Well, after about a month and a half of taking methylphenidate (Ritalin), my doc and I came to the conclusion that a switch was necessary. I was given the choice to switch from 60mg IR Ritalin (20mg 3 x Daily) to Concerta (54mg) with 5-10mg "booster" doses, or to try something new. I opted against just taking more of a drug that wasn't helping much. Plus I thought taking more might be really unpleasant.

So, he said we'd try Adderall. Same dosing plan as before: I get 60 10mg tabs for 2 weeks, and I'm to slowly increase the dose until I find a comfortable range. No more than 60mg. Once I find the dose, then we probably move to the XR formulation.

He told me to wait a day for the Ritalin to flush out of my system before starting my medication. Well, when I got home with my prescription, took 10mg anyway. I figured it had been 4 hours, the Ritalin must have been out of my system. Anyway, long story short, after some research I found out that Ritalin is thought to compete with Adderall in the brain, and I think that's true. Thinking it was a tolerance issue, I just took more (since I was trying to get some things done, and I wanted to "test it out".) and totalled at 30mg. Welllllll, around 8:30PM I felt something, and I really felt it. I have to admit, it was nice, but I think I over did it.

One thing that surprised me, is that if I took Ritalin at 8PM, I would be able to sleep by midnight or 1AM. That last 8PM dose of Adderall really screwed my ability to sleep until 3AM, and then I woke up at 6:30AM unable to sleep :mad:.

One question about tolerance though (Ok, a few questions...:p): Is my tolerance from the Ritalin going to affect my dosage of Adderall? I thought it was strange for me to start so low again after I was taking a high dose of Ritalin. Any opinions on what an equivalent dose of adderall is to 60mg of Ritalin? What would that be as an XR formulation? Just out of curiosity, I'm still going to go with what feels "right".

Do you have any self-control?

Instead of going with what feels right, try following your doctor's instructions. When he said wait a day before starting Adderall, he probably meant more than 4 hours.

Do you have any self-control?

Hmmm....You know, I actually appreciate the harshness of this question. Actually, your suggestion that I have no self-control is correct, it unfortunately goes hand-in-hand with impulsiveness. Not to use that as a cop-out, but we are on an ADHD support forum, so if there's anywhere I can point that out, it's here.

Nonetheless, you're right, and I probably shouldn't have made light of what was a pretty stupid thing to do. Hopefully people reading this won't follow my example.


Instead of going with what feels right, try following your doctor's instructions. When he said wait a day before starting Adderall, he probably meant more than 4 hours.


Well, waiting a day was part of his instructions, and I admitted my mistake there above. After that though, going with what feels "right" is my doctor's orders. I have almost total freedom when it comes to finding my right dose. I increase until my symptoms are perfectly treated, then increase a little more until the side-effects are increasing and the benefits are not. Then drop back to where the symptoms were being treated best. I just thought that my tolerance was too high, and 30mg might be necessary (Since I wasn't feeling anything at all!). Well, I should have listened to my doc. Oops. Live and learn.

Anyway, I've discontinued the Ritalin now, and I'm starting on just the adderall today. It seems there is definitely some cross-tolerance. Any thoughts/experiences on cross-tolerance?

Well, I would say that taking the Ritalin probably would make your tolerance to Adderall a bit higher, but that's just my opinion. I know nothing about Ritalin, but I do know that Adderall is very finicky and will act/feel different depending on what you have eaten, what time of day you take it, etc. Because of this, I would suggest trying to get on a solid routine for at least a few days with the same (start small) dosage so you can compare the results.

Winter, I agree completely with Aald. You have to be careful with Adderall in terms of when you take it versus when you eat. Watch anything acidic too, it breaks the Adderall down.

I take 20 mg twice daily. The IR has worked well for me because it gives me a great deal of flexibility. There are times that it has been best to take the whole 40 mg in the morning- when we did the Race for the Cure walk on Mother's Day is a good example. Trying to walk or even move in a crowd of 50,000 was difficult enough. That afternoon, I was able to sit in a quiet house and not really concentrate on anything so not having the Adderall at that time wasn't a problem. When I know that I will need to be attentive all day, I can split the 20 mg tabs and space 10 mg doses throughout the day.

I have also learned to take all my vitamins at night. This keeps me from messing with the Adderall during the day when I need it to work the most.

Stay with a dose for at least a week to really know if you are at the right place with it. You might also want to keep a medication journal and share it with your doc. It will help you to remember what worked and if there were any other significant events that might have impacted the results you got.

what did you mean that ritalin or mph tolerance would make adderall tolerance higher. Do you mean the cross tolerance would make the amount of adderall you take even higher than the amount of mph that the op is currently taking? I thought there would be some slight cross tolerance but that the change to adderall if anything would be starting out on a much lower dosage-

What I was asking is that if I had already been taking a stimulant (MPH) and had developed a little bit of a tolerance, would I already have a slight tolerance to another stimulant (adderall)?

I think the answer is yes. Also I think I'm a high dose responder, because it didn't take long at all for me to get to 60mg of Ritalin, and similarly it hasn't taken long for me reach 15-20mg twice a day with the Adderall IR. The main difference is that the Adderall works so much better :)

I would have gone slower, but after 6 weeks on Ritalin (IR) my brain just felt used to 2 or 3 doses throughout the day, especially when the Ritalin was wearing off after 2 hour. Anyway, the reason I think there is some cross-tolerance is because 10mg of Adderall is hardly noticeable. More noticeable than 10mg of Ritalin by far, but not really enough to treat anything.

20mg seems to be a perfect amount, but twice a day, instead of 3 times a day like with the Ritalin. It lasts a lot longer (thank god!).

(Sorry if this post is a bit of a ramble, it's been 9 and a half hours since my last dose, and my second hasn't "kicked in" yet. Thanks for the responses.)

Winter, I agree completely with Aald. You have to be careful with Adderall in terms of when you take it versus when you eat. Watch anything acidic too, it breaks the Adderall down.


Yeah, the Ritalin had similar 'rules', except that if I took Ritalin after eating it was almost ruined. I notice the Adderall doesn't seem to be as affected by whether I ate before or not. Very useful since it absolutely destroys my appetite.

I'm wondering if I'm going to try the XR or not, I like the idea of having so much flexibility like Tigger was talking about. What kind of dosing schedule would you do with XR if you normally took 40-50mg a day? (Haha, yes, more questions. I'm an annoyingly inquisitive person ;) )