Posted by scott-d-o on January 26, 2004, at 17:34:52
In reply to Re: Provigil vs. Ritalin » scott-d-o, posted by pbjc on January 26, 2004, at 16:45:19
> Scott - My pdoc thinks it might have some mood brightening effect for me as well as helping me m solution for this problem.get out of bed in the mornings, which I struggle with, but the Ritalin has been working just fine for me in that regard. She has had some of her other patients respond well, and now I think she wants to let me test drive Provigil also. It is just that I've been stable for quite a while now and I really don't want to derail it by taking away a med that we know works for me and throwing one in the mix that doesn't even work on the same neurotransmitter. I'm also afraid I'll lose my ability to focus and concentrate that I get with the Ritalin.
>
> Philip
>Well, I don't think there is any drug that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning, since you can't really take medication while you're sleeping so it kicks in when you wake up ;-). I think GHB might be the only drug that could work for this since at first it helps you go to sleep by suppressing dopamine but then you get a dopamine kick hours later, I'm not sure how long the drug stays in your system thou. GHB just recently got approved under the brand name Xyrem.
If you stop the Ritalin abruptly and go on Provigil, in all likelyhood you will get very depressed as well as losing your focus, etc. Honestly, I have tried both of the meds in question and Ritalin is much more likely to have positive effects on mood, unfortunatly, I also felt "on edge" at 1/8th the dose you are taking. I'm now doing much better on Dexedrine spansules which have been great for me so far but I still have the same problem as you with not wanting to get up in the morning; I constantly miss classes. Usually I turn off my alarm unconciously even if I have to walk across the room and then I feel like sh*t when I wake up and it's 2:00 in the afternoon. In fact, I used to have insomnia & this problem. Klonopin took care of my insomnia but I still can not get up in the morning and will just oversleep for like 15 hrs if I feel like it.
This is the advice my pdoc gave me today on this and I think it makes sense so maybe it will work for you. I don't know if you exercise or not, but I currently workout (weights & cardio) every other day in the evenings, he advised that I should attempt to change my workouts to the morning, instead. Of course it will be difficult for the first week or so but he says eventually your body learns that it needs energy in the morning.
I've always heard that if you workout less than 3 hrs before you go to bed that this causes insomnia, so I guess it makes sense that it could work the other way around. I think I am going to try at least moving the cardio to the mornings; I think if I can get through the first couple weeks, which I'm sure will be hell, this might be a good long-term solution for this problem.
scott
poster:scott-d-o
thread:305393
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040122/msgs/305782.html