Ritalin IR - Exhausted?

[gizmo]

I started on 10 mg IR Ritalin BID three days ago. Ever since then, I seem to become completely exhausted at around 7:30-8 pm, and can't seem to wait until 9 pm to go to bed. Then I have to drag my butt out of bed at 7:15 (when I'm normally wide awake).

This is really weird, because, being BP, I normally have severe issues in just trying to get to sleep. In fact, I normally take 200 mg trazodone just to help me fall asleep at 10-11pm. So this extreme exhaustion is completely ruining my evenings!

I switched from adderall IR 30 mg BID because of the headaches it was giving me. I didn't have any exhaustion issues with that med. I don't know if the exhaustion is from stopping the adderall, the break I took between the stimulants, or the starting of the ritalin.

I know ritalin has a shorter half-life than IR adderall. Should I be asking my pdoc for a third dose during the afternoon to counteract this tiredness? Or perhaps go up to 20mg BID as he gave me permission to do? Or should I wait to see if it goes away? If so, how long should it take for me to return to normal?

I know I've been asking loads of questions here on the board, and I really appreciate any information you want to share with me.

[Eden]

I would like to tactfully suggest that you do as your doc suggested and if it get's worse you will know the cause.

[Cetkat]

Is the 10mg effective? If so, taking 10mg TID rather than 20mg BID makes more sense to me.

I don't know if you should still be tired in the morning after that much sleep though. That plus the other stuff you mentioned in your blog makes me think you should bring up the whole situation with your pdoc. I'm not sure there isn't something else going on here other than crashing.

[gizmo]

Thanks for the responses. I admit, it's been a really rough past few weeks, and I am probably getting way ahead of myself with the Ritalin and the reaction I expected to have this quick in the trial.

I contacted my pdoc who suggested adding a third dose around 3 pm. So far, it has eliminated my tired feeling early in the evening. I'm not getting the same positive effects that I did on the adderall, but I'm not getting any headaches, either. So that's progress, and I'm going to try going slower and getting really adapted to the medication before tinkering with it too much.

Thanks again.