Ritalin - your experience?

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Have you taken Ritalin?

If Ritalin worked for you or works for you, can you describe what Ritalin actually does? Practical benefits?

Experiences?

The outside world around me doesnt seem nearly as overwhelming. Its kind of odd, I didnt totally realize that it was until I started on Ritalin.
I definitely am not as much of a scatterbrain. I kind of have a voice waxing philosophical about everything in my head at all times, and the ritalin has apparently straightened it out a bit, everything makes a little bit more sense than unmedicated states.
Theres a bit of a downer side, as there is high potential for abuse. You can take 20 mg and feel pretty good, or take 40 mg, blissed out reading, if you can believe it..
Oh yeah. I could barely read and comprehend before, and the improvement in this regard is remarkable. I look forward to reading, wanting to do that instead of zoning out watching tv or computer screens.
Like I said, about abuse though, you start to want to be on the come up at all times. And when you can feel it fading away, there is a strong urge to just pop another, for me anyways. And here I am out of ritalin, with 6 days to go before I can get my prescription filled. Wish me luck! ha

I think you can get it in extended release form, which may be a better idea. For sure they have XR for adderall.

I would definitely recommend it. I've tried SSRI's, Abilify, Stratterra, Weed, Alcohol...and this helps the best by far.

Easier to switch tasks; easier to organize. Rather than being at 10% of NT normal in that skill, I'm now at 15% or so.

Initially was prescribed much too high a dose. Reducing the dose and taking extended release version was the solution.

terrible drug IMO

I never had chest pains until i started taking ritalin, doctors can't give me a reason why I am having chest pains but I know exactly when it started and that's when I started taking ritalin.
tolerance goes up so quickly that you will have to raise the dosage to dangerous amounts. It's a garbage drug that causes a ton of side effects, my advice is stay away. I would guess that these others have not been on ritalin very long...but I could be wrong and it might work better for others.

Best combo I have found for me is:
omega 3-6-9
Activite by MHP (Multivitamin taken at 1/4th the dosage)
Black Tea

Healthy and no side effects

I think Ritalin has done far more harm for me than good. I was put on Ritalin when I was three, since I wasn't talking yet and my mom and therapist was concerned that my lack of progress was due to my short attention span. I was talking by the time I was four and my mom couldn't be happier. However, mom kept me on it just to make sure I would catch up to my peers. I did. However, I was really aggressive. I got into fights all the time and didn't care. I was a little monster. My brother behaved the same way while on Ritalin.

I found out in a study later that Ritalin increases testosterone in boys and girls. Hence the aggression and the weight gain when puberty hit. The testosterone levels were so high that my body decided that it needed to gain weight for some scientific reason that I'm blanking on right now.

Ritalin lost it's effect on me when I was 15 so they switched me to Adderall when I was 16. It was too strong for me and it lead me to focus so much on my mistakes that I became depressed so they coordinated it with Celexa, which made me gain more weight. I've been off my anti-depressants for three months now and I'm very happy with that.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to focus on my work without my Adderall. It's the only reason I don't need coffee or any form of caffeine in my system. I do well in classes but at what cost? I don't know what my real personality is. I wish she had took me off of the Ritalin when I started speaking because then I could at least have developed genuine discipline over time. Now, it's too late.

I was on it in 5th grade (2004-2005). It was alright, I guess. It definitely made me concentrate more, but it made my meltdowns worse.

That's just odd; my personality hasn't changed on Ritalin and I don't know anyone whose personality has changed--and I know a lot of autistic people and ADHD people... none of them are different when they are "off their meds", except that they are more disorganized and some of them are more hyper. The only thing that seems to touch personality would be the random topic-to-topic jumping some people with ADHD do more when they are not taking stimulants or drinking coffee; this can increase creativity (at the cost of concentration) but is also present on medication in smaller amounts.

I function much better of Ritalin. For awhile I stopped it because I thought it was giving me tics... But I realized that I was still getting tics when I drank much caffeine.. So I thought that might be the main culprit. So I started back on the Ritalin and started keeping my caffeine intake low especially when I'm taking my Ritalin, and I don't have the tics much.
But, yeah, it helps me focus a lot. I hyperfocus even more, but it can be on getting things done. It also makes me more socially outgoing somehow. Hard to explain, but it's very helpful.

And I can't tolerate coffee >< which is why I go with tea


I am sorry to the person put on ritalin at the age of 3...seems like that would be terrible for a child.....

Hardly worked and gave me tics. Stopped taking it after that.