Posted by Ritch on October 3, 2002, at 21:28:04
In reply to Re: ANYONE'S ANXIETY HELPED BY A STIMULANT?, posted by katekite on October 3, 2002, at 11:02:07
> Mine is helped by stimulants. I was told I had generalized anxiety disorder but then after being diagnosed with ADD and taking ritalin I was told it was "internal restlessness", since it went away completely. I still have some social anxiety and my own set of quirks despite ritalin but the moment to moment stuff is gone, with the drug, since I can actually focus and do what I plan to.
>
> Since the lowest dose of Concerta is 18mg equal to 5mg ritalin 3 times a day, it might be she was overmedicated. One of the over-medicated signs is 'crying' according to the packaging, who knows what that means.
>
> I'd recommend trying short acting ritalin and using a half pill (2.5mg). One can also cut pills of Adderall, and also the dexedrine spansules come in a capsule that can be opened and a completely variable amount taken. I would say try all three major stimulants (ritalin, adderall, dexedrine) before deciding for sure that ADD isn't it. She must have had some ADD symptoms to try stimulants in the first place, not only anxiety. Start with less than the recommended dose.
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> As an adult the dose of ritalin that works best for me is 2.5 mg 3 times a day.
>
> kateKate, my pdoc wrote a script today for Ritalin LA (20mg). It is supposed to be once daily dosing. But, on closer inspection it evidently is very similar to Dexedrine spansules (like you mention above). It immediately releases half of its medication at once, and then the remaining beads also release immediately, but approx. 4 hrs. delayed-so kids can take it once before they go to school and it will last through the schoolday without any additional dosing at school. I am going to follow that paradigm, except I will be doing that immediately before going to work. The reason this was chosen was precisely because you can dump out half of a capsule onto jelly/applesauce/whatever without cutting a pill and destroying its XR properties (as would happen with dividing a Concerta tab for instance). The plan is to divide the capsule in half and take approx. 10mg of Ritalin just before work and get a "dual-peak" while I am there, with a relatively abrupt drop-off just before bedtime (I work evenings). I suppose I will go to lunch when the first 'peak' dies off, and then go back to work when the 2nd peak kicks in! I mentioned Dex. spansules today, but the *plain* dexedrine didn't help me focus much, although I found it anxiolytic. Adderall works, but the l-isomer is where I get the attentive properties, the d-isomer doesn't work for *that*. However, the l-isomer causes *more* anxiety than Focalin did, so with this complex logic we are going with some form of XR Ritalin.
poster:Ritch
thread:101846
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020930/msgs/122221.html