Adhd medication is a little different than anti-depressents. Adhd meds are known to cause tics and things like tourettes in people. These people usually are pre-disposed to getting something like that but it is the medication that starts it in motion. I firmly believe the dermitillomania was caused by the drug I was taking. For one, it is listed as a side effect for the drug on the drugs official side effect list. It also started literally when I started the medication. I mean the habit started exactly when I first started taking the medication. It felt weird to me that suddenly I was finding myself doing a completely new and unusual habit for hours a day. I have read numerous posts from people who have behavior like this on drugs like adderall. Where they just start picking for hours and lose all time. When I say it caused it, I mean if I had never taken that medication I know it wouldn't be the issue it is today. So people can debate all they want whether it can be proven as a cause but I know that if I had never taken those meds I would never have developed a habit this out of control. I wouldn't have had all the anxiety and done that habit for so long. When I didn't take meds I didn't pick for hours but when I did I would spend hours picking at my face, hands or scalp usually when it was wearing off. I couldn't stop. Adhd drugs can cause tics as side effects and the tics do not go away when the med stops for many people. There are many cases where drugs the FDA says is okay ends up causing irreversible side effects and damage. There are drugs that are recalled all the time. Just cause a drug has been out for 10 years, I don't necessarily believe it is safe. Do we know what it does long-term to the brain? The answer to that is no. We absolutely do not know. We have no way of knowing right now.

It is worse if your brain is developing on a drug. That was the case with me. They tell us all the time in school we should not take drugs or drink cause our brains are still growing and developing but what about all these drugs they put kids on? long term use of adhd meds in childhood is linked to depression. I was invited to a national study that was to see if long term use of adhd medication caused brain damage. They said they believed I was in the threshold for having possible brain damage. Why are we just now looking into whether or not these drugs cause long term damage? They have been on the market for like 50 plus years. I don't mean to go on such a long rant but I really don't believe that pharmacitals are as safe as they say. So while the medication is not causing me to pick at my skin right now. Years of taking the medication that made me feel compelled to do that specific behavior has started a pattern that I can't stop so in my opinion the on going issue is still related to the drug. I don't want to support the pharmacitical industry in any way. I don't mean to rant so much but I seriously think people need to research these things and know about what they are taking. How it effects people and what it does long term. If the drug has a lot of long term research I will consider taking it but I have yet to find many drugs that have been researched enough for me to feel comfortable taking them.