Ritalin - your experience?

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Both Ritalin and caffeine do work for some users (not everyone). Both Ritalin and caffeine can make some users (not all users) temporarily slightly more socially outgoing. Neither Ritalin nor caffeine are cures. That's my understanding.

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Some persons don't tolerate coffee (caffeine). Tea contains some caffeine but primarily theophylline (which is different than caffeine). Yes, some users prefer tea to coffee. That's my understanding.

People are different. Coffee is different than tea. People go with what agrees with them.

My stupid pediatrion recomended it for me when I was six. I protested but my family made me take it anyway. It turned my stims into tics which I STILL have today. In Laymen's terms, it gave me perminate brain damage. I did NOT want to take it and it would have been better if I didn't. Sometimes kids really do know what is best for them.

I don't know if you take any supliments on top of your adderall...but I would recomend omega 3-6-9...could help any side effects you are having with the adderall, and reduce any future risks that it might cause. I also was on adderall and quit about 2 months ago, I was on 30mg- I could have probably gone down in dosage but am fed up with prescriptions and their side effects/balancing act. I don't believe it is healthy for anyone and these drugs have not been around long enough for people to know the long term effects...who knows though I read on one forum there was a guy taking methamphetamine (they make it in a pill) for 50+ years and was living healthily in his 80's. (Still taking it)

I don't take anything else on top of my Adderall anymore. To be honest, I've been on these drugs for so long that I don't know if I'm even capable of quitting them. Maybe when I'm retired and don't have to work anymore I can do it but that's even if I can retire. I have no idea what the effects are going to be on me, I guess I'll have to find out. If my brain short-circuits and I die, oh well. One less mouth to feed. :/

I don't think you would die >< it'd just be very frustrating to quit.

Sorry my statements were a bit sweeping, and I hope they didn't get you down, you seem really cool adderall or not- keep your head up =)...

But I can't focus on anything when I'm not on my meds. I wouldn't get ANYTHING done. I can't even drive as well without Adderall, even though I don't have my license yet. I'd be a hazard on the roads without my meds. So I actually NEED them to be a functioning member of society at this point. >.<

you'd need like 1-2 months to be able to function at a normal level...I took adderall for 6 months (probably nothing compared to your length) unfortunately you probably don't have that time/luxury, though I am confident you would feel alot better there is no telling for sure. Most important thing is it is working well for you.

I was on dexedrine before that for 6 months, i found adderall worked alot better but was more addictive...I could go days without taking dexedrine and still function normal, with adderall I would not be able to do little other than watch tv/go on the computer when not taking adderall.

Yeah, I've been on ADHD pills for 18 years. I'll probably need to be off of them completely for three years to get back to "normal" and I won't have that time until retirement.

I have a really hard time focusing on work when I'm not on Adderall. I need to pick a day on the weekend to take my pills so I can get stuff done. D:

I can't take any sort of stimulant in pill form. Coffe and colas are okay but any stimulant in the form of a pill that has to be provided via perscription just messes me up even more. It makes me sick, dizzy, light headed and feel like I am going to colapase and have a heart attack at the same time. It didn't help me concentate in school at all. Getting a weighted blanket a good night sleep for the first time in my life is what solved that problem.

ritalin = evil
very bad experiences..never advice it too anyone

I supposedly have ADHD thats what the dr told me anyway. I am on Ritalin and I have been for over a yr now and what it helps for me personally is it calms me down to a point. I can focus and sometimes over focus very well on things which sometimes the over focus is a bad thing because then it will keep me on my interest of the computer longer then I want to be on it. It makes me want to finish what I start for the most part no matter how long it takes. Also it helps with work and being able to focus there and being able to remember things a lot better then I did without it and it helps me to stay awake too. When I dont take it I am a hyper annoying unfocussed distracted mess. So for now I really need to stay on it. As I type right now I can tell its worn off because I am typing faster then I want to and its bugging me lol.

Ritalin turned me into a zombie when I was a child!! Nasty stuff!

I tried both ritalin and adderal. Had a very similar experience with each. Worked great to start out with, increased in tolerance over time till I was on the maximum dose, eventually developed motor tics in response and had to stop taking them. So now I do without...

When I was first diagnosed (in my 40s) the psychiatrist had me try a few different drugs to see which would be best for me.

Ritalin had a very sedating effect on me. It was putting me to sleep while I was trying to work at my desk.

For about five or six years I've been taking Adderall. It has barely any side effects, but I wish it worked better. When I had a job, I had a routine that helped me remember to take it - now I sometimes forget. I'm fairly sure that I'm not addicted to it, because a few times I have had to go without it for a week or two or three (for financial reasons) and it didn't give me withdrawal symptoms that I was aware of, nor did I crave it. Sometimes I forget to take it & sometimes I forget I've taken it, and take it again. I know this because toward the end of the prescription, I always have either too many pills left, or too few.

But anyway, back to Ritalin, it also made me feel drugged, and not in a good way. But Adderall did too, at first - just a less uncomfortable, more tolerable feeling of being drugged. (I can't stand medication that makes me sleepy or less alert, unless it's a sleeping pill.)

Edited b/c I didn't mention what I was diagnosed with, but it was ADD. Technically "ADHD, non-hyperactive type" b/c there was no "ADD" diagnosis by that time. I call it ADD because it seems ridiculous to say I have ADHD, only to have to qualify it by negating the "H" in the next breath.

I was on Ritalin all through school. I hated it. It made me feel like a zombie in school. Didn't help much that my parents couldn't really see me feeling like that, since the lunch dose was wearing off around when I would get home from school. (it seemed like the doses only lasted 3-4 hours, and I only took it on school days). In high school, I attempted to avoid taking it. Unfortunately I could only get a day or two at a time, teachers called complaining I was disrupting class, and mom started counting pills. Mom never understood I got chills down my spine shortly after taking it almost every time I took it. It zapped my appetite, I was yelled at by the doc in 5th or 6th (I forget which by now) for loosing weight. Now, I am struggling to get (and keep) my weight under control. My waist exploded from size 30 to 40 pants within a couple years of graduating HS (and going off the drug). I am currently in size 35s, and have a regular twitch stuck around my neck, especially with unexpected sounds... (the twitch moves around from time to time), and weird muscle spasms occasionally as well (really hurts when it's my quads that do it). I seem to recall a couple times in junior high where I had to go to the nurses office from warmups in gym class, because my arm would spasm, and drop out from me while doing pushups.