what ritalin did to me | ADHD Information

First of all i know ritalin has helped alot of people but then there is the people that dont need it. I myself have adhd was diganosed when i was 10 and they put me on ritalin and from then on i was like a lifeless drone i switched to see if it would change and it didnt so fianly when i was in 7th grade i said screw this and told my parents teachers and everyone else that i wasnt going to take it anymore and at that time i was 5-4 now in 9th grade i am 6'1 the medication that i was on stunted my growth and if wouldnt have stoped taking it i would still be that short and it also hurts your apittite i never ate anything when i was on drugs now that i am off i can eat just about anything and as much of it as i whant but i also have a high metabolism so when i was on the drugs and didnt eat i looked anorexic i gained 20 pounds the first 4 months i ws off the drugs and since then i have never felt better (still dont get my work done but thats teenagers for ya)Reply if if u have questions or comments (and just because i am young dosnt mean i dont know anything)hey lad that weight sounds about right to me  unfortunately ifiwasarishman, we live in a world of critical small minded people with absoultely no regard for the different....I got bullied all my f**king life and it really made me feel bad about myself....i suffer from low self esteem now...i dont think of myself in a significant way.....i'm going to try out the meds to see if they help coz i can't mentally focus on anything!!  wildlad08838330.404224537I dunno coz i'm 5'7 and i never took meds.....i drank an awful lot of coffee though. does that do much to ur height. i'm also extremely skinny 115 lbs in american 7 1/2 stone irish. is that good?? is that short?

soulknight,  Thanks for sharing your story.  I would just like to make a few comments.

First you didn't say if the Ritalin helped you with concentration while you were taking it.  I'd like to know if you found improvement in getting things done and concentrating when needed.  Since you found that your personality was that of a drone it is possible that you were either on to high a dose of Ritalin or maybe Ritalin wasn't the right med.  It is possible that either Adderall or Concerta would have worked better for you.  We have tried several medications and dosages before we came upon the combination that worked for my son.  I am still working on the meds and dosage for myself.

One other comment, you state that you stopped taking the meds in 7th grade and are now in 9th grade and have grown 9 inches in that time.  It is very likely that you would have grown during that time anyway as those ages are prime time for boys to start their major growth.  I do agree that the stimulant meds do suppress appetite.  My son really only eats well before he takes his meds at breakfast and after they wear off at the end of the day.  I think that if you weren't even hungry at those time of the day while on the meds you were probably on to high a dose.  -Gettingagrip-

what height is regarded as short anyway?hmm  5 ft and below? i dunno im tall but more or less i would have been a lot taller as i learn about all the pills they have made me take, lol not to mention the possible brain damage side effect theory

lol i hear ya the pills out right now are horrible. honestly i was told to take ritalin after school on top of either adderol or concerta i dont remember. it was hell. not only was i not hungry but it seemed more like a depression/anger pill then ne thing that would help me. seriously at one point i figured they were trying to get me to commit suicide. i mean its suppose to help you to pay attention , but i think thats only if u care.  look all i kno is thta i supposivly i have a chronic disorder called adhd, which means u either take pills and piss people off or not take them have fun, and maybe drive someone a litle mad .  hate add and these pills. hell i almost couldnt do sports at my school because i took these damn pills. they make you anti-social, tired, and make u think way too much about meanless stuff. i mean i hate school because i have to take these damn things and i still cant get ne thing done. yup so grades slipping family going nutz.  i ive got a solution, get people to just tolerate add its not hard. evil ignorant people think pills will solve everything. ya soph at prep school.  the only thing add pills are good for to me are noticing what people are actually feeling over what they say. but that only goes so far.  of course i took my pills today and this is the mood they put me in.  see i would do what u did and say hell with the pills, but i cant do 3 hours of homework. i mean i could go to the public school but i really dont wanan start a new high school. heh i just cant take the side effects anymore. between the pill and doing fencing i lost 5 pounds last week. im at minimum dose of strattera and im already skinny.

it is worse then drugs because doctors tell u to take it and that it is good for u
plz anyone either parent or teen or kid reading this if add pills are an option for you right now just say no they do more harm then good
o ya  warning i thought was strange dont take (add pill here) if u suffer from depression. for me that might explain a lot. another odd thing is i dont see it ne more
i did like 2 summers ago

what would u call feeling numb about everything? is that depression?

i would guess, worst part is i wouldnt ask my doctor ne ways cuz i dont wanna take ne more of these f**kin pills lol thank u cajun thats what i meant the day i posted the "dont take advice if u dont whant to" i was kinda iratatedYep my brother wasn't on medication at all. He didn't grow at all for about 2 years then all of the sudden he was growing out of clothes faster then my mom could buy them. Growth spurts are completely natural everyone has them just at different times. lol if we put all the add people in the same room as the companies who make this sh*t, i bet they would come up with a pill that will allow me to have more then 2 hours of sleep  couple responses when i was taking it,it mad me concentrate but only on one thing at a time main when u have to do that sh*t and u have no friends it was depression and i talked to my doctor and my growing age should have been almost 6-8 months erlier than it was and it was because of the ritalin and i was taking 75mg at the time so i was taking a big enuf doasge and it did make me a lifless drone i had techers tell me that my own parents told me thatI can say that after talking to my husbands mom, I don't think that rytalin had a thing to do with how you grew. My husband is ADD and was as a child. A fact that I'm just now realising that connects a lot of things for me. Second of all he was never given medication for it he was short until he was 17 then he grew about 8 inches in a matter of two months he went from 5'6  to 6'3 over the summer! I think growth spurts just happen for different people at different times and to blame it on medication isn't fair. o im still taking meds, just going from one to the next. i mean i shouldnt have to get little sleep everyday just so i can do well in school. something about that doesnt seem right. like i have to suffer physically and/or socially (heh and in some cases mentally) just so i can do good in school.  like in english it doesnt feel fair to me that i bombed a test because i couldnt remeber random facts and weird characters from the short stories we read when i could have probably written a 3 page essay for each story about understanding it's meaning.  why learn facts if they do not support a lesson or idea. lol im tired
ways to cope just if the teacher is willing to give him 1-1 sessions after befor or during lunch at school and if the teacher cant do that then when he comes home from school to help him concentrate (alot of people i have talked to said that if u stand there and watch them and make sure they are doing it then they will) and stand there and when he gets done give him a reward (i love rewards lol and im 15 lol) i didnt cope i just said screw the world and every1 in it and didnt do anything let the teachers do what they wanted and said u guys suck soulknight38331.6490740741Having some one stand over your shoulder watching you making sure your doing what your supposed to doesn't seem like help but a good way to make a kid more mad. These kids are already frustrated I know me with out ADHD wouldnt' tolerate some one standing over me making sure I did what I was supposed to how could a kid with ADHD who is already frustrated cope with it? Reward or not thats just more stress to be added to an already stressful life.  I don't know about all ADHD kids but my sons response to rewards isn't consistant one day it works and the next it doesn't he wants to do well he just can't even at 4 he has a desire to "fit in" with his classmates. ADHD kids seem to have a hard time doing that. So let's call more attention to them by handing out rewards while we stand over thier shoulder!

Let's just remember that each person has to make their own decision whether to medicate or not. It's unfortunate that meds did not work for soulknight or ifiwasarichman. That doesn't mean that they don't work for others.

What I find alot on the boards is: "medication didn't work for me, therefore medication is evil" or "medication helped me, therefore it should work for everyone". Let's all try to take the middle ground.

"Medication didn't work for me"- ask people for suggestions of med modifications or alternate treatments OR tell us what did work for you.

"Medication helped me"- tell us how you got to that optimal dose, what your experience was, and whether you had any side effects and what you did to cope. OR tell us of any adjunct therapy/techniques you used.

Let's remember that everyone is unique!

Soul - okay - my son is on Dexamphetamine and he is 7.  He feels he needs his meds.  He is TALLEST in his class.

And........ even on meds, his concentration level is still pretty poor. 

What strategies have you used to cope?  Please help .

he u dont whant to take advice then dont

hmmmm seems like some parents are begining to get it, but why cant mine >,<

some how im waking up at 4:30 to do homework because nobody yelling. the yelling for me just kinda of puts me in lockdown mode and i really cant bring myself to do ne thing.  wow going blank (maybe cuz its 6:17)

Actually, I don't think he meant standing there and putting constant pressure on them negatively. When my son does his homework I sit near him and when I see him drifting away I GENTLY remind him to focus or I ask him if he's stumped. He never gets angry and he frequently thanks me for the help. Just my expierence.