Dose - fake pills or wrong dose? for studying

[babydiva]

Hi

swim is trying to use methylphenidate for studying. he hasn't done it before and today is his first attempt. swim said he got rubifen 20mg - they are round and flat with a score. above the line is RU and below is 20.

swim took half a pill at 11am, having been told even 5mg could be effective so he thought he would play it safe. he said the effects were so mild he couldn't be sure he even felt anything at all. so at 12.30 he took the other half totalling one 20mg pill. it is now 13.30 and swim still feels nothing.

he has been asking me whether i think the pills are fake, or did he just not take enough? the first dose he took with some toast and he doesn't know if the pills are instant or slow release but there were no beads or anytihng inside when he cut it in half. now he's having a cup of tea and waiting (or you could say, procrastinating).

what do you think swim should do?

x x

[blipblop]

Hmm, hard to say, but they probably aren't fake.
If this person could possibly have ADHD, 20mg would be less than the amount required to help them focus.
Even if they don't, 20mg is pretty low.
The pills sound like instant release, but taking them with food is likely to have them absorbed more slowly.
Taking only 10mg at a time orally will give very little effect.

When I was prescribed ritalin legally and took the dose recommended by my doctor, orally, I never really "felt" them kick in, but I could look back at the course of a morning's classes and think "yep, I wouldn't have been able to pay attention to that boring lecture without my medication".

I've heard from people who take ritalin in not so legal ways that you feel ritalin if you snort 20mg or more of it or take more than 40mg at a time orally.

[babydiva]

thanks blipblop your replies on this and other threads have helped my friend. He tried again today and had a great afternoon spending five hours looking at really boring and difficult data! Took 20mg on empty stomach, then 10mg and coffee six hours later on empty also, and even noticed a top-up effect, surprisingly. He also thought of something: since the appetite is suppressed but he wants to avoid any crashing/tiredness, and since the drug works best in an alkaline environment, the answer is to drink milk-based meal replacement drinks! Wonder what anyone else thinks of this idea? It seems to have worked today.

It seems like the way to have the best studying experience is to micro manage all these little things as even from swim's mere two experiences, he has learnt a lot.

Also swim says he looks forward to finishing all his work and letting go and not having to micro manage every single milligram!

Reputation Comments on this post:

meal replacement drinks possibly a good idea, interesting suggestion

[blipblop]

Awesome, great to hear that a productive day was had!
Regarding the meal replacement drinks, that sounds like a really good idea.