Wondering about switching to Ritalin? How to best taper?

[DelaneyJuliette]

I am new here and just joined.  I have clearly become dependent on my Adderall.  I was taking 5mg instant releases every 4 hours, and now I'm at the point where I can take 10mg and go right to sleep.  It's not working.  I am prescribed 20mg 2x a day, along with 1mg Klonapin 2x a day.  I would like to taper off of both of these, but I recognize that this is just an adderall forum.  In the past, Adderall worked wonders for me.  I clearly have a huge tolerance now.  My doctor wrote me a script for 20mg of intstant Release Ritalin 2x a day, but I was scared to get it filled in case it didn't work and I didn't have any back up adderall.  I'm not completely clear yet if I want to be adderall free for life, but my therapist tells me to stay in today and just worry about that later.  I'm not really sure the best way to taper.  Would it be to take 10 mg every 4 hours for a few weeks, then 15mg every for hours for a few weeks, then 10, then 5, then none?  I just joined another site to ask about the benzo taper.  Any thoughts would be greately appreciated.

[EricP]

I have read other posts as well as talked to people trying to quit ritalin and based on what I hear ritalin is almost harder to quit than adderall. Similar

symptoms but stronger... I don't have first hand knowledge other than at one point I tried to switch before quitting and ritalin gave me very bad headaches.

Best thing is to quit all together whether you taper or not. Tapering may help the process however it will suck altogether no matter. It just takes time! Benzo's require a taper and can be difficult ifs like 1mg lorazepam the pills can be so small that they are hard to break up evenly. Might be better to quit the adderall first as the benzo's may help with the anxiety symptoms but long term you should plan to get off both! Exercise and eating healthy is the best prescription!