If you were to have a look at Ritalin pictures, you would probably just think to yourself that the pictures show a prescription medication that seems pretty harmless. This medication is one of the very first medications introduced to the medical profession to treat what was ADHD over fifty years ago. At the time that this medication came onto the market, this condition that was not one that many people or professionals knew much about.
Early Ritalin pictures show physicians writing prescriptions to hopeful parents for their out of control children and in doing so, providing the proverbial "magic pill" to solve all of the problems that parents were dealing with when they had hyperactive children. The truth is that this medication has been routinely over prescribed and in some cases is doing much more harm than good.
While using a medication such as Ritalin can help with behavioral difficulties in children, it is not the complete answer. The prescription of this drug must be supported with counselling and with special teaching assistance to help children learn how to control their impulses and to learn how to take a different approach to their problems. At the time that the pill was introduced to doctors fifty years ago, it was prescribed whenever a child had a behavior difficulty even if they did not exhibit any signs of ADHD.
In modern times, siblings of children on Ritalin may take the drug for experimentation. Children with ADHD are affected differently by Ritalin than a person or child who does not have ADHD. In children with ADHD, Ritalin helps to calm the child and remove the hyperactive component of their behavior because the wiring of their brain is quite different. In people or children who do not have ADHD, this drug acts as a stimulant and helps that person to have increased stamina and a high state of mental alertness.
The drug itself is not highly addictive when a patient is under a doctor's care, but college students who use this drug in a recreational way can form an addiction to it, which can become dangerous in short order. If they start to increase the dose to obtain the same effects as before, they run the risk of increasing the heart rate and possibly bringing on a serious heart condition or heart failure. Prescriptions of this group of drugs are carefully regulated and with the use of modern computer prescription networks, a person who is obtaining multiple prescriptions runs the risk of being caught in the act. If the person is an addict, the idea of being caught is never a deterrent.
Constant use of this drug in more than recommended or prescribed amounts can cause insomnia, dizziness, headaches, loss of appetite and a resulting weight loss, changes in sleep habits and facial tics. While Ritalin does not seem to be a very popular drug these days, there are many similar drugs and derivatives of this drug that have been introduced, including Adderall and Concerta.
When somebody looks at Ritalin pictures, it is sometimes hard to understand why this small pill has such a large impact on the users of this drug. Ritalin goes to work on the central nervous system and stimulates it in a manner similar to amphetamines. The drug works by directly affecting the cortex of the brain and arousing the brain stem. The characteristics of the stimulant properties of this group of drugs has been compared to and said to have the same stimulant effects of cocaine. Of course, in a regular prescription environment this is not the case, but when the pill is crushed and then snorted or injected, the effects are completely different.
If you feel that someone you know has an addiction to these drugs, you should encourage them to stop taking the drug or to get professional help. Stopping drug abuse is difficult, but it can be done when a professional drug addiction counsellor is involved in the process. It may be that the addict has to check into a rehab center, but once this occurs, the addict has effectively embarked upon the road to recovery. A person who is addicted to this drug or any other should accept the help of a drug addiction recovery center in order to free themselves from the grips of their addiction.