Thanks for responding both of you I will talk to my doctor about this, I don't have an appointment for a couple more weeks is all. She did say to stop at an effective dose, but my reaction to the 20 not seeming to resemble anyone elses experiences made me want to keep going to make sure it was really the meds, i also figured there may be side effect issues or something.

Today I took 30. Got sleepier, didn't even open my daily planner until four hours after i woke up, and a lot of muscle fatigue despite not doing any strenuous exercise recently. I don't think I'm going to bother waiting a week of 30 out, instead im going to go back to 10. I would test 15 or 5 in the weeks i have before psych, but today I remembered you can't split XR pills...

On the other hand, my aunt said she's surprised that i was disappointed in the 10mg, because she thought i seemed much happier first week, in particular i was chattier. Maybe theres benefit that I just can't notice from my PoV. For example I noticed myself rambling and getting blocked a ton in that week, but if this medication successfully increases attention, I could notice 'more' when it's actually less.

My brother used to take Ritalin as a kid. He said it made him feel like a zombie and he couldn't always tell whether or not he had taken a dose, but our parents could always tell if he forgot from observing his behavior. maybe theres a family predisposition to reacting to stimulants with 'low' effects like this. So if im on too high a dose i get the 'opposite' effect than other people on too high a dose. a right dose should feel better regardless (i hope)

My concern about the slowing / low energy effect is if I want to try a different med to see if it works better, the one everyone recommends for low-energy folks is adderall. so which should i try? maybe one that usually gives the lowest energy and ill get an opposite effect?