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pros and cons of meds

Posted by shellyb on October 24, 2000 at 21:22:25:

I was diagnosed with narcolepsy 1 1/2 ago after my junior year of high school. Provigil had been on the market for 4 months and my doctor made it sound the most promising with all the new research it sounded best. So I tried it from June until October until i said enough is enough. I took 300 mg a day and was still tired and was so nauseous that i couldn't eat until 5 in the evening and by then I was at work and didn't want to eat. I became so malnutritioned my hair started falling out and I dropped to 95 lbs. i'm already thin but it was horrible and i still fell asleep while driving all the time and after 2 wrecks (what drove me to the doctor in the 1st place) I switched to ritalin. it makes me kinda shakey an hour after i take it (but i hardly ever eat before hand)and about 10 at night I start talking real fast and laughing to long at a joke and acting kinda ditzy. I used to be a really good student with an EXCELLENT memory but both meds took care of that it seems. Both caused memory problems and concentration problems. But even though i can feel the ritalin working more than provigil it has worked much better for me. With ritalin I do come off it hard and can be at a nightclub awake and dancing and then bam- someone's got to get me home and its not cause of alcohol.with ritalin i can often feel that coming on though and have time to pull over or lay down or something which is better to me. that and being a full time college student with 3 jobs living on her own - $19 for ritalin vs $120 a month for provigil is a real concern. i don't think i 'm dependent on ritalin though cause I often get busy and forget to take some days and seem to do okay for a few days at a time. i tried to tell myself maybe i didn't have narcolepsy and i was just overworked and took myself off of it for 2 weeks and i will NEVER do that again. I can function pretty well. I work 6 days a week and doubles 3 of those days and take 15 hrs of classes and i'm functioning and i couldn't do that before without messing up my car or something.

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