I’m very, very curious about the answer to this question, so if anyone knows, PLEASE answer!! Mavbe someone who was misdiagnosed, and took it… or… well… no questions asked. 
I guess this could also be expanded to the question of how normal people react to amphetamines/stimulants in general. I just got diagnosed with adult ADD and was given a page-long medication schedule-- we are trying everything!! So it would be great to have a “normal” reaction to gage mine by… all advice appreciated!!
Short answer - it’s speed; it makes you feel like you’re on speed. I hear that if you have ADD, it doesn’t. IANAD, nor am I giving anything that should be even remotely considered medical opinion.
To the point that there have been plenty of cases of teenagers using it to get “high”, (just a general rush, I guess).
If you have ADD, like me, it makes you feel … well, somewhat more normal, if the dosage is right. You don’t get any of the reactions that others would get when they take speed.
I’ve never taken hard drugs like cocaine. I heard that the effects of cocaine are much different on those with ADD than on “normals”. I also recall reading that some people found that they have ADD only after years of self-medicating with cocaine; taking the drug was the only way they felt “normal.” Can anyone confirm?
I have nothing at all to back this opinion up. I would feel better if this wasn’t in GQ.
That said, I have a friend that used to do a lot of speed back in the 70’s. He later had a son that was on Ritalin. Apparently he sampled it at some point and said that to him Ritalin was a very good, slow release speed. He went on to say that back when he and his friends were doing speed on a daily basis, they would sometimes take too much. It would have the opposite effect and put them in a down state. They called it “over amping”. His theory is that Ritalin “over amps” the kids who take it.
Even with people with ADD the reaction to meds vary greatly. Your reaction to it is not a way to determine if you have ADD or not. People taking it can experience better focusing, but that can apply to ADD or ‘normals’*, both groups can also experience jitters, nervousness, even drowsiness. The trick is for someone who has trouble focusing, to get the right med to do that and since ‘normals’ don’t have this issue they don’t need to find a medication to do that.
*- ‘normals’ in the term I use for non-ADD people
IANAMD.
If you have ADD, ritalin or other amphetamines/amphetamine congers will make you feel more focused and able to concentrate. You may be able to read more easily and more quickly.
If you don’t have ADD/ADHD, or it’s not a good medication for you, you will respond by feeling “speedy” (think too much coffee).
Semi-related, I’ve often wondered what happens if a non-smoker wears a nicotine patch. An episode of Just Shoot Me features a character mistaking a patch for a bandage and undergoing mood swings and manic-depression.
It would be just like if they smoked a normal cigarette. The mood swings and manic depression make for good tv.
You don’t feel anything much like a “high,” but you might easily feel queasy or get a headache (just like if you smoke a cigarette when you’re not used to it).
When people say “Did a lot of speed in the 70’s” they are more than likely referring to dextroamphetamine (dexedrine). In comparison to Ritalin, Dexedrine has a slower metabolic cycle, for some perhaps singificantly so. Various amphetamine (Dexedrine, Adderall) biological half-life is typically quoted as 16 to 32 hours, often depending on your body pH level during absorbtion and other factors. Methylphenidate (Ritalin) is usually quoted as having a half-life of 1 to 4 hours. Methamphetamine is usually said to have an excretion half-life of about 10 to 20 hours but its pharmacokinetic half-life seems to be shorter, still longer than metylphenidate however. In comparison pharmacokinetic (i am not sure I am using the correct word, but I mean in the sense of psychoactive response) half-life of cocaine has been measured to be about an hour. I can provide cites but all of these can be found using Google by googling “chemicalname pharmacokinetic half-life”. You’ll notice a lot of variation between the studies, but it’s usually clear as to why the variation occurs if you consider the differences in the studies themselves (age plays a really big part, as does urine pH level).
So, in my mind I rate the actual psychoactive rate of popular stimulants as follows Amphetamines -> Caffeine -> Methamphetamine -> Methylphenidate (Ritalin) -> Cocaine. Actual scientists: feel free to explain why I’m wrong if I am.
To further answer the OP, it really depends on the dosage, and how you define ‘normal’. People with what is called ADHD tend to respond to most if not all central nervous system stimulants differently (yes, including caffeine and cocaine) - what level this difference of response occurs on is not yet clear. However, from what I remember there is no statistically significant difference in overdose reactions when adjusted for tolerance, for example. Cocaine, caffeine, methamphetamine, methylphenidate, amphetamines and others all have slightly different effects on average, and these effects seem to be all skewed in the same direction for people with what is diagnosed as ‘ADHD’. (Now that I can’t really find a cite for, but I’ve heard that several times from different sources)
P.S. I’m not calling BS on your friend’s story - perhaps your friend sampled some Ritalin-SR or Concerta, which are ritalin packaged in several doses that release throughout the day (2x for SR and 3x for Concerta if I am not mistaken). However, what most likely happened is that he tried one of his kids ritalins and said “wow this is like a milder form of speed” because he took a medical dosage of say 20mg methylphenidate and say compared it to a party dosage of 80mg dexedrine. There is several conversion formulas that doctors use when transitioning patients from methylphenidate to amphetamines or back, I do not know how solid these formulas, how individually varied, how prevalent or how accepted, but I know they exist. Generally 30-40mg of methylphenidate a day translates to 10-20mg of amphetamines.
I am not a doctor, pharmacist or biochemist, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. You’ve been warned. 
Forgot to add one thing:
Regardless of your diagnosis, a very small amount of stimulants will cause very little effect, and a large dose will make you overdose. It is a common misconception that people with ADD cannot get ‘high’ on stimulants, which is complete and utter bullshit. In fact, in a manner of speaking that ‘normal’ feeling IS a type of a high. A lot of people have a misconception of what stimulant highs are. People who abuse stimulants all describe it differently, but generally feeling ‘confident’ , ‘smart’, ‘focused’ and ‘energetic’ are the key symptoms, not some sort of surreal opiate-like euphoria. People with ADD typically report and ‘smart’ and ‘focused’ and not so much the others at low dosages. Being jumpy, nervous, irritable and confused are also normal side effects of higher dosages for anybody regardless of diagnosis.
Please be very careful and follow your doctor’s instructions very carefully. Do not try changing dosages (or stopping) without consulting your doctor. It is a drug. It is an addictive, potentially dangerous drug with nasty overdose and nasty withdrawal effects. Improper dosing can cause short term effects like… death, and long term effects like psychosis. This is true of almost every CNS stimulant (the psychosis thing has not yet been conclusively shown for caffeine however). Be careful.
Personally, it makes me tremendously emotional. I don’t have ADD but I have borrowed ritalin from my brother and the effects are ridiculous. I’ll start weeping at cheesey songs and I’ll have the urge to call up ex-girlfriends and tell them how much they meant to me. I can’t explain it, but it had to happen a couple times before I discovered the connection.
Well, "jumpy, nervous, irritable and confused " is a good way to describe me WITHOUT medication… I had horrible episodes of anxiety earlier this year, for instance. Focalin is amazingly calming, as is coffee. The concentration and focus issues are major and both stimulants help, but what I didn’t expect was for these things to act like anti-anxiety drugs, which they do-- for me, anyway. I don’t think I’m at the right dosage yet, because it doesn’t seem to last long enough, but I have a very detailed schedule and will be trying different things every week!
It depends on mood. I would guess that if you took it the way most non-script users would, IE up the nose, it would result in extreme interest and concentrated attention on things, and everything might seem a lot more fascinating than normal.
I read an article lately about parents trying to get their doctors to prescribe Ritalin or other ADD drugs to healthy, non-ADD children, so they could get better grades.
Ah, here is one version of it: Suite 101 - How-tos, Inspiration and Other Ideas to Try
One of the known side effects of this category of drug is the appetite suppression. One of my children may be ADD. She certainly came out strongly so on the parent-filled-out checklist at the Pediatrician’s office. The doctor (not our usual doc) was willing to medicate based on this. I am not. This child is, and has always been, badly underweight. She is 7 and wears size 5 clothes (which are too short, but fit otherwise). She has had gastric issues her whole life, including a feeding tube until age 4 1/2. We fought for every ounce of flesh on her body. Our regular Ped recommends against medicating this child even if she might benefit from it in other ways. I expect this would be a typical side effect for anyone.
I’m surprised people don’t use it for weight loss. 
I did not find Ritalin to have any kind of a nasty withdrawal, and it was addictive only because it made everything so easy, in comparison to how things usually were. Obviously it affects everybody differently.
The only side effect I noted was that I couldn’t have more than one cup of coffee (and I was used to drinking a couple of pots of it a day). That second cup would make me a bit shaky. Caffeinated soft drinks didn’t bother me.
There may be appetite suppression but that was hard for me to tell since I never had much of an appetite to begin with.
I had a kid diagnosed with ADD and his pediatrician recommended it, even though he, too, was underweight & always had been. Our doctor said that he would know immediately if it was right for him or not, and if it was we could deal with the appetite issue. However, for various reasons my son, who was 14 at the time, decided against it without even trying it–he considered it and then decided he’d rather not. And I figured he was old enough to decide that.
There is so many things wrong with that sentence I don’t know where to start. First and foremost, it will be just as addictive if it is used by patients to get high. If you claim that the drug is capable of verifying your prescription, or that mental set of using a chemical that was not prescribed to you is sufficient to make a non-dependence-forming drug into one, I am going to need a better cite than that.
Second, the whole idea of warning somebody about something being “addictive” presumes they are not yet addicted to it. Just because usual therapeutic dosages, in general, do not produce observable physical or psychological dependence does not make a substance have any less abuse or addiction potential overall. We have no reason to believe that a clinical setting in any way prevents physiological processes that lead to physical dependence from activating. Methylphenidate use does tend to produce acute tolerance ()* which has been linked to dependence (**). It makes sense that with people who are reliant on its medicinal effects in their daily life, acute tolerance can mean a drive to escalate short term dosage increasing potential for forming dependence.
Swanson J., Gupta S., Guinta D., et al (1999) - Acute tolerance to methylphenidate in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.
Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 66.
**
Haefely W. (1986) “Biological basis of drug-induced tolerance, rebound, and dependence. Contribution of recent research on benzodiazepines.”
Pharmacopsychiatry 19(5)
Oh, but they do, and it used to be worse. Forty or fifty years ago, it was pretty easy to get amphetamine prescriptions if you just wanted to lose some weight. It’s MUCH more strictly controlled now. Of course, I’m not exactly COMPLAINING about this particular side effect… Just think, I can lose weight over Christmas! Oh boo hoo hoo!!! Ahem, anyway.
I’m a better living through chemistry experiment these days, but I’m very happy with it so far. The biggest difference I am noticing (from the information, and also from what people here have said) is that I do have the increased concentration abilities, which is all very nice, but I am also CALM and free of anxiety. That’s a HUGE difference from before, and it doesn’t sound like that’s what happens to “normal” people who take these drugs.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
And, um… I’m very happy to get all points of view, but methyphenidate and even amphetamines are not the same thing as benzodiazepines.