so my pdoc prescribed me a two week trial to see how it works for me. so far i think it's been working great. i can concentrate more, all the buzzing in my head goes away during the 4 hours, my thought patterns have changed and have been more logical, i feel i can speak clear the words come out easier, my chronic fatigue seems to have gone away etc.. i just have a few questions

1. in the morning i will start with 10mg and then an hour later i will see how im feeling and then take another 5mg. 4 hours later i will do the same. will breaking it up help keep the medication working on a more steady pace and a little longer than the 4 hour period? or does it make more sense to just take 15mg all at once twice a day?

2. i have gone from 10mg twice a day to 30mg in 3 days. my pdoc told me i probably will metabolize the meds fast... so is this too much in a short period of time to up my dosage? i feel fine at this amount ( keeping in mind im spacing out my doses)

3. and the fact that i am already up to 30mg a day, will this mean i am going to desensitize myself really fast to the ritalin? i want to keep feeling good and normal but im afraid of building a high tolerance too fast.

4. when i take my first dose (10mg) i feel a little speedy. and then an hour later it wears off and im fine. even when i take my next doses i don't feel speedy again for the rest of the day, just even and all the other good things i described above. does anyone else feel this way at first? and does it mean im 10mg is too much?

what do you think? thanks

I was just started on Ritalin, and my psychiatrist insists on sticking to the regimen we planned so that we could make changes accordingly after a few weeks of trial period. Currently I am dosing up to 40mg a day. I don't ever feel hyperactive, but notice that I am able to pay attention slightly better than I have been able to in the past, but still not as well as when I was consuming extreme amounts of caffeine. I am thinking that this isn't the right medication from you. You might want to see if you can get a referral to a neuropsychiatrist who specializes in adhd treatment.

to be honest i feel great on ritalin so far... why do you think it's not right for me? also my psychologist specializes in adhd.

My mistake, I misread what you said. I also mistyped my answer. I think what I mean is that you should talk to your psychiatrist about changing up your scheduling, because they have much more experience with the way it changes over time.

I think that is an OK dose really, I believe the maximum recommended is 90mg / day for an adult.


I've started the titrating proces 5mg twice a day for 3 days - 10mg twice a day for 3 days - and then to 15mg twice a day for 3 days to see how things go. I don't think you are expected to have much theraputic effect off the really low doses - although some people do. I wouldn't be worried that 30mg / day seems good for yourself, the docs just begin from a low dose so your body doesn't freak out . Also, just because you've gone up to 30mg that quickly, that doesn't mean your tolerance has increased that fast.

I hope that makes sense anyway.

I too am titrating and getting the dose right (currently on 2 x 10mg / day) and would be really interested on peoples thoughts about taking the dose in pieces, like in your case 10mg and 1hour later, 5mg. Obviously to extend the lasting effectiveness of the drug :)