Sven Slootweg (soft-deprecated) @joepie91@pixie.town

@libreleah It was baffling to see so many media just describe it context-free, as if it were the weather report, with absolutely no background on what happened or why.

It was even more baffling that the fucking *Daily Mail* was one of the very few sources I found that actually called them out as racist attacks and condemned them.

@eta Reminds me of my move. The 'professional' moving company I hired sent the wrong people (I asked for packing/tidying *and* moving, not just moving...) *several* times in a row.

Eventually told them not to bother anymore and just refund me, and managed to get a phone number of "a guy I once worked with" from one of the movers, called them up, made an appointment, et voila. Everything packed up and moved in a day, no issues.

@Marla@chaos.social Sure!

The figuring out of the right dosage wasn't easy, it took a lot of trial and error - especially because it is difficult to distinguish "a bit too much" and "a bit too little", they both feel very similar.

I eventually ended up on the trick with tea; if I deliberately take a somewhat lower dose, and then once it starts taking effect, I drink a cup of black tea, one of two things will happen: either I get *more* jittery (in which case my dose was already a bit too high) or I get *less* jittery (in which case my dose was a bit too low and is now right).

This still required experimentation for a couple of weeks to get it right, incrementally narrowing down the ideal dose. Even then I sometimes needed to take a slightly larger or smaller crumb (the pills rarely broke evenly) depending on how I was feeling that specific day, if I wanted to feel perfectly calm.

Something I did early on, and that helped to learn to identify the "taking effect" moment, was to sit down on the couch immediately after taking the morning dose, and putting on an easy-to-watch show; at some point during the episode, it would feel like something softly 'snapped' in my head, followed by a sort of gentle tickling feeling and a change in mood (more emotionally responsive!) and mental state, and that'd be my cue that it started taking effect. The show wouldn't be very mentally engaging so there was nothing to distract me from identifying this.

Another signal for me that the medication was at *right* dose, was that my thoughts would become a lot more linear; normally my brain tries to explore all the possible angles and interpretations of a topic all at once in parallel, but when at the right dose, I would become very calm and structured in how I approached things instead. You may not see this one though, it seems to be pretty unusual even among ADHD-havers (and in my case, it was a reason to sometimes deliberately not take medication, and let my brain 'run free').

(None of this probably works with delayed-release medication; my doctor specifically advised starting with the normal one first because it's easier to adjust.)

The "far too much" symptoms, well, I suppose they were basically what people typically describe as "the effect of stimulants [on neurotypical folks]". Feeling like a coiled-up spring, getting hot, unable to sit still, *needing* to move and jump around, and almost no mental focus because my brain is constantly telling me "hey! get up! move!". It felt physical much more than mental.

This was very different from the "slightly off" symptoms, which were more a sense of being overwhelmed by stimuli, everything coming at me at once, needing to do so many things but having time for none of them, and so on.

I hope that helps to clarify things - feel free to ask more specific questions if you have any, these are just the points that immediately come to mind :)

@Marla@chaos.social A few additional things I forgot:

- When I took a *far* too high dose (2 pills, upper end of safe range), it was immediately obvious to me - I felt 'wired', like a coiled up spring that could burst at any moment. Much more intensely 'wrong' feeling than the usual 'slightly off' feeling.

- The safe range was (conservatively) determined based on body weight; if you don't have a doctor who can provide a safe range, I suspect it'll be possible to find the formula online as well. It wasn't very complicated from what I remember.

@Marla@chaos.social This would happen for me when my levels of *something* were too high.

A bit of background: I cannot currently take Ritalin because of (likely unrelated) kidney issues, but when I did, I did so on a 'flexible schedule'; I would take my normal dose for as many days as it worked, then as soon as I started feeling jittery or have a sense of palpitations, I would *stop* taking them.

The few days after that, where I wasn't taking them, I would feel 'right' again and my brain would work again, as if I *did* take my medication. Eventually I started getting jittery or defocused again, and I'd *start* taking them again.

And so on, in a cycle, toggle whether I'm taking it or not based on how I was feeling, rather than a fixed schedule. This worked really well! As far as I could tell, I was keeping a level of *something* in balance, something affected by the Ritalin; too much build-up and I'd get jittery, but too little build-up and I'd also get jittery.

If I went 'off schedule' for too long - whether by taking it or not taking it! - I would often start feeling similar to how you are describing.

An important bit of context is that I had narrowed down a very specific dose; I was taking 1 and 1/6th pill twice a day, and anything other than that (less *or* more) wouldn't work properly and make me restless. I used tea and sometimes coffee shortly after taking the Ritalin to 'fine-tune' the exact dose. It's possible that with a less accurate dose, it's harder to find the "toggle point" too.

(All of this was okay'ed by my doctor; they gave me a 'safe range' in which I could try out different dosages and see what worked best for me, and they had no objection to the tea/coffee either as long as it was done carefully.)

I don't know whether this works the same for everyone, of course, but I hope it's helpful in figuring out the right dose!