How do I know if the meds are working?
How do I know if the meds are working?
Hi everyone, Years ago I was on a Ritalin generic, and it ended up just being like strapping a jet engine to a bicycle: couldn't focus at all.
And now I'm trying it again, but I'm on Concerta. Was on a starter dose, didn't feel anything, now I'm on double that dose from today, waiting to see if I can feel anything.
How do you know if it's working?
Ask a friend or someone who knows you well. I started taking Concerta a few years ago and told a friend I was working with. I said "I took one this morning and I don't feel like it did shit".
He assured me that in fact I was a different person to work with, focused and detail oriented and not annoyingly chatty. ADHD meds should just quietly make your life better, not have a strong feel. Though the first time you take amphetamines or bump the dose you can expect to feel a little speedy I found. Good opportunity to clean your house.
One thing I noticed is that it feels like ADHD meds manipulate your luck. When you take them, things just go right. My wife informed me this is because I don't rush or make stupid oversights that feel like bad luck, but it really does feel like they are concentrated luck in pill form. If you feel like the bad luck and chaos that follows you around is gone, they're working.
Concerta helped me get my life together but I hated the side effects, thirst, flushing, exhaustion. I took Adderall XR for a year which was great, and then switched to pure dextroamphetamine XR because it was covered by my insurance and Adderall was not. It does the job without any side effects other than needing to drink a bit more water.
Love that luck analogy, I'll be using that.
When I'm told I've been lucky, it's sometimes that I've just been really deliberate and considered in my actions.
Felix felices
Pure Dex was covered but racemic amphetamine wasn't? That's super odd
Whatever the reason, pure Dex is a fraction of the cost here in Canada. With both pure and racemic being a generic XR capsule, racemic is $120/mo and pure is $30/mo, that's probably 90% of the reason.
Pure is in the provincial formulary and racemic is listed as only approved if others didn't work. Despite the big insurers being national corporations, they go by the provincial formularies in terms of what they cover for some reason. My doctor didn't know this and prescribed racemic ("Adderall") just because it was considered a standard treatment.
I felt personally like racemic gave me more energy and drive, but pure gives me a clearer mind and doesn't drive my blood pressure up as much. It's a trade off.
Its better anyway but if you must, just do that thing where you ask for something not covered thatyour dr affirms might be helpful and gives them a history to check all the little boxes
Same here, I didn't notice any real difference, even on the tiny initial dose my wife was the most impressed.
Also worth noting that meds will work differently depending on how old you are. A med that was to much as a kid might work well for an adult. The unfortunate thing about focus meds like this is that it’s ultimately self-report, so I don’t know if there’s going to be a test for you to know if things are working properly. Personally I find it easier to start tasks and find myself procrastinating less. Not to say it goes away, it’s just easier to get over that initial inertia while on meds.
The doctor is going to try to get you to a dose that gets you your intended effect (being able to function) while minimizing side effects. Try keeping a note of how you feel, what your thoughts are, how easy it is to do the things you need to do to function, etc. on different dosages to see if you can look back and see patterns. It might not be obvious at the time but might become more obvious in retrospect.
Imma give you a trick and I might do an actual post on this later but lets see how this goes.
Take your med. Give yoursef at leadt like 40 minutes for it to "kick-in"
Pick a task that really only should and does take like 15-20 minutes that you normally spend days procrastinating to avoid. Order UberEats and use that as the impetus that you want this done by the time it gets there so you can be done with the task and instantly reward and pseudo-reward yourself for a job well-done.
There's something about this thing like where you invite someone over and your place is a sty but knowing someone is coming over kicks in the adrenaline and desire to save face and somehow you can get it done even if you temporarily resent it and hate the added artificial pressure. It extends
Edit: this also could anecdotally work even if your turnaround time for whatever exceeds the uber but just do best
You know it's working when it's not a struggle to function in life.
It might sound counterintuitive, but it's possible that you weren't on a high enough dose. I was like that until I got to the dose I'm on now. It's like your brain is jonesing for more dopamine until you find the amount that works.
It's also possible that your body doesn't react well to Ritalin, so trying a Adderall based med might work better.
Or vyvanse. I switch to vyvanse from adderall and it’s been life changing. Adderall worked and was fine, but caused a lot of anxiety.
Vyvance is dextroamphetamine with a lysine molecule stuck on to require stomach/liver activation, to lower the abuse potential. All the side effects of amphetamines are that pesky levo isomer, Dex is way better, for everything imo
Here's a quick test that I do: look through my contacts for someone with a phone number that I don't know. Read their number and then immediately try to write it down from memory, without looking at it again. If I can do it, I know my meds are working.
Wtf can normal people do that? I'd need to look the phone number at least 5 times
I know. Crazy isn't it.
You gotta give it a few days. Every time I’m off meds for more than a couple weeks, it take a few days before I really start to hit my stride again.
I'm on the same. I've personally found they work best when you can't feel them. I've had days where I can't remember if I took them. However, on those days, if I look back over it, I can tell the effect.
The best method (I've found) is slow, but effective. Titrate up, around every 2 weeks to a month (under doctors guidance). Each time, you'll initially feel it, then it will fade. Once you have a slight jittery feeling left behind, you're about there, if it's strong, you've over shot, ask to go down 1 dose. The last jitter will fade off over a few months. This is your maximum optimal dose.
Interestingly, the higher doses will likely feel more productive, this is a false feeling. While the high dose will help focus, it has begun to disrupt other mental systems. The overall effect is a net loss, compared to a slightly lower dose. This is also what happens to a normal brain on the drugs. They feel more focused and productive, but, when actually measured, are worse off than unmedicated. We get a long term boost, but it's not unlimited. We hit the same limit, eventually.
Wierd... Ritalin for me feels like almost nothing at all. I am just able to concentrate on tasks better and able to motivate myself to do things.
I drink 4+ teas per day because apparently I still need the caffeine.
I'm going to try a different med, and see if that helps me more, I still struggle with a lot.
Thanks everyone for your feedback, it’s been a real eye opener. Day one gone of the double dose now, and I can only say it felt like I drank lots of coffee. (I only drink decaf, for anxiety and jaw grinding reasons.)
However, I had energy, I got ZERO work done today. :-(
I was hoping it would help, but it just stimulated my thoughts and curiosities even more. So I just browsed and read all day. Still jumping from random task to random task, not staying in one place.
Maybe it is just a bad habit / lack of drive / no willpower / lack of self discipline issue. :-(