Long lasting effects of ritalin abuse?

Question

If you abuse ritalin, almost every day, 2-3 times a day for 3-4 weeks, what are the long term effects?

Answer 1

I would suspect that that kind of abuse could mess with your biochemistry and stop or diminish your brains production of natural seratonin. I think it would suck later on for you to not be able to feel happy anymore for the rest of your life.

I mean it is such a controversy now for doctors to even prescribe it in small doses to patients whose health they monitor...what makes someone think that it is OK to abuse it?

Answer 2

The longterm effects are more likely in a person who has used ritalin for a duration of years, particularly during a child's growth years.

Because Ritalin suppresses appetite, and even thirst, a child may require "force feeding and drinking" during those hours the drug is active within the body.
Too little food and drink play out to extreme constipation, causing physical trauma for the child to pass his hard little "baseball" of poop --- which in turn will cause great fear of bathrooms with lack of toilet training to refusing to sit, putting pressure on his bottom --- too little food and drink cause the child to be in a constant state of dehydration, and no one functions well in that state. --- Also, the lack of food contributes to the overall condition of being underweight and lack of physical growth of the child. The child in my class weighed 40 lbs at the age of 9. On the drug he refused to speak or make eye contact, or to interact with other students.
Ritalin also was behind this child's extreme isolation from other children.

A few weeks off the medication, he had returned to eating of his own free will, to speaking to others in his presence, to making eye contact, to sitting, to participating in the classroom.

BUT, sadly, the parents put him back onto the drug.

This particular child has been stunted in his socialization, toilet training, education, communication, physical growth, and personal skills he will need for life --- Because he was on the Ritalin in excessive doses for an extended period of time.