I am a long term meditation practitioner who has used meditation yoga exercise and healthy living to maintain ADHD symptoms since i was a child. This resulted from my native distrust of pharmaceutical solutions to existential problems.

I hesitantly am currently trying Ritalin after getting an ADHD diagnosis from a psychiatrist.

My hope: that i can pare Ritalin with Meditation to make me profoundly productive, to reduce some of the pressure that maintaining a strong meditation practice unaided creates, and to deepen my practice.

My anxiety: that ritalin will be detrimental to my ability to enter deep jhana, to gain insight, to experience transformative non-dual awareness.

My question: I would love to hear from Only those with personal experience of ADHD and Meditaiton, ADHD and Ritalin, or the medically trained, or dharma teachers! What are your thoughts and advice?

Thank you so much my teachers and peers!
Julien

Hi! I have ADHD and I used to take ritalin, but now I'm on dexamphetamine ("attentin") because that doesn't contain any traces of gluten or gelatine. I have tried meditation both with and without my medication. My preliminary conclusion is that it works best when I take my medicines as I'm supposed to during the day. However, jhana practice seems to work better in the evenings and nights when the medication is out of the system. Not taking the medication during the day does not help for me, because that makes me develop patterns of both distraction and dullness. 

Ritalin is designed to get out of the system in the evening. For me it was very early in the evening.