First Day on Ritalin | ADHD Information
I know... I was the same! Congrats that is such exciting newsOn my first day with ritalin I was both scared and excited.....7:00 AM I woke up and let my woman sleep...
8:00 I got the nerve to take it.
11:00 She woke up and after me being a messy person my entire life and WANTING to live clean but never being able to I'd RE-ARRANGED the house, sorted and cleaned everything and I couldn't be happier.
Calmness? yes...finally my mind slowed down enough to focus on anything.....
Finally I was calm and could sit down and read a book....
I think that IS how other people normally feel.
no idea though...
It seems REALLY boring... I mean I am not particularly BORED it's just an unexciting Drone of a life.
WOW slyoung! I can't wait to try the stuff. I couldn't imagine my brain calming down. Sounds like a great feeling. onlyme38489.7060300926
This is the most bizarre day I've ever had. I'm 30 years old and a female and have known I've had ADD for years. Hoever, I've recently started what is essentially my own business and the ADD has kept me from functioning.
Incessant anxiety, hopping from subject to subject -- I described it to people without it as your brain never turns off. It's miserable. I just took my first ritalin ever (time-released 20mg) a little afraid that maybe this was all in my head.....my Dr. said if it was that I'd feel "speedy".
I've never felt so calm in my life. Is this what everyone goes through when they first take the medicine? I seriously feel like a different person. My nickname is Post-It because I forget things and people usually ask me once a day (friends) if I'm on cocaine or speed. All of those feelings just <poof> disappeared. My brain is quiet!!!
Is this what normal people feel like? I was a little afraid I was going to feel like I do when I've used cocaine - talkative and edgy, but focused. This is quiet and calm and focused.
Why would people not let themselves feel this kind of peace?
Sly & Arbiter,
I am envious, that is what I want to feel like. I feel anxious and can't focus when I am at work, and at home I seem to have no energy or motivation and just watch tv almost constantly to take my mind up but change channels a lot! Do ok at work because I am forced to but it is also difficult to focus at work. I feel speedy when taking ritalin, adderall or dexedrine, haven't tried slow release. Being I feel lethargic on the Strattera, I thought maybe one of the stimulants might balance it out. I take 10 mg. Lexapro for depression but don't really know if I am depressed or it is ADD. Go to shrink for follow-up in a few days.
Speedy in comparison to normal?
Not really, no, I guess not.... I guess I just feel speedy about things at the end of the day......
I feel speedy in general as a person but speedy on ritalin, no.....
I guess I just normally try and want to work at an ultra fast pace but have to go over things 1000 times and that slows me down because I continuously forget where I am or get distracted. On ritalin I can keep focused so instead of having to refresh myself and go over everything from the start I can keep a flow through to the end.
Then, more part of my personality, I speed things up to the breaking point.... I don't HAVE to, it's just kinda who I am.....
Might aswell do things to the EXTREME!
Anywas, I guess I am normally working at top speed, I just have to do things 1000 times in my head before I actually finish it..... I dunno, I'm trying to explain something that doesn't really exist in words..... how does one explain a personality or thought pattern?
In conclusion, No ritalin doesn't MAKE me speedy, that's who I am....it just allows me to undertake everything that I'm trying to do.
I think? or maybe I don't...M'eh!
[QUOTE=arbiterxero]Kinda like driving a car.....without a steering wheel....normally I have none.... I go real fast, but NOBODY knows what direction, it keeps changing by itself.....Ritalin is my steering wheel.... I think??
Make sense to anyone?
[/QUOTE]
This is a GREAT analogy! This is how I felt. My car was running and ready to go but it went in all different directions and never accomplished anything.
but do you fell speedy?
[QUOTE=mrstalltomm]I only take my Ritalin during the week when I'm working and only one 20mg tablet in the morning. My prescription is for 3 a day every day but I only want to take it to do my job and that's it. My husband and 14-year-old daughter loves it when I'm taking the Ritalin because what they say to me actually gets processed. Before I started Ritalin I saw a neurologist because I thought I had Alzheimer's at 35. I couldn't remember ANYTHING. I would go from one room to the other and not remember why I was in there and no amount of thinking would retrieve it. I have literally forgotten what I was saying in mid sentence while talking to my 14-year-old daughter. It was awful. All of that is resolved when I take my Ritalin. BUT I am more irritable and even have jaw clenching with it. I have the irritability under control and I will just live with the jaw clenching because I hate feeling like an Alzheimer's patient repeating things over and over and having no short term memory at all. Ritalin has been wonderful for me. Adderall and Strattera never worked for me. [/QUOTE]I too no longer feel speedy which I really really miss.
But the doctor mentioned above said if you feel speedy taking Ritalin ADD is all in your head.
[QUOTE=arbiterxero]Mmmmm I'm definately HD, with the tapping and not sitting still thing . . I think?
The Ritalin can be real nice but again after taking it for awhile I'm no longer 'speedy' like I was at first....HOWEVER I won't stop doing things....
I'm not sure if it's because I know I need to get things done while I can or whether it's the medication..... I guess I've always had hot-spots....like around 10:00 AM, is my hot zone so I always used to try and get as much done aroud then as possible because I KNEW that I could...... Perhaps now that I have an 8-hour Hotspot I just get speedy because I can?
I think it has something to do with the fact that we're generally speedy/jumpy people, so once we can concentrate and finnish things, we don't lose the Speed, or the drive, we just gain the ability to control it.....
Kinda like driving a car.....without a steering wheel....normally I have none.... I go real fast, but NOBODY knows what direction, it keeps changing by itself.....Ritalin is my steering wheel.... I think??
Make sense to anyone?
[/QUOTE]The jaw clenching went away before the speediness did for me. You should take all three however you are supposd to at least a few times and see the speed. :-)
[QUOTE=mrstalltomm]I only take my Ritalin during the week when I'm working and only one 20mg tablet in the morning. My prescription is for 3 a day every day but I only want to take it to do my job and that's it. My husband and 14-year-old daughter loves it when I'm taking the Ritalin because what they say to me actually gets processed. Before I started Ritalin I saw a neurologist because I thought I had Alzheimer's at 35. I couldn't remember ANYTHING. I would go from one room to the other and not remember why I was in there and no amount of thinking would retrieve it. I have literally forgotten what I was saying in mid sentence while talking to my 14-year-old daughter. It was awful. All of that is resolved when I take my Ritalin. BUT I am more irritable and even have jaw clenching with it. I have the irritability under control and I will just live with the jaw clenching because I hate feeling like an Alzheimer's patient repeating things over and over and having no short term memory at all. Ritalin has been wonderful for me. Adderall and Strattera never worked for me. [/QUOTE]possible. the therapist called me adHd but I disagree.
[QUOTE=Tamaraw1969]
[QUOTE=The Resistance!]If you fee speedy on Ritalin, then it is proof you are NOT ADD[/QUOTE]
My understanding is that if you feel speedy on the Ritalin, you were not ADHD but possibly ADD
The Ritalin can be real nice but again after taking it for awhile I'm no longer 'speedy' like I was at first....HOWEVER I won't stop doing things....
I'm not sure if it's because I know I need to get things done while I can or whether it's the medication..... I guess I've always had hot-spots....like around 10:00 AM, is my hot zone so I always used to try and get as much done aroud then as possible because I KNEW that I could...... Perhaps now that I have an 8-hour Hotspot I just get speedy because I can?
I think it has something to do with the fact that we're generally speedy/jumpy people, so once we can concentrate and finnish things, we don't lose the Speed, or the drive, we just gain the ability to control it.....
Kinda like driving a car.....without a steering wheel....normally I have none.... I go real fast, but NOBODY knows what direction, it keeps changing by itself.....Ritalin is my steering wheel.... I think??
Make sense to anyone?
Good for you sly!
Just be aware that (for many people) there will be days when 'Vitiman R' just doesn't work. Don't be discouraged by this...on most days, it will work.
Also, coming off Ritilan can give you the 'jiggity-jaggities'....that 'speedy' feeling that people were refuring to. I like to make use of this burst of energy to be productive in some way.
ADD & lovin it!38496.6785069444comming off of ritalin used to make me crash, and literally that's what I'd do.....
It's like a little kid with a chcolate bar, short term energy and then once the chocolate wears off, they crash and nap.....
Not so much anymore but I think that's because I'm eating a hell of alot healthier...
Of course after my first 2 weeks straight of the stuff, I took the weekend off and WHOA, MAJOR ADD
Yeah I was my normal crazy self, maybe a little more than usual but it was fun.... I enjoy life so much more when I'm not on it, but having the mix......
What would it be like to be 'normal'?
I shudder at the thought . . .. .cringe......yuck....
Ritalin was like night and day for me. I eventually even managed to wean myself off of it... it gave me headaches when it was leaving my system. I'm trying adderall this week and feel the complete opposite, I feel its making me worse!! :-( Congrats on ritalin being so great for you. I might have to go back to it.If you fee speedy on ritalin, then it is proof you are NOT ADD?
I felt very speedy at first, much like arbiterxero I was hopping around cleaning the house. Terribly focused and clear headed, but speedy.
Different effect now, but certainly speedy at first. If this is a clear indicator, why waste time with diagnosis?
Here, swallow this Ritalin.
(30 minutes pass by)
Do you feel speedy, or not?
I only take my Ritalin during the week when I'm working and only one 20mg tablet in the morning. My prescription is for 3 a day every day but I only want to take it to do my job and that's it. My husband and 14-year-old daughter loves it when I'm taking the Ritalin because what they say to me actually gets processed. Before I started Ritalin I saw a neurologist because I thought I had Alzheimer's at 35. I couldn't remember ANYTHING. I would go from one room to the other and not remember why I was in there and no amount of thinking would retrieve it. I have literally forgotten what I was saying in mid sentence while talking to my 14-year-old daughter. It was awful. All of that is resolved when I take my Ritalin. BUT I am more irritable and even have jaw clenching with it. I have the irritability under control and I will just live with the jaw clenching because I hate feeling like an Alzheimer's patient repeating things over and over and having no short term memory at all. Ritalin has been wonderful for me. Adderall and Strattera never worked for me. [QUOTE=The Resistance!]If you fee speedy on ritalin, then it is proof you are NOT ADD?
I felt very speedy at first, much like arbiterxero I was hopping around cleaning the house. Terribly focused and clear headed, but speedy.
Different effect now, but certainly speedy at first. If this is a clear indicator, why waste time with diagnosis?
Here, swallow this Ritalin.
(30 minutes pass by)
Do you feel speedy, or not?
[/QUOTE]
Maybe your dose is a little high. I wish I could get speedy. I would LOVE some energy. One of my friends takes a quarter of a 10mg tablet because everything else makes her speedy. This dose is really low but for her it controls the ADD but doesn't jack her up.
[QUOTE=The Resistance!]If you fee speedy on Ritalin, then it is proof you are NOT ADD[/QUOTE]
My understanding is that if you feel speedy on the Ritalin, you were not ADHD but possibly ADD