Aspergers and stimulants

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My 21-year-old son just saw his sleep neurologist yesterday who said my boy does not have a sleep disorder but appears to have ADD along with his Aspergers syndrome. He suggested prescribing a stimulant. Ritalin was one he mentioned along with a couple of others I don't remember.

Are there any young adults here who are taking stimulants? Can you tell me which ones, and your experiences with them?

Coffee.

I used to take Concerta which I think is like Ritalin LA but I'm not sure. It lasts 12 hours and when it wore off I felt very sleepy which was good. I found the Concerta to work the best with:
- Concentrating for long periods of time without getting side tracked
- Having clearer, more organised thoughts
- Better ability to think before acting, less impulsive behaviour.

It completely took away all my hyperactivity which I didn't like at all and this is one of the reasons why I stopped taking it. I wasn't like a zombie like how some people describe it but I was very still.

Two things I didn't like on stimulants:
- If I had coffee or redbull or something I would feel extra buzzy and talkative but it was a bad feeling, not a nice one.
- I had no ability to feel anger/rage which I suppose is a good thing in a way but I think if someone had punched me in the face or tried to mug me I don't think I would have cared that much.

After Concerta I tried Strattera which is a non-stimulant but I only tried that for 3 months and I can't really remember what it was like. I think it was mostly good though.


Here is a link to some peoples experiences with Ritalin on ADD Forums: http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8133

I try to find someone prescribing them to me (insurances don't pay, adults aren't supposed to have ADHD) to see if they work for me and if they might help me.

I read of and talked about the experiences of various children without and a few with ASDs and so far found that it's highly individual how a person reacts to the stimulants. I know several children with ADHD (hyperactive) who and have read of parents accounts of children who have both ADD (inattentive type) and ADHD who also take meds.

Some of these report of several side effects though. New/other sleep problems, reduced appetite and headaches seem common for the first few weeks.

Something curious I definitely advice to pay attention to if anyone takes methyphenidate: if after 1-3 hours the effect of the stimulant suddenly seems to wear off on some days and if the person gets stomach aches or headaches, it's recommended to eat something instead of just taking another dose or leaving it like that.

Because stimulants generally reduce the appetite and because kid drink irregularly anyway, stimulants sometimes cannot work correctly as they need energy (from foods, drinks) to work.

Then, supposedly something that happens often in the US is that children and adults are overdosed. Instead of starting with 5mg or less some professionals in the US supposedly start with a lot more than that? If that was true that would be bad so I'd advice any parent wherever they live to really get informed about how much Ritalin or other their child gets and how much other children elsewhere receive for the first week/month until the correct dosage is found.

All ADHD kids I know get along fine or okay with the meds, but I've also read about children becoming horribly sick because of side effects in newspapers. I am sure there's truth to that too.

The combination of AS + AD(H)D can be fickle, though it can work just perfectly too. I know of two kids who have both AS and AD(H)D and who need stimulants and get along just fine.

I also hard that others with the exact same combination who took stimulants and have devastating side effects.

Who knows why? It might have to to do with a person's individual autism (different causes and such) or with something completely different.

There are after all people who're non-responders/who do not react to methylphenidate at all.

I'd advice to get informed about this a lot, read studies, presentations, articles about it and pay a lot of attention to your child if they start to take stimulants for ADHD.

Strange, my psychologist said that is dangerous territory. I am not sure why but I will ask her in a couple weeks when I see her again, but she said ADHD is NORMALLY treated with stimulants but that people with AS often do not respond well to stimulants (I suppose due to stimuli problems). I was presribed a non-stimulant ADHD drug (can't think of the name at the moment) because of that.

Stimulants tend to result in that people with AD(H)D suddenly kind of notice more about their environment. They expereince things stronger, they can direct their attention and thus stimuli can get through to them better than before.

I know of someone who this helped though. They found they had less overloads with methylphenidate. Curious.

Anyway, it doesn't automatically mean that if you got any of bad sensory issues you can't have stimulants. It may or may not be that this is an issue for you. You can't know before sadly.

At least, the advantage about methylphenidate such as in Ritaln and others is that if something goes wrong you just stop. It does not build a level you're stuck on for weeks/longer.

Some people do not notice themselves, but some notice how it's an on- and off-expereince. If you do not take it, you don't have the side-effects. If you take it, it's over after about 3-5 hours.

Exception are the ret*d meds. They slowly release the stimulant over 12/24 hours. But you don't start with these. Unless your doctor's totally nutty.

If it weren't like that I wouldn't be willing to try myself. I don't trust anti-depressants and such that build a level over weeks. You can't just skip and stop with that stuff if something bad happens.