What are Stimulants’ Effects on Anxiety?

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Psychiatrist Richard Friedman argues in the New York Times that there are aspects of natural brain development that make teenagers more prone to both experiencing intense anxiety and engaging in risky behaviors. Eventually, says Friedman, the rational, executive brain functions become more developed. He then suggests that the mechanistic action of ADHD drugs may suppress that important next-stage development. “Might our promiscuous use of stimulants impair the ability of adolescents to suppress learned fear — something that is a normal part of development — and make them more fearful adults?” asks Friedman.

Why Teenagers Act Crazy (New York Times, (June 28, 2014)

 

4 COMMENTS

  1. One psychiatrist steps in to say something smart and understandable according to commonsense, the totally extreme majority keep at what they’ve been doing, and little pockets of concern start to pop up here and there in there trade publications with much of the conversation aimed at how to stay the big experts and point out good psychiatry in each other wherever they can. I see this all the time. This has been the problem for fifty years, the suppression of natural learned habits of self-control. The drugging is the other side of the insanity defense and indefinite involuntary commitments.

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  3. I took ADHD drugs for a long time, the effective dose gives a nice euphoric anxiety free high that can last a few hours if you do it right. Eat before, don’t smoke cigarettes and ruin it early. ADHD drugs are not really that “abusable” cause the focus IS the high, you can’t take less and just to focus and not be high, it doesn’t work that way, and taking say triple the amount needed to focus doesn’t really get you much “higher”, there is a ceiling. Cocaine , an inferior high IMO, can really be pushed.

    Doing this every day, the ADHD stimulant high, the anxious crash, high- crash every day, day after day , week after week, year in and out, High and then crash and not high, can’t wait to be high, high then not high, can’t wait to be high, high, crash then not high, over and over again… and again.

    Of course these kids are getting anxiety problems just like I did from this stuff.

    Anxiety, the main reason I stopped messing with the ADHD treatment thing.

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    • ADHD drugs are amphetamine and its analogues. I’ve just came back from a conference where there were many posters showing studies on amphetamine drugs in inducing psychosis. No kid taking ADHD drug should ever be “diagnosed” with any psychotic disorder the same way as it is for people who use marihuana. These drugs also have other psychiatric “side effects”, mania and anxiety, also aggression.

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