Doctor recommended trying Strattera, looking for other users experiences

procrastinare@discuss.tchncs.de to ADHD@lemmy.world – 55 points –

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:

  1. 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.

  2. What benefits did it gave you ?

  3. Any prevailing side effects?

  4. 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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I’ve been taking it for a few months. Doctor is gradually increasing my dosage and I’m up to 40mg once a day.

I’ve noticed that I can concentrate on complicated problems much better, and my scheduling and time management have greatly improved.

I haven’t noticed any side effects yet, but was a bit nervous about some of them. I had a friend who it did wonders for, and then he had a bad panic attack and his doctor took him off of it.

Fingers crossed that things stay good. I haven’t tried stimulants, so I don’t have much to compare it to.

Thank you for sharing!

Do you feel the drug effects after taking in a period of like 12h or do you feel them constantly?

Does it affect your sleep? At what time you take it ?

It seems to be fairly constant for me. I take them when I first get up, and haven’t noticed it affecting my sleep much. I travel frequently for work though, so my internal clock is always a little messed up. 😂