I just got ritalin patches for my "ADD"
just told my doctor im consistently inattentive and doing poorly in school.

does any one have any experiences with these, and also how much your school grades have increased by?

If you want to be more attentive, pay attention... Chances are you don't need medication, you just need to change your habits. Ritalin isn't going to increase your GPA.

I agree. I have never seen a good outcome from major stimulant drugs, prescribed or self-medicated. Caffeine and ephedrine, OK, but not to excess. For a short time you might see some improvement from prescription stimulants, but in the long run it can lead to problems.

I've been taking Adderall for a year now, and I took Ritalin off and on when I could nab some from friends before that. From my experience Ritalin is a LOT more "robot-mode" with a HARD crash. Adderall is a lot more speedy with a softer crash.

This semester you will do extremely well, your focus skills will seem to increase 10-fold as well as your study habits and cognitive abilities. You will feel great, on top of the world no doubt when your grades increase. To give you an idea, before starting Adderall I was a D-grade student all through high school. The semster I started I got nearly straight A's. However, if you are already a decent student (3.0 GPA and above) you will probably notice little increase to your GPA.

Anyway, thats the good part. The bad part is as follows. I see you are a body builder, you can kiss those muscles goodbye. Stimulants decrease your appetite tremendously to the point where you will simply not eat, or eat a meager 1 meal a day. Also, they are myo-somethingorother which basically means that they deplete your muscle tissue. Before starting Adderall I was of average fitness, could run 5:30 minute miles, pushups all day long and bench 25 pounds more than my weight (weighed 140, benched 165 nothing phenomenal by any means but I'm a skinny white kid cut me a break). Now I'm lucky if I can do even 20 pushups without feeling extremely fatigued.

Social life? At first you will feel stimulated to be extremely social, interested in other peoples lives etc but after a few months you will notice the effects of social anxiety creeping on. At the height of my Adderall consumption I wouldn't even bother to leave the house, call any of my friends, or even talk to my family. I turned into a hermit. An extremely organized hermit. This isn't just me, I've read countless other accounts on forums about the exact same circumstances. People become paranoid, blow little things wayyy outta proportion, and fly off the handle about nothing. Imagine living your life as if your nuts are in a vice, and the only way to keep the vice from closing is to work work work work work. It's extremely stressful and emotionally taxing.

Health problems? You bet ya. My resting pulse even days after not taking the med is now around 75, it used to be less than 50. I ran a fifth of a mile on a treadmill just for shits and took my pulse, it was 200! Keep in mind this was after NOT taking the med for 3 days. Palpitations, chest pains, headaches etc. will happen with time if you continue the med. I've read accounts of one man who has taken Adderall for 10 years and has had over 20 kidney stones! The pharmaceutical company doesn't return his calls (hmmm...). Not to mention that amphetamines (and possibly methylphenidate as well) are neurotoxic. My short term memory has gone to shit, and when I'm not dosed up my speaking skills are deteriorated noticably.

Remember how I said THIS semester you'll do well? Well it seems that stimulants obey the law of diminishing returns. The good effects will wear off quicker than you can imagine, and increasing the dose only increases the side effects exponentially.

Not to mention "robot mode". I can't even begin to describe this one, you'll find it out on your own.

So, hope I answered your question. Is it worth it? You be the judge.

I was diagnosed with ADD when I was five years old. The very first medication they put me on was Ritalin. The immediate side effect was what I call the zombie effect. I barely spoke a word, I still couldn't concentrate, and I was not eating. I stopped taking the medication and I just kept getting pushed through grades, and every year we would have meetings about my grades and about solutions to the problem. To the specialists the answer to everything was medication. My grades obviously were not getting any better so my mother decided to put me on the next, which was Adderall.

Needless to say this medication pretty much had the same outcome and I probably took it for three months. I had a science teacher in 7th grade, his name was Dr. Phelps. He always had high expectations of me and every time I failed him, I brought up my ADD. By this time I used it as a cruch. The schools never challenged me because they thought I had a disability, and that was really to my detriment. I became lazy and had no faith in myself. I felt like my brain was limited and that I did not have a normal capacity to gain knowledge.

I barely skated through the public school system, and it wasn't until I was in college with a different attitude getting good grades with a fresh start. I started to become a thinker and have such a hunger for all kinds of knowledge. Since I was in "special" english throughout school I never had a chance to read most books "normal" kids do, well this year I changed that. I made a list 36 books long of all different types of literature. I have already read 13 on that list.

In my honest opinion, ADD does not exist. This is all about a matter of self discipline. If you are lazy, of course you wont learn, if you don't pay attention in class, of course you will get bad grades. Its all a matter of what YOU want to accomplish, and how hard you are willing to work to get there.

I personally love Ritalin. I was diagnosed with ADD as a child but refused to take medication out of a fear of it changing who I was. As an adult in college, I got a prescription because I had difficulty even sitting through a lecture. I was already an A student, but it seems to help me focus enough that I can synthesize and analyse information more readily. I actually wish that I had taken it as a child. A few things that you might consider:

Try to get your doctor to prescribe a much lower dosage with a higher pill count. This allows you to regulate your intake better. On days that you want/need a higher level of focus, take a fuller dosage. On off days, take less or none.

Cycle yourself to prevent any form of dependancy and to prevent yourself from becoming adjusted to your dosage. After 3 weeks off or so, you will feel the affects strongly again. This can be done during off times from school.

Consider using another stimulant in conjunction with ritalin. I personally use caffeine pills and a low dosage of ritalin. The affect is different of course, but it allows you to take advantage of sharp peaks of stimulant from caffeine, along with the constant stimulant effect of ritalin. Also, try to get a time release type such as concerta if you can.

well right now, i just got two daytrana from my friend


ritalin patches*

and i got a math final tommorow, hmmmmmm.
i should really use it.

personally i cant really focus in class either, and its hard on my grades.

btw, what did you guys tell your doctors to be diagnosed for ADD?

Hmmm...
Howdy John.