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how to bump my script up from ritalin to adderall??

Good Corruption

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 28, 2001
Messages
1,146
i have an appointment with the mental health department next monday regarding my ADD...my family doctor started me off on 10mg of ritalin twice a day for 15 days...in order to get my refill for ritalin i have to report to mental health...but instead im looking forward to getting my script bumped up to adderall...and i was wondering what exactly i should say to convince the psychiatrist to bump my script up to adderall...one line i have in mind is...
"what is the ritalin suppose to do? i haven't noticed any difference since i started taking it..."
i was thinking of adding in that the ritalin just makes me irritable and aggressive but the psych just might rule out all stimulants and stick me with an SSRI or something...
any ideas, comments, suggestions???
[This message has been edited by Good Corruption (edited 12 September 2001).]
 
GC-I would tell the doc that you have been taking Ritalin for sometime now and have not noticed any substantial difference and you are simply not pleased with the results. Don't communicate as if you know all about the different options like Adderrall, and if possible, let the doc bring it up as an option. Now, if the doc does not, tell him/her that you have a family member who has ADD, and is taking Adderral and is so happy with the medication, and that you were interested in giving it a go. If the doctor seems to be suspect of any drug usage or dependency on drugs, he or she may be hesitant to pescribe. Good luck...
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yeah now this is a question i am familiar with.
trib is right about mentioning a friend/family member that is on adderall. just go in and say that you notice no difference with the amount of ritalin you are on now. mention that it is the same as taking nothing in terms of effects. then say you have a brother/friend/cousin or whatnot that also has ADD/ADHD and say that recently they were switched from ritalin to adderall and have commented that it made a huge difference to them.
on the first checkup/visit with someone though, it is not recommended to outright try and switch medicine though, and i dont recommend it at this moment. it would be smarter not to mention adderall at all, instead clarifying that the ritalin is having no affect whatsoever on you. after you build up to a higher dose of ritalin, mention that it still is only helping a very small amount, but also is giving you a stomach/head ache and leaving you feeling kinda sick. That is basically what i said when i switched out of ritalin(it was true though), but first i built myself up to 108mg a day. the doctor built me up quickly, as i have been on other medications and he knew that it took a good amount.
who knows, maybe soon you'll be chillin with 100mg a day?
 
Don't tell your Doc that the ritalin isn't working. He may put you on a different class of drug.
I told my doc that the ritalin is working, but it's giving me the shits every day. He gave me a script for Dexedrine.
 
its perfectly fine to tell your doc that ritalin isnt working. ritalin is not an amphetamine. it is a completely different drug than adderall and the other amphetamine based drugs. so ritalin may do nothing but other things may work.
 
This is what I did (but it was actually the truth). Tell your doc that ritalin gives you sexual side effects.......the next drug he will try will most likely be adderrall (its the next step up).
 
^^^^^^
Make damn sure you can go into explicit detail about WHAT "sexual side effects" you're having... but this isn't good as if Ritalin gives you those horrible "sexual side effects" then it's not likely they give you a MORE POWERFULL amphetamine..
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# unzip ; strip ; touch ; finger ; mount ; fsck ; more ; yes ; umount ; sleep
 
I never said ritalin was an amphetamine.
My point was that Ritalin and Adderall are both CNS stimulants.
When my Doc first put me on Ritalin, he commented, "it's good to know that we can try MAO-B inhibitors if this doesn't work".
 
say you hope to avoid a 'cross-tolerance' by switching from methylphenidate to mixed amphetamine salts or possibly dextroamphetamine. this should work if you have been on ritalin for anytime period longer than 3 months.
just say you noticed a steady decrease and tried to double up on a dose and still felt it wasn't doing what it was supposed to so you hope to avoid a "cross-tolerance' by switching to a medication that proved to be very helpful to a friend of yours with the same disorder/problem'.
 
so how do i go about hinting to my doctor that more powerful stimulants are the answer? i'm afraid that if i tell him that the ritalin isn't doing much for me he might conclude that stimulants won't work and stick me with an SSRI...
 
You're thinking too hard about it.
The consensus is say the ritalin isn't working. I agree.
The ritalin isn't doing the job and it's giving some mild stomach discomfort. You want to try something else like it and something that works a little stronger because you don't want to double dose on your ritalin that's already making your stomach queasy. Bingo. He might mention Concerta which is a time release version of Ritalin, more or less. Be adament about saying you just want to try something else. Take the mentioning a friend/family member a step further. "My friend was on Ritalin and he got the same problems I got and then he switched to something like Atterval (mispronounce maybe for added effect) and he said it worked just as well but without the side effects". Bam, you'll either have that or dexadrine.
Infact I saw my shrink the other day. Back in high school I tried Rit and Dex and Cylert. I wanted Adderall more or less to stay awake more than anything as I still over a month later have not adjusted to my new schedule and I wanted to be able to work a little faster. Here's exactly what I said "I can't stay focused at work anymore and I'm actually at this point willing to try something like Ritalin again. Well, not really Ritalin because it made my stomach sick and gave me headaches as I can recall (the reasons I stopped taking it) and Dexadrine was a bit strong (again, the truth). There was something else I took, started with a C, but wasn't that new stuff Concerta. It didn't do anything for me at all (the truth, Cylert didn't do shit). If there is anything else, I'd like to give it a try, if not I guess I could try Ritalin again".
Now I've got a script for Addies and my work preformance has since improved. Using the truth and manipulating it a little bit works wonders. And as far as ADHD medications, it's beyond normal to ask to switch to different types, much like anti-depressants to find the one that works best for you.
 
would it be better if i told the psych that the ritalin is having little or no effect what so ever...or if i told the psych that the ritalin is working or helping but it gives me a headache and a stomach ache and it makes me nauseated??
 
I went from Ritalin to Adderall by telling my doctor that the side-effects were becoming too much for me (this is all true). I was on a pretty high dose so I had tons of headaches, total loss of appetite, inability to sleep.
He suggested we lower the dose but I told him that the current dose was barely getting me along. I told him my roommate takes adderall and didn't have the same side effects so he eventually agreed to let me try it.
 
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