RITALIN Reviews (METHYLPHENIDATE HYDROCHLORIDE)Average Rating: 3.4 (214 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare RITALIN with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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Results are sorted by Age from youngest to oldest (reviews with no age reported listed first). Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) |
More on RITALIN: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR RITALIN | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 4 | ADHD | peaks and lows during the day | I was diagnosed with ADD at 32. ER medicines do not work for me. I started out on a low dose 2 x day. Over the course of the last two years my doctor has let me adjust dosage to see what works best. I am currently at 20 mg every 3 hours with an optional 10 mg as needed. I stay within 100 mg daily but i can flex it out. this seems to avoid the hyperfocus and the up/down as it wears off and waiting for it to kick in again. At first I felt crazy for taking it so often but long acting does not work. It has changed my life. I don't think there is a max dose. It depends on the person and their general health. I would rather take what I need to enjoy life rather than just exist even if they determine it will shorten it. Talk with your doctor. Keep a journal. Adjust it in small doses and see what happens. It changed my life so much for the better. | F | 38 | 1 years 20mg 4X day | 1/14/2012 | 4 | Excessive drowsiness, fatigue | mildly irritable at times (I think when it runs its course) | This will be different for each person taking it. Due mostly to my background in chemistry and healthcare, I was VERY unenthusiastic about people, certainly children, taking a drug that essentially is a legal "slum" and "overdose waiting to happen" drug, working on the same part of the brain as cocaine. But, like most all medications, it can improve a person's life, sometimes substantially. For me, it has been quite substantial. I don't have time to bore you with the difficulties I have had over the years getting through a day of work without wanting to lock myself in my office and fall asleep on my desk. Or my lack of enthusiasm in life. It works very well for me at 10mg twice a day. It has only been, however, 30 days. Now, it is a dangerous drug as far as addiction goes. I think if people would simply use it as prescribed and do not look for a miracle drug that puts you in a euphoria to fly around in, it's a solid med. Unfortunately, a lot of people are, and do, abuse this drug. If you try it, please use it to help normalize and better your life. If you search for a high, the probabilities are that you will only damage your life and your health. Also, know that everybody has different chemistry (called biochemical individuality), so no chemical agent, or drug, will work the same for everyone. | M | 38 | 30 days 10mg 2X day | 1/23/2011 | 4 | Adult ADD | Soft stool and an increased need for fluid. | The benefit of being able to concentrate, follow conversations, and get along with my family without being unreasonably emotional far outweighs any side effects, even the ones I don't have. | F | 38 | 4 weeks | 8/8/2005 | 3 | IDIOPATHIC HYPERSOMNIA | I have a recent diagnosis of IH. The doc gave me 7 sample pills of Provigil, but will be prescribing Ritalin due to cost reasons of the Provigil. I have never taken stimulants, and not sure how the Ritalin will affect me. The Provigil keeps me awake, but jittery (it's manageable). I am concerned of my reaction to the Ritalin. I am considering starting it on a weekend, in case I do not respond well to the medication and it affects me at work. I am terrified I will have a psychotic episode from it, or something along those lines. I think I need to stop doing so much internet research on it and just take the medicine and form my opinion without any preconceived notions beforehand. | F | 38 | | 5/18/2009 | 2 | ADD/ ADHD | Increased heart rate; anxiety | Ritalin (Methylphenidate) didn’t do anything to improve my ADD/ADHD. 30 minutes after taking it I felt my heart racing, and my anxiety started skyrocketing. Maybe I would have tolerated that if the medication would’ve helped me functioning; alas, I found it to be completely useless. Adderall XR all the way..! | F | 38 | 1 months 30 mg | 12/15/2017 | 5 | hypersomnia/narcolepsy | Some appetite loss, weight loss, jitters, sleeplessness (if taken too late) | 39 | 3 years 10mg/3x | 3/16/2014 | 5 | ADD | Dry mouth, loss of appetite | I've been very happy with this medication. I'm able to focus and I've found the side effects minimal. It's obviously not for everyone, but for many of us, it's a godsend. Don't believe the propaganda by the anti-ritalin crowd. Try it yourself with an open mind, remembering that it may or may not work for you or your child. If it doesn't, move on. That doesn't make the drug bad, it makes it bad for you personally. | M | 39 | 10 years | 7/12/2006 | 4 | depression | none | wears off too quickly | F | 39 | 60 days | 10/10/2004 | 4 | add | i'm on the generic ritalin because that's what i can afford. i take 2 10mg in the morning, it kicks in less than 30 minutes, and i'm off cleaning the house like never before. my attitude has greatly improved while I'm on the ritalin, but after 3 hours i'm pooped and i am a total b*tch again, yelling as usual. I'm thinking of switching to adderall xr or ritalin xr, because if I take the ritalin after 6pm I cannot fall asleep like now, its about 7am and I haven't slept for two days. but if i take the xanax a whole bar 2 mg. i will be knocked out for a long time, so no thanks. ritalin doesn't make me eat while zoning--soon as i come down i'm hungry, speeding in my car, argumentive and crazy again. xanax is to curb my anxiety, but it makes me hungry like crazy. ritalin just has me taking care of my business and happy unlike my usual sad, never going anywhere self. i'm quiting the xanax. | F | 39 | 8 days 20 mg 3X day | 2/13/2010 | 5 | Adult ADD | headaches, abdominal pain, insomnia, occasionally speediness, initially very groggy as dose wore off but only for about fifteen minutes then evened out. | Started 2 weeks ago, take 10mg @ 3-4 hours. Taking generic brand. I am 40 and have struggled to hold jobs all my life. Very bright, very hard time studying. Always saw it as a character issue. Got sober 15 years ago. Very, very happy in sobriety but very frustrated with unbelievably poor memory, concentration, emotional lability, very low energy. Advancing professionally, inadequacy of behavioral tools (time management, lists, et al) reaching crisis point; friend intervened, suggested I see doctor for diagnosis. Ritalin has changed my life. Am very scared of potential for addiction but cannot overstate how NORMAL i feel for the first time in my life. I can do what I see other people doing all the time. I do feel speedy sometimes which scares me. Dose total @40mg daily which is pretty standard. Goes against much I am taught in recovery but at this point I have found I have to make up my own mind on many issues (not alone, but solely responsible for decisions) and have been | F | 40 | 16 days | 11/17/2005 | 5 | Adult ADD | see review below | (continued from previous comments, below) ...point I have found I have to make up my own mind on many issues (not alone, but solely responsible for decisions) and have been ok past 8 years doing so. I can see potential for abuse but have no desire to abuse it because i don't want to lose this, i need it to work. I can think, i can concentrate, i can hold a train of thought for more then 10 seconds. I can sit through whole meetings. I can write again. I dont' feel like I use all my energy just managing my own brain and behavior through the whole day coming home exhausted. My work performance has turned around 180 percent. My boss now loves me. I love my job. I feel like I used to feel maybe 10 percent of the time on a really good day, like the clouds have parted and the sun is out in my brain, but instead of 10% it is 90% of my time. Oh, and my massive social anxiety and minor panic attacks have almost disappeared overnight. Instead of avoiding conflicts I am able to work them | F | 40 | 16 days | 11/17/2005 | 5 | Adult ADD | See above | (finished from above) Right now I am sticking the generic ritalin because i like that it is short-acting and can get out of my system fast, and i can monitor and control the levels closely. i don't mind having to take the pills more often. I am nervous about taking this stuff but it is a godsend as far as i'm concerned. I have to wonder how my life would have gone if i'd been diagnosed as a child and gotten the help i needed - not just meds, but if meds, so be it. so much self-hate, so much social rejection, so much failure, so much money wasted, so many school programs i flunked out of or quit, could have been avoided. by now i'd have a ph.d. because i would have been able to cope with the dissertation. it's sad, but my life is good, so i can accept this path. please don't dis ritalin for eveyone. also taking this way (10mg every 3 hours) instead of 20mg twice a day seems to eliminate the "spike" effect for me that is part of the addictiveness. no euphoric rush, jus | F | 40 | 16 days | 11/17/2005 | 4 | ADHD | ITCHING BURNING EYES | M | 40 | 5 months | 5/2/2002 | 1 | ADD - Inattentive | I fall sound asleep 30 minutes after taking; can't be woken up no matter what is going on around me. Itchy, hypersensitive skin and blistering rash, that hasn't gone away even after I stopped taking. Severe abdominal, kidney pain. Feel spacy and drugged. | After much discussion & evaluation by 2 mental health doctors I was diagnosed with ADD- inattentive, &prescribed Ritalin generic. Told it was safe, effective, change-my-life-for-the-better drug. Took for 2 days in the a.m. Stopped as I couldn't function as I was asleep all day after taking. 1/2ed dosage, only slept for 1/2 as long. Started taking right before bedtime. In 2nd week I developed itchy rash, skin sensitivity (felt like my skin was burning right off my body), UTI &severe abdominal pain. After I complained of symptoms was told maybe I'm not ADD or the drug would have worked &these symptoms are probably not related &just in my head. Dr. won't consider any other alternative for me as Ritalin "should have" worked if I was truly ADD. | F | 40 | 16 days 10 MG 1X day | 10/9/2010 | 5 | ADHD/Inattentive | Minor anxiety during first few days of treatment, which went away after a week or so | Diagnosed at age 41 of ADHD/Inattentive after more than twenty years of struggling, telling doctors that I had deafening noise in my head and chronic fatigue/depression. One doctor, on hearing about my background noise, put me on Zyprexa! I feel better now, both physically and mentally, than I have since high school. side-effects were negligible. | M | 41 | 6 weeks | 7/17/2008 | 4 | Major depression/fatigue | Doc prescribed this as a booster for my anti-depressant when I’m in a severe depressive episode. It gets me out of bed and keeps the dark thoughts at bay. Can be a real help for serious depression. | Did not make me feel jittery. Occasional headache but not serious. | F | 41 | 3 years 20mg | 9/8/2018 | 4 | ADD | Anger/irritation, dry mouth, thirst, mild depression for short periods off it. Useful anti-depressant side benefits. | I used to take the 5MG Ritalin/Methylin 4-hour tabs twice daily. These resulted in a nasty 30 minute angry/irritated state about 6 hours after ingestation as they wore off. I felt really good on them however with lots of willpower and energy. Oh well. I take an odd combo of Ritalin LA and Focalin now to increase work-task focus and decrease the anger when dosages wear off. Less fun but more effective. I was able to stop an embarrassing 30-year finger skin-picking habit on the 5MG Ritalin 4-hour tabs!! Totally unplanned. My new combo with Focalin is a bit less effective for this but I can still resist doing it. I think these have an effective off-label use as anti-depressants. | M | 41 | 1 years 10MG 1X day | 11/18/2010 | 3 | add | feel good 1h after taking my pills then get a big crash 3h after and have no ambition to do nothing else in my day a I get depressed. | is this normal ? | M | 41 | 3 months 60 | 1/23/2015 | 2 | Adult ADHD | Must be something wrong with me! I must be about the only one out there that is starving, always hungry and gaining weight on this med. My body is sore and I have headaches. My focus has not improved much and I feel jittery inside. Not sure if this will go away soon. | F | 41 | 8 days 20mg 2X day | 6/9/2013 | 1 | Hyperactive/adhd | Anxiety, Nervousness, Feeling out of body; detached, apathetic, violent, defiant, suicidal, | I am 41 years old. My parents put me on this medication when I was 2 years old. They claimed it helped manage me. I claim it messed me up so badly that in my pre-high school years, my parents took me to specialists all over North America to find out “what was wrong with me”. The doctors kept upping my dosage. I told them I didn’t like what the medication made me feel like, but parents back then didn’t listen to their kids. At 16 I quit cold turkey (because my parents kicked me out of the house due to the side effects of this drug). I experienced intense emotional distress, like paranoia, anxiety, nervousness, etc. Today, I have gotten much better at managing my emotional issues (WITHOUT DRUGS MIND YOU). But I still feel those emotions rather intensely. DO NOT GIVE THIS DRUG TO YOUR CHILDREN. PLEASE DON’T. If only my parents were more understanding and worked with me rather than shoving pills in my face, I believe I would have grown up without any of the familial drama that led to me being a street kid. I believe that constant attention to the child in positive, understanding environments is THE BEST THING for a child. Listening to your child, I mean really listening, can go a long way to alleviate much of the problems facing ADHD children. | M | 41 | 14 years 10-60 2X day | 4/15/2015 |