Tell me about your experiences with meds and other treatments for ADHD

In My Humble Opinion
1

I believe it’s been a while since we’ve had one of these threads (yes, I did a serach and read through the previous threads on the matter), so I’d like to get an update on who’s taking what medication/behavioural modification therapy and how it’s working for them. I’m especially interested in what anyone has to say about Straterra med-wise and attempts at building good work ethic habits.

I was only officially diagnosed fairly recently, second semester of my sophmore year in college (about a year ago), but it was apperantly rather obvious from the point of view of a variety of my teachers in high school, and in hindsight, the hyperactive part should’ve been spotted early in grade school. I constantly showed poor self-restraint in the classroom and on the playgrond, even flipping up my teacher’s skirt in 1st grade (I was pretending it was a cave). The hyperactive bit transformed from physical to verbal upon entering middle school, and ever since then, I find it extremely difficult to wait my turn and not just speak my mind whenever I please in class discussions. (I suppose it doesn’t help that I get a lot of positive reinforcement from teachers praising me for my observations and insight, but I’m not quite sure how else they could address the rudeness/impatience without squelching a child’s desire to express his opinion.) Uhh… I lost myself in a tangent.

Anyway, I’m currently on 75mg of Straterra once a day, with no noticable side effects, but no noticable difference in focus either. For the weeks I’ve been on it, it seems to prevent me from worrying too terribly about anything, even matters that should certainly warrant concern, like the pressing deadline of my “junior thesis”. I fail to really get excited about anything, positively or negatively and I’ve lost all motivation for anything. I sleep much more and longer than I’d like. I’m uncertain as to whether this is a bizarre personal side effect of the medication, depression, or if mind is just playing some silly psycho-somatic mood games with me because, I want the meds to seem to have an effect.

Before switching to the Straterra, I was prescribed 20mg tablets of methylphenidate, a generic form of Ritalin, to be used whenever I felt I needed to work for a few hours straight. Half the time, it had the desired effect for about 1.5 to 2 hours after ingestion. The other half of the time, those 2 hours would consist of me focusing on something entirely unrelated and unproductive, like (re)learing about the grammactical structure of Mandarin or weaving an elabortate daydream about the physics behind mutant powers in the X-men universe. Then I would slowly lose the ability to focus to the point where I was worse than unmedicated for the remaining 3 hours of effect. During those 3 hours, I would become extremely anxious in regards to every worry imaginable, preventing me from doing anything productive, which was ultimately why I was switched off it.

As for developing more organised working habits, the authorities I’m seeing about my problem have mainly encouraged me to attempt to keep a schedule of when and how long I ought to work (to clarify, when I say “work”, I mean work on homework, which consists mainly of drawing, as I am in art college) each day. I’m all right about writing the schedule most of the time, but then promptly fail to follow the thing, finding myself compelled to do things like read the Straight Dope every ten minutes or in capable of starting to work at all. I may be purposely self-sabotaging myself, but I wouldn’t know how to fix that either. (Shutting off the computer in this case is out of the question, as my junior thesis is all drawn in Photoshop.)

So, anyone want to share their experiences with ADHD treatments? Especially about work habits they’ve found helpful. I’m all ears.

2

My daughter takes 10 mg of Adderral Extended Release once a day. They started her out on Ritalin, but she said she felt all jittery taking it. It is working quite well.

3

Well let’s see: as an adult with Attention Deficit Disorder, one who was diagnosed and on meds for the better part of 15 years I’ll tell you several thinga that contributed to my taking the med for so long and to the eventual titration off it.

I was a college instructor for several years at a small liberal arts college in Connecticut, I saw many kids on meds for their ADD most, [those that didn’t snort it or sell it] had a fine time and had the desired effect. Some like yourself, could not grasp the concentrating on useful things bit. That part comes with some behaviour therapy, either from a trained professional or from a diligent minded person such as yourself if you feel you can train yourself to stay on task.

I was on one of the amphetamine meds, and having ADD, the med worked like prescribed…I concentrated when needed and lived quite normally. I had insomnia but it was bearable.

WhatI didn’t like was the possible implications long term use would have on my heart and blood pressure. And not knowing the if there woulc be genetic problems that could transfer onto my off spring I opted to titrate off the med and learn to live with being scatter brained, and a somewhat ubiquitous person. However, if you do not have clinically diagnosed ADD or ADHD amphetamine use like Ritalin, Methylphenidate, Dexidrine will have the opposite reaction on you, you will feel elated, high, speedy…if you have ADD or ADHD, it will work like it is supposed to. You will feel a sense of concentration, and calm.

It sounds as if you are looking for the reaction you had with Methylphenidate with your strattera, and you won;t find it. Strattera is a non-stimulant. Thus it will take upto 6-8 weeks to see noticable differences in your concentration levels…there are other meds like Focalin, that may work better for you.

As for how do you make yourself live with it and concentrate…like I said it will take work on your part to make yourself concentrate like you did when you were on MP. Watch out for the high rate od addiction with the amphetamines, and only use under strict DR. supervision. And don;t use more than you should…

4

I don’t have any experience with Straterra, but my son has taken various other meds. You mention you’ve been taking Strattera for “weeks.” I’d give it 2 months total, at least, before you conclude it’s not working. There are various other meds for ADHD, so if you do need meds and your current regimen is not working, your doctor can try something else. It is not unusual to have to try a couple before you find the right one.