Should I tell my psychiatrist, or keep it a secret and deal with it on my own?

Question

I'm taking Ritalin for ADHD, and I'm going to see the psychiatrist who prescribed it next week to check in about how it's working and whatnot. I know she's going to ask me if I've been eating normal meals since Ritalin is an appetite suppressent. Well, I haven't been, but it has nothing to do with the medication. There's part of me wants to tell her that I haven't been eating almost at all because I know that it's unhealthy and that I should ask someone for help. But I'm afraid that if I tell her that I haven't been eating enough that she won't want me to take stimulants anymore, and I tried Strattera and it didn't work, so then I don't know what other options there would be. And also part of me doesn't want her to know so she can't try to stop me from starving myself. So should I keep it secret and deal with it on my own, or should I tell my psychiatrist what I've been doing and risk messing up the ADHD stuff.

Jdog64_98: I'm not taking Ritalin to get high, I'm taking it to treat ADHD. The reason I don't want to give it up is that it does help a lot, and I was diagnosed not very long ago so I can tell that it's making a big difference. If I could switch to Strattera or something I would be fine with that, but I tried that and it made me so sick that I had to stop taking it after four days, so the problem is that there's not a good alternative medication for ADHD that I could take instead, so no stimulants would mean no effective treatment.

If I thought that the Ritalin was the reason that I haven't been eating then I would be willing to stop taking them, but it's not. I've starved myself like this before when I wasn't taking any medication, and the reason that I'm not eating much isn't that I don't get hungry, it's that for some reason that I cant explain I really want to lose weight even though I conciously know that it's a bad idea and I shouldn't be trying to do it, but I still like that I can and do it anyway. But since Ritalin is an appetite supressant, I think that my psychiatrist will likely want me to stop taking it, even though that's not going to actually make me start eating more, just because it's generally considered a bad idea to give stimulants to people with evidence of an eating disorder and I know that my psychiatrist is really cautious about these kinds of things and probably won't be ok with me continuing to take it.

Answer 1

You should always try to be honest and upfront with your Psychiatrist. After all, she has your best interest at heart. Usually, most Drs. encourage patients to have an active role and participation in their care. .

And if you have ADHD; you should take Ritalin as prescribed. Otherwise, your symptoms will be exacerbated. It sounds like you're very depressed and suicidal because you want to starve yourself to death. That's why it's imperative you should divulge to the Psych Dr. exactly how you feel and why you refuse to take your meds. Tell her the main reason why you refuse to take Ritalin.


She might suggest other meds for you to take; esp if you think Strattera didn't work in your case. Concerta; Attenta, Metadate, Methylin, Rubifen,and Focalin might be taken into consideration. Then there's the transdermal patch, Daytrana; similar to birth control and nicotine release.

The only way the Dr will be able to determine the right meds for you is; if you take them as ordered . She would determine the effectiveness of those meds thru follow-up visits for observations.


Consider ths fact:. You said that Ritalin is an appetite suppressant. therefore you should not protest in taking it because you want to starve yourself to death anyway. Do you see the irrationality of your action?. What I strongly suspect is that you don't want to take the Ritalin. And you don't really want to kill yourself. So go ahead, tell her why you refuse to take your meds.


Ritalin (methyphenidate);is an amphetamine-like prescribed stimulant. It can cause side effects such as loss of appetite; paranoia, anxiety; restlessness and severe depression. Maybe your loss of appetite and depression are due to this med.


That's why it's imperative that you should open up your heart to the Dr. You should attempt to get in touch with your feelings and ventilate them. ADHD is a difficult behavior disorder to deal with. Therefore, you should not battle this all on your own without some medical intervention and other supportive systems.

Answer 2

Your doctor needs to know the truth, in order to help you!
You aren't displaying very sound logic. Print this Q/A out & show it to your doctor, so they can get some idea of what is going on.

I also suggest that you carefully read the following online sets of articles:

What Is Behind Eating Disorders? :
- When Food Is Your Enemy
- Anorexia and Bulimia --The Facts, the Dangers
- What Causes Eating Disorders?
- Eating Disorders--What Can Help?
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/1999/1/22/article_01.htm

Help for Those With Learning Disabilities:
- Living With a Learning Disability
- "Sit Still and Pay Attention!"
- Meeting the Challenge
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/1997/2/22/article_01.htm

Answer 3

You should tell your shrink for sure. If you are taking Ritalin because it's good times, not because it helps you, you're going to find yourself in a dangerous spot. I'm sure you're a youngster. I've been there, I have appetite problems, I deal with them, but when you say "risk messing up the ADHD stuff" it sounds more like, "I'm afraid they'll take my dope away." If you're hyped by Ritalin you shouldn't be taking it.

Be safe

Answer 4

It is pointless going to a psychiatrist if you are going to lie and keep secrets. If you can give her a reason other than the Ritalin as to why you are eating so little she will work with you on that while enabling you to continue to control your ADHD.

Answer 5

ADHD is serious yes, but not life threatening. Your relationship with food is. Tell your psychiatrist. She may take you off the ADHD, but she will get you the help you need to cope with both that issue and your eating disorder as well. Being healthy...both physically and emotionally..will go a long way in helping you cope with ADHD. Please get the help you need before you do permanent damage to your body.

Answer 6

Well that's a hard decision for some people but it seems like you are already asking for help, you shouldn't be starving yourself but it's up to you if you want to continue to do so you aren't going to listen to your answers are you? In my opinion you should get help because this is something that can cause you alot of pain and trouble an obviously serious consequences if you dont get help, so do yourself a favor and ask her for help when you see her next

Answer 7

I think that you should tell your psychiatrist in case it does turn out to be as a result of the medicine even though I know you feel that it isn't. Sometimes medications can cause symptoms and side effects that we think are related to something else.

Answer 8

Sweety talk to her about both. if you continue not eating there will be trouble with your body later. I had a eating disorder and i got help. good luck

Answer 9

No doctor can effectively treat you for anything unless you are honest. Don't second guess what they might or might not do but be completely forthcoming about what you are feeling and doing.

Answer 10

To be happy see this video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4P5Pmdvgp4

About Psychiatry see this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3895596783332855545&q=psychiatry+is+fraude&hl=en

Understanding Psychiatry:

"Psychiatry is not the same as neurology; whereas neurology treats diseases that have their aetiology or their physiology known and proven by medical science, psychiatry treats mental conditions where aetiology and physiology are both unknown and unproven.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_diseases

Psychiatry is not the same as Psychology; whereas Psychology studies the cognitive and subconscious mental processes of man with no regard towards physiology; Psychiatry studies theoretical mental disorder with the assumption that those disorders are based on physiological deficiencies.

Psychology develops therapies aimed to improve mans cognitive processes; whereas Psychiatry develops physiological treatments to treat theoretical physiological deficiencies where aetiology and physiology are both unknown and unproven.

The unscientific assumption that mental disorders are based on physiological deficiencies creates an arbitrary that makes any further research done by Psychiatry unscientific. You can’t base science on assumptions and arbitraries.

Psychiatry treats theoretical mental disorders with theoretical physiological treatments.

Examples of Psychiatric theoretical mental disorders:
Premenstrual dysphonic disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome.
Gender identity disorder: If you are gay you have this disorder.
Female orgasmic disorder: Many types of conditions are under this code.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-IV_Codes_%28alphabetical%29
As you see, these mental disorders are actually unscientific arbitraries based solely on opinion.

Examples of Psychiatric theoretical physiological treatments:
1st Example
Electroconvulsive therapy is a barbaric treatment where brain damage is induced into the patient by passing 70 to 200 volts of electricity through your brain. The electro shock and the heat further produce more brain damage by the effect decomposition and toxicity of dead brain cells. The only benefit of Electroconvulsive therapy is that it produces memory loss and amnesia. So the patient forgets its problems. Electroconvulsive therapy has caused death, coma and disabilities on patients.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2431926628202445879
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2761074183936137060
“About 100,000 people in the USA undergo ECT every year.”
“The most commonly accepted theory is that ECT's mechanism of action is similar to that of antidepressant drugs and involves neurotransmitters, in particular dopaminergic, serotoninergic and noradrenergic systems.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_shock_therapy

2nd Example:
Lobotomy is another barbaric treatment developed by Psychiatry in the name of mental health. In this procedure brain damage is induced into the patient by cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex or simply destroying it.
“Even lobotomy's proponents admitted that only one third of the operated patients would improve, while one-third remained the same, and one-third got worst (25 to 30 % is the proportion of spontaneous improvement in many kinds of mental diseases! Thus, a large proportion of the operated patients could have recovered without the lobotomy).
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/historia/lobotomy.htm

3rd Example:
The chemical imbalance theory, this theory alleges that serotonin deficiency in the brain causes depression. The following video explains this theory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR9vtdueubc&mode=related&search=

But this theory is not based in science and experts disagree:

“I spent the first several years of my career doing full-time research on brain serotonin metabolism, but I never saw any convincing evidence that any psychiatric disorder, including depression, results from a deficiency of brain serotonin. In fact, we cannot measure brain serotonin levels in living human beings so there is no way to test this theory. Some neuroscientists would question whether the theory is even viable, since the brain does not function in this way, as a hydraulic system”
Stanford psychiatrist David Burns, winner of the A.E. Bennett Award given by the Society for Biological Psychiatry for his research on serotonin metabolism, when asked about the scientific status of the serotonin theory in 2003.

“Although it is often stated with great confidence that depressed people have a serotonin or norepinephrine deficiency, the evidence actually contradicts these claims”
Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience Elliot Valenstein

“Indeed, no abnormality of serotonin in depression has ever been demonstrated”
Psychiatrist David Healy, former secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and historian of the SSRIs, in Let Them Eat Prozac (2004).

“A sugar pill was more effective than either St. John’s Wort or the antidepressant Zoloft in providing relief to severely depressed patients, according to a new study that is unlikely to end the debate about the role of the popular supplement in treating the disorder.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3076831/

“…I wrote that Prozac was no more, and perhaps less, effective in treating major depression than prior medications…. I argued that the theories of brain functioning that led to the development of Prozac must be wrong or incomplete”
Brown University psychiatrist Peter Kramer, author of Listening to Prozac, which is often credited with popularizing SSRIs, in a clarifying letter to the New York Times in 2002.

“Some have argued that depression may be due to a deficiency of NE [norepinephrine] or 5-HT [serotonin] because the enhancement of noradrenergicnor serotonergic neurotransmission improves the symptoms of depression. However, this is akin to saying that because a rash on one’s arm improves with the use of a steroid cream; the rash must be due to a steroid deficiency”
Psychiatrists Pedro Delgado and Francisco Moreno, in “Role of Norepinephrine in Depression,” published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in 2000.

We must be able to differentiate real scientific research against special interest research. The fact is that the chemical imbalance theory is unfounded because:
1) A connection of ‘emotional states’ and neurotransmission levels have not been established.
2) It is impossible to measure the serotonin levels in living human beings.
3) There is no evidence that brain cells produce and then reabsorb serotonin.

In the following video two college professor explain exactly what I’m saying in Fox News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbTqjSfMPKA&mode=related&search=

We must understand that psychiatric drugs are a multi billion dollars industry, and that careful marketing campaigns are created to push these drugs. We can even say that the whole “Chemical Imbalance Theory” was created in an effort to market these drugs. We can also say that anti-depressants are actually a marketing name for stimulants and anti-psychotic are actually a marketing name for depressants.
Three types of drugs:

Narcotics: (OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet), also known as analgesics or opiods are drugs that are prescribed for moderate to severe physical pain. They are abused because of their euphoric, sedating, and numbing effects. Narcotic abuse causes tolerance and dependence and the withdrawal symptoms are severe.

Depressants: (Xanax, Valium, Librium) are drugs that are prescribed to treat anxiety and sleep disorders. They are abused because of their sedating properties. With abuse, depressants cause tolerance and dependence and the withdrawal symptoms can be severe.

Stimulants: Ritalin, Dexedrine, Meridia) are prescribed to treat ADD/ADHD and other conditions such as asthma. They are abused because of their energizing and euphoric effects. Stimulants do not generally cause tolerance or dependence but abuse is associated with hostility and paranoia. There is also great risk for cardiovascular failure and seizures.

-Ritalin: Prescribed for individuals (usually children) who have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has a high potential for abuse and produces many of the same effects as cocaine or amphetamine. http://www.streetdrugs.org

Psychiatrists are not common people. Psychiatrists have a different point of view than the rest of society:
“A recent survey in the UK found that 83 per cent of psychiatrists thought that ECT( Electroconvulsive therapy) was more likely to be beneficial than harmful – this figure fell to 69 per cent of mental health nurses and 14 per cent of psychologists.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy

So how come Psychiatrists have such a different point of view than Psychologists and the rest of society?
Whereas Psychologists confronts the human mind or psyche and understand that each person behaviors is an evolution of his own personal experiences. Psychiatrists are unable to confront the human psyche; Psychiatrists don’t care about your emotional issues or traumas; Psychiatrists only deal with man as an object, a biomechanical machine incapable of controlling his mental processes.

How else can you explain Psychiatry barbaric treatments? Like Electroconvulsive therapy, Lobotomies, strait jackets and severe drugging of patients. For them you are not a person; for them you are only a biomechanical machine. People that join the Psychiatric profession do it in order to learn to deal with man in a mechanical way.

The real role of Psychiatry in society is that they are psyche executioners of society. Whenever a person doesn’t conform with the behavioral rules of society they can be sent to a Psychiatrist. And the Psychiatrist enforces the person to conform by the use of multiple control mechanisms; these mechanisms are drugs, electroshock, lobotomies and incarceration (When you are committed into a Psychiatric hospital against your will you are being incarcerated and your freedom is taken away from you. After this the patients are so scared that they will do anything in order to get out of that place.).
The behavioral rules of society are clearly expressed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association.

http://www.drugawareness.org/
http://www.adhdfraud.org/
http://www.escapefrompsychiatry.org/
http://www.antipsychiatry.org/
http://www.mindfreedom.org/
http://www.endofshock.com/
http://www.stopshrinks.org/
http://www.gwenolsen.com/
http://psychrights.org
http://www.prescriptionsuicide.com/
http://www.breggin.com/
http://www.healthyskepticism.org/
http://www.aspire.us/