ADHD

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A casual community for people with ADHD

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Relevant Lemmy communities:

Neurodivergent Life Hacks

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founded 1 year ago

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Doctor recommended trying Strattera, looking for other users experiences (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/adhd

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Hi !

Just to go straight to the point, my doctor is thinking of trying Strattera in me, since it was recently made available as a generic and I tend to have prevailing side effects with stimulant medication (ritalin, Rubifen, elvanse).

I have some questions that would like to hear from people that are/were on this medication to share:

I understand this is non-stimulating and seems to work akin to an antidepressant. Therefore, do I have to take it every day? Even on days I do not need ? With stimulant medication I only take it when doing theoretical work, and skip it when on the laboratory or other minor tasks and would never take it in days I'm not working, because I can't just interact with people and gives me a baseline anxiety the whole day.
What benefits did it gave you ?
Any prevailing side effects?
How does it compare with stimulant medication (after taking it for some weeks)?

For a bit of context:

I've been diagnosed for about 6 years now, and started with Ritalin XR. However, I could only keep using it for some months since it gave seriously side effects that persisted 3-5 months after stopping it. I later switched to Ritalin IR, which worked for some time and gave me less side effects. But it started to be ineffective after some months.

Then my doctor tried Elvanse (Vyvanse), it worked on keeping me focused, but the anxiety and the huge time frame of action of the drug led to me only taking it once or twice a week.

I'm now back on Ritalin IR, but always feel the anxiety and aversion to interact with people that I always feel with these 3 stimulants.

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[–] Dettweiler42 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

You take it every day. It's a neural reuptake inhibitor, so it needs to build up in your system.

For me, it's not a fast fix like a stimulant would be. It just takes the edge off of my symptoms, make them easier to manage, and makes it easier to do stuff. In fact, the biggest thing I've noticed is the effect it has on executive dysfunction.

Atomoxetine (straterra) is a slow burn. It takes at least a few weeks to start noticing any effects. I haven't noticed any side effects, other than some trouble sleeping the first week when I first started taking it; but that was because my insurance wouldn't approve me for a lower dosage to have a more graceful "ramp up" period.