Elizabeth Wurzel's (author of Prozac Nation) psychiatrist prescibed her ritalin to sharpen her focus, help her writing skills, make decisions easier,and to enhance her antidepressants. She was also given ritalin to help keep her off other substances she was using - cocaine and heroin. It was a blessing at first. It helped her words flow and helped her do research for her new book 'Bitch: In Praise Of Difficult Women' (April 1998). But she'd run out too fast. She never heard of ritalin being addictive at first so was confused about her own behavior. She made excuses to get more early and later bought ritalin or amphetamine-like drugs and cocaine from friends and associates. She increased her daily dose of ritalin to forty pills a day and stopped counting. When the the book was just barely completed she went to a rehabilitation facility. She stayed sober for a brief period then relapsed. She then embraces recovery and the book ends on a hopeful note.

Some in recovery. A young adult taking ritalin. A fan of Elizabeth Wurtzel's memoirs and social writings and nonfiction.

Her penchant for understanding herself and the world is astounding to the point it is a gift and a curse. Sommetimes perhaps knowing too much can lead to self-destruction.

The fact that she focused on other drugs she used too much and enough on the ritalin abuse.

Learn more about ritalin abuse

In this exposes her deepest difficulties, thoughts and behaviors to everyone letting us know and ultimately herself that noone is different or really that strange.

Elizabeth Wurtzel was born in New York City in July 1967. She developed a pattern of lifelong depression around age 12. She was always an overachiever. She attended graduate school at Harvard. Afterward she moved to Greenwich Village and wrote for the New Yorker as a pop music critic. Her first book was 'Prozac Nation'. In 2007 she began working as a film critic at the website Nerve and studying at Yale law school. She is expected earn her Juris Doctorate in 2008.

I recommend this book because it is deeply insightful and lyrical almost.

It is so thoughtful and self-examining it might be perceived by some as a slow read or self-indulgent. It is a memoir with powerful message about the drug ritalin.

More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction carries a warning about abusing the presciption drug ritalin. Wurtzel's personal experience is a powerful by her reliving it writing it and sharing it with the reading world.

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Created Feb 13, 2008 at 10:16pm • Submit your own review...