Anyone out there using Ritalin? Help! | ADHD Information

I just recently got diagnosed with inattentive ADD, and my doctor started me on Ritalin.  She's having me experiment with the dosage to get it just right for me.

She gave me 5mg. pills and suggested I increase it 2.5mg to 5mg. at a time up to 20mg. ( she said this was to start and that she had some patients who take up to 60mg. at a time, which seems a lot to me, but maybe it's not).  This dosage is taken twice a day, so if it's 15mg. per dose that's 30mg. per day.

My question is what do I look for when I do get the right dosage?  In other words, how should I feel/behave on the 'correct' dosage?

So far, 2.5mg. to 5mg. did nothing.  At 10mg. I felt a bit more alert, less depressed but not very motivated.  At 15mg. I found myself actually doing stuff I planned to do, but still somewhat spotty.  Maybe I'd finish, maybe I won't.

I try each dose about 4 to 5 days before changing, is this enough time to tell?

I'm thinking of upping it to 20mg. per dose( which is 4 pills at a time) but since that's the limit of this prescription I'm thinking might be a lot.  Is that true?  What seems typical?  Since this is a class 4 drug I don't want to raise any red flags and I also don't want to take too much.  However I do want it to work.

I guess I just wanted to hear from some here who've had more experience with Ritalin.   I'll be seeing the doctor again on June 15 to evaluate my dosage again.

Any feedback on your experiences would be great.  By the way, this forum is awesome, I have learned so much.  Thanks!

 

Barb J.

 

BarbJ38475.645150463i take 54 mg concerta xl  (long acting ritilin) i used to take the normal ritilin but found i would forget pills so was never even . concerta is only taken once in the morning. they isnt much diff other wise  i would do as the doc says it took a while to get my dose sorted but been on that for a few years now . si is deff worth sticking with.also my son takes 36 mg  as he is also adhd, he is8

HI Barb,

I have been on Ritalin for over a year now, and it took me a while to get to the right dose.  Don't up it though until you have talked to your doctor.  One thing you see on these boards is that everyone is different.  Some will feel it at 10mg a dose, some, like me, need 40mg a dose.  

For me, I can usually feel it within 20 minutes, and it starts to wear off after 3 hours.  It is completely out of your system after 4 hours (if you are on regular).  If you are on the extended release, then that is a different lifespan. 

I knew when it was working when I could feel it wearing off.  Hope this makes sense.  I am able to listen to people who are talking to me, and actually be interested.  I can go into a restaurant and not have a panic attack because I can't filter out the 20 other conversations around me.  I don't live half-empty diet coke cans all over the house.  I finish doing the dishes.   And then when it wears off, I get a little more irritable and antsy.

I suggest keeping a journal of when you take your meds, and then do a 2 hour check-in to see if you notice anything.  This will also help when you go see your doctor.  You should also try to see him sooner. 

Hope this helps!  Welcome to the forum, it's been a great help for me too!

Spacegal

I didn't like myself while I was on them. It stopped the daydreaming, but it was like my emotions and my whole personality were turned off as well. I thought of nothing and cared about nothing.

Also, when I was coming down off it in the evening,  I would get 'brain quakes'. That is where the room spins and you lose consciousness for a second or so. I felt like it was killing me.
for me 20mg of the slow release stuff had a peak an hour or so after taking it that was very much like speed and, um, addictively euphoric?
I had a big stupid time doing it. but that wore off. <very sad now>
Now I do TWO 20 mg. a day of the slow release and it works great, no speediness. I did 20 once a day for a month, 30 once a day for a month, now 2 20's a day.
Like it very much.

TR!
Rit did terrible things to me. I hated it. I find Adderall to be much smoother.

Spacegal,

That's kinda what I was thinking about what the right dose should feel like.  I think I'm pretty close at 15mg, what I'm taking now.  I'll try that for another few days but I think I'll try 20mg after that. 

As far as talking to the doctor before upping it, she's gave me instructions to do this.  She said try between 2.5 up to 20mg, giving myself a few days to see how each dose works.  She gave me these symptom charts to fill out each week to evaluate how I feel week to week.  I guess she figured that should take a month since that's the next time I see her.  She is a psychiatrist specializing in ADHD.  I just wanted to know how I'll know when I've got the right dose, symptom wise anyway.

Resistance, so far I don't feel 'speedy' but I have lost some of my appetite(which is not all bad as I take another med for an unrelated condition that really slows down my metabolism).  How long does the slow release last?  Ritalin does last only about 4 hours and I do feel when it wears off.

Floof, what kind of bad things happened to you?

I really appreciate all the feedback. 

Barb

BarbJ38475.939525463

Hmm, that's interesting.  I took Prozac about 7 years ago for depression( which I think was caused be having to deal with ADD problems my whole life) and aside from the sexual side effects, it made me feel very similar.  Sure I wasn't depressed, but I was never happy either.  That was worse that any other side effect.

  So far that no emotion stuff hasn't happened to me yet but it's not been very long.  But I'll keep an eye out for that.

The brain quakes are a bit scarier.  I wonder if these type of side effects aren't reported much during testing because people either discount it as not being caused by the drug or if it is so rare the company dismisses it as an anomaly. 

When I first took birth control pills,( this was eons ago they were the higher dose than today), my veins in my hands ached.  I almost didn't say anything to the doctor cause that wasn't listed in the flier that talked about side effects.  But I did tell her and she said that it WAS a side effect but so rare that they didn't list it with the warnings.  Can you believe that! I mean bc pills back then sometimes gave people STROKES cause the hormone was so high.  That's a vascular effect! you think they'd say something about that.

Barb