Autism, AD(H)D and methylphenidate (Ritalin and such)

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I've been on Methylphenidate(the generic.. but basically Ritalin) for awhile now. I have inattentive ADHD, but i've been on it since before i was diagnosed.... Originally i got put on it mostly to kind of pick me up and and focus me enough to want to actually get things done, since i tend to be really lethargic and it doesn't seem like i can even bring myself to get around to doing things i actually want to do a lot of the time. My psychiatrist thought a stimulant might help. Also on Paxil, by the way. But, yeah.. the ritalin has been helpful. I feel like i can focus my energy on things a little better, and, socially, i sometimes feel like it helps me to show more of a "personality." Sometimes it'll actually make me feel really talkative, and i'll get into a lot more conversations. It doesn't help the actual social skills that go along with that stuff, of course, but it's still nice to be a little more outgoing. I thought that effect was kind of strange, since i never really heard of that kind of effect being associated with ritalin... but, it kind of makes since when i think about the whole AS + ADHD combination. Since it does focus me more, though, if i get into something i'm interested in then it seems like i'm even more super-focused on it than usual, and time will get away from me even easier.

Are the side effects bad for you?

From my paper I wrote for a child psych class (got a 100% on it, and it's very unorganized in my mind because i had to write in my teacher's format)....

Whole paper, mainly on school shooters, can be found here...

http://www.squidoo.com/schoolshooting

I haven't noticed any very bad side effects. My psychiatrist said that since i have some anxiety problems that it could possibly make me more anxious, but it hasn't. If i have just taken it and i'm just sitting around and not doing much, then i sill sometimes start to feel a little restless and it's like my heart is beating faster or something... But that's about it. Nothing that bothers me.

Tried Ritalin and it just made me yawn most of the time, as they increased the dose restless leg syndrome developed.

Short acting dexamphetmine was tried with awesome results in relation to focus, motivation and ability to register feeling without being uncomfortable. Side effects were increased anxiety and some mania(excessive talking).

After consulting a Prof of Neuropsychiatry and a review from my psychiatist slow release dexamphetamine at a lower dose is proposed. Have to find a Coumpound Pharmacy to make the medication, Australia has limited access to stimulants. Ativan has been prescribed for occassions when I wish to attend the Theartre etc where crowds are expected as I cannot tolertate anti-depressant/psychotic medications.

From my original experience from short acting dex I'm extremely positive about improving my quality of life. My wife and children have remarked how much easier I was to live with, able to listen to their conversations, willing to go out, not so angry, completing tasks/jobs and more sensative.

It appears it can take some 'tinkering' with stim meds and dose to obtain one that suits.

Tantybi, I really agree with some parts of your paper though I think some are worded badly and give off an incomplete

I think that an explanation of how normal all these negative side effects are should be in there too. If the dosage is too high or the med wrong then MPH can have negative side effects like any other med. I also think it's important to mention that MPH can be abused like any other drug such as nicotine, caffeine and cocaine. Or the same way as meds such as paracetamol which can and has killed people too unless it finally was restricted where I live. Many people do not know that clinical prescription of MPH are so low that they cannot end in addiction and have even shown that for kids with ADHD they actually lower the risk to fall victim to addiction to other drugs in their youths.

I do totally agree with that especially in America child prescriptions are extremely high. Which I personally find to be questionable. Some German doctors know the funniest (or depending on how you see it, the most horrifying) anecdotes on German-American patients that come back from their holidays with 1-2 new diagnoses and 1-2 new medications. What's 'just' ADHD here can be ADHD, biploar and a sleep disorder there. And it all often gets treated with different meds even.

I agree that it's not one of my best in writing, but my teacher was a psychotic idiot and i still can't figure how she got a PhD and is published. Her website and assignments couldn't follow basic grammar. I mean she had sentences like, "After you do this." It was so frustrating too cause everytime I'd ask her to clarify something, she'd get really defensive and refuse to answer my question. I had to call the school's head of Psychology to put her in check. Anyway, I had to follow strict guidelines on the organization of the paper, and it had to be on school shooters though I was far more interested in writing about medications and the malpractice of prescribing in the US, and it was the only way I could tie my topic in to hers, and it was just aweful how she had me organize it hence why I did so much cross-referencing in the paper. I should make the mental note that I never ever ever get along with teachers who pick your topics for you. OH, I should also add, because that teacher wouldn't answer my questions about that paper, I ended up writing it like 3 days before it was due.

Anyway, I really had a hard time finding a lot of research on the actual clinical trials. I found what other researchers said about them, but I just didn't find exactly what I was looking for, and I don't think they study a lot of the variables I wanted seen. I think metabolism plays a major role with medication, but that never seems to be considered in studies. But the link shows my bibliography to the studies mentioned in the paper, and I cited throughout my paper. Most of my sources were either free online or through this library I subscribed to at the time, http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp

I do also have a concern now that Ritalin is the new cocaine. Kids sell them to each other in school now more than illegal narcotics (as they were popular back in my day). What's worse is on the street, kids aren't taking the prescribed dosages, and many are snorting them. It's an awful epidemic created by the greedy rich, and the only way to get them back is to tax the crap out of them, which is something we can't do with the illegal drug dealers though many small fish would benefit from claiming their illegal income as it's cheaper to just claim it as a business rather than launder the money. IRS doesn't care about where you got the money, only the FEDS do, and in some states, it's illegal for them to imprison you for doing your primary source of income, so claiming your occupation on your taxes as a "drug dealer" might get you a get out of jail free card (it was brought up in one of my accounting classes). I can sit here and blame the immorality of the industry all I want, but they wouldn't be selling this crap if there wasn't a demand for it. People got to realize, some doctors with PhDs and nice little clinics are just as big of hustlers as the local crack dealer down the street. He'll even offer you free samples to get you started, just like the crack dealer.

So I tell all beware as the ghetto just moved on up to the east side. Some doctors are as cool as the guy selling weed, and some are trying to pass off heroin as safe.

About seven years ago, a Psychiatrist tried me on Ritalin. It practically changed my personality. I became much more loquacious. I practically became an extrovert when taking the medication. My focus felt to me like I could close my eyes, and throw my attention up in the air as high as I could throw it, and it would just automatically come down on task by itself. That is the part of it that I loved. But every time the dose took effect, my intuition painted a kinesthetic image in me. I could feel my essence flowing out of the top my head, and position itself out in front of me. That took some getting used to, because that made me feel exposed. I'm not used to my essence being out in front of me.

But the side effects made it impossible for me to continue using it. It effected my hearing in that it made things sound like I was listening through a speaker system with the tweeters turned off. This would have been tolerable except, that made speech even more difficult to understand, and I made even more listening errors. It made my APD worse. Also it effected listening to music. Normally when I hear music, and also co-experience the music inside me as a feeling. When the Ritalin was in effect, that inner feeling that I usually feel in response to music was dampened, so that hearing music became an external only experience. Additionally, whatever the sense in your muscles is that tells you what position your limbs, and fingers are in was somehow impacted. I could no longer perceive where my fingers were, so I lost my ability to touch type. I had to watch my fingers in order to hit the correct keyboard keys, and this was problematic because I have problems relocating my place again on a page, or the computer screen, when I have to look away and look back again while typing. Also from that same cause, I could not tell that my arms were not by my side when I walked down hallways, and I frequently rammed my hands into door jams and skinned my knuckles against walls as I walked.

I reported these problems to the psychiatrist, and he told me I would not be able to use stimulants.

Wellbutrin isn't an SSRI. It raises dopamine levels and thus acts partially as a stimulant and partially as an antidepressant. I found that it has the opposite effect of SSRI's when it comes to anxiety and negative obsessions. I've never had much positive effect from it, mostly negative.

I was given Dexedrine back when I was about 4 years old (1984). Before I was diagnosed PDD-NOS they thought I had ADHD. I still remember the terrible nightmares that drug caused me. Apparently it made my sensory issues so bad that I was afraid to leave the house and I refused to sleep anywhere outside my parents bed for a month after going off it.

Side effects aren't bad? What planet are you living on? I took Methylphenidate for around six months, on an 'as needed' (just on days when my AS symptoms were REALLY bad) basis, moving on to daily use in my final term at college, so that I could work more without being distracted. The effect on my cognitive and academic performance was nothing short of overwhelming; I knew what I was supposed to be doing, when I was supposed to be doing it. The drug also created a number of problems for me, namely loss of appetite, hypertension, and mild paranoia, as well as the inability to sleep without first smoking a joint or, in extreme cases, taking a sleeping pill (zimovane). I suppose it's ok if you just take it now and again, but please consider strongly the risk of taking this medicine as part of your daily routine, because this stuff is practically indistinguishable from the effect of speed or cocaine, and will wreck your life if you don't know what you're up against.

Sorry..my mistake...Wellbutrin does very bad things to me...
Things that mess with my serotonin also do bad things to me.

With stimulant meds in moderation, the positives outweigh the negatives...but there is also the potential for severe adverse side effects if I don't keep myself in check.

My son has been taking Metadate for the last four years -- it has seemed to be helpful, for focus purposes, and we would discontinue use during summers. Just recently our whole family was together for vacation, and my son was more outgoing, energetic, and openly friendly. My 18 year old daughter was remarking how much more fun our 13 year old AS son was (and usually she just kind of forgets he's there). One day we tried the Metadate again, just to be able to see how it affected him all day -- he was marginally more quiet, but he didn't seem to be all that much more focused.

I asked my son how he felt on the Metadate, and he said that that he realized this summer when he went OFF the Metadate that he had been a little "sad" on the Metadate. I had always wondered about that -- he seems slower, not quite as outgoing, and yet he's more politically correct on the Metadate. My daughter commented that on the meds he has that "deer caught in the headlights" look, like he's not quite sure about what's going on around him.

My son and I made the decision to try school this year without the meds. Eighth grade began today, without meds, so it should be an interesting change. I'll be sure to post how this is working for him.

I've tried all the "old line" ADHD meds (dxd ADHD in 1991) and they all have their downsides. I'm very side-effect sensitive, so that eliminated most of them in one way or another. What has worked best for my ADHD has been plain old Ritalin. Unfortunately it is expensive and the generics I've tried don't work nearly as well. (In fact, the current one doesn't seem to be working at all... I start Concerta tomorrow. Oh joy; another drug.)

I don't think that any of the stimulants have had any sort of effect on my AS symptoms, positive or negative. Theoretically (if the ADHD drugs worked) my executive function deficits would be less severe, and that might help decrease anxiety, which might help... well, you get the idea. It seems like a long chain to get to "Ritalin helps my AS."

I was on Ritalin for 5 days before they took me off it. It really was a pity. They didn't even give it time to work. I feel like too much focus is put on sedating me and not enough on stimulating and motivating me.

Any impact upon obsession, specifically making you less obsessed?

Haven't taken anti-depressants in about four years as they had some really bad side affects but I sometimes wonder if experimenting with low doses might be worth it.