Re: Need Ritalin Advice

[Anonymous]

Shoe, I’m a teacher who worked with spec ed kids who were identified due to extreme behaviour issues. ADD was the least of their worries! (although having that too sure wasn’t a great treat for them) What I noticed over the years working with them was that some of them took ritalin on their first ‘trial’of meds and it had no effect. I had to track all the behaviours/improvements/side effects on tracking sheets provided by their doctors so I was paying close attention. After the trial period, if there was no beneficial effects, their pediatriacian or psychiatrist would switch them to a new med (dexedrine). Some of them would have a cmplete turn around! They had found their med!

Then there were the kids that would be started on dexedrine and that trial would be a total flop! That child’s doctor would try a new med (ritalin) and WOW! The nail was hit on the head for them.

What I’m saying is don’t give up if you don’t find the answer immediately. Take the meds at the exact dose your doctor has prescribed and increase them at the rate he has recommended. Believe me, he’s had a whole lot more experience at knowing how quickly to change things around. We tend to want instant results, don’t we? LOL Remember, it’s only a few weeks and you’ll have your answer. In the grand scheme of thngs, it is only a very short period of time. If the ritalin doesn’t work after a few weeks (if your doc gets you through the dosage trials), he/she will switch you to one of the other types of drugs out there which may be just be the one that you need. You can’t change the doses too quickly because in the course of a week so many things affect our ‘regular’ day and that affects how our bodies process the drugs.

Good luck and don’t give up. Many people go through a couple of months of trying out meds and dosages before their ‘puzzle’ is solved. Oh, and the meds only assist in helping us solve our issues with ADD. They give us what educators call ‘think’ time- a bit of extra time to process our thoughts (and hopefully make better decisions while we doing the thinking).

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