Ritalin, AS and ADD

Post Reply New Topic

After a long year of getting referred from one doctor to the next, having a complete psychodiagnostic evaluation etc I was diagnosed with Aspergers last month. My main psychiatrist told me about some of the privileges available to me which are turning out to be evry helpful (right to postpone examination dates at uni for example) and a local AS self-help group.

After reviewing the test results once more she also found it most likely that in addition to AS I also had ADD, and she prescribed me Ritalin, saying I should try it out as it might help me concentrate better while studying. I'm having a break from studying now but today I tried the 10mg dose for the first time. I do notice I feel different, but I can't really tell what is, or if it would actually help. I guess I'll need more time to evaluate its helpfullness. Nonetheless, I've heard many negative things about Ritalin and other stimulants when perscribed to Aspies.

After doing a bit of research on ADD, I have to acknowledge having many of the symptoms in addition to my Aspie traits. But then again I wonder, as in my opinion most of the symptoms seem logical followups to some AS symptoms.

For instance, I have no problems with concentrating or getting distracted when it involves one of my special interests. I actually think it's the opposite: I'm so focused on my interests that I can't manage changing focus to something else.

Just a thought, I'm no expert. Anyone else have thoughts on ADD being added to AS diagnoses or the helpfulness of ADD medication?

ADD/ASD is very common.

Hyperfocus is actually a known feature of both attention deficit disorder and autism spectrum disorders. In a way, "attention deficit" is a misnomer; it should be "impaired attention control"--that is, you can't control where your attention goes; it can get stuck on one thing forever or refuse to point where you want it or get deflected by things that are irrelevant to what you want to do at that moment.

Regarding Ritalin: Seems like you haven't had an adverse reaction to it, so it's worth a try. Even if you had, it's a short-acting substance and doesn't stay in your body very long--if it's going to work, there'll be effects right away. Of course there's the possibility that the dose or delivery needs to be tweaked (I do better on extended-release stimulants because having the dose all at once is too much at first and then not enough later on). 10 mg is a low dose, so your doctor is being smart about that, thankfully. Autistics are often sensitive to medications and you don't want a dose that'll zombify you or make you jittery.

Ritalin, for me, feels a lot like coffee without the physical effects--a little more alertness, more focus, less tiredness, a little more control. But it's not a magic thing. If I don't use all the organization skills I've learned, it wouldn't do me a bit of good--it just makes it easier to use them.

I thought that starting with 10mg is pretty... much?

At least where I live. There are people who'll be overdosed (lots of terrible side effects) with 10mg, because they need only 5mg. Few, but you never know who it might be.

Anyway, the ideal amount of methylphenidate needed is pretty unique to people. 5mg, 7,5mg, 25mg... it's a bit of a trial and error process figuring it out. The seemingly ideal amount can change over time sometimes, but if it happens it's usually easily noticeable.

The average daily dose is about 30 mg. 10 mg is a starting dose for a child.

http://www.rxlist.com/ritalin-drug.htm

That's a great site, BTW. You get the drug information that the doctor's reading, rather than just the patient inserts. One thing for the hypochondriacs, though--remember that the side-effects in the clinical trials are not things proven to be caused by the drug, just things that occurred significantly more often in the test group than the control group. So you'll occasionally see rather odd things like, say, colds, listed as side effects. They have to list that, legally, but statistically there'll be things just randomly above the level of significance about 5% of the time (if they're using a p of 0.05). In general, you can read up on the drug and figure out how it works (if we know), how dosing usually works, what else it's used for, what it's been tested on, etc. Boring reading, of course, but if you're going to be taking meds, it can be useful.

I take Concerta (extended-release Ritalin). It lasts eight hours, then I'm back to being scatterbrained.

Same..I just started a couple months ago.....this concerta stuff is expensive =/ most expensive prescription i've ever had. (though not that bad compared to the prices i hear other people paying)

Do you take any suppliments to help with the concerta?