Opinions - Which is better, Adderall or Ritalin?

[mon8ter0]

Sorry if this isn't PC ettiquite on these forums, but SWIM posted this in both the Adderall and Ritalin Sub-forums hoping to get answers from people experienced with both drugs...

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SWIM needs some advice and wisdom on these wonderful drugs we call stimulants..

About a year ago a friend offered SWIM an adderall (10mg) to help her make it through an all-nighter when SWIM was exhausted. Having never taken any drug before, the effect was euphoric and SWIM studyed better and more efficiently than SWIM has ever been able to in her entire life. For the next 6 months or so SWIM bought adderall off of friends to help SWIM study, clean the house, etc. SWIM had to start taking more adderall (up to 80mgs spread over a day) to get the same effect.

Recently SWIM finally managed to drag her ADD butt to a doctor and talk about these problems. SWIM was put on Strattera and HATED it... made SWIM antisocial and grumpy. Today, SWIM had another appointment and was given a prescription for 10mg Ritalin (IR).

SWIM is wondering and would really appreciate advice on your experiences (legal or illegal) with either of those 3 drugs...

If SWIM has a tolerance to Adderall, will SWIM also have a tolerance to ritalin even though SWIM's never taken it before?

How do dosages compare btw Adderall and Ritalin? (i.e. how many mgs of ritalin will produce a similiar effect as say.... 40mg of Adderall IR?)

Has anyone had any experiences with Strattera and did you have similiar side effects?

SWIM's heard that a Magnesium supplement can help the Adderall digest more slowly and last longer... does this work with Ritalin as well?

There are certain vitamins that help keep Adderall tolerance down... does anyone know of ways to keep a Ritalin tolerance under control?

SWIMs doc said that at the next check up, if SWIM didn't like the ritalin, that he would prescribe Adderall instead, what do you think would be more beneficial?

SWIM does actually have ADD but doesn't know if she wants to take the ritalin daily, as prescribed, or just when needed (i.e. all-nighters), does anyone out there have a script for ritalin or adderall and take it daily? Would doing that actually help with other issues that SWIM has, like being a huge procrastinator, being unorganized, constanly running late, never paying bills on time? Does either drug actually help you to turn your life around?

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SWIM is looking for a drug that will actually help with day to day symptoms of having an ADHD brain... not just recreational uses of stimulants or for all-nighters and would really REALLY appreciate your advice on the stuff above.

... Don't get SWIM wrong, the recreational 'trips' on stimulants are amazing and SWIMs done them numerous times (at the most 120mg of Adderall in 24 hours or so)

Since SWIM's used adderall recreationally in the past, is the 10mg of Ritalin now prescribed not going to be as effective as it would be if SWIM hadn't?

Lastly, SWIM's had some terrible COMEDOWNs after 30-hour long adderall-induced studying marathons and takes Xanax to help the comedown's symptoms... does anyone experience a similar comedown for ritalin?

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Last two questions:

For day to day management of ADHD symptoms....Which is better, Adderall or Ritalin??

For those occasional rainy days when SWIM might want to use the drug for fun.... Which is better Adderall or Ritalin?? Which has a better 'up'?

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FYI... SWIM's taken 3 of her 10mg Ritalin pills and feels mild effects... similiar to taking 15-20mgs of Adderall after SWIM built up a tolerence... sound normal?

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Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading, and please please help SWIM out with any of the questions that SWIY may have some experience and expertise with.

[carousel]

Swim doesn't have much expierence with Ritalin but he's pretty sure most Swims would agree it's Adderall.

[NoLaurelTree000]

actually SWIM prefers ritalin over adderall hands down. adderall just keeps SWIM up and keeps him feeling kind of baseline/normal with mild speediness.

ritalin gives SWIM a little bit of a rush, and makes SWIM very speedy.

although, adderall does seem to give a "cleaner" feeling than ritalin does, in SWIM's opinion the up from ritalin is preferred because of the rush SWIM has never gotten off of adderall.

[superwoman]

Originally Posted by NoLaurelTree000

actually SWIM prefers ritalin over adderall hands down. adderall just keeps SWIM up and keeps him feeling kind of baseline/normal with mild speediness.

ritalin gives SWIM a little bit of a rush, and makes SWIM very speedy.

although, adderall does seem to give a "cleaner" feeling than ritalin does, in SWIM's opinion the up from ritalin is preferred because of the rush SWIM has never gotten off of adderall.

Swim also agrees. While if you asked a few months back it would have been Adderall, it is now Ritalin hands down!

Snorting Ritalin gives Swim a definate rush, while snorting Adderall seems more mild these days... But everyone is different!

[Laudaphun]

I doubt SWIM's marmoset can offer much advise based on the dosages mentioned in this thread, but SWIM had never really liked stimulants all that much, but is prescribed methylphenidate and mostly uses it only for therapeutic reasons and at therapeutic doses. With depressant drugs, that is another story for SWIM's marmoset.

SWIM's marmoset uses methylphenidate for school only and has actually found that smaller doses are more effective overall, as larger doses increase attention, energy, alertness, and cause a host of other desirable effects, BUT overall performance is not helped as much as one would think. With larger doses, SWIM tends to do much more work, and do it much faster, however it is more error prone. Turns out, for SWIM's marmoset, a smaller dose had a greater overall benefit on grades than a larger dose.

SWIM couldn't understand why she was working so hard and her grades were not what they should be. In the end, she discovered that the smallest dose which will keep her ADD adequately treated results in the best overall performance on exams and tests... But, lowering the dose introduces new obstacles and cause once desirable properties of the medication to now become less desireable. For example, methylphenidate is a bit short-acting and the onset of a pill might be up to 45 - 75 minutes. SWIM is considering trying an alternative, maybe going from methylphenidate to an amphetamine but has been hesitant to do so. In the beginning, the short-acting effects of methylphenidate seemed desirable as the medication could be taken closer to bedtime without worry of interference with sleep. But, now that SWIM is realizing that a smaller dose is the answer for her marmoset rather than a higher dose, the short-acting effects are a bit troublesome as smaller doses wear off quicker making it more difficult to keep the proper amount of medication in her system throughout the day.

Perhaps d-methyphenidate might be preferred as it is supposed to be able to be taken without regard to meals and such... What SWIM reads and it even says on the bottle to take methylphenidate 45 minutes before a meal. It definitely does screw up the effects of the medication in some instances when not taken in this manner (side-effects seem to be more common when SWIM takes a pill after a meal as opposed to the recommended approx 45 minutes before a meal.)

This might seem strange, and SWIM doesn't know why this might be the case. SWIM definitely does notice a loss of dexterity and coordination from higher doses (higher than prescribed doses). SWIM has never been prescribed a racemic amphetamine mixture such as adderall, but has used it in the past and found it more pleasant than methylphenidate, but that was years ago when SWIM would have never thought of actually consuming a drug in the manner it was prescribed. Hence, the marmoset can offer not comparison of AMP vs. MPH in the treatment of add. SWIM really would rather avoid switching to amphetamines, but if that were the case swim would feel more comfortable taking dextroamphetamine as opposed to the dextro,levo mixture.

[chillinwill]

swim has lots of experience with both since he has been prescribed both of them and swim def has to say that adderall is the better of the two

[Dark_Man_Of_Peace]

I personaly like Ritalin more.

[Tony Williams]

It's Adderall for SWIM.

[Laudaphun]

SWIM is going to test the adderall out and do a comparison as to which is beneficial to her marmoset academically. Right now, SWIM is very very tired... had a big exam and kept taking methylphenidate all night to stay awake and alert... SWIM will find out next week for sure when she sees the doc... hard to find a definitive answer to this question, but SWIM is wondering which is harder on the body, at normal therapeutic doses.

[VashYsk]

i think i remember posting to this in the adderall forums

but instead of the same response, here is something else.

SWIM after taking ritalin, concerta, and Vyvanse without a prescription. And taking Adderall with a prescription that people's brains work differently and are affected by drugs differently. A few people love Vyvanse and SWIM's friend that has Vyvanse thinks its better than Adderall. Another of SWIM's friend takes Ritalin/Concerta and says it works better than Adderall. SWIM took Ritalin/Concerta and didn't like it too much. SWIM took Vyvanse, it helped a bit with his ADHD but still didn't feel as productive and had some bad side effects. Adderall for SWIM worked the best. Made him more productive in his life which is what the medicine is supposed to do.

All I can say is see if your doctor will let you try Ritalin one month and Adderall the next and decide which works best for you and overall makes you more productive and improves your life.

[1shot2]

I had a whole bottle of adderal and actually have 2 left and have never tried it,but anyways,swim has never taken adderal and was afraid that it is too similar to speed(crystal meths effects) being an amphetamine.Synthetic pharmaceutical speed.No thanks.
Id rather be chillin than wiggin anyday.

[Laudaphun]

Originally Posted by 1shot2

I had a whole bottle of adderal and actually have 2 left and have never tried it,but anyways,swim has never taken adderal and was afraid that it is too similar to speed(crystal meths effects) being an amphetamine.Synthetic pharmaceutical speed.No thanks.
Id rather be chillin than wiggin anyday.

If you take it in the manner it was prescribed (assuming you are referring to a script), then it would not be anything like crystal meth. SWIM's marmoset can get very tweaked on street stimulants or pharmaceuticals if the marmoset were to use them for that purpose, however the marmoset swallows a pill, and feels less stimulated "physically" than drinking a big cup of coffee, but mentally the effects are quite different. Of course, this would depend on the person, but pharmaceutical stimulants will typically provide quite different effects, depending upon the person's intent and manner of use. The effects can be very very different when taken therapeutically, as opposed to when taken to get high.

"Synthetic pharmaceutical speed"? Isn't most "speed" synthetic? Depending upon your definition. Better to take synthetic pharmaceutical speed than synthetic bathtub speed, don't you think? SWIM's marmoset would rather be also rather be "chillin rather than wiggin", however despite that fact, it can still be quite useful... just don't use it to be wiggin. SWIM's marmoset never cared to take any stimulant drug much, until she began to use it in a medicinal manner. While the marmoset is still not 100% comfortable with stimulants, she has quit caffeine use and began to use methylphenidate and discovered that, in her case it causes drastically more mental alertness/focus and less physical stimulation, comparatively.

[cra$h]

you're going to need over 2x the amount of mg from concerta to compare it to aderall, and aderall is a much more intense speed, and is a lot more steady than concerta. plus concerta seems to make you speed at the worst/most random times, but aderall if you're doing something, you'll notice, if you're sitting, you have no choice but to do something.

[Ontherooftops]

This is not good advice SWIcra$h. 160mg of methylphenidate over the course of the day (which would be 2xmg adderall for SWImon8ter0) seems extremely excessive, and the likelihood of it having negative effects on their health would be high. As far as acheiving equal recreational effect, this could be true. Swim found the effect of doses greater than 30mg methylphenidate to be undesirable at best, but is able to take much larger doses of adderall.

methylphenidate will likely not be able to produce the same euphoria as the levo/dextro-amphetamine mix. Both will be able to stimulate SWIY in a similar way.

Both Ritalin and Adderall have their merits, but using such high doses is bound to lead to physical addiction. Its quite possible that swiy would not have been diagnosed ADD prior to their use of excessive amounts of amphetamine. swim strongly advises examining whether or not the use of those drugs is truly necessary in SWImon8ter0's life.

Either way, it would be quite irresponsible for a doctor to prescribe a dose that would satisfy swiy. From the perspective of a medical professional, Swiy was amphetamine niave prior to the prescription of 10mg methylphenidate, a doctor shouldn't be prescribing more than 30mg adderall daily to someone without a tolerance. And if what swiy is taking is greater than their prescribed dose, they will run out before being able to get their script refilled. Then swiy will feel very "add" and certainly won't feel much like getting out of bed.

Swim has seen too many beautiful people turned speed freak under the pretense that they have a condition which makes them need these drugs, and from the sound of it swiy is leaning more to the addiction side of things than that of "theraputic" use.

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[Laudaphun]

SWIM finally asked to have her marmoset switched from methylphenidate to amphetamine (adderall), and was eager to do a comparison as she uses them therapeutically. Quite frankly SWIM was surprised at the results, as her marmoset benefited far more from the methylphenidate. On top of that, the amphetamines produced far greater side-effects in comparison with the methylphenidate which never really gave SWIM's marmoset any side-effects worth complaining about. Methylphenidate helps the marmoset focus and concentrate, with very limited physical stimulation, in fact it even caused SWIM to have an overall reduction in anxiety (specifically social anxiety), other anxiety was not really affected.

The d,l-AMP (adderall) caused significant side-effects, along with less focus and concentration, in fact it caused frequent tightness in the chest, and often made SWIM drowsey. SWIM's marmoset told her that it felt more like "speed" than medication.

The marmoset would choose amphetamines over methylphenidate if recreational use was her intention, however as it is not, she has discontinued her trial run with amphetamine after only 2 weeks and returned to methylphenidate.

[HorseBucket]

Swims never tried Ritalin before but he just started taking Strattera and its complete shit. Swim has the same side effects swiy was describing. He's drowsy, angry, impatient and intolerant of everyone around him. People asking him simple questions puts him in a really bad mood which is hard to get rid of. Swim is hoping he can convince his doctor to change his script to Ritalin which is his only other option because they don't seem to have Adderall in his country.

All in all the negative side effects of Strattera completely outweigh any benefits in swim. Swim can't concentrate at all while he's on it because he's so drowsy and so easily irritated. How the hell is this supposed to help concentration? Swim knows it can take up to 6 weeks for it to accumulate before you feel the full effects but why the hell would anyone wanna wait 6 weeks and deal with this bullshit when they can take Ritalin which works instantly and doesn't have half the side effects. Thats not to mention the fact its 5 times the price of Ritalin.

[chillinwill]

Originally Posted by HorseBucket

Swims never tried Ritalin before but he just started taking Strattera and its complete shit. Swim has the same side effects swiy was describing. He's drowsy, angry, impatient and intolerant of everyone around him. People asking him simple questions puts him in a really bad mood which is hard to get rid of. Swim is hoping he can convince his doctor to change his script to Ritalin which is his only other option because they don't seem to have Adderall in his country.

All in all the negative side effects of Strattera completely outweigh any benefits in swim.

SWIM is now prescribed Vyvanse (was prescribed adderall before that) and finds that he gets irritable and angry really really easy....any slight thing can set him off and was wondering if anyone has any tips for curbing this anger and intolerance of others

[HorseBucket]

No idea how to solve this one this is the first time swims ever had an anger problem. Swim just started taking Strattera but he wants his doctor to switch him to Ritalin. Swim thinks he may just have to medicate himself if his doctor keeps recommending shit like Strattera.

[superwoman]

Originally Posted by HorseBucket

No idea how to solve this one this is the first time swims ever had an anger problem. Swim just started taking Strattera but he wants his doctor to switch him to Ritalin. Swim thinks he may just have to medicate himself if his doctor keeps recommending shit like Strattera.

IF Swim hersewlf were in that position she would research the side effects of Strattera thats different from the drug you feel would work best and come down with those side effects prior to Swiy's doc appt. As long as Swiy wouldn't effect Swim negatively.

[Dexyfiend]

SWIM was prescibed strattera but had no intention of ever taking it, he wanted dexamphetamine like he used to have but had to pretend to take straterra first (as they will always prescribe that first for ADHD now) say it wasnt working and then got dex.
Ritalin in SWIM's opinion is a very intense lovey dovey e kind of high with an absoloutly soul destroying crash.
Dex is a more speedy kind of euphroric high with a crash that can be easily dealt with with anything from alcohol to weed to xanax (or any benzo) to, ideally heroin (obviously this is not suitablr for all SWIY's)
SWIM has never done adderall because they don't have it in SWIM's country (Oz) for some reason but imagines it would be similar to dex but not as good.

[Shockmonkey]

Strattera was horrible for me as well, anger issues, loss of personality and massive migraines. Yuck

[raven3davis]

It's all about personal preference, but SWIM would definitely have to say that adderall is better.

It is more effective for him and better for recreational use also. Ritalin just makes him really antsy.

[cra$h]

swim has the opposite effect. with concerta, swim only feels something while already in an activity, and the effects are pretty low. but aderall makes swim go go go all day, and has constant ticks, which is normally licking swim's teeth to get rid of a dry mouth

[staples]

I'm wondering if anyone has some detailed pharmacological information on amphetamine vs. methylphenidate? I don't understand how some people get so reved up on Methylphenidate yet don't get much from Amphetamines; I mean, yes I know that everybody's different, but...

What I understand is that Methylphenidate has very low affinity for serotonin, some affinity for norepinephrine, and high affinity for dopamine, whereas amphetamines have a little for serotonin, some for norepinephrine and high for dopamine--only a slight difference there (okay, they're probably discrepancies with which sites amps bind to and methyln doesn't, and vice versa... but should that make such a polar difference?).

But then, methylphenidate only blocks re-uptake, which is in line with what cra$h reports about SWICra$h (and it's in line with my own experience as well): he has to initiate the activity in order to feel the effects of methylphenidate (he has to get the dopamine pumping himself in order to notice that the re-uptake is blocked).

Amphetamines, however, not only block re-uptake but they also bind to and activate receptors, which is in line with again SWICra$h's and my own experiences that amphetamine-based medications have a constant stimulation...

Of course, it's easy to see that amphetamines are therefore more likely to cause migraines or even seizures than methylphenidate, and that would be a valid reason for someone to choose methylphenidate over amphetamines, of course, but can someone help me understand where the other reported differences come from?

[angeleyes1111]

excuse my ignorance..im a newbie here...but who is swim?