Question: How do you know your dosage?

[anonimi]

How do you guys know your dosage? was this assigned to you by your psychiatrist? or did you try the lowest dose and climbed until you found what suitable?


How do you know what is suitable for you? can you give an example of activities you do with this dosage and without - and what the difference is?


(Is anyone on 5mg?)

[Fima]

as I see, you are from Israel too, in our country ADD's are screwed...
you can't play with your dosage, if you do it, it will count as recretional use, so we have to use the prescribed dosage, and then complain to the doc... unless you are in some sort of private clinic.

the best method that used, is giving the patinet an boundurys and he will say whats the best for him(like 10-35 mg, and you check it, and after a weak tell your doc), but still, this is not how its works in Israel...

if the dosage works for you, then you will feel it, I felt it, its was big diffrances, the easy way is just to try read a book, usualy you will start daydreaming and when you finnish the page you will notice that you didn't understood nothing, while on Ritalin you should able read without lossing attention.

pay attention to the time, if the medication works too short, it can be a sign for low dose.

don't raise the dose alone, only with doc's permission.

[anonimi]

I was given a 27.5mg dose without considering the outcomes. The psych that diagnosed me said nothing about trying other dosages.

In time, I figured 20 or 25mg are best for me. Last week I found out I became a zombie after 1-2 hours of ritalin or 4-5 hours of concerta.

Now, after 8 days of pause, I'm starting from scratch. I'm starting 5mg a dose, I did that for two days. I feel like I can work better (more efficiently), however I have my doubts about reading.

No matter what dose I had before (20,25 or 30) and even now (on 5) - whenever I try to read I always find my mind wander. The same happened with Adderall by the way (and straterra just didn't do *anything*).

I'm lost, aint I?

[Fima]

Originally Posted by anonimi

I was given a 27.5mg dose without considering the outcomes. The psych that diagnosed me said nothing about trying other dosages.

In time, I figured 20 or 25mg are best for me. Last week I found out I became a zombie after 1-2 hours of ritalin or 4-5 hours of concerta.

Now, after 8 days of pause, I'm starting from scratch. I'm starting 5mg a dose, I did that for two days. I feel like I can work better (more efficiently), however I have my doubts about reading.

No matter what dose I had before (20,25 or 30) and even now (on 5) - whenever I try to read I always find my mind wander. The same happened with Adderall by the way (and straterra just didn't do *anything*).

I'm lost, aint I?

strange, very strange, the basic help is help in reading, thats how I knew that the med is helping, can you define what you feel as "zombie" and how you act? whats your weight?

[anonimi]

Zombie means I dont care about nothing, I can't really concentrate. I can just stare. I can lock my sight on something and stare at it for hours.

I lose all productivity, all activeness. It doesn't mean I can't think and I doesn't block my mind from wandering .. I just turn apathic.

I weight 85 kgs. Since Methilphenidate travles from your liver to your brain - I fail to see the relation between weight and dosage (also claimed by 2 psychiatrist I've visited - one of which recommended 27.5mg as a role of thumb .. *sigh*)

[Fima]

Originally Posted by anonimi

Zombie means I dont care about nothing, I can't really concentrate. I can just stare. I can lock my sight on something and stare at it for hours.

I lose all productivity, all activeness. It doesn't mean I can't think and I doesn't block my mind from wandering .. I just turn apathic.

I weight 85 kgs. Since Methilphenidate travles from your liver to your brain - I fail to see the relation between weight and dosage (also claimed by 2 psychiatrist I've visited - one of which recommended 27.5mg as a role of thumb .. *sigh*)

there is relation, small kids take small doses and when they grew up they take bigger doses,
I have the same problem as you have, maybe even worse, I can't even finish one ****ty test because I get zombified after half hour, but I think the solution for the problem is in another side, taking higher dose.

one thing is still bothering me, why adderall didn't worked for you? the dose was lower then the dose of Ritalin?

[anonimi]

I got zombied on 30mgs. no way I'm taking any higher than this. Only recently they started giving it out and they still dont have enough stats about it. I dont like it one bit and theres no way I'm so unique that >30mg ritalin doesn't do the trick ... (or makes it worse).

I dont know. I tried adderall for a month. I think it was better than ritalin but not that better to cost all that money and trouble ... besides, it was long ago so I can't really say how it went. I took 20mgs.

[Stefan]

oh, how nice to see people from your country here!!
I started with 20mg of slow release ritalin last month
in 2 weeks I will meet my neurolog to discuss with him about how did it work for me...
well, first Im happy that it realy worked! but not as long as it had to work so I'm going to ask him if he can prescribe me 60-90tablets every month so I can use 3x20mg or 2x20mg a day or just for different type of ritalin that will work twice longer or something.

and by the way, I didn't know that there is adderal in israel, I wish I could try it to compare it with ritalin and to see what works better because I see alot of positive comments about adderal

[anonimi]

There is no "formal" adderall in Israel. You get a prescription from your neurologist or psychiatrist, they fill a special form (form 29 I think) and they fax it to the health ministry. Upon approval you may purchase it from special pharmacies ... www.ritalin.co.il


Anyways - I dont wanna be a party pooper - but you guys say it "works". Are you sure you're not confusing the "good" and "happy" natural feeling the Ritalin gives you for concentration?

Cause I noticed that the reason I got so many things done is basically the nice cousy motiviational feeling I got from this drug (as I should by the way, its an amphetamin).

Just make sure you're not confusing "good mood" with "concentration".

[Fima]

Originally Posted by anonimi

There is no "formal" adderall in Israel. You get a prescription from your neurologist or psychiatrist, they fill a special form (form 29 I think) and they fax it to the health ministry. Upon approval you may purchase it from special pharmacies ... www.ritalin.co.il


Anyways - I dont wanna be a party pooper - but you guys say it "works". Are you sure you're not confusing the "good" and "happy" natural feeling the Ritalin gives you for concentration?

Cause I noticed that the reason I got so many things done is basically the nice cousy motiviational feeling I got from this drug (as I should by the way, its an amphetamin).

Just make sure you're not confusing "good mood" with "concentration".

its the same

[anonimi]

I wouldn't bet on it.

Being motivated and feeling "good" may make up for your "unwantingness" to do things, but it doesn't mean you're concentrated. It means that you try harder and you have easy time doing it cause you feel good and you dont stop after the first failure.

But it doesn't mean you can still perform your tasks efficiently or properly.

whats more, this is a dire road to corruption. Once your body (like mine) adjusts to the dosage, you will have to increase it to get the same sensation of "good" and "nice mood". Once you start increasing your dosages - you know you're doing it wrong.

Besides, the idea is not to make you happier. Prozac does that.

[hollywood]

that explains why I take a certain dose and it has always been on the large size but that would make sense regarding it's never made me happy... Just focus better. Personally, I've never thought of it making you happy, life and doing something everyday that you like will do that... Yet adding something like prozac or cymbalta does intrigue me... It would be nice to be happy and focused

[Fima]

Originally Posted by anonimi

I wouldn't bet on it.

Being motivated and feeling "good" may make up for your "unwantingness" to do things, but it doesn't mean you're concentrated. It means that you try harder and you have easy time doing it cause you feel good and you dont stop after the first failure.

But it doesn't mean you can still perform your tasks efficiently or properly.

whats more, this is a dire road to corruption. Once your body (like mine) adjusts to the dosage, you will have to increase it to get the same sensation of "good" and "nice mood". Once you start increasing your dosages - you know you're doing it wrong.

Besides, the idea is not to make you happier. Prozac does that.

then its a ***** pill low dosage never helped me, at first when I was getting euphoria from the pill it worked, now I don't get euphoria, still its works because I don't feel the regular feelings of "oh f*ck it, ill just play on my PC instead", I don't see how it can help without those things, its just placebo like that... and Prozac gives an euphoria? how its makes me happy?

[anonimi]

See? Its the euphoric feeling you're hunting - and thats not what Ritalin is supposed to do. (well actually it is, its an amphetamine - but thats not what we want it to do).

That was my issue. I got to 25mg and said - enough is enough. I'm not after concentration, I'm after drug abuse (feeling "good").

So I stopped, cleared my system of mythelphendate for a 10 days. Now I restarted at 5mg. Tomorrow I'll go up to 10mg. I tried concerta 36mg it was "ok". Not sure yet. Tomorrow I'll know more.

About you're issue - I think we got some things in common. I think I have a very mild depression (leading to lack of motivation as part of my ADHD). Not sure though. I think it can be treated with cognitive treatments but I'm uncertain yet.

Prozac is given to depression - but I wouldn't recommend any drug. Once you develop dependency - you're done for. I took Ritalin daily cause I though it makes me feel better until I understood its a slippery slope.

You should consult a psychiatrist.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by anonimi

There is no "formal" adderall in Israel. You get a prescription from your neurologist or psychiatrist, they fill a special form (form 29 I think) and they fax it to the health ministry. Upon approval you may purchase it from special pharmacies ... www.ritalin.co.il


Anyways - I dont wanna be a party pooper - but you guys say it "works". Are you sure you're not confusing the "good" and "happy" natural feeling the Ritalin gives you for concentration?

Cause I noticed that the reason I got so many things done is basically the nice cousy motiviational feeling I got from this drug (as I should by the way, its an amphetamin).

Just make sure you're not confusing "good mood" with "concentration".

Nope, I'm not confusing it with feeling "high" or something and I didn't experience any euphoric feelings,
you do get good mood, it happens when you realize that things inside your head staring to become more organized and you actually have more control on your mind, on yourself and on your behaviour. I'm talking about the natural good mood that comes from the results.
hope you understand me..