage habits matter a lot in how damaging something is.
To answer your question, meth and Ritalin are not super chemically similar. Adderall and especially Sudafed are common drugs that are very similar to meth chemically.
I’m not in any way an expert here, but my understanding is a lot of meth addicts actually begin as Adderall users who either need something stronger to maintain their focus or are taken off their Adderall prescription somehow.
Methylphenidate and methamphetamine are not really that close to each other. Methylpentynol for instance makes you sleep.
Methamphetamine is more harmful because it’s almost exclusively cooked in an unregulated environment and cut with substances that are bad for you.
Methamphetamine is MUCH stronger and MUCH more addictive.
There’s a limit to how much ritalin you can be prescribed. You don’t see people tweaking and having psychotic episodes on ritalin very commonly. Especially if it’s used as prescribed.
Controlled low amounts of pharmaceutical grade meth won’t be as bad for you as high amounts of the street version.
People that truly need ritalin are pushed from an understimulated state to a normal state. This brings them closer to what the brain of a neurotypical person is like. Tweaking for instance is because someone is extremely over stimulated by a drug that is too strong.
Meth is more similar to Adderall.
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The basic adage “the dose makes the poison” fits this pretty well. Methylphenidate, used as intended, comes in pills that must meet pharmaceutical-grade purity standards and contain precisely controlled doses to achieve the desired cognitive effect. Methamphetamine is produced and consumed in totally uncontrolled concentrations and quantities. Believe me, if you abuse methylphenidate in high enough doses, it’s no longer “safe.”
Ok this first part is a little technical but i will do my best to keep it as simple as possible.
https://ohrn.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Ontario-Hep-C-Teams-Effectively-Supporting-People-Who-Use-Crystal-Meth.pdf — if you look at page 2, it compares ritalin, adderall and methamphetamine structures.
Compare the structures of Ritalin (methylphenidate), Adderall (amphetamine) and Crystal Meth (methamphetamine).
i wouldnt call cousins. Maybe distant relatives.
Adderall (non-methylated amphetamine) and methamphetamine are more like siblings. the compound “methane” is CH4 (a carbon with 4 hydrogens) and a “methyl” group is CH3 (leaving one spot open to connect to a larger structure, like with legos or tinkertoys)
“Methylation” means adding a “methyl group” onto a compound. In this case, one of the hydrogens (H) in the “amino” group (NH2) is replaced with a “methyl” group (CH3) changing it from R-NH2 to R-NH-CH3.
In this case, the way the drug acts in your system is very different! This is why Crystal methamphetamine is more addictive and harmful and is an illegal drug, and adderall (amphetamine) is a drug that is legal but requires extra effort to get.
People like me have brains that dont do “paying attention” very well similar to how some people have brains that dont do “feeling happy” very well. The drugs adderall and ritalin (and a few others) are helpful in rebalancing this so that i can have a little more control over how my brain works.
The confusion around these three drugs, as well as people using them for fun or without approval from their doctor , is one of the reasons it is challenging for people like me to have access to them.
Lots of things are similar chemically but behave drastically different. You cant really assume much when it comes to biology and chemisty. H2O is necessary to live, H2O2 will kill you.
Long story short. It’s the dose, the regulations and the monitoring.
Your doctor prescribes a dose that is considered in a safe range.
The regulations prevent you from abusing it and making sure the manufacturing of it produces a clean product.
And the monitoring by your doctor ensures you have no adverse effects.
It is made in a safe environment compared to meth where you have no idea what is happening and what bs they put in it.
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