am put on concerta 36mg, and doc told me to take it when necessary. but i truly hated the side-effects.....dry-mouth, nauseous, dizziness. my first trimester was not even that awful. it's probably my body trying to get use to the drug, been on it on and off for 2 weeks.

sorry about the griping....i want to take it tomorrow but when i think of those eeky effects...sigh :(

doc told me to take it when necessaryPerhaps this is the problem? Is your doctor a specialist?

hi...my doc is a psychiatrist. i was on short-acting ritalin for 2 weeks....and no side effects but i did not feel any improvement. then silly me....ran out of meds, and took my sis, which i thought was the same...it was actually the long acting one, and i took it for 2 days..3 times a day!!!! my body was in a mess,and doc got really upset with me....and she changed to concerta. i did ask her if i'm taking concerta only when necessary, would my body get use to the drug, and she said "yes". i'm also taking zoloft for my depression, and i feel like a walking-pharmacy! let's see how i feel tomorrow....hate the thought of it. hmm....may be i should take it everyday. i live in asia, and i think doctors here are more conservative with their dosage.
thanks for listening to my incessant venting :)

How are going to figure things out if you don't ask questions?

I have heard of people who just take a dose of regular Ritalin when they "need" it. I also know that when you are first trying a medication, your brain has to get used to it. I'm not sure that you can analyze an ADHD medication when you only take it once in a while. Once you know it works or it agrees with you, you could try just taking it when you feel the need to.

my suggestion is take it for a couple weeks on a daily basis..and keep a journal. ;)

Hi all, i think should just take it for a few weeks and keep a record of how i feel. thanks for your suggestions. pop one this morning.....so far so good!:):):) will see how the day progresses. i'm so happy to have found this forum...depression, anxiety etc are still such taboo subjects here, and when tell someone you have adhd, they just stared at you and remarked "err....i thought only children get it!" just to share, a colleague of mine told me yesterday that 2 of my colleagues in tokyo are on a long medical leave because "they got mental illness" (his exact words) and he had that look on his face...like my poor colleagues are like jack nicholson in one flew over the cuckoo nest! :rolleyes: would have love to gve him one of my muay thai punches!

Hope67, my son just returned from an extended visit to Asia. He took a six month supply of Ritalin with him and then had to tough it out for the rest of the year. He could not find anyone that would prescribe Ritalin.