ritalin - would you?

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DS is 8 and has had working diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome since he was 5. However, I'm increasingly thinking that he is more ADHD than Aspergers - or maybe a bit of both. I have several close older relatives with the same or similar diagnosis and one of them takes Ritalin (he's in his 30s) which really helps him.
I don't know much about it and haven't even got a diagnosis of ADHD for DS yet. But would you consider ritalin - has anyone tried it for their dc?
My reasons for considering it are:
School says he works really well for about 20 minutes then cannot or will not concentrate any longer. He is really bright (Ed psych said so, in some tasks he was operating at age 17, so I'm not just being a mum about it!) and it would be such a shame if he doesn't fulfil that promise.
2 It has made a big difference that I have witnessed to my adult relative
3 I and my whole family are completely knackered and desperate due to living with a kid who causes havoc more or less wherever he goes. Think Horrid Henry on speed and there you have DS, and then some.
Reasons against:
Worrying about side effects and chemicals, plus me feeling like a failure and wondering if we could handle him better in some other way - the usual, I guess.
I would appreciate your wise words on this one, thanks in advance

This is a fairly common question on here. By and large, "we" are broadly in favour of Ritalin - with obvious/sensible caveats - and I tend to be one of the most in favour because I have a late adult diagnosis of ADHD and started Ritalin myself about a year ago; it's a lot easier to be sure of your own experience than your child's.

My logic in starting it (and I self-diagnosed, decided Ritalin could help me and tracked down a diagnosis simply in order to get the meds tbh so I'd thought it through loooong before the diagnosis) was that all the side-effects were both easy to spot and quick to reverse. Plus the success rate is very high. So the risk/reward ratio seemed favourable.

Ime, the main side-effects are insomnia and loss of appetite and neither are lasting or severe. If I take too much I get jittery like having one too many cups of coffee and if I would caution you at all about the med I'd say recent findings are that the "right" dose is more variable than we previously realised so it makes sense to start at a very low dose just in case: if it's effective it works within a week and if not you up the dose and try again, so you don't lose much time by starting cautiously.

The "zombie" effect that you will have read about in the papers is real - but actually relatively rare. And easy to spot, in which case you can immediately discontinue the med (some people don't take it at the weekends, I don't always take it on holiday, there doesn't seem to be any problem with stopping and starting like that) and you are no worse off than you were before you started.

Anyhoo - that's my very personal take on Ritalin. Plenty of folk on here whose kids are on it who I'm sure can advise too.

Yes would agree with what has already been said.

What I would say as a mum is that sometimes you just need to try something else. This is not necessarily the answer but it will give you and your child a different experience and so can be a way to change behaviours.

My dd did it for four year, at Now she is off it and she is better but she needed probably a couple of years with ritalin to get her to the stage that she is now at.

So what I would say is don't necessarily see it as a permanent drug.

I would prepared to try anything that would help and would be well monitored by a health professional I trusted.

Doesn't have to be forever.

if the medics were in favour I would consider it very seriously.

Has been the best thing we ever did for our DDs. They are so much less anxious than they were - it is really stressful trying to stay on track and do the "right" thing at school when it's impossible for your brain to stay focused.

My DS has a diagnosis of Asperger's but has in the past been a bit like yours. We tried Ritalin and it was a disaster. Eventually he was given Risperidone which works for him.
TBH when you are really desperate (as we were) anything is worth a try.

Ritalin is part of a group of drugs, the main ingredient is Methylphenidate. Other similar things are Concerta, Equasym, etc. It has to be worth a try, as said above - stop if you get side effects :)