So, this post is mostly regarding stimulant meds and their kin, but is also of relevance for any medicine-based treatment, especially as I feel that the method by which they do their work is the same...

Given that the right dose is often found by experimentation, that there seems to be an ideal point - that neither too much or too little is good - how do you know when you've gone past that point? Sure there are ways of telling by physical symptoms, and things like anorexia and insomnia, but these might only indicate you're a lot past the ideal point, or might not even be good indicators of ideal functioning at all.

It seems a bit like a car engine, if you'll pardon the analogy. There's a certain RPM where you get the most power. You can keep going past that RPM, but power starts to drop. Once you get a lot past it and into the redline, then really big problems start to occur and parts get thrown out and so on. But just because parts aren't getting thrown out doesn't mean you're at the ideal RPM.

Anybody have a list or something like that, of signs you've gone a bit too far? It's easy to know when you're way past, not so easy to know when you're a bit further than you should be.

It can be hard to see when the case is ADD. Being close to redline is a *lot* better than being perpetually stuck in the low end. But just becuase it's better, doesn't mean it's best.

For that matter, what's a good sign you've hit the sweet spot as far as dosage goes? I realize this might be complicated by the fact that we can't maintain our dosage consistently. It'd be nice if we could actually, say, adjust the dosage in our systems every hour and find what point things worked best, but we don't have that option.

As the dosage increases you'll notice that your ability to focus gets worse - once you pass the "optimum" dosage. It's not really easy to tell what this point is, exactly.