Thunor,

I really enjoyed reading what you wrote about the differences of how you feel on one vs the other. I hope you'll continue to share that information. It's not often that we get someone as insightful/self aware and articulate as you are who can elaborate on the details.

Yes, methylphenidate is the generic for Ritalin. Hopefully, what they gave you is the SR version.

Regarding your anger, it would be interesting if you could moniter the times of day that you seem most short-fused. Ritalin SR has peaks and valleys in it's efficacy, so it may be that your anger is related to coming down from it.

Since you've been on stimulants, I seriously doubt that you would be happy with Strattera. It isn't as effective and can take a l-o-n-g time to work. Since you are wanting to experiment with the different ADD drugs, you might want to try Concerta or Metadate (assuming they are available in Canada). They are both methylphenidate like you are taking now, but with a different delivery system that evens out the peaks and valleys more and give a smoother let-down.

Good luck to you!

Thank you all for your replies, as always, the support I feel when I'm here is immense. My time is short, atm, but I'll try to answer any/all questions I've seen.

Bob,

You're right, I might have made it seem otherwise, but I've always had a short fuse. The difference I've found on the Methylphenidate is that not only is the fuse much shorter than before, but my reactions are much stronger; for example, instead of cursing silently to myself and moving on, I've caught myself shouting explitives and punching/kicking inanimate objects, it's almost like being a teen again. :P Fortunately, I work in a warehouse, so these behaviours may not be quite as innappropriate as if I were working in an office or a store, but they're something to be brought under control nonetheless.

All that said, there are stressors outside of the norm as well. My mother is dying of cancer in a rather unpleasant way at the moment, money is tight as always and things at work are unusually frustrating atm, my bosses have a lot of sympathy for our team right now and are expressing some outrage at times themselves. ;)

I'm not overly concerned with the addiction/withdrawal symptoms. I'm on the SR version, and I don't feel I'll have problems keeping it in it's place. I convinced the doctor by telling him that he needn't worry if I'm not in for another prescription in half the expected time. Curiously, Ritalin is more tightly controlled in Canada than is Dex, my doctor had to fill out a special prescription in triplicate that had to be filled in a specific period of time. I never had that problem with my dex.

Jane,

I will admit that I'm not eating as much as I used to, but I'm not finding the lack of hunger effect of the Ritalin as pronounced as it was on the Dex. I don't think though that my diet is the culprit here, because I've been eating the exact same way on workdays for a couple of months now, and didn't have the anger problems before.

Thank you for the suggestion though, I hadn't considered that angle. :)

Index,

You make an interesting point about the peaks and valleys and that the anger may be coming when I'm on a low . . . I'll try to pay more attention to the timing of my outbursts and see if there's a correlation.

Rheanna,

Thank you. As always there's someone here to make me feel a little less insane. ;) I just had another prescription filled for an allergy med, and find that the generic I was given to be FAR less effective than was the brand name med.


Another thing I've noticed on the Ritalin is that I'm extremely absentminded again! Yesterday I left my pen sitting on a box and walked away from it. I didn't miss it until I passed that same box again and said to myself "hey, that's my pen!" It took me exactly 15 seconds to pick the item I was there for and forget about my pen again, and didn't grab it until the third time I was by that box . . .

As things stand, I'm not thrilled with the Ritalin so far, but I'll give it till the end of the month to see if things improve. After that, I may go back to the Dex, I'll take calmness and . . . non-absentmindedness (is that a word??) . . . over the short temper and improved working memory any day.