Hi People,

Good forum! I just need to read about more since I was only recently diagnosed.

I have been diagonsed for a little over a month, and the psych is still building up the dose; from 5mg once to 5mg twice to now it's 10mg once daily.

Well, I do fell less restless with the meds at any dose so that I can sit still and listen to lectures; but then it seemed that there is not much of an improvement over my attention span. Does that mean my dose have to be upped a bit? (Don't recommend me anything else. The only ADD meds that have been licensed in HK is methylphenidate, in Ritalin and Concerta brands.)

Sitting still and listening to lectures would be the point...unless you are inable to focus on the lectures, or things like this. I don't know when my medicine is working, BUT I know when it is NOT working because I am thinking about whether my medicine is working, instead of paying attention to class.

That said, Ritlain has never helped my hyperactivity that much...it just marginally cuts down on the need to fidget as much. It does, however, allow me to pay attention in classes and take notes; a skill that I did not have before (I could take notes, but not pay attention, heh)

By "attention" here I meant studying by myself.

Ahh, ok. Might be that your studying methods don't work for you? I have found that my medicine makes me _able_ to do that, but only if I do it in a way that works. For instance, I can now sit and actually read and notate a textbook, but only if I use my own notetaking method.

I still can't "review" notes by reading them over, I have to be _doing_ something with them. For instance, to study, I type my notes into MSWord. It gives me something else to be doing (formatting bullets, etc.) while at the same time it lets me review the materials.

Other ways are to illustrate your own knowns, drawing your own visual representations of concepts.

Ritalin will not make you into a super-student. It does not, in and of itself, make you focus. It can not, in and of itself, make you study. It can not, itself, make you focus on whatever it is you need to do. What it does, is it gives you the POTENTIAL to do those things, when you choose to. It makes you ABLE to study, it makes you CAPABLE of focusing, but you still need to choose on what to focus, and how.

Even non-ADHDers have a hard time studying if they don't enjoy what it is they are studying, and if they are doing it wrong. I have never heard a non-ADHDer say they enjoyed studying, if they weren't doing it with their own method that works for them. I, myself, enjoy studying; so long as I am using a method that works for me.

I'm still here for about 5 minutes, so if you respond, I might get back to you, heh.

I know, I meant I still kept distracted when studying on myself. Lectures were better for me?

You don't actually want to treat the "hyperactivity" part of ADHD - you want to improve focus and impulse control. At lower to medium doses you see an improvement in focus, add a bit more and impulse control improves and finally, at larger doses stimulants will slow down hyperactivity - but at these doses you lose the improvments in focus and impulse control! Treating the hyper aspect of ADHD is what has given ritalin a bad name e.g. Teacher is bothered by Billy's constant movement - sqirming in his seat, kicking his desk, etc - and asks the parents to up the dosage 'cus "it's not working", and little Billy ends up over medicated and in a haze - he won't do any better in school, but at least he's quiet.....

Well, I did have hyperactivity problems when I was in elementary, but it slowly went away... OK, now I'm of course not on meds (it's close to 0:00 here) and I have extremely no attention span on anything whatever and kept skipping through anything...

Anyway, it's outside of the scope here. It's just too difficult to quarter a pill...

To speak, my current improvement is just able to sit still in class, at times I'd still be spaced out at classes and still have the bad habit(?) of falling asleep in class-- which was the same as before. Plus I still tend to procrastinate when reading. Oh, well, maybe I should ask doc for extended-release meds next time...

I think I just realized the problem...10mg once daily? You take that in the morning, it'll only last about 4-5 hours, MAYBE 6 if you take it with food.

If you are taking it early morning, it will last for so long, then wear off. Then, at night, afternoon, evening, or whenever you study, it will not be able to help you at all. It would only be very helpful starting about 30 minutes after you took it, and going for about 6 hours.

I take 5mg pills throughout the day, and that is what it takes to take me going. 5mgs lasts about 4 hours, so I take it at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, for fulltime coverage through the day. If you only take 10mg in the morning (I take 20 in SR form, but it's not worth it, heh), then chances are it is wearing out way before you are studying.

Try changing your dosing so you take a 5 about 30 minutes before your classes, and another 5 about 30 minutes before you are going to be studying...that should be able to carry you through 4 hours of classes (you may need to change your dosing for that, as well, I don't know your schedule), and 4 hours of studying.

10mgs in the morning almost definitely will not carry you to the evening, though. Average adult takes 20-30mgs daily.

10mg is a small dose. I stopped taking Ritalin and switched to dexedrine because ritalin was lasting maybe 2 hrs for me - I was taking 30mg 4 times a day. Now I take 15mg dexedrine 3 times a day and have way better coverage, and a lot less ups and downs.

Well, a pill does cover my course time on most days (0900-1200 on Mon and Wed, 1200-1430,1630-1800 on Tue and Wed, and 0900-1800 on Fri-- but Firday afternoons are labs.) but do not cover anything else. But I still tend to space out a bit in lectures, at time I'm sure the Rit is still kicking in-- even I am sure the intensity has decreased a bit.