Ritalin Addiction, Withdrawal, Side Effects, Alternatives, Treatment

Last Updated on June 26, 2023 by Carol Gillette

Alternative to Meds Editorial Team
Medically Reviewed by Dr Samuel Lee MD

How Did Ritalin Addiction Become Widespread?

Ritalin addiction and addiction treatment have become serious issues for many. Ritalin© hit the market in the 1940s and 1950s when drugmakers first marketed it as a “pep pill” and later for weight loss for adults. However, it wasn’t until the late 1980s that the committee of the American Psychiatric Association voted ADD and later ADHD into existence as an “official diagnosis.”²⁹ In the 60s, what is now called ADHD was referred to as “behavioral problems” or “hyperkinetic impulse disorder” until the new terms ADD, and the later ADHD were promoted so heavily, that they eventually became household words. Stimulants had been used on children with behavioral problems since the turn of the LAST century and with Ritalin and similar drugs, the practice continues today. The ADHD label targets children in the main, but now also includes adults with ADHD.

Ritalin is also approved for the treatment of narcolepsy, a condition that is not completely understood and results in excessive, irresistible daytime sleepiness and nighttime sleep disturbances. Narcolepsy is hypothesized to be an autoimmune disorder and while research is ongoing, has been significantly linked with certain vaccine adjuvants, exposure to heavy metals, chemical exposures from woodwork, vitamin D deficiency, and exposure to fertilizers and pesticides.^22-27

With a breathtaking rise in the number of prescriptions for Ritalin and other stimulant drugs for children and adults in America and around the world, medical researchers such as LeFevre and Arcona have been sounding an alarm for decades.¹⁴

Shockingly, in 2016, the CDC reported that about 10% of children in the US were diagnosed and labeled ADHD.^2,3

Notably, psychiatric experiments with amphetamines carried out as early as 1937 ¹ turned “behavior problem children” into guinea pigs. The psychiatrists involved in these experiments drugged children with amphetamines (Dexedrine©, Benzedrine©, etc.) As time went on, more psychiatrists repeated similar experiments using a wave of copycat stimulant drugs such as Ritalin, Adderall®, Concerta®, Vyvanse®, SNRIs like Strattera®, and many others.

Astonishingly, the results of the experiments on children were reported as “spectacular.” In truth, most of the children became emotionally subdued and disinterested in their environments. Eureka! The practice was touted as a one-shot treatment for rowdy kids. And, you don’t have to hire any therapists, dieticians, tutors, educators, or improve curricula or teaching methods. History shows that expensive and expansive marketing coupled with aggressive lobbying helped take the toxic drug Ritalin to the top of the charts in sales. This occurred all over the world.

Increasingly, many off-label uses for Ritalin have been reported in the Journal of Human Psychopharmacology Clinical and Experimental, including to treat depression in the elderly, cancer patients, obesity and weight loss, chronic fatigue, psychosis associated with depression, and post-stroke patients, as examples.⁶

Ritalin has sought to fill the very large gap that research has not yet filled concerning the actual causes for such a wide array of disorders and symptoms. This may, at least in part, explain how Ritalin and similar drugs become so pervasively, and some would say intentionally, popularized.^1-4,14