Can readers help with your observations?

I am newly diagnosed with AD/HD-I (inattentive).  I have started on Ritalin and can feel the effects within about 30 minutes.

Through the last 4 years I have been diagnosed with 1) occupational stress; 2) major depressive disorder; 3) anxiety and now finally (and I believe accurately) with AD/HD. After taking Ritalin I just wanted to cry - is this what normal feels like?

I am hoping that some of you can help me with questions for self observation to understand when the medication stops working.  For the first time in my life I want OPTIMAL.  I want out of this confusion and mess and distraction and frustration.  I will be seeing my psychiatrist again to review the medication in 2 weeks.  One of the most exciting things for me is that for the first time in over a decade, I can sleep!  I fall asleep, I mostly stay asleep, and if I wake up - I can get back to sleep.  Ironically a stimulant works where no sleeping pill of the many I have been prescribed has ever worked. This alone must be having a huge impact on my ability to function in the day.

I take the meds between 6 and 7:00 am.  By dinner time virtually every day I find I have an underlying anger (at something or anything, but often with my husband and what has happened with our marriage) bubbling beneath the surface.  This regular 6:00 pm anger thing was not consistent prior to taking medication and I try to keep it in check. Right now these 2 things are the bookends to my day.  Even though there are issues in our marriage that I know we need to work on, my focus is my own mental health first.

I am guessing that the drop off in medication effectiveness is slower than how it kicks in.

But I have trouble with self observation to figure out when that drop off is occurring.

I know everyone is different but if any of you have observations about your spouse or from yourself that I can look for to help me build a self-observation scale, I would be very appreciative.

MP