I was diagnosed ADD as a kid but not treated at that time because my parents had bigger issues with my brother, and treated inadequately with antidepressant meds as a teen which were not helpful. I only started ritalin less than 2 months ago and am amazed at the difference, and so regretful that I did not have the benefit of this type of help when I really needed it in school.

My problem now is deciding whether or not to stay on the medication. YES, its EXTREMELY helpful but right now I am home fulltime with my kids and not sure I need that much help, and still cannot really decide on a direction for my life beyond motherhood (or if I want that).

More importantly, I find that when the ritalin wears off and it's too late to take another (makes it hard for me to fall asleep if i take it late), I feel awful - like dirty and gross and headachey and just rotten. If I sleep well I'm fine the next day. I don't want to rely on another med (like sleep med) to combat side effects of this one. Is this normal and what can be done?

Also, this might be unrelated but I notice right after I take the morning dose my whole body gets very itchy. I don't have any drug allergies so I doubt this is the case but has that happened to anyone and why??

I don't take Ritalin; I'm on Concerta (same stuff, different release). I have found a bad rebound effect too. I take one 18mg in the morning, but when it wears off (after about 7 hours, not 10-12 as advertised), I get really irritable and witchy with a bad headache and feeling icky. I changed my dosing to one 18mg in the morning and one 18mg at noon, and it was MUCH better...no rebound at all or at least it hit at a better time for me.

Yesterday, I wasn't home to take my noon dose, and when I got home at 3 it was too late to take it. I had AWFUL rebound. I snapped my hubby's head off and got a massive headache. I was basically in bed all evening! I definitely see the benefit of taking the noon dose.

Before we switched to the noon dose, I tried caffeine at "rebound" time, and that helped some. If you can time when you're having trouble, have a coffee or soda around then (or even a couple of excedrin....fixes the caffeine and the headache thing) and see if that helps.

As far as whether or not to take meds....I didn't think I needed them either (was just diagnosed at 40), but my husband convinced me that I had a bigger problem than I thought. After being on them and seeing how I can complete things now and how much more patient I am with my son.....can't believe I was in denial and waited so long!

Good luck!

what kind are you taking? immediate release tablet? LA capsule? SR? i started with one 20 mg LA capsule & noticed that i had that gross, irritable feeling at the end of the day. i now get 10mg IR tablets. as long as my last dose is a half tablet (5mg), i don't notice the irritablility. controlling how the med tapers off makes all the difference to me.