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Ritalin Reaction

Ritalin Reaction

How does your significant react to Ritalin? Our son, who takes 15mg a day has two major side effects - the first is loss of appetite, but he is doing much better now and at odd times his heart tends to race. The latter can be scary and we wish there were another way to calm him down. I always wonder what might be his long term reaction.

Reaction Ritalin

JB, growing up I had a very sever case of ADHD. The Dr. prescribed Ritalin for me at that time I or my mother had any idea's about the side effects. At 12 yrs of age the Dr. was giving the legal amount he could give me and nothing was helping. He told us that "He will learn how to control it himself." Here I am in my early 30's and I do have control over it most of the time. There are activities that will help him use the exess energy he has, if I may try getting him into sports, my mother encouraged me to do things that kept my mind busy so I concentrated on reading and education and martial arts. The latter is the best way for a child like yours to use up his energy and learn how to control himself.

I know that this tread is about Ritalin Reactions but I thought I would through all of that in for info.

Ritalin Reaction Health & Special Psychology

Ritalin is an "upper" therefore you can expect his heart to race, I'm not telling you it's ok, but it won't go away. The loss of appetite is a side effect, as well as inability to sleep. There may or may not be stunted growth. When I was on it, the doc said it would stunt my growth. At 6 feet 2 inches, I hate to imagine how tall I would be if it didn't stunt my growth. Also something you should be concerned about, is the "crash." As the ritalin wears off your son may go into a mild depression, the intensity may be different for different people, as my depressed periods were pretty intense. Look into a tablet called "Concerta" It is used for the same purpose but the "crash" isn't as intense. It may also help with his heart. Now don't go out and buy it just because I said so, I know nothing of your childs history, but Concerta may be something you would want to look into.

Reaction Ritalin

I've seen some kids have the exact opposite reaction. They would take their medicine, and they would become incredibly lethargic and they'd have the same alertness as a zombie. I worked at a camp several years ago, and I had one girl who took her pills in the morning, and the rest of the day it took everything within her to not fall asleep, and the majority of the time she failed. I had to pound on the bathroom door one day because she had literally fallen asleep on the toilet.

Reaction Ritalin

RITALIN, ADHD BRETHREN MAY DODGE DREADED 'BLACK-BOX' WARNINGS

A federal advisory panel on Wednesday rejected recommending that popular drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder should bear the strongest type of warning of the potential cardiovascular and psychiatric risks they pose.
Ref. https://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/...s.ap/index.html

Ritalin Reaction

Our neighbor's son is taking ritalin for his ADHD, he has been taking it for a few months now, and they are delighted at his progress that he is making. At one time, he would be climbing out of the windows when he was at the height of his disorder, but since taking the ritalin, he has calmed down considerably.
Our neighbours son is a young teenager, and I am no expert in this field, but possibly your son may be having a different reaction to this drug because he is a lot younger. Maybe as he gets older, maybe the drug 'balances' out, and possibly the side effects might not be so strong for him?

Ritalin Reaction

I would encourage parents reading this to seriously reconsider whether or not their child absolutely needs to be medicated for AD(H)D. As someone with a background in neurobiology and pharmacy, I can tell you that both Ritalin and Aderall are both addictive, and can cause some nasty side effects.

Methylphenidate (Ritalin) is very similar to Cocaine, both in the way it affects the brain, and in its effects. In studies performed on animals the despersment of both drugs were tracked in the brain, and their paths were markedly similar aproaching identical. The 'affinitty' (a neuroscience word that could roughly be equated to strength) that methylphenidate has for the nerve receptors that it affects in the brain is lower than that of Cocaine, but it is still very high.

Dextro-Amphetamine (Aderall) is literally the same drug many commonly know as 'Speed', it is also very similar to meth-amphetamine (although with a marked lower strength). Its mental and physical effects and are nearly identical to those of Speed, but ussually less profound, as the amounts injested tend to be higher in recreational use as opposed to theraputic (medical) use.


I don't mean to discourage those parents of children that really do need to be medicated from doing so. However, one cannot make a responsible decision if not well informed.

Ritalin Reaction Psychology Special & Health

newparadime, thanks for your input. What other alternatives do you suggest? I am a mother of a 6 years old who has ADHD and other learning disabilities. He is on Concerta right now. My husband and I hate to medicate him, (what parent in the right mind would want to drug their child anyway?) yet when he is not on medication he is literally out of control and a danger to himself.