Dr. Umesh Jain is now exclusively responsible for TotallyADD.com and its content

Re: Ritalin

Re: Ritalin2010-02-05T00:16:38+00:00

The Forums Forums Medication Ritalin Ritalin Re: Ritalin

#92020

Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD
Participant
Post count: 473

I’m not a doctor, but I know sometimes a ‘symptom’ can actually just be a kind of secondary result. So, for example, you may take a medication and find you are more social. But the medication didn’t make you m ore social or boost your confidence.

What is actually happening is that your brain doesn’t filter sound as well. It can’t focus on one voice in a crowded room. And you may not have noticed, you just assume everyone has trouble in a noisy room. (And they do if it’s too noisy, but you have a lower threshold.) With the medication, suddenly your brain is better at filtering sound, so you don’t find being in noisy restaurants quite so stressful, you can follow conversations more easily, and so you have a better time, and you’re smiling so people are smiling back…

What I’m getting at is that some symptoms or what seem like side effects may be one or two steps removed from what’s actually happening.

But the change, ‘better at filtering sound’ is not at all an obvious one, right? It’s complex and subtle. You’re so busy following the interesting conversation, you don’t notice the difference.

One of the Doctors we interviewed told the joke about the patient who took their ADHD medication and reported, “Doc, it didn’t do a thing for me, but it sure made everyone else less of an a**hole.

REPORT ABUSE