DOSE:

15 - 20 mg

oral

Pharms - Methylphenidate

BODY WEIGHT:

125 lb

Every stimulant has its pros and its cons. Some are more recreational than others, have a narrower therapeutic/recreational range, etc. As far as controlled stimulants go, my primary experiences have been with racemic amphetamines (Adderall), dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse, my personal favorite), and of course the aforementioned methylphenidate.

In my experience, I’ve always found amphetamines to be more euphoric and more recreational than methylphenidate. Dextroamphetamine is kind of subtle, it gives a very subtle euphoria with a feeling of energy. I think I’ve only had it at lower doses, so it could be even more euphoric than I’m giving it credit for. Adderall makes me feel energetic, euphoric, and productive, but only until the peak. As soon as I start coming down, even if I feel physically fine and feel (mentally) the same as I did a half hour prior, I’m very quick to anger and can be a bitch without meaning to be. It just makes me angrier for some reason. None of these other stimulants make me particularly angry, either during the experience itself or on the comedown. Lisdexamfetamine is something I haven’t had since 2012, but my my, do I remember it being my favorite. Creative, energetic, euphoric, feeling like I was unstoppable and could accomplish whatever I set my mind to, complete abolition of appetite altogether (perfect for a teenage girl with anorexia) with very few negative effects on the comedown. I got a bit hooked on that in high school though for a few months, and the withdrawal from that was pretty awful. Depression, fatigue, anxiety, lots of hunger but with little appetite, I certainly wouldn’t recommend it. Caffeine is just… kind of odd. I don’t really like the feeling of it. It stimulates my mind but not my body, so I still feel hazy if I have a coffee or energy drink in the morning, my heart is pounding and I’m sweating and my nose is runny but my head is just as foggy as when I rolled out of bead.

Now on to our dear friend methylphenidate, more commonly known as Ritalin and Concerta to the majority of us. My sister has ADHD, so growing up we always had it in the house, in the form of what we called “the focus pill.” Of course as a child I didn’t think anything of it, nor did I have any interest in recreational drugs (I wasn’t even double digits!) but one time when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old, I remember I wanted to stay up late one night to read paranormal stories online and wanted to be able to focus on it, so without knowing what I was getting myself into, I took a whole 54 mg Concerta on an empty stomach. For those of you who don’t know, Ritalin is the instant release form of methylphenidate whereas Concerta is the time-release form. I didn’t notice something felt wrong until I was already in the midst of it. Heart pounding, thinking I’m seeing things like ghosts in the corner of my eye, thinking I hear an ominous voice, all of that culminating in me running into my parents’ room claiming we were all going to die and that I loved them and that we all needed to be together. That was maybe around midnight and I didn’t get to sleep until around 7:00 that morning, right on the couch in the living room. Around 12 hours later, I woke up to my dad sitting next to me on the sofa, telling me that I wasn’t allowed to read Stephen King books anymore because of how freaked out I got last night. (Sure dad, if that’s what you think got me acting like that…)

Now, in my late 20s, my sister still has ADHD and, as such, still has methylphenidate as well as some Dexedrine prescribed to her now too. She’s fairly generous with her Concerta since she finds no recreational value in it, so I always have a small supply of it on hand. I’m tall and skinny so I need very little to get me where I want to be. With Concerta, unlike other time release mechanisms, it’s very easy to break through that simply by cutting the pill in half since it uses a sort of osmotic time-release system. Basically, a small sponge in one part of the capsule swells up with your stomach juices and slowly pushes the methylphenidate out through a small hole. Pretty cool tbh!! Anyways, in other words, it’s very easy to turn a Concerta into a Ritalin. Sis is still prescribed the strongest ones, 54 mg, so when splitting them up it’s easy knowing a half is 25 mg, and a quarter is gonna be anywhere between 10 and 15 mg, depending on how accurately I cut it. My preferred dose is between 15 and 25 mg if I want to be a “responsible adult” and take care of things.

Of all stimulants, methylphenidate is easily the most pragmatic and practical. It stimulates both my mind and my body, but there isn’t very much euphoria so I don’t feel an urge to redose compulsively (I only take it orally) and so, because the euphoria is minimal, it’s not so easy to get distracted with things as I would be on amphetamines. Sure, they make me focus on something, but if something else catches my attention then I’m going to jump ship and focus entirely on that until the next thing catches my eye. Not so with methylphenidate. It helps me stay focused on the task at hand without getting distracted particularly easily. I’m a writer, and of all the stimulants I’ve written on, methylphenidate is my preferred one. Others get my ideas flowing, sure, but sometimes I get a bit carried away and things end up going in a direction I didn’t intend.

Adderall doesn’t make me want to clean the house. Ritalin does. Dexedrine doesn’t make me want to take care of my chores and errands. Concerta does. Vyvanse doesn’t make me want to go on a long morning hike. Methylphenidate does. I don’t find it to be particularly anxiety-inducing either, contrary to my younger self’s experience. No anger or mood swings on the comedown or at peak, little if any anxiety during the experience, and nothing too much to be worried about. Funny enough, these days I actually do have GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) and am prescribed alprazolam (Xanax) for that to be taken both regularly and as needed for my GAD. Of course, that just helps the comedown go even more smoothly. I’m not much of a night owl these days so I don’t tend to take stimulants after the early afternoon, but this is a drug that can be easily softened by benzodiazepines. If I take just a small dose of a benzodiazepine while I'm on the come up or peak of the methylphenidate experience, it can help me be just a bit smoother while still keeping that focus and stimulation, and likewise on the comedown it gives me a real soft landing and helps smother the stimulation out at the end if I take enough.

Exp Year: 2024	ExpID: 118113
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 27
Published: Dec 6, 2024	Views: Not Supported
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Pharms - Methylphenidate (114) : Retrospective / Summary (11), Performance Enhancement (50), General (1), Various (28)