I’m really sorry that Ritalin didn’t work out for you, you aren’t the first and won’t be the last.

However, I think it’s important that when you say you are “very, very familiar with Ritalin” you mean you are very familiar with how YOU and only you respond to Ritalin, not anyone else.

I understand you have only the best of intentions, and I’m not trying to be rude, but frankly its actually harmful to use your anecdotal experience to dissuade other to take Ritalin. Because, many people respond entirely different to Ritalin than you did, and for them it is a life changing drug that works better than any other ADHD medication out there. If your advice prevents one of those people from taking Ritalin, you just worsened their life.

Treating brain conditions is a somewhat of a controlled guessing game because with so so many drugs we don’t fully understand the pharmacology and even if we did we don’t fully understand the implications and their tremendous variation. Please let medical professionals do their job and go through the process.