Adjusting Dosage to avoid crash

[thejosh626]

Hi all! I’m new to this website and it seems very old (last post 3 years ago on this topic) so let me know if you are out there!!

Today I just wanted to discuss dosing intervals and amount of my current ritalin prescription. It is a generic form from malenkdroft. I’ve heard this company isn’t known for making great generics ie. dirty feeling, hard crash, huge spikes. but I have had a pretty good go so far with them. 5th day now.

I was prescribed 20mg twice a day and immediately broke it in half on my first dose to “work my way up” to the appropriate mg. I found that 10mg had great affects and I love myself on it. I was doing the recomended 10mg/ 4 hours/ 10mg. I would dip heavily in between then crash at the end of the night with headaches and sour stomach (now those symptoms are mild or gone altogether). Day 3 I tried 20mg and it made me jittery and anxious and very irratible so not for me.

Today I am starting a (better educated) dosing schedule. I took 10 when I got up. I usually feel it come off around 3.5 hours. I feel it kick in about an hour after taken. So after 2 hours I took 5mg which should kick in around the time the first dosing stopped.. and I will take another 5mg in perhaps another 2 hours, maybe 3, I’m not sure yet.

If anyone has any valuable information on how dosing works for them and what schedule/mg they may use please let me know! I know everyone reacts differently but we can all benefit from information on avoiding crashes or simply lengthening the curve of the come-down. I’ve read a lot about concerta/ritalin sr-la and havent tried them. However, I feel they won’t benefit me in the way that instant release is because I feel I have better control over it!

If this site is still alive; Thanks guys!

REPORT ABUSE

[Scattybird]

Hi – I used to take Ritalin. The generic form was rougher than the actual Ritalin but that could have been my imagination and I may have just coincidentally been more used to it by the time I swapped from generic methylphenidate to Ritalin.

Anyway, you need to play as you are doing, but it worked best for me if I took 10 mg every 3 hours up to the maximum I was allowed. On a bad day, I’d take 15 mg to start with followed by 10 mg after 3 hours. If I took 20 mg in one go I slowed down to a slow motion zombie state – not good. Developing a regular pattern was best.

After a while, I moved to Concerta and I hated it. It really didn’t agree with me at all. I liked the short-acting form better. Whilst Concerta worked, it was rough and made me feel awful (both physically and mentally). But other people get on fine with it – we are all different. If you do try Concerta, then always use the ‘proper’ brand Concerta and never the generics. Whilst the active ingredient might be the same, the slow release mechanism is different and it’s accepted pretty much now that slow release generics are not as good as Concerta. I much prefer the short acting meds as I can control when I take them. Sometimes I might just take one on an afternoon if I am struggling. I don’t necessarily want to be forced into a specific dose each day.

With regard to the ‘come down’ on an evening, I usually have a coffee and that works a treat. If that’s no good, you can use the 5 mg left from the 15 mg start if you do that.

I don’t drink coffee at the same time as taking these meds – it doesn’t  mix, but it’s great when they wear off.

After trying and hating Concerta, I went back to Ritalin but it didn’t do anything for me after that. I now take dexamphetamine sometimes and am resisting Vyvanse (the slow release version) in case the same thing happens again. I now work on the assumption that if something works, don’t fiddle around with it.

 

REPORT ABUSE

[Author]

Posts