ADD

Monkey Allen

I got a diagnosis yesterday of ADD by a psychiatrist and he recommends Concerta for medication. I'm most likely going to go down this road and see how things go.

Not looking to hear about the stories of pharmaceutical companies over blowing the need for taking medication for ADD/ADHD. Just looking to hear about experiences of taking Concerta or other drugs for this condition. It would be nice to know what I might be in for from first hand experience. Documentation on these drugs gives a very broad view on them.

If you have experience with this, can you tell me what medication you take/took, if medication helped, how long it took to help and what, if you experienced any side effects.

optimoose

Hi , I'm not posting with my regular account here (as I'm not really that public with the ADD thing)

I was diagnosed with it last year , I've been on concerta and stattera over the past 10 months .
TBH the drugs tend to affect people different ways , they work for some people , and not for others , and also the side effects experienced by some users may outweigh any benefit.
You start them both on low dosages and wok up.They take a while to have effect
Concerta at the dosages that did work for me left me feeling basically wired, like having drunk 10 espressos .I was irritable and having trouble keeping my temper in check ,and they werent really working that well so was taken off them and switched to Stattera The Straterra worked , but I had way to many side effects (sweating , shaking, insomnia and actual depression) so eventually I was taken of that and right now I'm trying to work without any medication.(I'd tried the omega 3 supplement thing as well for a bit , didnt seem to work but I'm tempted to try again over a longer period)
(speaking of which if anyone knows of any adult add support groups actually meeting in the dublin area post some details here)
Its worth reading up as much as you can on ADD anyway , life planning etc
Good luck anyway.

Monkey Allen

Thanks for your input. One of the concerns I have about my condition (along with many others) is the impulsivity. It's costing me a fortune . Will a drug such as concerta help with this? I recently bought a new watch. It's a really nice one. I was on my way to an electronics store today and passed a jewellers. Another watch caught my eye and I had this urge to buy it. I could see the price was $1200 but could somehow justify it in my mind and do quick maths to work out how I could afford it. In truth, I did no maths and convinced myself very quickly that I had a way to pay for it. The way I normally tackle this is the keep looking at other items and hopefully find a nicer one. That distracts me enough to overcome this urge and then I move on, even if a little disappointed I didn't get what I wanted.

This is a very common experience. In fact, I spent about $8000AUD on stuff last year that I do not need and hardly ever use. If concerta helps fix this, I will think of it as a wonder drug.

I didn't buy the watch but when I came home, I did some review research on it. These things don't die easily.

Kate1968

Hi, my son is 19 and was diagnosed as adult with ADD.He is a student of second year in IT. I am wondering if he can claim for disability allowance? I know it is very difficult now to get it, nearly 70% of applications are put down. Do you know someone with ADD who is on disability allowance payment?

Regards,
Kate

optimoose wrote: »

Hi , I'm not posting with my regular account here (as I'm not really that public with the ADD thing)

I was diagnosed with it last year , I've been on concerta and stattera over the past 10 months .
TBH the drugs tend to affect people different ways , they work for some people , and not for others , and also the side effects experienced by some users may outweigh any benefit.
You start them both on low dosages and wok up.They take a while to have effect
Concerta at the dosages that did work for me left me feeling basically wired, like having drunk 10 espressos .I was irritable and having trouble keeping my temper in check ,and they werent really working that well so was taken off them and switched to Stattera The Straterra worked , but I had way to many side effects (sweating , shaking, insomnia and actual depression) so eventually I was taken of that and right now I'm trying to work without any medication.(I'd tried the omega 3 supplement thing as well for a bit , didnt seem to work but I'm tempted to try again over a longer period)
(speaking of which if anyone knows of any adult add support groups actually meeting in the dublin area post some details here)
Its worth reading up as much as you can on ADD anyway , life planning etc
Good luck anyway.

Monkey Allen

Not sure how it works in Ireland but in Australia, you can only qualify for a concession for medication if you were diagnosed with ADHD as a child.

An update from me. Concerta is definitely helping. I don't think I've ever been as productive at work as I have been since starting Concerta.

The first time I took it, I didn't really notice a difference, just felt really tired at the end of the day. Thats been a side effect that stuck around for a while, seems to be easing up a bit now. The next day I took it, I got this fantastic positive burst of confidence. Everything seemed to be going at my pace and I was on top of everything. This is something that happens once (if you're lucky) and you don't get it back. But, I still see myself being focussed at work and socially.

As the tiredness was initially a problem, I was coming home from work and not really capable of doing much. This was even on the lowest dosage of 18mg. I also noticed that I didn't have a very strong appetite. Has it's positives but definitely something I knew to keep an eye on. Shortly after starting the medication, maybe a week and a half, I felt that it wasn't having as much of an effect. So, on my next visit to the psychiatrist, I requested a higher dosage. He prescribed me 27mg. I was hoping for more, about 36 as I'm aware of the cost of these things ($56 without a concession for 30). 27 seems to be doing well but I do think there's room for improvement. So, I'll request to go on 36mg on my next visit next week.

One other important observation I made was that, even though I have social anxiety problems, I noticed a slight worsening of that after a few weeks of being on the medication. Normally, I'd suffer short fast breathing and higher pitch voice when in an unfamiliar or uncomfortable situation with a person. But, I noticed that sometimes, this can be worse. When in a performance review with my boss (which was all positive to my surprise), I starting losing my breath when I was talking. That was new and a concern and I'll be looking for advice on this from my psychiatrist.

Yesterday I realised that I've become a bit dependant on the medication. I didn't take one yesterday morning and, for the whole day, felt rubbish. Just not motivated to do anything. Think I watched 5 episodes of Breaking Bad back to back. I don't crave them but I can see that coming off them won't be a pleasant experience if I decide to do that. What I felt wasn't what I was pre-medication, it's worse. But, the medication puts me in the direction I want to go so I accept the expense and get on with it. If the side effects made me unhappy, I'd come off it immediately. But I can see real positives in it.

optimoose

Hi , the problem with the medication is that its not really designed to go on/off at a days notice .As far as I know , you build up dosage , and to come off it properly you need to reduce over a week or two .Might be worth double checking with the GP/specialist that proscribed it.
No idea about disability allowance. I know that Concerta/straterra are covered under the govt drug sceme (i.e. between your family anything over 138 is free).
Myself I'm hopefully going back and trying other medication in the next few weeks as going without any doesnt really work that well.
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