Re: My first day on meds!

[Anonymous]

Hi Red,

I wish you all the best on the treatment hopefully the lowest dose gives you the same effect i have….there’s a good chance it will!

Let me update you after 9 days of taking the meds.

Well the first thing I have to say is that the brain is extremely sensitive to medication change and finding the right dose takes some time….I haven’t found the proper tune yet…I don’t necessarly recommend that people start ajusting their meds without speaking to their doctor. I played a bit with mine but my girlfriend is a doctor so she’s been following me ever since I started taking the meds.

Everyone is different which is why some release systems (built in the meds) work better for different people. I tend to need a pretty small dose in the morning 5-7.5mg and increase as I go through my day. The ritalin only works effectively for about 4 hours, so it is a bit of a pain in the neck as you get a very nice high in the first two hours only to find your concentration drop pretty rapidly in the last 2 hours of the effectiveness of the medication. I do find however even several hours after the meds are supposed to have stopped working that you there is still something left. For example I find that it is still pretty easy to do boring chores a few hours after the effectiveness range however the level of concentration for reading goes away pretty rapidly.

I find that taking ritalin first is actually not a bad idea as it gives you a steep high (its not like you’re high in the drug sense, its like you’re energized and you want to do things) so you know pretty quickly if its working or not without having a large dose which is what you’re gonna get anyways starting off. The other thing is that its release system is basic so the effect is peaky but linear (you get a rapide rise, a peak and a drop) it disolves very rapidely (no high tech gizmos) so in my case it got me to understand how the medication worked and since its short action medication I can tune the medication to my needs and it really is tuning as if I don’t take enough I feel well…..like my usual add self and if I take a bit too much I get a bit of the zombie effect.

That being said, I’m looking forward to trying concerta (same methylphenidate ; different release system) or other medications. Taking the medication 3 times a day is not ideal especially when you live an active life style and I want something that will give me an effect that is fairly constant throughout the day. I think the concerta might work good in my case since I don’t need much medication in the morning to leave my add self behind and the concerta gives you a 20/80 split so 20% is immediate release for the morning and 80% for the rest of that day. I’ll probably want to keep some ritalin around so that when the effect wears off after supper and that I need to concentrate at that time, I’ll be able to do so for the rest of the day.

All this is pretty much trial and error but I think its pretty interesting as you learn a lot about yourself and your concentration span.

I have to say I have had my most productive week since I can remember, its great! If it works as good with you as it does for me, you’ll probably come to realize to which extent adhd has effected you. Before I took the meds, I was a bit frustrated over the situation, I mean, my life hasn’t been a disaster or anything of the sort but i’ve gone through the usual difficulties adhd people have and missed out on many opportunities… I have to say i’m strong willed but since I started taking the meds, I haven’t looked back and don’t plan to either.

I’ve been unemployed for about 3 months, I left my job for several reasons, some that have nothing to do with adhd. At that time I didn’t know what I had but I knew I had something so I took these three months to look further into the problem and rethink what I was going to do next. Needless to say, I’m glad I took time for myself to find out I had adhd, its the best decision I ever made and I’m now confident I’ll be finding a job pretty soon and I also plan to start a masters degree in 2012!

Let us know how this goes for you!

Again, I wish you all the best!

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