12 Comments

My mileage does vary. This has not been my experience at all.

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The explanation I prefer is that the methylphenidate does increase your store of focus, but the improved focus also leads to behavioural changes. That is, you take up activities that will require more focus, and of course you overshoot in the other direction and you get exhausted by the end of the day.

The equivalent is when you take an energy drink and go for a run. It may give you a longer initial start than if you hadn't taken the drink. This start gives you a better Adrenalin rush and you'll keep going longer, and you'll be exhausted at the end of the day when the effects of both wear off. This doesn't mean that the energy drink was useless. If you had taken an energy drink and not gone for the run, you'd still be hyper at the end of the day.

If this is the explanation, then if you take conscious steps to be less hyperfocused while on the pill, you will experience less of a crash at the end of the day.

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that's a good hypothesis - and thinking about it i haven't really tested the hypothesis where I 'take inspiral and put peace', and see if i'm similarly tired.

maybe i should get my wife to "randomly mix it in my breakfast" (if that's possible) on random days, and see if this is still the case

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The important thing is to take it on your off day and ensure that the day stays off. If you don't know you've taken Inspiral, it's easier to get sucked into some hyperfocus activity and crash after 4 hours. If you know you've taken it, at least it's a fair fight. So doing a placebo controlled trial is the wrong approach.

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I was thinking this seems similar to caffeine crashes too in some ways. Also, I have tried Modafinil a few times and the day after has always felt like this.

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caffeine in a sense is a milder version of ritalin. i remember my psychiatrist telling me taht when i don't take much ritalin i should try to increase caffeine!

so not surprised it's similar

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gonna be thinking about this a lot

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ok let me know how this works (or not) for you

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Thanks Karthik. Did you try Inspiral Slow Release. Finding it more effective for my teenage son than the reguar Inspiral

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i've always been on Inspiral SR (Slow Release) only. still causes the crash after the ~4 hours

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Thanks for sharing your up and down journey with methylphenidate. My late diagnosis (I was 68, now 71) has complicated things but I'm mostly grateful for methylphenidate, but there's so much of most of my life explained! I feel much better in general, but decisions,

planning,and prioritizing are aren't helped much or at all.

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wow ok! that's truly a late diagnosis (I thought I was late, getting diagnosed at 30!).

and the best part of the diagnosis is the "so much of most of my life explained!". I think that's the case with most people who get a (good) ADHD diagnosis

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