Hi medicated, I have re-posted this from your other medication thread.

it's a shame it hasn't worked for you. I've been on so many different meds over the years and only a handful have helped. I started Ritalin about 4 weeks ago. Now, after the 1st few days I didn't notice any huge difference except it calmed me down a bit and lowered my anxiety, but when I went back to work after 4 days I noticed a huge difference. Depression and anxiety, were completely gone and my concentration has improved out of sight, memory is still crappy though. I'm taking 20mg a day now and my life has changed dramatically. It's become so good that I almost feel a bit guilty, because I haven't felt this calm and focused for years. It's taken me 17 years to find a med that works for me, what had been considered years of depression/anxiety was misdiagnosed. They now think it's adult ADD. I'm seeing a new GP and here's what I did before I went into see him.

I wrote a list of meds that I can remember taking, (it was 17 years worth) and put them into 4 groups, as to how helpful they were to me.

Terrible, Bad, Tolerable and OK.

There was only a handful of meds in the OK column, like 4.

This made things so much easier for me because I then went online and researched these 4 drugs intensively.

I hate pdoc's and my current GP at the time recommended that I see one of the other GP's in the practice that worked in the mental heath care system for years.

He took my list and notes and was very impressed with the homework I'd done. He couldn't believe I kept getting prescribed SSRI/SNRI's which are toxic to me personally, not to mention some of the other meds I'd been put on.

That's how I ended up on Ritalin, everything I had tried that had helped me was strong in norepinephrine and dopamine and anything that touched serotonin was really bad for me personally. Everyone is so different but I'm sure this is something you already know.

Now I'm scared that this won't last, but I'll just have to deal with that if it happens. I have multiple sleep disorders too. I was so lucky that most of the meds I'd tried (that worked) were also being used for ADD/ADHD. Like Provigil/Modavigil (Modafinil) and Edronax (Reboxetine, NRI anti Depressant, no serotonin) and Requip/Repreve (Ropinirole, Anti Parkinson/Restless Leg Syndrome)

I got a year and a half out of modafinil before it stopped working for me. I only got about 4 months out of Edronax, which was great to begin with but the started to make me really angry and aggressive and gave me shocking insomnia. I'm a very placid person generally, so people were going whoa!!! What's up with you? Ropinirole just made me vomit but I put up with it for about 3 months because it blew my depression out of the water, but I had to stop it in the end. It became too much.

Just a thought, I hope this was helpful to you. I'm so sick and tired of guess work so I did my own research and for now, it's paying off. Good luck with your journey! I really hope you find what works for you. Some off the reading I did was really hard going but I just kept pushing through it all. Just find the meds that have helped you in the past, find out what receptors they effect/hit in the brain, write it down and take it to your doc. Take Care. W