Ritalin decision

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Hi,

I have a decision to make. To take Ritalin or not.

I am in my 30's. I have been diagnosed with Asperger's two years ago. I have no personal friends as I struggle in social situations as I don't have a the gift of the gab. I take medication for anxiety.

The purpose of taking the Ritalin is not to dull me as I do not have hyperactivity but hopefully it will help me focus when I have multiple tasks to do. I struggle when to much is heaped on me, I tend to stop working on everything. This has really affected my ability to take on promotions as I know what will be expected of me and I know the stress that will result will be too much for me. So I am open to taking Ritalin for this purpose but I am concerned with side effects. Being able to do a higher paid job would boost my self esteem as I would then be able to pursue my dream job.

I understand that Ritalin is in the same class of drug as Cocaine. I can't find enough relevant information though. A balance view for me to decide is what I am looking for.
Any helpful information in regards to adults taking Ritalin would be most helpful.

Ritalin could make your anxiety worse. that said, why not try it for a short time and decide for yourself if the benefits outweigh the side effects.

Ease into it relatively slowly, see if you like how it works. And if not, ease out if it relatively slowly.

And it might help with concentration and executive functioning.

I've read with antidepressants, it's very much trial and error in a respectful sense. Just that everyone's biochem is a little different. And it's also sometimes important to phase down in steps even if the medication doesn't seem to be working.

Strattera worked well for me, but your mileage may vary.

Just know this, that stuff is dangerous.

If i didn have it bad already, depressions got worse and i got suicide thought. Not cool.

I mean if it can help great. But definitely always have someone to watch you. To see if it goes downhill. because it can be hard to see yourself.

I guess all scientific studies will have conflicting advice. Plus as all humans are different you will respond differently to medications.

I have taken several different medications, before doc suggested ritalin. Dex was one of them and the itching nearly saw me scratch through my hand. I just kept scratching my hand. Luckily for me I looked down and saw what was happening. I have had a low tolerance to medications so far.

Hoping to hear from adults on Ritalin that never had it as a child. My support network have seen what Ritalin has done to children and don't want me to take it.

Thanks loner. That is what I am worried about as my support network don't want me to take it and I fear I will lose that support.

All medications have side effects, and all are potentially dangerous, especially if not closely monitored.
Tolerance levels of medications may vary, but in my case I find a lower dose is equally effective for me as a full dose for others, and a full dose for others will make the side effects worse than the cause of taking the meds.
That said I'm talking medication in general, and have never taken Ritalin myself.

I wouldn't say that Google has all the answers, but a quick search of Google for Ritalin should find you a fair variety of results, including some research as well as consumer groups, including some for and some against.
At the end of the day it will be your decision, but speak to your doctor too, and if they don't have the answers you're looking for, ask them to find out; you don't want to take something a doctor recommends just because a big pharma rep wants to push product, but if it's something that may help it could be worth a try.
Just don't go into it blind and take meds because someone told you to; it needs to be an informed decision, otherwise the doctor is liable to get sued if something goes wrong.

It's definitely not an easy choice. But there is always "what if" it could help.

If they dont wanna help, i would definitely see if there isnt another option for some kind of supervision.

Again not sure how wide spread the side effects like these are.

But they are pretty scary for those who get them.

When I was younger I bounced back and forth from Ritalin, Strattera, Vyvanse and a few others (sorry if I got the spelling wrong).
Most of these are the same class of drug I believe, but one thing you might want to look out for is that, in me at least, as soon as the drugs wore off I was in a major depression. Not just for the day after but as long as I was "on" the drug I was pretty majorly depressed.

Maybe I'm just prone to those sorts of things, but I would never take anything like that again for that reason. Sure, during the day I was focused and my head wasn't as constantly racing as before, but for me it was not worth coming home and falling apart.

My brother took these for a while but we found out that there were many nasty side effects that weren't well known. Among them is heart problems, various obvious tics like being loud verbally physical tics like clicking and banging, tapping etc when coming down off them and growth spurts for those still growing which can cause other health problems because you grow too fast. I'm not sure if most Doctors or GP's know this at all, but my mum didn't know these risks when my brother started taking Ritalin, so maybe talk to your GP or ask to get a referal to someone who does know.

Also it wasn't able to help my brother "greatly". It only seemed to help him manage anger and not "cure" / help his others issues, so it has it's limits (mostly it's for ADHD I think).

So yeah, I'd say at least you want to weigh this up with the help of someone who really knows. You can google it but most stuff on almost anything is secondhand info on google and not all that reliable.

Hope that helps. Good luck