Hello everybody.

I am on Ritalin almost three years now and although has helped me alot in my everyday life, I have seen changes in my personality that are at least worrying. I have noticed that when I am on Ritalin (I stopped taking it two months ago) I am getting very serious and feel anxiety especially when alot of people are present. The worst thing though are two awful experiences in my classroom that my doctor described as mild panic attacks. In the worst of the two, I was just reading something aloud, I felt self-conscious, under a lot of pressure and then I started shaking, confused my words and felt disorientated. It may not sound terrible, but at the time felt pretty bad. I felt emparassed although my classmates did not take it very seriously (or so it seemed) thinking I was ill.

I do not consider myself as stupid, but I surely have problem in concetrating for enough time to finish anything that takes continous effort, with the help of Ritalin I was able to have a good score in the national exams to get in the college of my preference. The problem now is that I am going for the second year of college and I am not sure what I am going to do without Ritalin. There is no other "strong" medication in Greece for ADD and I am worrying what I am going to do with my classes that start in three weeks.

Did anyone had a similar experience with Ritalin?
I just found the forum, from discussions here what concidered the most effective medications for ADD?
I am very interested of what exactly is happening in the brain of people with ADD, any good books on the subject?

Thank you.

Hi NicktheGreek, and welcome to the forums.

I had a similar experience to Ritalin. It caused me to experience plenty of panic attacks among other symtoms including the nervousness you described.
I took it for a few years before I finally approached my Dr about trying something else.

From my experience, even though there are several stimulants used to treat this condition (in the USA anyway), and even though they may be lumped together in the same class of drugs, they rarely had a similar effect in me.

I found that the methylphenidate based drugs like Ritalin for example, both helped my ADHD symtpoms, and at the same time kind of made things worse for me too with so many negative side effects.

The I tried a drug called Adderall that did not help my ADHD symptoms at all, and only made things worse for me.

Finally I tried the drugs Desoxyn (US & Chile only), Dexedrine, and Focalin which helped my ADHD symptoms, and had the lowest incidence of side effects of any drugs I had ever taken for my ADHD.

We each can and often do respond to these drugs differently, so what works best for one person might not be best for another person.

I hope that what ever you decide to do next will work for you, and I hope that you have a great experience with the coming school year.

Please keep us posted on what you and your Dr decide to try next.

Hi Nick,

I suffer from severe anxiety that is unrelated to stimulants. I used to take Dexedrine and I found it didn't make my anxiety worse at all. Last month I started Ritalin though and I notice I am more susceptible to what feels like the initial stages of panic. This especially happens if I combine caffeine with the Ritalin. I'm happy to say that today I had only one coffee first thing in the morning and I felt much better. I'm hoping I can make this work with the ritalin because dex and ritalin are the only stimulants I have access to on my current drug plan. I'm going to try a combination of both ritalin and dex (my doctor has prescribed both) but I want to get a good feel for how this ritalin works first.

Good luck to you and let us know what you decide!

Hi Lars,

It's good to see that I am not the only one that suffer from anxiety because of Ritalin and that might some other medication to help me. Unfortunately the only other medication that exists in Greece is Strattera and from looking in this forum and talking with my doctor seems to have more than a few adverse effects, it's my only option though.

I have tried Adderall too from a cousin in U.S. that used to take it. Although I tried it only for a few times, back then seemed to work better than Ritalin. I liked Adderal because in contrast with Ritalin made me feel focused when at the same time I had a natural feeling I was forgetting I was on medication.

Lars thank you for your wish for my school year, I hope Strattera will help.

Hi Sprite,

I really hope that you will not have the same problem with Ritalin I had. It's better to let Ritalin work without thinking any possible adverse effects, but if you feel again what you call the initial stages of panic stop Ritalin and talk with your doctor, I stopped Ritalin two months now and although I am better I still do not feel very good.